Imaginations (Journal)
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Technologies of Imagination: Locating the Cloud in Sweden’s North
Get PDFAbstract | When in 2011 a world-leading IT company expressed the intention to locate its infrastructure in the Swedish city of Luleå, this announcement immediately triggered future scenarios and visions of a new industrial era, economic prosperity, and changing urban life. Such anticipation was supported and shaped by municipal planning and business-management activities that soon materialized in the form of building sites, regional development strategies, and new markets. Since the actual name and operations of the IT company were kept entirely secret, the planning and implementation of “Project Gold”—as the data centre project was called locally—was as much driven by collective imaginaries as by hard facts or past experiences. This article is based on an ethnographic study that followed the implementation of Facebook’s first European data centre in Luleå. The paper analyzes different modes of data centre infrastructural (in)visibility and shows how imaginaries became influential both for implementing the cloud in Luleå and for shaping the anticipated time and space of “post-extractive modernity.” More specifically, the paper focuses on socio-technical preconditions as well as concrete practices and styles—technologies of imagination—enabling those imaginaries
Reading Glamour in Phyllis Brett Young’s The Torontonians
Get PDFThis article explores the relationships between fashion, glamour, celebrity, and Canadian literature, focusing specifically on Toronto, Canada. I argue for the value of “reading glamour” into Toronto’s literature by examining how glamour provides a socio-cultural insight into character and plot development and, moreover, elevates the character of the city itself. No doubt certain authors conjure up a glamorous cachet with their coterie of bohemian intellectual and literary salons but the writing itself rarely approaches the same level of glamorous celebration. However, reading glamour—that is, following Brown, tracing the language and grammar of glamour as a literary form linked to modern mass culture—extends the potential for literary and cultural expression of the text. As Gundle and Castelli argue, glamour is typically associated with the urban and cosmopolitan, and this paper explores how Toronto has historically engaged with its own sense of burgeoning celebrity, fashion, and glamour. By focusing on the work of Phyllis Brett Young’ s The Torontonians(1960), I examine how glamour as a corollary to fashion challenges preconceptions of “Toronto the Good,” not only within the local urban imaginary but also on national and global levels.Cet article explore les relations entre mode, glamour, célébrité et littérature canadienne en se concentrant plus spécifiquement sur Toronto. J’entends prouver la valeur de la lecture du glamour dans la littérature de Toronto en examinant comment le glamour offre une interprétation socio-culturelle du développement de l’intrigue et des personnages et, de surcroît, élève le personnage de la ville elle-même. Il va sans dire que certains auteurs créent un cachet glamour grâce à leur coterie de salons intellectuels et bohémiens, mais l’écriture elle-même atteint rarement le même niveau de célébration glamour. Cependant, lire le glamour—c’est-à-dire, à la suite de Brown, suivre le langage et la grammaire du glamour comme une forme littéraire liée à la culture de masse moderne—élargit le potentiel d’expression littéraire et culturelle du texte. Comme le montrent Gundell et Castelli, le glamour est typiquement associé à l’urbain et au cosmopolitain, et cette communication explore comment Toronto s’est historiquement impliqué dans son propre sentiment grandissant de célébrité, de mode et de glamour. En me concentrant sur le livre de Phyllis Brett Young, The Torontonians (1960), j’examine comment le glamour, comme corollaire de la mode, challenge les préconceptions de ”Toronto la bonne” non seulement à l’intérieur même de l’imaginaire urbain local, mais aussi aux niveaux national et global
TIME-SAVERS: BERTRAM BROOKER AND THE POLITICS OF TIME AND MATERIAL CULTURE
Get PDFThe late writings and visual art of Bertram Brooker (1888-1955) represent an overlooked bridge between the space-time discourse of British modernist Wyndham Lewis and the Toronto School of Communication. The Canadian artist-advertiser’s multidisciplinary production of the 1930s through the mid-1950s revisits his earlier thematization of Bergsonian concepts of duration and “flux” in abstract canvases and articles for Marketingmagazine of the 1920s. Yet his illustrations for The Canadian Forum and the unpublished manuscript The Brave Voices (ca. 1953-55) reveal a fresh awareness of the limits of the Bergsonian paradigm as well as a deepening recognition of its implications as a critique of modernity following the stock market crash of 1929
