thinking is the new black

The web is social. Hmmm, well no, because the web is neither subject nor object.

Whilst doing some re-drafting last week I returned to a favourite source of inspiration Lury’s Brands: Logos of the global economy. There is a quote from Bruno Latour on p149 which has been rattling around in my head all week, and I haven’t been able to shake it from my thoughts. I saw him once in the queue for coffee at the British Sociological Association annual meeting and rather embarrassingly was completely star struck. I seem to remember being almost paralyzed on the spot and texted my then partner ” jst sn Bruno Latour. OMG” . There is an interesting irony to this as the ex had absolutely no idea nor wish to know who Latour is. That I’d been meters away from IMHO one of the greatest living philosophers and sociologist was lost. However, later that year at a post-grad conference,I relayed the story to a PhD student, and he clutched chest and shrieked “be still my beating heart – you did not stand next to Bruno Latour SHUT UP!” I was satisfied.

Bruno Latour

Peter Sellers

I just want to add quickly that Latour was wearing a rain mac at the BSA, and what with looking a tiny bit like Peter Sellers and being?fronch and all.. well there was noone aound to make Inspector Cluseo jokeys with, quelle domage.

So, back to the point, the quote

“For the thing we are looking at is not a human thing, nor is it an inhuman thing. It offers, rather a continuous passage, a commerce, an interchange, between what humans inscribe in it and what it prescribes to humans [...] What should it be called neither object nor subject. An instituted object, quasi-object, quasi-subject, a thing that possesses body and soul indissociably”

The quote postulates on the agency of objects. I love the idea of neither subject nor object in relation to the web. I’m sure there is loads of stuff already written on Actor Network theory?and the internet and it’s not a new idea. It’s not my area but I had a quick peek and found Sociology in the Age of the Internet by Allison Cavanagh, but I’m sure there are a wealth of journal articles to choose from if you’re that way inclined. What’s got me excited though is that there has been a lot of chit chat about the web being social, but I think it should be thought of in terms of ?neither object nor subject.

As Latour says it is perhaps quasi-object. Although one can talk of the social lives of things and the sociality of objects, as non-object non-subject the web can not be inherently social, rather social is what we inscribe in it. The social is the human version of the thing. D’ya getme?

For more on Latour here is a cool blog I found by another per her der with an interview from Latour on digital traces.

I’ve been reading Radical Consumption by Jo Littler, which was only published in Jan this year by O.U press.

From the time I began my own research in 2005 this is one of the most engaging titles I’ve read, perhaps since Health and Potters Rebel Sell. I’ve found it very useful in considering the responses to the consumer interviews I conducted and the practice of what I’m calling double distinction, drawing on Bourdieu’s seminal theory. I’m looking at how participants justify their consumption through individual lifestyle practices, and through passing judgement and distancing themselves from other peoples consumption. More of this one day, but lets wait for a successful viva, before I spill.

Not really to do with my research, but I found the discussion of ethical consumption, worthiness and moralizing particularly interesting and loved the case study ?of US clothing label American Apparrel in the book. I’ve been a tentative fan of American Apparel for some time, but being in my 30s I find some of the lines a little bit too nu rave /juvenile for my own taste. However my boyf who I shall refer to as The Italian here on in in this blog is 5 years older than me and he declared it his new favourite shop the other day. American Apparel use non-model models in their campaigns and the images are often sexual in a readers wives, 70 soft porn kind of way. This allows for an ironic consumptionvia the brand, and for them to move away from the stuffy connotations of worthiness and yogurt weaver fashion slow mo remit of most ethical labels. Really interesting to me as I’m often moaning to my fashion friends that most ethical fashion I’ve come across, offends my style sensibilities.

As I’m on a fashion tip today I wanted to share this beautiful print on my new Echo scarf. I was out scouring with my fashion friend The Forbes, last Saturday and we came across a load of gorgeous scarves in local boutique Sirene. Echo are a family company based in NY, and these prints are from their archives from the 1920s.

