Orange Nike Dunks ?

A non verbal feminist resistance to the onset of old age?

Me. [thinks] I will rock these with a Twentyeighttwelve dress I’ve just bought. But are they inappropriate for the 30+?

Now my daily bread comes from posing difficult questions. Sometimes the Qs are in my head so it’s just me answering, but usually those Qs go out to large groups of students or marketingy creative folks. Normally I ask things like “ Discuss the limits of Habermas’s The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere using a case study of a new/ digital technology of your choice”.

As we were flicking through some old mags, my friend also in her 30s recently commented that she liked Alexa Chung’s style . “Hmmm” I said then thinking about Chung’s penchant for a patent loafa and side slung small handbag, ”but she’s a young woman, why be 30 when you’re 20?” You see I’m like the opposite of Alexa Chung. If I buy these sneaks am I one step a way from being the  old lady with colbalt blue-hair and crazy leggings?  (this statement is not directed at  Zandra Rhodes I like her.)

Fans of Glee might say WWMD? But me,  well it’s more likey to be  ”What would Fiske  the famous popular cultural theorist argue?” Bit much for an acronym  isn’t it.

The problem I’ve with these shoes is to do with codes. These shoes operate as a symbolic ‘sign’ and my cultural capital allows me to make certain readings and draw on other referents in popular culture.  Mainly that I associate with yoot & I am not yoot.

However in these shoes will I be committing a defiant act? Hegemony through footwear? In your face gender/ 30 + clothes nazis (such as Boden) ?

Castells, M. (2009) Communication Power. OUP

It is great to see the commercial world taking their research standards so seriously and the experience for me was having the best, most engaged seminar group ever, who responded to questions and discussion really thoughtfully. It’s very refreshing and to their credit that the team want to take the time to get beyond the surface of notions such as culture, community, tribe etc. that get used in quite a casual way in the industry sometimes, but not with these guys. It gives me heart that they’re are genuinely interested in the intellectual origins of such ideas and to use the terms in an appropriate way. As a result we spent a bit of time discussing culture as something we do, material culture and the idea and limitations of subculture. Also taking time to consider the value of the work of people like Foucault and Bourdieu, discourse, taste, agency online and power with a big P. Kudos guys!

so, Transforming Audiences 2

The pre-conference day at Transforming Audiences 2 on the presentation of the self in digital life was perhaps the most stimulating bit for me. I left at the end of the day having met some lovely new peeps engaged in research from all over the world: China, Canada, Australia and with pages of notes plus my brain on overdrive full of thoughts and ideas, which is the sure sign of a good conference.

There’s an excellent over view of the conf here from Britta ( also fyi Mark, David, Caro & co there are nice clean definitions of ontology epistemology etc..in a earlier post.)

There were some cracking presentations and it is clear there is great research being done by Ranjana Das and Sonia Livingstone on facebook at L.S.E. In particular I really liked Mia Lovenhein’s from the University of Oslo talk on blogs self representation and gender.

I asked a question during the discussion on what it means to be ‘social’ e.g is logging on and looking at a news feed the same as blogging? Well obviously not..and this troubles me that a lot of what is talked about as social media and participation is not what I would call social. The idea of needing to define ‘participation’ was also raised during the closing session and final panel by others.
For me the technology and the institutional dimension of digital needs to be addressed more explicitly by research. Not to go all techno-determinsim but in my view there needs to be more consideration of how the technology both enables and limits – one might say curates even? Also there was no mention of the spectre of Google and the idea that users only to varying degrees understand their networks, how search engine optimization and digital traces.

In the days when we all used film we knew to a certain extent who and where we presented representations of ourselves, in a picture frame in the home, in a photo album, in a corporate brochure, in a gallery etc So to a certain extent we knew who our audience was and if we were not in total control of the representation we had some comprehension of the institution that was and the power relations that involved. I could go on and on here, so many thoughts…

Music and politics have  a long interesting relationship and it’s pretty normative to argue that there is a political element to subculture and style. When one drills down it is usually a little more complex than politics with a big P. More like music and socio-cultural, political economy, or music and hegemony.  I guess it’s because music is ideological, and genres are discourses.

