City of Bits

Mitchell, W. J. (1995). City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn. Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press.

‘The uncertainties and dangers of the bitsphere frontier are great, but it is a place of new opportunity and hope. So forget the global couch-potato patches that Marshall McLuhan surveyed back in the sixties. This will be the place for a global village.’

Globalisation, Biotechnology and Democracy (London, 5 June, 2007)

Ralph Miliband Programme Global Risks and Politics in the 21st Century lecture
Globalisation, Biotechnology and Democracy
Date: Tuesday 5 June 2007
Time: 6.30-8pm
Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building
Speakers: Professor Hilary Rose, Professor Steven Rose
Chair: Professor David Held

Biotechnology, globalisation and democracy are power charged. Biotechnology promoted by giant corporations within neo-liberal globalisation makes possible the manipulation of life itself. Democracy and the governance of science face a new dilemma, as new social movements envision different relations between society, science and nature. This lecture explores an alternative to the current world order.

Hilary Rose is a visiting professor at City University. Steven Rose is a neurobiologist, professor and chair of the Department of Biology, and director of Brain and Behaviour Research Group at the Open University.

This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis.

For more information email events@lse.ac.uk or call 020 7955 6043.

For more information about the Ralph Miliband Programme: www.lse.ac.uk/collections/miliband/

Anthony Dunne, Fiona Raby, Michael Anastassiades in the MoMa

Anthony Dunne, Fiona Raby, Michael Anastassiades in the MoMa

Originally uploaded by andymiah.

It’s not everyday that I see an exhibit from a friend of mine in the MoMa New York, but last Sunday was one of them. Anthony is Professor at the Royal College of Art in London. We met last year when he asked me to speak to his Design Interactions Masters students and I recall he showing me one of the Atomic Mushrooms presented here in the MoMa.

Researching China’s Media (13 June, 2007)

RESEARCHING CHINA’S MEDIA

One-day workshop and conference organised by the China Media Centre

University of Westminster
309 Regent Street, London

13 June 2007

The rapid economic growth of China has been accompanied by an increasing western interest in the changes taking place in Chinese society. The mass media are one of the key points of change, and research on their production, content and audiences is on the increase. Knowledge in the west is still very patchy, but there are more and more articles, books and theses analysing different aspects of the situation.

This workshop and conference will offer an opportunity for the presentation and discussion of current research into all aspects of the media in China.  It is open to all researchers, whether they wish to present a paper or not. The intention is to put an emphasis on the work of younger scholars.

The day will be split into two parts. In the workshop, there will be opportunities to discuss informally with Professor Guo and scholars from other Chinese universities the problems of conducting media research and current trends in China today. In the conference section of the day, researchers will present and discuss scholarly research that they have recently finished or are currently undertaking.

The working language of the conference will be Chinese. For registration, please email: Dr. Yik Chan Chin, chiny@wmin.ac.uk <mailto:chiny@wmin.ac.uk> . Staff £50; Students £20 (on presentation of student ID).

Programme Outline

(Provisional)

10:00 – 10:30   Registration                                                                                       Board Room

10:30 – 12:00   Keynote Speech:                                                                                Board Room

Current Research Problems in Chinese Media
Professor Guo Zhenzhi
Tsinghua University, Beijing China

12:00 – 13:00   Lunch

13:00 – 15:30   Panel 1                                 Room 354

Li Shuang                 University of Westminster, UK
International consumer magazine brand in China: the post-localization of monopoly

Ding Hanqing            Renmin University, Beijing, China
The overall model and main conclusions drawn from an empirical research on advertising In China

Lin Zhong                 University of Arizona, USA
The production and performance of Hero and its implications on Chinese film industry

Shixin Ivy Zhang       University of Leeds, UK
Impact of globalization on the organization of Beijing Youth Daily

15:30 – 16:00   Tea/Coffee Break                       Room 354

16:30 – 18:00   Panel 2                                Room 354

Xin Xin       University of Westminster, UK
Understanding the interrelations between fuzzy logic, complexity theory and systems thinking

Tong Jingrong           University of Westminster, UK
Examining how powers struggle in journalistic field in China

Ting Wang                University of Leeds, UK
Mass media and celebrity culture: Does China face a new cultural revolution?

Jing Sheng                Lancaster University, UK
Identity formation and multiliterate development of Chinese migrant children

Yuan Yan                 University of Westminster, UK
Making sense of home in Chinese urban villages: Displacement, settlement, and media consumption

18:00                           Conference Ends

‘研究中国媒体’ 学术研讨会

威斯敏斯特大学中国媒体中心主办

2007年6月13日

309 Regent Street, London

随着中国经济的飞速发展, 西方学术界对中国社会中各种变化及转型投注了极大的兴趣。在这些变化中，大众传媒的转型尤为显著。因此研究媒体转型成为一项紧迫而重要的研究课题。虽然目前西方学术界对此的研究是有限的，但已有越来越多文章和书籍从不同角度对中国的大众传媒进行研究分析。

威斯敏斯特大学中国媒体中心特此举办研讨会，诚邀学者共聚一堂，探讨有关中国媒体研究的各种议题。此次研讨会向所有学者开放，尤其是年轻学者，欢迎各位出席讨论。

研讨会包括两个部分。上午, 与会者和郭教授和其他来自中国的大学学者们就当下中国媒体研究和趋势进行探讨交流。下午, 学者们发表论文，讨论近期从事的研究项目。

会议语言为中文。会议注册, 请联系：Dr. Yik Chan Chin, chiny@wmin.ac.uk <mailto:chiny@wmin.ac.uk> .