Accessories are brilliant for updating an outfit without spending very much money, so it’s no surprise given the current climate that scarves are going to be a big thing. Not everyone can afford an Hermes so a find like this ‘lovely’ from Echo makes my day.

OK, so I’m rather late in the day with this little gem. I, like a lot of other people saw it only for the first time on Saturday night thanks to C4s rudetube. How’s that for postmodernism? Yoot make music and video using domestic technologies and post the video on an online social space, it gets pickup by TV show where your researcher heroine watches the full clip on YouTube, and then blogs about it. I’m just a networked knowledge worker swimming in the interweb of streams.

onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/uk.youtube.com');">watch?v=Q6pbZLiLt30

The song makes me smile, and I think there’s something really endearing about it. For all that has been said by sectors of the UK government and popular media, about young people, street crime, hoodies, knives, gangs etc etc it’s pretty spesh to see a group of young people, well, just being a bit silly really and having a laugh. They’re funny and they’re cool.

Apparently

An estimated 1,700 fried chicken joints, with their white, red and blue regalia, currently line UK high streets, tiny bones scattered over the pavements outside.

You can read all about the creators Red Hot Entertainment in an interview with them here. Thing is I know SFC. I used to go to the one on Hackney road when I lived there. It was always a bit of a treat. Fried chicken and chips is a big thing in the East end. I’m not sure why it’s so popular, but its a massive thing and especially amongst the afrocarribean community. Infact Texas chicken a rival fried chuck joint, use images of a black family and a group of teenage boys wearing hoodies in their marketing . Also according to Mintel the heaviest users of chicken bars are younger, less affluent consumers mainly from the D and C socioeconomic groups. Another comment I found from a Guardian article last year quoted Paul Ricketts a black comic who said

“All black areas have loads of fried chicken outlets. It is a socio-economic thing…”

So I suppose what I’m saying is that the junior spesh video is a representation of culture. In a sense it’s a piece of ethnographic film making. For me Junior spesh provides a neat case study for anyone interested in cultural identity, and or subculture. On the one hand Red Hot Ents are drawing on connotations of mainstream representations of urban youth and street style. Particularly with the genre of the song (grime) and the way they’re dressed -- sweats, grime t-shirts baseballs caps, which one might normally expect to be a reference gang culture. In the UK we’re more used to reading these signifiers as negative representations of youth either as the object of fear or as an under-class. But these guys have really played with signification whilst staying true to themselves, beliefs and values. The result is an uplifting reclaiming of ideology. If hegemony is always on going process and culture a site of resistance, then hurray for Red Hot Ents -- who have won a small battle here as far as I’m concerned.

And god it’s catchy

j j junior spesh junior spesh, one pound and fiddy pence

I’m very busy redrafting 3 chapters of my thesis, marking 2nd year essays and writing a proposal for IMACR 2009, but I had to take a few minutes out to report on something which IMHO is very wrong.

There have been whispers of the reintroduction of  harem pants ( also known as the drop pant) into polite society for some time. The trend is credited to French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld but since designers such as Armani and Chloe revealed their spring collections, the fashion press are all keyed up  for S/S this year.

I’m sure they’re incredibly comfortable, much more democratic than skinny jeans,  cover a multitude of sins etc etc, but how can anyone fail to make associations with MC Hammer?

There is something very infantile about them which deeply troubles me. I can understand people wearing them to make a statement about comfort over style.  ”The cut liberates one from the confines of fashion, Yah” etc. The garment is about the rejection of the restriction of the construction of contemporary style, but today the drop-pant, tomorrow the adult nappy. Worrying if you ask me. 

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I will do when I finally sit my viva and become Dr Peacock. What will life be like post PhD and what is next on my research agenda? 

I went to Cuba in 2007 to stay with a family in a casa particular in Verdado a nice suburb of Havana. It had been a major ambition of mine to visit the country and the trip was fantastic. But ever since I’ve been dying to get back and spend more time there, exploring the rest of the country.

