Since the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, big screens in public places relaying live broadcasts t... more Since the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, big screens in public places relaying live broadcasts to large crowds, often very near to the 'real' action, have become an increasingly important and visible element of royal celebrations. It might be expected that in our current era of media fi delity, diversity and ubiquity, these mass congregations would lose their appeal but the opposite would seem to be the case. An estimated 1 million people watched the Golden Jubilee 'Party at the Palace' concert on screens in the Mall, 90,000 watched the royal wedding in Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square in 2011 and many of the million people who lined the River Thames for the 2012 Diamond Jubilee pageant watched the event on the fi fty screens along the route, with a further 90,000 watching in Battersea Park. This arguably represents a reversal of the dominant trend during the second half of the twentieth century, when the primary means by which public events were transmitted and received was by television in domestic contexts, leading to anxieties that public culture and public life had been displaced by a more atomised, private mode of engagement. However, as Scott McQuire observes, 'the explanatory value of such a narrative is declining', and 'the current expansion of media screens from predominantly fi xed and private locations to mobile and public sites has introduced a new set of questions'. 1 How, for example, should we understand this new type of public occasion, the transmissions which are their focus and their 'not-quite-liveness'? 2 What motivates people to travel and congregate to view events on proximate screens rather than watching at home? Are such events a means of compensating for a fragmentation of community and audience in a postmodern age of media proliferation? Do they represent the reinvention of public space? Barker suggests that 'We might say that a new notion
Tourism, creative industries and (youth) subcultures in the UK Turismo, indústrias criativas e su... more Tourism, creative industries and (youth) subcultures in the UK Turismo, indústrias criativas e subculturas (jovens) no Reino Unido Resumo Se considerarmos os aspectos da cultura britânica que se acredita que mais atraem os turistas, quais atrativos vêm à mente? Convencionalmente, têm sido atrações como os castelos antigos e velhas casas de campo, belo litoral e interior, a Família Real e o "chá inglês". Muitos turistas também visitam os museus, galerias e teatros de Londres e de outras grandes cidades. A cultura popular é também uma impulsionadora do turismo no Reino Unido e vem atraindo fãs de filmes e séries de televisão como Harry Potter, Game of Thrones e Doctor Who, interessados em visitar a locação de filmes e parques temáticos. Alguns turistas desejam se conectar com a história da música britânica e com (sub)culturas jovens e podem explorar, por exemplo, os legados dos Beatles e dos "Swinging Sixties" (termo usado para descrever os efervescentes anos 1960 em Londres) ou as cenas e os sons do punk rock. Visitantes do exterior também podem fazer uma imersão na arte contemporânea, na música e na cultura da moda britânica-em festivais e casas noturnas, em lojas e mercados e em visitas guiadas de "cultura de rua"-, e estas experiências vêm crescendo em importância e proeminência na economia do turismo britânico. Este artigo vai examinar a relação crescente entre o turismo, as indústrias criativas e as subculturas/jovens no Reino Unido e discutir algumas questões derivadas, como até que ponto este movimento poderá ser considerado um desenvolvimento positivo e sustentável.
The paper considers the influence of Empire at the Victoria and Albert Museum, with particular re... more The paper considers the influence of Empire at the Victoria and Albert Museum, with particular reference to the display of collections from the Indian Sub-Continent in the late 20th century. It offers an analysis of the discursive practices of the Museum drawing on postcolonial theoretical positions, in particular Said’s concept of ‘Orientalism’. Questions are posed regarding the extent to which the Museum has adequately addressed and reflected Britain’s transformation from an imperial power to a post-colonial, multicultural society, and the need to articulate shared histories and strategies of inclusion.
This paper offers a critical textual and socio-cultural analysis of the music video for 'Windowli... more This paper offers a critical textual and socio-cultural analysis of the music video for 'Windowlicker' (1999), a track by the avant-garde UK electronic music producer Aphex Twin (real name Richard James). Conceived and directed by James' long-time collaborator Chris Cunningham, the film is a dark parody of Hip Hop music video clichés. Infinitely more subtle and complex than a mere spoof, the video inverts and deconstructs racial stereotypes, and in doing so makes them visible, no longer implicit. The video arguably challenges the notion that whiteness is 'an unmarked norm' (Dyer et al.) and illustrates Frankenberg's (2001) contention that 'whiteness is in a continual state of being dressed and undressed, of marking and cloaking.' The dissonance between the visual registers of the film and the distinctly 'white' Techno soundtrack is echoed and amplified by the symbolic content of the video. The film's white protagonist is endowed with all the positive, enviable (and therefore fearsome) attributes of black masculinity. He is sexually potent, can dance like Michael Jackson and displays 'ghetto-fabulous' conspicuous consumption. He signifies blackness and 'signifies' like a black man (Gates, 1983), with subversive flash trickery. The 'real' black men in the video, in contrast, are rendered 'white'; wannabe nerds with no style who can't dance and can't get laid. There is much pleasure to be had in unpicking the complex, layered semiotics of the film, but what can we learn from doing so, and what can we deduce of James and Cunningham's intent in its creation? Does the deconstruction of racial categories allow for a more progressive and nuanced reconstruction of models of culture and ethnicity, or is it a reactionary work, which ridicules black popular culture and grants the putative (white, male) viewer a symbolic vengeance? Does it pose a challenge to racist conventions or is it itself racist?
