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From the High Street to the Home: Identifying the Foundations of British Gaming Consumer Culture from 1981-1988
No full textAfter its wartime origins, the British computer industry lay dormant for almost thirty years, the work of its pioneers buried under the Official Secrets Act. With the coming of the Microcomputer revolution in the late 1970s it finally reemerged in the early 1980s, following the work of Clive Sinclair and other "Micro Men". These new "sunshine technologies" were seized upon by the new Conservative government as evidence of the potential of British companies to take on the American and Japanese giants, with Sinclair being labelled "Thatcher's favourite entrepreneur" (Adamson and Kennedy, 1986). The success of these technologies has been attributed in part to the popularity and possibility of the games created for them (McNeil, Meda). Much has been written on the formation on a particular British gaming culture during this period (Kirkpartrick, 2015; Wade, 2016). The formation of a gaming field (Kirkpatrick, 2015; Keogh, 2023) around young, bedroom-situated men during the 1980s is convincing, but has focused on the experience of the "enthusiast" during this period, whether that is the bedroom coder or the reader of specialist press. The place where casual players of games would encounter this world would be on the high street, where modern methods of distribution, promotion and consumption were being formed. This research is original work that will focus on these spaces as a separate frame that also contributed to the formation of a British gaming culture.
The decision of WH Smith marketer John Rowlands to stock Sinclair's ZX81 computer in 1981 is considered to mark the point where games were no longer the sole domain of specialist shops and computer clubs, but were introduced to the wider high-street and public (Wiltshire ?). Soon, games, and the computers to play them on were available at a range of shops on the high street including WH Smiths, Boots, Dixons, John Menzies and Rumblelows. These shops were regarded as being able to make or break game companies by picking what they would stock (Wiltshire). This worked to create a two-tier system of games distribution throughout the 1980s. On one hand, the plucky home-brew, cassette burning, label printing bedroom coder, the icon of the era (Wade, 2016), distributing through the enthusiast press, independent shops, and computer shows. And on the other, the large established software houses, confident that distribution deals and contracts signed directly with the shops ensured their continued success. These spaces were impactful enough to leave a lasting impression in the mind of people who consumed games during this period, being recreated for TV Shows such as Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (Slade, 2018) and in simulacra to be enjoyed by retro game enthusiasts (RMC, 2021). This paper will employ frame theory and field theory to examine how high street shops became some of the dominant position holders in the early British games field, and how they exploited this position to affect popular conceptions of games. This work will sit in the larger context of a general pushback against the dominant American and Japanese centric histories of games (Svelch, 2018; Nooney, 2020; Swalwell and Davidson, 2016)
New Landscapes: Fashion, Textiles & Technology Catalyst R&D Grant Scheme Phase
Get PDFClimate change has driven the need for the fashion, textiles and technology (FTT) industry to redesign its relationship with both people and planet. Building a fairer, more inclusive and more responsible future requires collaboration on a global scale.
Research and development (R&D) can help tackle extreme poverty, create resilient infrastructure, and ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns1 – core components of the FTT ecosystem. But there are regions around the world that require significant investment to progress their sustainable transformation.
To meet this opportunity for change, the British Council’s Architecture Design Team and Fashion (ADF) Team in partnership with the University of the Arts London Fashion, Textiles and Technology Institute (UAL FTTI) delivered the 2023 New Landscapes: Fashion, Textiles & Technology (FTT) Catalyst R&D Grant Scheme.
The scheme was designed to support and enable R&D collaborations between FTT SMEs in the UK and eligible countries in South Asia, East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa. It provided both financial support and bespoke specialist expertise to drive the progression of sustainable FTT R&D
Sonic Epistemologies: Confrontations with the Invisible
Get PDFWith reference to Steven Feld’s “acoustemology,” his epistemology of sounding and listening, developed in the Bosavi Rainforest in Papua New Guinea, where the trees are too dense to afford a distant view and meaning has to be found up close, on the body with other human and more-than-human bodies, this essay deliberates how sound knows in entanglements and from the in-between: in a being with as a knowing with rather than from a distance. In this way, this essay, from the densities of the rainforest, critiques Western knowledge and its reliance on visual categories, straight lines, and universalising principles that pretend objectivity and a distant view. Instead, it turns to the relational indivisibility of sound that lets us hear interdependencies and confronts us with the invisible of which we are part. In conclusion, it proposes that sound studies as applied, transversal studies enable such a paradigm shift that at once reveals what hegemonic knowledge strands exclude and invites a different dialogue from the in-between of everything
Ethics as Practice: Report on the 1st Discovery Project Ethics Workshop
Get PDFAs part of the Towards a National Collection (TaNC) programme, five Discovery Projects have been funded, each responding uniquely to TaNC’s aim to “empower and diversify audiences by involving them in the research and creating new ways for them to access and interact with collections.” (n.d.)