Last  week I went to watch Che: Part I . Mainly because I’m a massive fan of Benicio del Toro. It’s an unusual film, not quite what I was expecting to be honest and if you have little or no prior knowledge of Che Guevara or the Cuban revolution, basically you’re f***ed. Coincidentally I heard  yesterday that one of the artists from Buena Vista Social Club, Eliades Ochoa – the one with the cowboy hat, is coming to

perform in Feb in my home town.

I’m so giddy. All roads are leading to Cuba. I see it in the dregs of my mojito – my future is in Cuba. 

I’ve recently been diagnosed with celiac disease which sounds much more dramatic and serious than it is, but one of the symptoms is an intolerance of wheat and gluten which has been making me feel very tired and nauseous.  This is an extreme blow , as one of my other passions in life is cake. I love it. Lemon drizzle, macaroons, fairy cakes, scones, you name it I can make it and eat it. Yessirree I take cake very seriously indeed. But you’ll know this already if you’re a regular to this blog and all about my future plans for a tea room called the Public Sphere after Habermas’ great work. I envisaged sparknotes on critical theorists and their key works on the menu, and a free weekly salon for debate on culture and life, in the Raymond Williams sense of the word. I suppose I could still do this and make all the cup cakes gluten free – but the wheat free flour doesn’t rise very well. No Cuba is where I’m headed in my dreams.

Since a lot of my research and growing expertise is in the field of identity formation and brands, I have been fantasizing about making an ethnographic film on such things.

One of the things which fascinated me so much during my 2007 trip to Cuba was the almost total lack of  marketing, and miniscule references in popular culture to consumer brands (Cuban or other) that we experience in The West.  Not suprising given  wages average about £15 a month and because of the embargos food and goods are rationed. Literally there isn’t anything to buy.

During my time in Cuba I recall seeing only a few billboards in Havana with government messages and political slogans, but no commercial advertising. I seem to remember there being 3 TV channels – all state owned. My land-lady made me watch universidad para todo every morning, which was on 1 of the 3 an educational channel. I saw one shop in the foyer of the hotel national selling palm olive soaps and some L’Oreal shampoo I think, and just one other store in a very smart touristy area of Havana selling trainers  There were definitely some real or fake Adidas and Nikes in amongst them, and that’s the only form of branded goods I recognized during my stay. However, I found something online which quoted

Business Week (August 6, 2001) ranked the top 100 global brands and stated that of these 64% were available in Cuba

So much of contemporary identity in the UK is signified through our relationship with consumption and engagement with the brands we choose. And yet Cubans have  a strong sense of identity that is both individual and group – national and local .To me a non cuban, this seemed to be in part constructed through music,family, baseball etc.

But Cuba is changing, and especially in light of Obamas’ hint at new policy on Cuba I feel this will alter soon. Who in Cuba will experience an increase in material culture if embargoes are lifted? Will this result in a a semiotic glut and how will this effect class relations?

So now I’m day dreaming about learning ethnographic film making techniques and looking for crash courses in Spanish…

It is very important if you blog to mention the credit crunch. Content is king and these two little words in combination are grande buzz wordos en el blogospheros. Credit crunch, credit crunch, credit crunch. That said, I would like to introduce the fashion practice of chiconomics and to tell you I’m on cardi-watch. In November last year my life changed forever when I was shopping with my big sis in Selfridges, and I tried on the Missoni Avorio wool cardigan coat. For a short while I was enveloped is soft, warm, designer loveliness beyond anything I can really describe. Sadly the coat was priced around £800 which is beyond the budget of a lowly symbolic analyst in waiting (sob). However, it matched my wooly raspberry Uggs so exquisitely that in lieu of actually buying it I thought I’d simply keep it on for a time, whilst I window shopped in the Dries Van Noten concession. Oh it was heaven for 10 long minutes – the cardi was mine. That is, until I had to put the shop assistant who was nervously trailing me around Selfridges 2nd floor out of her misery, and explain that I had no intension of buying the cardigan and not to worry I was neither a loon nor a shop lifter. She responded so graciously as I took it off and handed it over, by telling me that it really suited me. Bless her.

