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The Scatological Imagination in Japanese Humour – Laughter, transgression and base materialism in the representations from farts to sewer and toilets
No full textThe scatological imagination is a fundamental element in the development of the humanity’s sense of humour, which can be seen all around the world and date back to ancient times. As its case study, I explore the Japanese sense of humour that revolves around excretion, including farts, toilets, sewers and excrement. I draw on several works that have inspired me in formulating this research, ranging from traditional Japanese imagery to contemporary comedy and visual culture. More specifically, I will discuss following examples: the sketch piece Kōjō No Tsuki/The Moon Over the Ruined Castle (1999) by the comedy duo Downtown which depicts an elderly couple living in the sewer and kidnapping children who come to use the toilet, in order to form a musical band; the scroll painting He-gassen/Fart Competition (12th century) which depicts people competing with each other ingeniously in a farting contest; the music video trilogy Denki Groove Anniversary Song – 32nd, 34th and 35th (2024) and Toshio Matsumoto’s experimental film Metastasis (1971), both of which expresses toilet existentialism through psychedelic visualisation. Their works have a rebellious humour that transforms the grotesque, nonsense and negative connotations of excretion into critical commentary; they mock and challenge the biopolitical parameters that control, hide and demonise excreta and conceptualise it as ‘waste’ or ‘excess’ that must be nullified. In these works, I explore the place where scatological humour gains the transgressive power to challenge the ideology of normalisation that aims to invent the idea of the human as a disembodied, aseptic entity.
Since the Enlightenment, which initiated the reasoning and disciplining of all aspects of people’s lives on a nationwide scale, the biological nature of human beings has been detached from social and psychological reality, rendered invisible under the organisation of infrastructure. It encloses individual lives in the ‘clarity’ of the Cartesian mind, driven by reason, with an agency of free will—Nothing escapes this self-induced intelligibility (not even a fart). Anything that escapes this disembodied, transcendental space of the mind is regarded as surplus or excess, to be controlled. In modernity, this is where psychoanalysis comes in, reminding us that the subject fails not only physically with farts, poops, burps, nocturnal emissions, but also mentally with slips of the tongue, dreams and jokes. The encounter with excretory phenomena exposes the uncontrollable in our lives, the fissure between zoe and bios, between our social and biological beings. This fissure manifests in our psyche accompanying a sense of embarrassment and shame. Not to mention Sigmund Freud’s famous theory of anal stage and eroticism resulted from failure in controlling the excretory activities, the psychoanalysis attempts to process the scatological imagination as a pathological ‘illness’ to be cured and managed. In the Western context, a number of avant-gardes figures of the early 20th century, most prominently such as French thinker Georges Bataille, strategically employed social and religious taboos, such as abnormal sex, homosexuality, death, violence, and eroticism involving the scatological, to restore the transgressive and blasphemous power of imagination that had long been suppressed by Christianity. The scatological impulses, curiosity and imagination explored by these thinkers have been mostly discussed, or rather ‘diagnosed’ in relation to abnormal sexuality, drawing on Freud’s psychoanalysis which push them into the pathological domain of medical observation and analysis. In my discussion, I intend to move away from this pathologising forces with regard to the scatological, as it diminishes the social and cultural significance of the scatological laughter. Scatological laughter reminds us of the biological entity within us, of our powerlessness and its absurdity in the face of the force of nature. I would rather discuss it as the humanity’s endless endeavour to build a relationship with the uncontrollable in nature, and as an intervention in our totalising desire to control every aspect of our lives, to be prolonged, extracted and exploited, into a profitable labour and commodity. Drawing on the idea of ‘the restoration of the anus’ by the Japanese scholarly scatologue Minoru Yamada, I explore the symbolic function of excretion as a form of rebellion/protest and the scatological sense of humour as a laxative to stimulate our mental metabolic process of digesting our violent realities
Remote Sensing 2
Get PDFRemote Sensing was a platform to share knowledge, approaches, and challenges in fieldwork, with a focus on places, communities, and collections. In late April 2022, the second Remote Sensing symposium took place at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London. Organised by BA Illustration Course Leader Dr Rachel Emily Taylor and Senior Lecturer Sara Ortolani, the event was a development on the themes from the first symposium—which took place in April 2021, during a national lockdown in the UK amidst the COVID-19 pandemic—and explored the changing significance and understanding of field work and research during a period of enforced isolation and remote access. The 2022 symposium, which simultaneously took place in-person and online, considered the changes and the progress made by curators, visual communicators, and researchers as they have reflected on and incorporated into their practice the forms of knowledge making that came out of the pandemic settings. The event concluded with a ranging, vital and somewhat meta presentation and conversation between Dr Timothy Morton and Dr Sheena Calvert titled ‘I’m Not Here’ (enabled by now-ubiquitous online meeting software), which discussed the phenomena and philosophical significance of remote-ness in participatory practices and more widely.