Archives for the Future
Get PDFAbstract | Visual media played a crucial role on nearly all levels of everyday private and public life in the GDR. This essay intends to readjust the focus on GDR visual history by investigating its margins, including ephemeral and semi-official film archives beyond the “official” state-controlled production of images. It does not reexamine such ephemeral cinematic remnants as historical sources but rather as traces that have to be understood in context and appropriated, arranged, and re-read, assembling them as fragments of the past. The specific focus here is on the works of Thomas Heise, a filmmaker who—although prohibited from producing and publicly releasing films during the existence of the GDR—managed to create during that time various audio and visual artifacts as contributions to archives for the future. Résumé | En la RDA les médias visuels ont joué un rôle crucial dans presque tous les domaines de la vie quotidienne, qu’elle soit privée ou publique. Cet essai a pour but de réajuster le focus sur l’histoire visuelle de la RDA en examinant ses marges, en incluant les archives éphémères et semi-officielles au-delà de la production “officielle” d’images. Cet essai ne réexamine pas ces vestiges cinématographiques éphémères en tant que sources historiques, mais comme des traces devant être comprises dans un certain contexte, approprié, arrangé et re-lu. Cette discussion sur les traces cinématographiques éphémères ainsi que les techniques d’assemblage de fragments du passé explore l’oeuvre de Thomas Heise, un réalisateur unique dans son genre qui – bien qu’il soit interdit de produire et de mettre en circulation publiquement des films sous le régime de la RDA – a créé pendant ce temps des artefacts audios et visuels comme contributions aux archives pour l’avenir
The Ruby Slippers Across Time, Space and Media
Get PDFThis article discusses representations of Dorothy’s magical shoes in diverse media—from the original text by L. Frank Baum (1900) to the classic MGM film (1939) to Vogue’s 2005 fashion shoot by Annie Leibovitz. According to Salman Rushdie, “the real secret of the ruby slippers is not that ‘there’s no place like home’, but rather that there is no longer any such place as home.” Canadian designer John Fluevog shares this point of view, as exemplified most prominently by The Cosmos: Meteor shoes (2016), which celebrate the road as the destination itself. I compare Fluevog to Gucci’s flamboyant Star Trek-inspired campaign GucciandBeyond (2017), as well as the brand’s more recent Utopian Fantasy campaign (2018). The essay cites, among others, Alain de Botton and Andy Warhol, both professing their fascination with air travel. Additional critical sources include Dick Hebdige’s pioneering work on style subcultures, and MOMA’s recent volume on Fashion Is. The essay’s concluding sections discusses commercial appropriation of fashion, as well as fashion’s open-ended definition.Cet article discute des représentations des souliers magiques de Dorothée à travers divers médias—depuis le texte original de L. Frank Baum (1900), en passant par le film classique de MGM (1939), jusqu’à la série de photos d’Annie Leibovitz dans Vogue en 2005. Selon Salman Rushdie, “le vrai secret des chaussures rouges n’est pas que ‘there’s no place like home’ mais plutôt que le ‘home’ n’existe plus.” Le dessinateur de mode canadien John Fluevog partage cette opinion comme le montre de façon remarquable la collection de chaussures The Cosmos: Meteor (2016), qui célèbre la route comme la destination en elle-même. Je compare Fluevog à la campagne haute en couleur de Gucci inspirée par Star Trek, GucciandBeyond (2017), ainsi qu’à la campagne plus récente de la marque, intitulée Utopian Fantasy (2018). L’essai cite, entre autres, Alain de Botton et Andy Warhol, qui ont tous deux professé leur fascination pour le voyage aérien. D’autres sources critiques incluent le travail de Dick Hebdige, un des pionniers dans l’étude des subcultures du style, ainsi que le récent volume du MOMA, Fashion is. Les paragraphes de conclusion discutent de l’appropriation commerciale de la mode ainsi que de l’aspect constamment renouvelé de ce qui définit la mode
A Clean Sharp Image: Don Cherry’s Suits as Sartorial Statements