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.

What doing a PhD feels like sometimes.

So I promised an update on the state of the per her der back in October, and so far I’ve managed to avoid following that up, because I HAVEN’T FINISHED.

I have been working on my PhD since April 05 and am grimly aware that I’m approaching the end of 2008 and I HAVEN’T FINISHED. 

Yes, despite having 3 months at the beginning of the year where I holed myself and renounced pretty much every other aspect of my life to write, I HAVEN’T FINISHED.

But why haven’t I finished? I’m really not sure, because I worked all day last Sunday whilst all around me were Christmas shopping, watching football, drinking beer and having fun. I worked until 21:50 last night whilst others watched crap on Living and ate chocolates. At this rate I should’ve finished by now surely?

This is the point where if I were in a film of my life (staring Scarlet Johansson as me) there would be a big focus pull. Spooky voice-over would rasp accusingly  ”where has your life gone?”, as something truly tragic composed specially by Morricone sets the scene, the heroine is finally caught out  by the truth; that she sat around all day, eating chocolate, playing with kittens, reading Vogue and attending light lunches.

But hang on…

A really depressing fact, which I came across today is that 3/4 of PhD students in the UK take 7 years to complete. Man oh man. I started the PhD in April 05, so I’ve been at it a total of 3.5 years and during that time I changed my status from FT to PT. When you’re registered as PT you only received half the supervision hours and are only expected to work about 16 hr p/w on the thesis. So, a year consisting of 2 PT semesters only counts as 0.5 when the trajectory is calculated. Following that logic, if the PhD took me another year I’d still meet the national average, and I could actually take another 2 years to complete it. God forbid.

Mulling all this over, I started to think quite seriously though what have I been doing? So I had an audit of sorts. In 3.5 years of doing a Phd (nearly 4 years in terms of my life, time and commitment)  I’ve presented at 4 conferences (one international)  & attended another international symposium. I went to Cuba, Morroco, Thailand and Vietnam, Spain and Italy. I’ve ended a long-term relationship, started a new one, and moved house. I’ve written 2 papers and had one published, taught for 5 semesters, held a FT position as an analyst for 3 months, followed by another period as an analyst later in the year for 5 months, and this semester I’ve begun supervising  undergraduate dissertations. And yes, I have not missed reading one monthly addition of Vogue. 

Phewee. I feel so much better for this little audit; I’m now able to say I haven’t finished in lower case. So joy to the world, and peace on earth.

I think it is quite common to worry about the big bad deadline, and especially given that people are constantly asking me when I’m going to finish. It’s very hard to impress on people who are not doing a PhD- quite what it is that one does, when doing one, and all the to-ing and fro-ing with supervisors reading drafts, redrafting, progress reviews, transfer vivas, selecting externals.

But I’m rather cheered that I’ve discovered some fantastic PhD blogs recently. It provides a great deal of comfort to know that there are other people out there experiencing similar things. 

Dramatic events in the thinking is the new black house hold this week, when my personal computer began to sound as if it were being powered by a russian hamster on a tread wheel. Unfortunately it was the hard drive in my 3 year old mac mini that gave up the ghost.

Apparently living in and powering my mac-mini

Frankly at the time, an utter horrendo disaster. Although I regularly back work up, and managed  to salavge all my thesis and teaching work, I still lost some of my itunes and photo data. It’s a painfull lesson to learn as I’ve spent several hours already this week, loading CDs into itunes and rummaging around for old software disks and memory cards. But thanks to some help from my friends I now have a suped up 160GB, and modded mac-mini as good as a brand new one. And I have discovered a great Mac Mini civilization camped out there on the t’interweb of streams.