In this publication, a number of symposium presenters provide context and insight into their research put forward in the symposium in April 2022. They are: Drs Maja and Rueben Fowkes, who spoke about their experience in exhibition-making in more-than-digital worlds and here present ‘Ecological Uncodings: Decolonising Digital Futures’, abridged from an article from Springerin no.3 (2021); Dr Dylan Yamada-Rice, whose talk explored socially-distanced games and play as a means of remote data collection and here presents a concise look at those subjects and research from their presentation, detailing how they engage research participants remotely; and Futuress (Maya Ober and Nina Paim), who spoke in conversation with Paul Bailey during the symposium, and who brought questions about democratising design education from their position as the then-editors of Futuress, a self-described ‘hybrid between a learning community and a publishing platform’. Futuress’ contribution here is a glossary of key terms and ideas that it also a guide and an invitation to join them in the ‘space’ they have created.
In an open call intended to augment the symposium prompts and the conversations that took place on the day, several papers and essays by writers, academics, and visual practitioners are also presented here. Responding to the core prompts from the 2022 symposium—how pandemic restrictions produced modes of knowledge-making and how we can move beyond the restrictions into a new understanding of research and field work—and taking a range of formats that include visual essays and in-depth reviews of practice, the open-call contributors are: Angela M Bowskill, ‘Multi-Modality: Sensory Ethnography in Lockdown’; Pat Wingshan Wong, ‘Barter Archive: Billingsgate Fish Market’; Karen Piddington, ‘Sheepology: Nonhuman Encounters’; and Dr Fadi Shayya and Dr Matthew Flintham, ‘Engineering the Landscape: Tracing Militarised Accounts of the Landscapes in Utility Patents’.
Lastly, responding to the theme of translation as a research method for illustration, specifically drawing from the Remote Sensing directive to consider the processes and methods that enable practitioner research to continue and adapt in a post-pandemic world, and to expand on the critical need to make space for new forms of knowledge-making, a number of students from MA Illustration course at Camberwell College of Arts (who were studying at the time of the symposium) present here key examples of their personal visual research methods for illustration. Some of the methods in this publication represent formative, incomplete, even failed methods that took place in the course of a project, but all of them had a significant role in informing the thinking and form of a final project outcome. The MA Illustration students (now graduates) are: Zilan Zhao; Yuchen Bian; Marília Arruda Pereira; Yitian Li; Yurou (Romi) Qian; Tianling (BG) Xu; Qingchun Zhang; and Beth Blandford, who also developed a practical workshop during the symposium derived from their translative research methods. Beth’s reflections and insights from this experience are also included here.
To bring together the range and diversity of contributions, this publication is collected into three open prompts that draw from ideas raised during the 2022 symposium: a remote space is not neutral, can a remote space ever be neutral?; listening as a remote space; and imagination as a remote space
Understanding household food waste behaviours in Jordan: ethnographic research
Get PDFPurpose– In Jordan, household food waste remains substantial despite limited research, data and policy interventions targeting its reduction. This study addresses the critical gap by exploring household behaviours towards food waste in the Jordanian context.
Design/methodology/approach– The study employed a qualitative research paradigm by approaching ethnographic research to gain a clearer picture of the household behaviours related to food waste practices and routines of everyday life in Jordan. This study was conducted with 20 households across West and East Amman by carrying out four main methods: a survey, ethnographic observation, photovoice and semistructured interviews.
Findings– The study identified key factors influencing household food waste behaviours in Jordan, including generosity, religious beliefs, socioeconomic disparities and deficient planning practices. Generosity, rooted in cultural norms of hospitality, often led to over-preparation and waste, while religious values promoted restraint andethical food handling. Socioeconomic differences between West and East Amman shaped purchasing habits and storage practices, with wealthier households exhibiting more materialistic behaviours. Single-person households faced unique challenges, including oversized packaging and reliance on external dining. These insights highlight the interplay between cultural, economic and practical factors in shaping food waste behaviours, suggesting targeted, context-sensitive interventions.