This year in May I went to The Specials gig in Leeds town square, which was awesome. Not least of which was because there was a great crowd of diverse people and all age groups on a beautiful sunny warm evening, jumping up and down, dancing and singing along. (And I met Terry Hall at Leeds trains station the next day btw). The band have  amazing on stage energy and Terry Halls’ voice is still fantastic. What got me thinking recently is the relationship between the current economic climate and the music. There’s been quite a bit of press about the band reforming, but it is interesting that The Specials are being so well received by new fans and just as their music captured a political mood the first time round it is culturally, socially, so relevant at the moment.  As a Sunday Times review said

 …how fresh and joyful their music sounds — and how vital and relevant their songs’ sociopolitical sentiments, chronicling life amid the racial, economic and class divisions of late-1970s Britain, remain in 2009.Formed in Coventry during the last economic recession to drive a failed Labour government out of power, they blended ska, punk and politics, proving an instant hit with a generation fired up by the Sex Pistols and the Clash

 

Interesting, more in depth discussion here

i’ve been a fan of Ska and TwoTone pretty much since I could hear. As a kid in the late seventies and early eighties it was a sound that was played round the house by my older siblings and parents. Also I was lucky enough to spend a little bit of time in The Caribbean during the eighties so I had a context to some of the rocksteady and reggae influence. I kinda rediscovered the music in my late teens and went to a lot of gigs in pubs. Although I was very much into techno, dance music and free parties and campaigned against the criminal justice bill, I think at the time with Ska I read a lot of antiestablishment sentiment into the lyrics that had escaped 1st time and for me it tied in to my take on life as a young adult in the 90s recession. As a kid I simply loved the upbeat sound but didn’t think much about what it all meant. The sound is so happy, uplifting and energetic, it’s perfect for doing that special kiddie uncoordinated jigging about dance, where you can hear the music but to adult observers you are dancing to a completely different rhythm. Oh and just brilliant memories of moonstomping at house parties and cockney knees ups in East London and seeing some of The Specials perform at an Anti-Nazi gig in Viccy Park. But it is curious to me that the sound raises it’s head again during such times. The cultural effects of the recession are paradoxically rich.

The next best thing to buying, is wearing a garment just for a bit. Much more satisfying than window shopping and cheaper than actually purchasing. I highly recommend it, and it’s my top tip for the credit crunch. I was in Harvey Nichols in Leeds on Saturday, and I did the same thing with one of this seasons Roberto Cavelli knock out dresses. There is no point buying such a thing unless you have a yatch in Portafino, which is the only accessory that will do for that sort of dress. Why waste £875? 

Back to cardi watch. I still really want it & I think about it all the time. It’s reached 30% off on net-a-porter, but I remain firm that I will not purchase it until the price drops a bit more, Missoni or not. It must reach a price that it still cheaper than going on a knitting course at Central St Martins and buying my own flock of sheep to make the wool.

But seriously, no seriously. WTF is going on with the shopping frenzy??!! Yes there are some amazing discounts to be had out there at the mo ( I found £600 off a Prada dress on Saturday) but aren’t we supposed to be in a recession? Burberry were almost giving away clothes on Regent street before Xmas and I heard Superdrug announce an online sale of 99% on Xmas day. That’s not a typo btw. I do mean ninety nine. As I bagan to trawl the retailers of Missoni last week, I can only describe scenes of utter madness something along the lines of a shoal of piranhas stripping the flesh off a plump calf having a paddle.

Never the less, coming in an extremely close second has to be The Apprentice. I realise it is probably deeply unfashionable to say so, but I love Alan Sugar. I think he is brill, and I absolutely worship this new series. Plus, The Apprentice is fantastic material for anybody studying ideological theory. I’ve used clips from previous series in discourse analysis workshops that I’ve run and, witnessed the thrill of the proletariat turn on the bourgeoisie in a minor revolt during last weeks episode. (All the while annoying my two poor tenants what a fab example it was of classic Marxism sorry ladies ).

I didn’t think it would be possible for BBC2 to find contestants as annoying and despicable as last years, but good ole beeb, they’ve only gone and done it. Not only that, but the boys team this year look like a Take That tribute band. I am fully expecting the launch of a group named “Back for Good”, on the wedding and working mans club circuit when the show finishes. You heard it here first.
10 minutes or so into the 1st episode I was already shouting “I HATE YOU” at entrepreneur Raef.

I’m always suspicious of such job titles anyway and I think entrepreneur in these sorts of circumstances hides a career of imprecision and under achievement. Also Raef is posh and moronic, I mean really so. He looks like a 1980s Ralph Lauren model, with the most incredibly, annoying, thick, eye-brows, which I wish to climb inside my tellybox and pluck. He says stupid things that have no meaning such as “Yah chaps lets rarely sturr it up yah, and rahse our game.” I was in rapture when it looked as if he might get the heave ho at the end of episode one for being utterly rubbish, and delivering the line “I am friend to prince and pauper Sire Alon”, during a class war boardroom debate, but alas no, he made it through. The you’re fired sequence that week, was sooooo not about the boys team and their inability to do the task but, actually a real life enactment of Bourdieu’s theory of habitus and cultural capital. It became quite apparent during the task that there was a serious class division within the team as the ruling classes began to close ranks on the proletariat, despite hideous Raef being amongst the posh posse who f’up the pricing on the fresh lobsters. Ha! My favourite at the moment is no-nonsense ex-army working class Simon. God did he graft during the laundry task.