Get PDFCanadian sports commentator Don Cherry is notorious for his outspoken opinions and flamboyant style, both attracting popular attention. This article examines his attention-grabbing on-air style as an extension of both his values for the game of hockey and his view of himself as a working-class boy made good. I argue that Cherry deliberately uses his suits to embody his social and personal values. Drawing on fashion studies approaches, I show that while not exactly fashionable in terms of trendiness, Cherry’s suits are examples of the ability of clothing to be indexical of working-class personality transformed.Le commentateur sportif canadien Don Cherry est célèbre pour ses opinions fracassantes et son style haut en couleur qui captent tous les deux l’attention du public. Cet article examine son style accrocheur devant la caméra comme une extension de ses valeurs pour le sport du hockey et de l’image qu’il a de lui-même comme celle d’un enfant de la classe ouvrière qui a réussi. J’avance l’idée que Cherry utilise délibérément ses tenues pour symboliser ses valeurs sociales et personnelles. Utilisant les approches des études sur la mode, je cherche à montrer que bien qu’elles ne soient pas véritablement du dernier cri en termes de mode, les tenues de Cherry sont des exemples de la capacité du vêtement à représenter la transformation de personnalité de la classe ouvrière
Where the Boys Who Keep Swinging Are Now: Locational Relationality in Hedi Slimane and Helmut Lang
Get PDFThis article illustrates the mechanisms by which Berlin and Vienna have come to figure differently in the global fashion imaginary. It establishes the stylistic locational relationality of Hedi Slimane and Helmut Lang, two fashion designers known for distinctive styles that resist the mainstream of bourgeois respectability. The relational nature of their locational identities—Slimane’s attraction to Berlin and Lang’s rejection of Vienna—is tied to the cities’ urban imaginaries, which work by making particular periods and styles of the cities’ histories hegemonic.Cet article illustre les mécanismes par lesquels Berlin et Vienne en sont venus à figurer différemment dans l’imaginaire mondial de la mode. Il établit la relation locale stylistique de Hedi Slimane et Helmut Lang, deux dessinateurs de mode connus pour leur styles distictintifs qui résistent aux normes prévalentes de la respectabilité bourgeoise. La nature relationnelle de leurs identités géographiques—L’attrait de Berlin pour Slimane et le rejet de Vienne pour Lang—est liée à l’imaginaire urbain des deux villes, ce qui se manifeste en rendant hégémoniques des aspects particuliers des époques et du style de l’histoire des deux villes
A PARADOX IN CARIBBEAN CINEMA? AN INTERVIEW WITH MINIMAL MOVIE FILMMAKER PIM DE LA PARRA, PRAGMATIC DREAMER FROM SURINAME
Get PDFPim de la Parra (Paramaribo, 1940) is a seasoned and prolific Surinamese filmmaker with over 50 years of experience in independent feature filmmaking. His film career began in the Netherlands in the 1960s where De la Parra rapidly established himself as a charismatic pioneer of Dutch film. Together with his former school friend Wim Verstappen, he shook up the Dutch film industry by producing a profitable series of low-budget erotic feature films, of which Blue Movie (1971) still ranks in the top five of most successful Dutch theatrical films. This success enabled De la Parra to make two more expensive movies outside the Netherlands, one in his native Suriname. In the 1970s, the filmmaker produced Wan Pipel (1976), the first Surinamese feature film ever made; in 1980s, he made Odyssée d’Amour (1987), the first Dutch feature film set on the Dutch-Caribbean island of Bonaire. Both films flopped at the Dutch box office, which forced De la Parra to return to low-budget filmmaking. He became a master of what he calls the minimal movie and put out multiple films in only a few years’ time. In 1995, after successive disillusionments, De la Parra retired from the world of filmmaking and settled in Suriname. However, his passion for filmmaking remained strong and eventually led him to launch the Surinamese Film Academy in 2005. The Academy’s learning-by-doing program benefits from De la Parra’s extensive experiences in the field of low-budget filmmaking. In pursuit of his dream of a local film culture in Suriname and the rest of the Caribbean, the now 72-year-old filmmaker tirelessly passes on his pragmatic model ofminimal movie making to the next generation. This interview, which took place in two parts via Skype (January 18 and February 1, 2012), chronicles De la Parra’s long illustrious career spanning over five decades