If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.
This essay examines the work and careers of the 'Young British Artists'most notably Damien Hirst-... more This essay examines the work and careers of the 'Young British Artists'most notably Damien Hirst-and their infamous benefactor. The 'YBAs' came to public attention in the late 20 th century with the staging of a landmark exhibition called 'Sensation' at the Royal Academy in London. This exhibition showcased the collection of the most important art patron of his generation, the advertising mogul Charles Saatchi. Fans and critics alike have remarked on the similarity between Saatchi's own commercial work and the art that he collected-both were eye-catching, witty, irreverent and designed to of artists remains open to debate, both can be said to exemplify the culture of late capitalism and the importance and ubiquity of the 'brand'.
Drawing on a range of case studies, including analysis of the reality of work in the creative ind... more Drawing on a range of case studies, including analysis of the reality of work in the creative industries, urban regeneration and current government cultural policy in the UK, this book discusses the idea of value in the cultural sector, showing how value plays out in cultural organizations. Ruth Adams finds that Dave O'Brien's contribution functions effectively as a primer on the topic, but has sufficient depth to yield useful insight to students and researchers at all levels, and beyond university into the workplace.
If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.
This paper considers the role played by the V&A and the exhibition The Destruction of the Country... more This paper considers the role played by the V&A and the exhibition The Destruction of the Country House in the political activities and increasing prominence of the ‘heritage lobby’ in England in the 1970s. It argues that the V&A had a significant role in shaping the discourse and advancing the public awareness and political efficacy of the heritage movement, and that it assisted in reinforcing the association of, and perhaps even conflating, English heritage with the country house. The paper also reflects on changing attitudes and policy relating to heritage in England since the late twentieth century, drawing on a range of relevant critical literature and theoretical approaches.
If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.
Since the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, big screens in public places relaying live broadcasts t... more Since the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, big screens in public places relaying live broadcasts to large crowds, often very near to the 'real' action, have become an increasingly important and visible element of royal celebrations. It might be expected that in our current era of media fi delity, diversity and ubiquity, these mass congregations would lose their appeal but the opposite would seem to be the case. An estimated 1 million people watched the Golden Jubilee 'Party at the Palace' concert on screens in the Mall, 90,000 watched the royal wedding in Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square in 2011 and many of the million people who lined the River Thames for the 2012 Diamond Jubilee pageant watched the event on the fi fty screens along the route, with a further 90,000 watching in Battersea Park. This arguably represents a reversal of the dominant trend during the second half of the twentieth century, when the primary means by which public events were transmitted and received was by television in domestic contexts, leading to anxieties that public culture and public life had been displaced by a more atomised, private mode of engagement. However, as Scott McQuire observes, 'the explanatory value of such a narrative is declining', and 'the current expansion of media screens from predominantly fi xed and private locations to mobile and public sites has introduced a new set of questions'. 1 How, for example, should we understand this new type of public occasion, the transmissions which are their focus and their 'not-quite-liveness'? 2 What motivates people to travel and congregate to view events on proximate screens rather than watching at home? Are such events a means of compensating for a fragmentation of community and audience in a postmodern age of media proliferation? Do they represent the reinvention of public space? Barker suggests that 'We might say that a new notion
Tourism, creative industries and (youth) subcultures in the UK Turismo, indústrias criativas e su... more Tourism, creative industries and (youth) subcultures in the UK Turismo, indústrias criativas e subculturas (jovens) no Reino Unido Resumo Se considerarmos os aspectos da cultura britânica que se acredita que mais atraem os turistas, quais atrativos vêm à mente? Convencionalmente, têm sido atrações como os castelos antigos e velhas casas de campo, belo litoral e interior, a Família Real e o "chá inglês". Muitos turistas também visitam os museus, galerias e teatros de Londres e de outras grandes cidades. A cultura popular é também uma impulsionadora do turismo no Reino Unido e vem atraindo fãs de filmes e séries de televisão como Harry Potter, Game of Thrones e Doctor Who, interessados em visitar a locação de filmes e parques temáticos. Alguns turistas desejam se conectar com a história da música britânica e com (sub)culturas jovens e podem explorar, por exemplo, os legados dos Beatles e dos "Swinging Sixties" (termo usado para descrever os efervescentes anos 1960 em Londres) ou as cenas e os sons do punk rock. Visitantes do exterior também podem fazer uma imersão na arte contemporânea, na música e na cultura da moda britânica-em festivais e casas noturnas, em lojas e mercados e em visitas guiadas de "cultura de rua"-, e estas experiências vêm crescendo em importância e proeminência na economia do turismo britânico. Este artigo vai examinar a relação crescente entre o turismo, as indústrias criativas e as subculturas/jovens no Reino Unido e discutir algumas questões derivadas, como até que ponto este movimento poderá ser considerado um desenvolvimento positivo e sustentável.