Research limitations/implications– The study’s findings are limited by the focus on urban areas of Amman, which may not fully represent broader Jordanian contexts, including rural regions. Reliance on self-reported data such as photovoice diaries and interviews introduces potential biases, including social desirability. The research predominantly examines cultural and socioeconomic drivers with less emphasis on environmental or policy-related factors. Future studies should include larger, more diverse samples, integrate objective data collection methods (e.g. waste audits) and explore the influence of governmental policies and infrastructure to provide a more holistic understanding of household food waste behaviours.
Practical implications– The study provides actionable insights for reducing household foodwaste inJordan. It highlights the need for public awareness campaigns promoting sustainable hospitality practices that respect cultural norms while reducing waste. Design interventions, such as workshops on meal planning and portion estimation, can address over-preparation linked to generosity. Policies encouraging affordable, portion-sized packaging and supporting efficient food storage are essential, especially in lower-income areas. Religious and cultural values, such as moderation and ethical food redistribution, should be integrated into sustainability initiatives. These measures can mitigate food waste while aligning with local traditions and socioeconomic contexts to enhance effectiveness.
Originality/value– This study offers novel insights by introducing generosity as a cultural factor influencing household food waste in Jordan, a perspective largely unexplored in prior research. By examining the interplay between cultural norms, religious values and socioeconomic disparities, it enriches the understanding of food waste behaviours in a Middle Eastern context. The ethnographic approach, incorporating methods like photovoice and semi-structured interviews, provides a nuanced and participatory perspective. The findings emphasise the dual role of generosity in fostering hospitality and driving waste, offering valuable implications for culturally sensitive interventions to balance traditional practices with sustainable food consumption
Managing Risk in Fashion
No full textAfter studying this chapter you should be able to understand:
- the concept of risk from a strategic perspective
- the link between risk events and financial performance
- how good financial management practices underpin the management of risk
- different stakeholder perspectives of risk
- the specific risks associated with running a globalised fashion busines
King's X Marks the Spot
Get PDFArticle focusing on the underground creative communities and subcultures in King's Cross during the 1980s and 1990s and how these have featured in recent exhibitions at Fashion and Textile Museum, Queer Britain, and Tate Modern. This article featured in the fourth edition of the Subcultures Special Interest Group publication SIG News
Places and Spaces: The Architectures of Art and Design Education
No full textConvenor and speaker at conference session at the Association for Art History:
The built environment of the art school is undergoing a period of transformation; with a shift towards interdisciplinary environments, mass investment in new buildings, and a widespread adoption of virtual or hybrid learning platforms. These environments can be understood as pedagogical tools that shape, house and locate students and practice physically, psychologically and artistically.
This session seeks to facilitate a dialogue that interrogates the forms, structures, ecosystems and histories of the art school. How have the studios and workshops —designed for learning, teaching, and making — influenced and informed curriculum, creativity, practice and community? It questions how the legacy of spaces designed for artistic practice determine and impact decisions made for the future, making a timely provocation on the position of arts education in relation to current social and political landscapes
Making (Babies)
No full textMaking (Babies) (2020) is a self-shot video artwork and essay, which follows me moulding and casting the placenta of my second child into different materials, across domestic and non-domestic settings, in parallel with my gendered caring responsibilities as a mother. Dismantling boundaries between the art space and the domestic space, I disentangle my daughter’s umbilical cord in a freezer drawer on the kitchen table; messily transform it into art matter on the garden step (literally practising on a threshold); then transport it in a midway wax state to the industrial territory of the workshop space.
Ahead of moulding the placenta I had long thought about the strangeness of this organ that exists between the mother and child. My voiced video essay responds to Hélène Rouch and Luce Irigaray’s1 interpretation of the role of the placenta as a mediating space that exists between mother and child, whilst being independent of both, which allows the foetus to grow without exhausting the mother in the process. My pursuit of visual art practice, as it plays out in the video, is framed as a means of seeking to regain such a mediating space between myself and my child, and to manage motherhood and associated domestic responsibilities. However, the art practice simultaneously forms an additional (unpaid) labour, responsibility, and tension in the domestic environment. Therefore, the question remains how easy such a space is to find.
Beyond the biological framework of Irigaray’s ideas of the placenta, the film goes further to consider this mediating space in terms of its political potential to accept ‘otherness’. Just as my voiceover seeks to unfix our ideas about the role of the placenta purely as a conduit from mother to child, so I seek to unfix preconceptions about the gendered role of the mother and associated duties and responsibilities. My approach is not to wear motherhood as a fixed, essentialised identity, but to break it into clumsy, bodily fragments: precious, fleeting and borne out of manual - as much as reproductive - labour. The processes that the video follows reveal the strangeness, dirtiness and isolation of day-to-day problems and labours I encounter as an artist-mother; disrupting the apparent safety of the heteronormative, white, family unit, to reveal ‘feral’ elements within it. This extends my continuing interest in the feral as a wildness that exists within the domestic terrain, rather than necessarily being outside of it.