Even more nail biting perhaps was the return of my TV husband Jack Bauer, in a one off special 24 Redemption. Damn It! This has certainly wet my appetite for Day 7 which is on in January. I’m now beside myself with excitement.

I always base the upgrade of my mobile phone on what ever Jack is using, so the writers strike in the US has meant a delay and me being stuck with a rather rubbish motorola razor for some time and looking like a right old laggard. Jack I am waiting for you.

sorry Bruce Parry - there can be only one. xx

I went to the 1st of the evening media seminars at Brighton University yesterday to hear Dr Kate O’Riordan from Sussex give her paper “The Genome incorporated: Constructing Biodigital Identity’” which

“examines the intersection of genome sequencing and digital media practices through a discussion of interactivity, social networking and genome browsing which centres around the personal genome sequencing company23andMe “

In terms of social networking 23andMe has a community function whereby users compare their genome data with other people signed up for the service. As I commented last night I can really see this ending up as some sort of face-book style application  / public profile. 

What was especially interesting to me is that Google is one of the investors of 23andMe. 

As the article points out

the investment could be seen as Google’s first step towards indexing genetic information.

Food for Thought

If Google were able to combine the immense amounts of user data they collect right now with the health and medical data that could potentially be gathered from Google Health AND combine that with data potentially available to them through 23andMe, a person’s Google profile could be a dangerous thing. What if this hypothetical Google profile ever got into the hands of a health insurance provider? Could you be denied coverage based on a genetic predisposition to cancer? What if you also often search terms like “breathing problems” and “wheezing,” or you’ve emailed a cancer specialist to try and get an appointment?

I watched Question Time on the beeb last week after Obamas’ victory. It featured Brian Eno, for one, who is apparently a consultant to the Lib Dems. How about that? He is a  rather charming reactionary and good to see the Lib Dems appropriating a bit of cool. I’ve long thought that they’ve  catching up to do in the communication of democracy stakes. I know politics should be all about the policies, but in this day and age it has to also be about the brand. As well as be being on the money and having some sound political views, Eno mediates politics at the level of personal activism and social responsibility. Plus he allows the Lib Dems to draw on also sorts of connotations of hip and culture.

Anyway, as you can imagine the whole QT show was rather a viva Obama fest / “we are the world, we are the people”, including Bonnie Greer  who is normally very sensible telling everyone how she was in tears on victory night. Everyone wants to be Obamas’ friend, and every one wants to show  that their personal emotional reaction to the event is stronger than their neighbors, and some how more authentic. I mean don’t get me wrong I AM pleased ( though rather like Bonnie  I flipflopped from being a Hilary supporter to a Barack supporter).   2 events come to mind through all this.   One is the death of Princess Diana and the other, Tony Blairs’ victory in 1997. The whole emotional competitiveness is symptomatic of Western Society, particularly in the UK since the death of Diana. The notion of the media facilitation “our” ability to feel if you know what I mean. 1997 for me was one of the most important elections in the last 100 years, not least because it was the 1st one I was able to vote in. What I am reminded of more specifically is this discourse of optimism and hope obscuring actual policy.

I remember staying up all night watching the votes some in and seeing Neil Kinnock dancing awkwardly to D:ream. Remember this?

In 1997 I was an undergrad struggling to live independently of my family in East London during the eve of Cool Britannia. I was so hopeful and optimistic for the Labour party; all I’d ever known was Thatcher and that life as a young adult living on the bread line in the capital was quite hard. My pals and I got carried away with the election, because a change of government for us signified such giddy anticipation for the future. Alas, like so many others, I’m let down by what actually followed.

The language of new labour has been brilliantly analyzed by Norman Fairclough,  in his wonderful book New Language New Labour. But I thought it would be interesting to run a quick word cloud courtesy of wordle on Baracks’ victory speech.

Check out the focus on patriotism, words connoting change, inclusively and signifying society. The world awaits to see if this discourse will have any effect on social change. No pressure then..