The paper considers the influence of Empire at the Victoria and Albert Museum, with particular re... more The paper considers the influence of Empire at the Victoria and Albert Museum, with particular reference to the display of collections from the Indian Sub-Continent in the late 20th century. It offers an analysis of the discursive practices of the Museum drawing on postcolonial theoretical positions, in particular Said’s concept of ‘Orientalism’. Questions are posed regarding the extent to which the Museum has adequately addressed and reflected Britain’s transformation from an imperial power to a post-colonial, multicultural society, and the need to articulate shared histories and strategies of inclusion.
This paper offers a critical textual and socio-cultural analysis of the music video for 'Windowli... more This paper offers a critical textual and socio-cultural analysis of the music video for 'Windowlicker' (1999), a track by the avant-garde UK electronic music producer Aphex Twin (real name Richard James). Conceived and directed by James' long-time collaborator Chris Cunningham, the film is a dark parody of Hip Hop music video clichés. Infinitely more subtle and complex than a mere spoof, the video inverts and deconstructs racial stereotypes, and in doing so makes them visible, no longer implicit. The video arguably challenges the notion that whiteness is 'an unmarked norm' (Dyer et al.) and illustrates Frankenberg's (2001) contention that 'whiteness is in a continual state of being dressed and undressed, of marking and cloaking.' The dissonance between the visual registers of the film and the distinctly 'white' Techno soundtrack is echoed and amplified by the symbolic content of the video. The film's white protagonist is endowed with all the positive, enviable (and therefore fearsome) attributes of black masculinity. He is sexually potent, can dance like Michael Jackson and displays 'ghetto-fabulous' conspicuous consumption. He signifies blackness and 'signifies' like a black man (Gates, 1983), with subversive flash trickery. The 'real' black men in the video, in contrast, are rendered 'white'; wannabe nerds with no style who can't dance and can't get laid. There is much pleasure to be had in unpicking the complex, layered semiotics of the film, but what can we learn from doing so, and what can we deduce of James and Cunningham's intent in its creation? Does the deconstruction of racial categories allow for a more progressive and nuanced reconstruction of models of culture and ethnicity, or is it a reactionary work, which ridicules black popular culture and grants the putative (white, male) viewer a symbolic vengeance? Does it pose a challenge to racist conventions or is it itself racist?
If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.
This essay examines the work and careers of the 'Young British Artists'most notably Damien Hirst-... more This essay examines the work and careers of the 'Young British Artists'most notably Damien Hirst-and their infamous benefactor. The 'YBAs' came to public attention in the late 20 th century with the staging of a landmark exhibition called 'Sensation' at the Royal Academy in London. This exhibition showcased the collection of the most important art patron of his generation, the advertising mogul Charles Saatchi. Fans and critics alike have remarked on the similarity between Saatchi's own commercial work and the art that he collected-both were eye-catching, witty, irreverent and designed to of artists remains open to debate, both can be said to exemplify the culture of late capitalism and the importance and ubiquity of the 'brand'.
Drawing on a range of case studies, including analysis of the reality of work in the creative ind... more Drawing on a range of case studies, including analysis of the reality of work in the creative industries, urban regeneration and current government cultural policy in the UK, this book discusses the idea of value in the cultural sector, showing how value plays out in cultural organizations. Ruth Adams finds that Dave O'Brien's contribution functions effectively as a primer on the topic, but has sufficient depth to yield useful insight to students and researchers at all levels, and beyond university into the workplace.
If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.
This paper considers the role played by the V&A and the exhibition The Destruction of the Country... more This paper considers the role played by the V&A and the exhibition The Destruction of the Country House in the political activities and increasing prominence of the ‘heritage lobby’ in England in the 1970s. It argues that the V&A had a significant role in shaping the discourse and advancing the public awareness and political efficacy of the heritage movement, and that it assisted in reinforcing the association of, and perhaps even conflating, English heritage with the country house. The paper also reflects on changing attitudes and policy relating to heritage in England since the late twentieth century, drawing on a range of relevant critical literature and theoretical approaches.
If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.
Uploads
Papers by Ruth Adams