Notes
Luce Irigaray, ‘On the Maternal Order’, interview with Hélène Rouch, in Je, Tu, Nous: Toward a Culture of Difference trans. by Alison Martin. (New York; London: Routledge, 1993), pp. 37–44 (pp. 38–39). [^
The Missing Actor: The aesthetics of absence and the politics of disappearance
No full textThis article investigates the displacement of the figure of the actor from the centre of the theatrical stage concomitant with the ‘scenographic turn’ in contemporary theatre. It seeks to historicise the de-centring of the figure of the actor in a scenographically oriented ‘aesthetics of absence’ by demonstrating this is indirectly related to the political disappearances that have characterised the contemporary period – the disappearance of people not only from the mise-en-scène of the theatrical stage, but from the lived reality of post-war European history.
Heiner Goebbels’s Everything that has happened and would happen (2018) is examined as a case-study of how this history and its theatrical staging are intertwined. In demonstrating how the process of twentieth-century history finds its mode of presentation in the composition of space and action rather than the representation of figure and narration, the article argues that the scenographic operation enables the production of performative historiography rather than simply historical mise en scène (Kear 2013). It traces how Goebbels’s Everything that has happened and would happen opens a space of aesthetic encounter (rather than simply a theatrical work) which implicates and involves the viewer and invites a critical and creative practice of spectatorship to animate its affects.
Rather than celebrate the displacement of the figure of the actor, the article seeks to situate its emergence in relation to the political disappearance of actual people. The essay thereby argues that the theatrical appearance of the missing actor intersects with the historical tracing of the politics of disappearance
Harvested Assemblies
No full textResearch question: Can intersecting mycelium growth protocols with traditional woodwork and basketry lead to the invention of new craft typologies?
Keywords: mycelium, bio-marquetry, bio-joinery, bio-patterning, bio-assemblage, craft
Harvested Assemblies includes a collection of three vessels and 7 material prototypes. The biological capacity of mycelium to digest and transform materials is incorporated into the process of basketry weaving and woodwork to craft bio-assemblies. Harvested and grown, the materials are sourced from fallen trees, horticultural garden waste, organic and local reeds and deadstock textiles. The surface patterns and joinery processes emerge from the intersection of traditional hand-made techniques (carving, weaving, inlay) and grow-made protocols. Working with bio-informed strategies allows for the design of new surface patterns as well as the hybrid bio-assemblage of materials.
The past decade has seen the flourishment of mycelium materials and their commercial scaling up. Whilst mycelium research has translated into industrial prerogatives, the role of mycelium in craft practice remains a significant area for practice-based research investigation into new ways of making. Harvested assemblies is situated at the intersection of biodesign and traditional craft practices where the hybridisation of wood and basketry techniques with mycelium growth protocols allows for new craft typologies to emerge.
New Knowledge Contribution:
By revisiting traditional craft processes, this research inquiry produces new insights into craft production by developing innovative techniques such as bio-marquetry and bio-joinery
Archiving Community Practices in and around Queer and Feminist Filmmaking in London in the 1990s
No full textThis paper focused on exploring communities of practice in queer feminist film in London in the 1990s through three case study films drawn from the feminist collection of Cinenova: Noski Deville, Loss of Heat (UK, 1994, 20mins); Pratibha Parmar, Khush (UK, 1991, 21mins); Tanya Syed, Delilah, (UK, 1995, 12mins). I am currently developing a methodological approach to what an archive of these communities of practice could be, working between screen archives, oral histories and close analysis of the aesthetic and sensorial qualities of the films. Within this I am particularly interested in how communities of feminist filmmaking practice supported the challenging of preconceptions of white, ableist heteronormativity and centred queer experience and its intersections with ethnicity, migration and disability.
Propagated by ongoing legacies of Thatcherite ideologies driving censorship, division and erasure of marginalised identities, wide access to such complex portrayals of queer life remains limited. I aim to situate these films in the wake of the late-1980s and the necessity of their production in spaces in the margins of mainstream media through legislation such as Section 28. I ask what possible futures these films spoke to in 1991–95, exploring boundaries and intersections — emotional, physical, visible, invisible, care, dependence — through these films’ portrayals of blurred temporalities and intimate relations? With recent digitisation, new interpretation and addition of access features such as captioning, I am interested in how a multifaceted approach to archiving the communities around these films can add to understandings of their resonances and continuities with the present