A workshop, held on 23 January 2024, brought together representatives from the Discovery Projects and the TaNC programme directorate to explore ethical concerns and develop recommendations for policy and practice. This report outlines the workshop methodology, objectives, and provides a synthesis of group discussions to inform future interdisciplinary and cross-sector research programmes
Cleantech incubators within the sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem: Fundraising sources, income generation strategies, and the role of public support
Get PDFThis paper explores the different financial viability strategies adopted by cleantech incubators (CTIs) located in both high-income and medium- and low-income countries. More specifically, we focus on three interrelated research questions: (i) What are the most common funding sources for CTIs, and how do they differ between high-income and medium- and low-income countries? (ii) What income generation strategies do they employ to achieve financial viability? (iii) What appears to be the main influence on whether or not a CTI adapts suitable strategies to achieve financial viability? The study uses data from 71 CTIs and interviews with 11 cleantech incubator managers. Although the vast majority of the examined CTIs rely on public funding, our results suggest that high levels of fundraising and income diversification strategies are requirements for securing financial viability. In addition, higher levels of government involvement appear to correlate with fewer income diversification strategies, whereas lower levels of government involvement increase the likelihood of the incubator's proclivity to pursue different fundraising and income generation revenues
Who’s Doing the Dirty Work? Tate Britain and the Rex Whistler Scandal
No full textIn 2020, renewed scrutiny fell on Rex Whistler’s 1927 mural The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats at Tate Britain, following global Black Lives Matter protests and social media outrage over its racist imagery. Though long known to the gallery, the mural’s depiction of colonial violence had been largely unaddressed due to its tucked-away location. Confronted with mounting public pressure, Tate commissioned artists to respond to the mural rather than interpret it directly or remove it—an approach shaped by the mural’s Grade I-listed status. This paper examines Tate’s shifting interpretations of the mural over the course of nearly a century before turning to Viva Voce (2024), a film installation by Keith Piper that exposes the imperial ideologies behind Whistler’s work. The paper critically assesses the ethics of Tate’s strategy, questioning whether commissioning artists to interpret contested artworks for museums empowers new narratives or deflects institutional accountability by outsourcing uncomfortable historical reckoning.
(Organised by Birkbeck University and the National Portrait Gallery, London
Inga Ancestral Inhabitation Knowledge Mapping: Andean Amazon, Colombia
Get PDFIn 2022 we – Pedro Jajoy, Jhon Tisoy, Musu Jacanamijoy (Colombian Inga indigenous architects living in Valle del Sibundoy and Bogotá, Colombia), Juliana Ramírez and Catalina Mejía Moreno (Colombian architects and spatial practitioners living in Bogotá, Colombia and Brighton, UK) – started a mapping project of the Inga ancestral inhabitation knowledges entitled ‘Inga Kaugsay / Habitar Inga / Inga Dwelling’. Initially focusing on the tambo wasi – the Inga construction and space for ancestral forms of life 1 that preceded Spanish colonisation in the 1500s – the mapping aims to re-recognise the symbolic, spiritual, spatial and constructive aspects of Inga inhabitation knowledges and practices in parts of the Colombian Andean Amazon region
The 80s: Photographing Britain
No full text'Revival, London 1989-1993' is being shown as part of a major retrospective on photography in the 1980's. Covering what the curators call 'the long 80's', work in the main exhibition covers the period from the end of the 1970's to the beginning of the 1990's.
(from the main Press Release: https://www.tate.org.uk/press/press-releases/the-80s-photographing-britain)
"This autumn, Tate Britain will present The 80s: Photographing Britain, a landmark survey which will consider the decade as a pivotal moment for the medium of photography. Bringing together nearly 350 images and archive materials from the period, the exhibition will explore how photographers used the camera to respond to the seismic social, political, and economic shifts around them. Through their lenses, the show will consider how the medium became a tool for social representation, cultural celebration and artistic expression throughout this significant and highly creative period for photography.
This exhibition will be the largest to survey photography’s development in the UK in the 1980s to date. Featuring over 70 lens-based artists and collectives, it will spotlight a generation who engaged with new ideas of photographic practice, from well-known names to those whose work is increasingly being recognised, including Maud Sulter, Mumtaz Karimjee and Mitra Tabrizian. It will feature images taken across the UK, from John Davies’ post-industrial Welsh landscape to Tish Murtha’s portraits of youth unemployment in Newcastle. Important developments will be explored, from technical advancements in colour photography to the impact of cultural theory by scholars like Stuart Hall and Victor Burgin, and influential publications like Ten.8 and Camerawork in which new debates about photography emerged.