注册费(包括茶點): 教员50 镑; 学生20镑(需出示学生证).

暂定议程安排

10:00 – 10:30   会议注册                                                                                           Board Room

10:30 – 12:00   主题演讲                                                                                           Board Room

中国媒介研究的趋势和问题

郭镇之教授, 清华大学

12:00 – 13:00   午餐

13:00 – 15:30   分组发言 1                                                                                        Room 354

Li Shuang                 University of Westminster, UK

International consumer magazine brand in China: the post-localization of monopoly

Ding Hanqing            Renmin University, Beijing, China

The overall model and main conclusions drawn from an empirical research on advertising In China

Lin Zhong                 University of Arizona, USA

The production and performance of Hero and its implications on Chinese film industry

Shixin Ivy Zhang       University of Leeds, UK

Impact of globalization on the organization of Beijing Youth Daily

15:30 – 16:00   茶歇                                Room 354

16:30 – 18:00   分组发言 2                          Room 354

Xin Xin       University of Westminster, UK

Understanding the Interrelations between Fuzzy Logic, Complexity Theory and Systems Thinking

Tong Jingrong           University of Westminster, UK

Examining how powers struggle in journalistic field in China

Ting Wang                University of Leeds, UK

Mass media and celebrity culture: Does China face a new cultural revolution?

Jing Sheng                Lancaster University, UK

Identity formation and multiliterate development of Chinese migrant children

Yuan Yan                 University of Westminster, UK

Making sense of home in Chinese urban villages: Displacement, settlement, and media consumption

18:00                           研讨会结束

Organs without Bodies

Žižek, S. (2004). Organs without Bodies: On Deleuze and Consequences. London & New York, Routledge.

“How then are we to revolutionize an order whose very principle is self-revolutionizing? Perhaps this is the question today.”

About the Last Word

The Last Word is a category I’ve decided to start, which will be constituted simply by the last sentence (or two) of books I am reading.

Journal of Science Communication

I’ve just been browsing the contents of the JSC after having received notification from SAGE that a number of their journals are freely available online this month (JSC isnt one of them but ‘Science Communication’ is). Anyway, within the JSC site, I’ve seen something I’ve not seen before – english versions and original versions of articles. They have quite a range of languages in play here. What a great idea.

BIOCULTURES GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE (16-17 Nov, 2007)

BIOCULTURES GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE:
>science >technology >culture >humanity

University of Illinois at Chicago,
November 16-17, 2007

Keynote speakers:

Judith Halberstam, University of Southern California
Lennard J. Davis, University of Illinois at Chicago

In the 1950s, C.P. Snow saw a fundamental split between the “two cultures” of science and the humanities. But in recent years this split has faded, with theorists like Michel Foucault and Donna Haraway as well as writers like Samuel Delaney and Octavia Butler examining what “the human” is in a world where recent biological and technological developments have profoundly shaken our assumptions about identity and power. At the same time, interdisciplinary work in fields like bioethics, gender studies, disability studies and critical race theory has begun to bridge this divide, offering up new ways of theorizing the body and its relationship to medical, cultural, and political knowledge. Putting projects like these in dialogue with one other, this conference seeks to create an interdisciplinary discourse that participates in the emergence of biocultures – the intellectual space where the humanities and the sciences converge.
We invite presentations on biocultural issues from scholars and professionals from all disciplines. Papers may address, but are in no way limited to, the following:

> posthumanism
> cosmetic surgery/body modification
> cognitive mapping
> prosthesis
> eugenics/phrenology/scientific racism
> psychiatric illnesses (post-traumatic stress, OCD, etc.)
> the science of sexual deviance (sexology, the �gay gene,� etc.)
> medical technologies
> anthropology vs. genetics
> birth control and reproductive rights
> the human/animal boundary
> psychiatry & brain science
> transgenderism, transexuality intersexuality
> literary representations of science and medicine
> biopower/biopolitics
> postmodern warfare
> nanotechnology
> cybercultures
> eco-feminism
> disability studies
> bioethics

For more information and updates, visit our conference website at:
http://www.uic.edu/depts/engl/biocultures/

This conference is part of Project Biocultures, an ongoing effort dedicated to exploring new ways of thinking about the intersections between the human and the technological. More information about Project Biocultures can be found at:
http://www.biocultures.org/index2.php

Please send abstracts of 250-350 words to
projectbiocultures [AT] gmail.com
by July 1, 2007

My Office

Currently in Barcelona trying to get some writing done – and succeeding – it occurred to me that it would be interesting to take photographs of spaces where I work. So much of my life now involves working on the move or in locations that are other than my office. So this begins the documentation.