Besides Looking: Patrimony, Perfomativity and Visual Cultures

David Dibosa’s paper, 'Besides Looking: Patrimony, Performativity and Visual Cultures in National Art Museums', is an exploration and a further elaboration of the relations between the development of visual media practices within the research – what we have previously indicated as stemming from practice-based research approaches – and transmigrational visual cultures. David asks how perspectives derived from the study and articulation of Visual Cultures, (Hall, Mirzoeff, Evans, Rogoff) might usefully frame our understanding of transmigrational ‘viewing strategies’ and more specifically the practices of Tate Encounters’ participants. He introduces an important counter to the idea that either the art museum or the research framing can address the transmigrational viewer other than in an engagement at the point of viewing. This stresses the dynamic, rather than settled, historical sense of migrant experience that has become contained in notions of ‘heritage’, and ethnic categorisations. He looks to performativity to offer a way out of the impasse of categorisation and his focus upon transmigrational experience as fluid leads him to the idea that a corresponding art museum viewing strategy might be that “which has not yet been seen” or “a kind of seeing on the move”

Deconstructing and reconstructing professionalism: the 'professional' demands of the PCET teacher education programme in the UK

Professionalism has assumed the level of obligation in both the training and practice of teachers in the Lifelong Sector (LLS) in the UK. Responding to the demands of professionalism has been seen both by teachers and trainees as a source of tension and distress. In effect, many practitioners and trainees in the field have become less enthusiastic and less attracted to work in the field because of the culture of performativity that some elements of professional demand attract and in some cases, fail to see themselves as professionals. This paper responds to this situation in two ways. First, it offers a new construct of understanding the multiple demands of ‘professionalism’ which categorises elements of professionalism into three categories of subject knowledge, pedagogical and procedural professionalism. Second, it reports the findings of a small pilot research on the disposition of trainee teachers towards the professionalism module of their training programmes. Though only a pilot study, the research found a paradoxical relationship between trainees and professionalism as trainees felt less like professionals because of the demands and imposition of conditions of procedural professionalism. Also, the pilot study established that among the group investigated, the major source of tension and distress is the demand of procedural professionalism. Finally, the study suggests that trainees are better able to accommodate the demands through appropriate classification that is offered by the new construct

Corporeal gender : feeling gender in first person trans* narratives

In the field of gender studies, the connection between physical being and identity is a point of passionate debate. The way people relate to their physical selves and society’s interpretation of their corporeal body can often constitute the very cornerstone of identity. Whilst the destabilization of relations between sex, gender, sexuality, and identity has been vital to social progress, this theoretical framework does not fully engage with the importance of corporeal feeling. This neglect is most starkly clear in the interaction of trans* autobiographical literature with wider discourse; when the body before the mirror does not connect with your inner sense of self, your investment in the connection of physicality and identity is deep. In this paper, I engage directly with the notion of feeling gender, the importance of the material body, and the difficulties of articulation of a feeling that may not initially be understood. I will explore the issue with reference to specific trans* autobiographies, including Emergence by Mario Martino, Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein, and Katherine Cross’s current blog Nuclear Unicorn (www.quinnae.com). When there seems to be no vehicle for communication of emotion, new languages of feeling are created. It is this new language of feeling both gender and the body that must now demand our attention.peer-reviewe

The socio‐spatial nature of organisational creativity: experiences along the road toward transdisciplinarity

This paper sets out to explore characteristics of transdisciplinary organisational research in practice and in particular how the process of research may be shared and co-produced by both university and business. The case studies presented here outline recent work conducted through ‘Innovation Futures’, a Sheffield Hallam University project which aims to contribute to the development of a region-wide culture of innovation and to create strong links between businesses and the University. The multidisciplinary team, based across Sheffield Business School and the Cultural, Communication and Computing Research Institute, has worked with numerous companies from the manufacturing and service sectors in the last three years. Through a strong process of collaboration throughout the stages of problem structuring,problem investigation, and realisation of findings in practice, the work has sought to help businesses improve processes and, ultimately, performance via a range of analytical measures. By employing a holistic approach to understanding the social-cultural nature of the workspace through the integrated use of Social Network Analysis, Space Syntax and participatory design methods, managers have been able to develop a much greater level of reflexive management practice through their experiences of collaborative research. There is increasing recognition that organisational creativity is not formed through the innate attributes of the individual but is instead a wholly social process involving complex phases of interaction thus making the socio-spatial environment of the organisation, within which such phases are carried out, a key determinant of success. This environment is both shaped, and also shapes, those within it through the requirements of organisation and it is through the experience of transdisciplinary boundary spanning that both academic institution and business can help form research driven management practices

Appropriations and hybridizations between visuals arts and performing arts in the early modern age: a transdisciplinary research project and a methodological proposal.

This paper will show the aims and the achievements accomplished, until now, by a research project supported by the Economy and Competitivity Spanish Ministery. On one hand, to advance in the knowledge of “Theatre and Festival”, beyond this traditional pairing, in order to address, in a global and comprehensive way, the analysis of the hybridization of artistic and scenic languages and processes in the context of visual and material European culture in Early Modern Age. On the other hand, the development of this research involves the collaboration of several disciplines, mainly Art History and History of Spectacle, but also Musicology. Each of them, from their own epistemological canon, deals or approaches to the analysis of the appropiations and hybridizations between visuals arts and performing arts. At the same time, given that research involves the contrasted analysis between artistic objects created then as "future-minded" and ephemeral creations known through descriptions, stories, drawings, etc., this project aims to implement a system of virtual visualization so that the research results constitute a new contribution and represent an impact in the field of the humanities, at the same time allowing the proper transfer of knowledge to society.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Book review: cultural turns: new orientations in the study of culture by Doris Bachmann-Medick

In Cultural Turns: New Orientations in the Study of Culture, Doris Bachmann-Medick offers an overview of the emergent ‘cultural turns’ that have shaped humanities and social science research. This is an excellent insight into recent theoretical and methodological developments that will be a a critical and relevant handbook for those working within diverse fields of cultural research, and also serves to underscore the importance of inter- and transdiscplinary endeavours, finds Sander Hölsgens