The papers that make up Issue 4 (April 2009) of Cultural Policy, Criticism and Management Research originate from a number of provocations, discussions and events held within and around the Department of Cultural Policy and Management at City University London in the last year.
We are grateful to those who have forwarded their contributions in order that we might extend the debate beyond the University and engage with the wider issues of crucial importance to envisaging the sector’s future.
The edition is split as follows:
PART ONE
The papers in part one were originally presented at the A Peace of Music symposium in June 2008. This day-long event featured musicians, international relations experts and philosophers in conversation exploring the politics of peace in the Middle East as played out through music.
The event was organised by Dr Juliet Steyn, Department of Cultural Policy and Management, and Dr Ruth Rosenfelder, Department of Music. This project received funding from LCACE (London Centre for Arts and Cultural Exchange).
Nicholas Cooke’s (Royal Holloway) paper looks at three case studies through the lenses of social interaction and transformation; Vienna at the fin de siècle, Second Life virtual concerts and the community that surrounds them, and live performance by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. In the last of these case studies, Cooke poses questions about the nature and extent (indeed even the ethics) of ‘transformation’.
Devorah Baum’s (University of Southampton) paper concentrates less explicitly on music, but rather on the spatial practice of creating the eruv, and how it contributes to the modern Diasporic Jewish experience. Baum also reflects on the support structures represented by such programmes as the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
PART TWO
This second section brings together a number of presentations from an event held in February 2009 entitled Technical Invention for Museums. The event, funded with support from LCACE and co-convened with the School of Informatics, was a round table session including people from across the disciplinary spectrum, and the wider museums sector.
It was designed to be genuinely interdisciplinary, unique in the way it brought together those at the sharp end of delivery of multimedia projects for museums and galleries, and those researching in the fields of Technical Innovation, Cultural Studies and Art Criticism. The debate ranged from the unabashedly theoretical, to discussion of the everyday practicality and implications of projects that seek to provide engagement, experience and collaboration through technical means. Presented here are a range of contributions from that discussion.
Areti Galani’s keynote presentation provides a useful overview of the ways in which the worlds of technology and ‘the museum’ are colliding in the Twenty-First Century, introducing the claims being made for ‘experience’, ‘participation’ and the ‘transgression of boundaries’ in new media practice. We re-produce her powerpoint presentation here as an introductory framework for the papers that follow.
Juliet Steyn’s paper reflects upon the nature and value of ‘experience for experience sake’ providing a start point for thinking about not only the pace of change and our unrelenting (often unreflective) pursuance of ‘experience’, but also raises crucial questions about the place of the Subject within that quest.
Ann Light’s presentation proposes a transformation of the museum as an institution of preservation to a laboratory of creation, highlighting the Demtech project working with older people as one example of this practice.
Jenny Kidd’s paper provides a context for and discussion of the use of ‘new’ media projects for audience development and engagement. It seeks to unravel some of the assumptions of that practice, questioning the rhetoric of ‘democracy’ and ‘empowerment’ common in the literature surrounding such work.
Sara Jones’ powerpoint provides an introduction to the work of the ‘technical innovators’, starting with a bold defence of ‘ignorance’ in the work of the requirements engineer. The unpacking of this statement provides for an enlightening insight into the processes and practices of ‘engineering’ creative, innovative and participatory multi-media in museum contexts.
PART THREE
The final part of this issue consists of two reviews written by City University students. The first is ‘The art of Catherine Sullivan and the Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze – Art Beyond Representation’ by Olivia Stevens. The second, Jonathon Mitchell‘s ‘Ousmane Sembene’s Mooladé as a post-colonial call to arms’, has since been published in Vertigo magazine.
Disclaimer
Neither The Department of Cultural Policy and Management nor the Editors are responsible for views expressed by authors or cited from other sources. Published articles are not copy-edited by the journal. All inaccuracies are the responsibility of the author.
© 2009
Cultural Policy, Criticism and Management Research 