The 80s will introduce Thatcher’s Britain through documentary photography illustrating some of the tumultuous political events of the decade. History will be brought to life with powerful images of the miners’ strikes by John Harris and Brenda Prince; anti-racism demonstrations by Syd Shelton and Paul Trevor; images of Greenham Common by Format Photographers and projects responding to the conflict in Northern Ireland by Willie Doherty and Paul Seawright. Photography recording a changing Britain and its widening disparities will also be presented through Anna Fox’s images of corporate excess, Paul Graham’s observations of social security offices, and Martin Parr’s absurdist depictions of Middle England, displayed alongside Markéta Luskačová and Don McCullin’s portraits of London’s disappearing East End and Chris Killip’s transient ‘sea-coalers’ in Northumberland.
A series of thematic displays will explore how photography became a compelling tool for representation. For Roy Mehta and Vanley Burke, who portray their multicultural communities, photography offers a voice to the people around them, whilst John Reardon, Derek Bishton and Brian Homer’s Handsworth Self Portrait Project 1979, gives a community a joyous space to express themselves. Many Black and South Asian photographers use portraiture to overcome marginalisation against a backdrop of discrimination. The exhibition will spotlight lens-based artists including Roshini Kempadoo, Sutapa Biswas and Al-An deSouza who experiment with images to think about diasporic identities, and the likes of Joy Gregory and Maxine Walker who employ self-portraiture to celebrate ideas of Black beauty and femininity.
Against the backdrop of Section 28 and the AIDS epidemic, photographers also employ the camera to assert the presence and visibility of the LGBTQ+ community. Tessa Boffin subversively reimagines literary characters as lesbians, whilst Sunil Gupta’s ‘Pretended’ Family Relationships 1988, juxtaposes portraits of queer couples with the legislative wording of Section 28. For some, their work reclaims sex-positivity during a period of fear. The exhibition will spotlight photographers Ajamu X, Lyle Ashton Harris and Rotimi Fani-Kayode who each centre Black queer experiences and contest stereotypes through powerful nude studies and intimate portraits. It will also reveal how photographers from outside the queer community including Grace Lau were invited to portray them. Known for documenting fetishist sub-cultures, Lau’s series Him and Her at Home 1986 and Series Interiors 1986, tenderly records this underground community defiantly continuing to exist.
The exhibition will close with a series of works that celebrate countercultural movements throughout the 80s, such as Ingrid Pollard and Franklyn Rodgers’s energetic documentation of underground performances and club culture. The show will spotlight the emergence of i-D magazine and its impact on a new generation of photographers like Wolfgang Tillmans and Jason Evans, who with stylist Simon Foxton pioneer a cutting-edge style of fashion photography inspired by this alternative and exciting wave of youth culture, reflective of a new vision of Britain at the dawn of the 1990s
The Role of Dress in the Embodiment and Articulation of Chinese Diaspora Identity in the UK
No full textStudies of historical Chinese dress previously developed in relation to Western museum collection practices, and research into the contemporary Chinese fashion industry has grown alongside China’s increased importance across global fashion markets. Missing from these accounts is a consideration of what Chinese-style dress means to, and how it is used by, people of Chinese heritage living in the West. This thesis explores the role of Chinese-style dress in individual articulations of Chinese ethnic identity in contemporary Britain, drawing on a sample of 19 British Chinese people aged 22-60. Following a material-oriented ontology, I combined qualitative semi-structured interviews with analysis of family photographs and Chinese garments and jewellery in personal wardrobes. This British Chinese case study complements research on UK ethnic minority dress practices, and extends the growing work on Chinese diaspora dress worldwide.
Dress is a key appearance-management strategy for this visibly ‘racialised’ ethnic minority. Individuals navigate diverse ingroup and outgroup attitudes towards Chinese ethnicity and Chinese visual styles. I position wearing Chinese dress as a diasporic act that emphasises group-belonging. In the absence of a developed Chinese diaspora fashion economy, such as supports other diasporic communities in the UK, acquiring Chinese dress involves family gifts, purchases made via e-commerce or diaspora tourism. Further, Chinese-inspired styles periodically emerge in UK fashion cycles which individuals may interpret as ‘Chinese’.
The multi-sensory experience of wearing affects an emotive response that creates a personal connection to Chinese heritage. Self-Orientalism can be a strategy to wield the visual emphasis of ethnic ‘difference’ to one’s advantage. I argue that wearing Chinese-style dress creates a ‘diaspora dress moment’ emphasising Chinese heritage. When Chinese dress represents familial relationships, it is a form of generational cultural transmission. Dress offers Chinese diasporic subjects the opportunity to articulate personally authentic formulations of their ethnic heritage across multiple spaces
Icograda: The International Council of Graphic Design Associations: 1963–2013
Get PDFThis article follows the International Council of Graphic Design Associations throughout its first 50 years of activities. Initially shaped from Western European perspectives on graphic design, which included the pursuit of universal standards and favoritism towards designers from certain countries, the Council's quest for recognition led its change towards a more inclusive and diverse path. This article concludes by acknowledging the changes the Council went through throughout the years and the nature of its work, along with remarks about the potential contributions of its archive to graphic design history, with valuable documentation on its membership from 1963 to 2003