Event: What things are, what things do

Next week, on Friday 27 May, Güneş Tavmen and Hannah Barton are organising what looks to be an interesting interdisciplinary seminar titled ‘What things are, what things do’. The event – sponsored by Birkbeck Interdisciplinary Research in Media and Culture – will host a set of debates around the ‘structuring structures’ of media culture: in … Continue Reading

Urban media tour: 18 May 2016

After a two-year hiatus, Joel McKim and I are pleased to again lead our (evidently) popular urban media tour of West End London, this year as part of Birkbeck Arts Week 2016. As always, we’ll be not only visiting a range of buildings and neighbourhoods associated with major media industries, but also we’ll be discussing … Continue Reading

Documentary London: now showing at Birkbeck

The London Screen Study Collection and Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image (BIMI) have recently announced a new 2016 series of documentary films related to London. I’ve posted the details below. I plan to at least partly reverse my lack of attendance at BIMI screenings by checking out some of these. London Screen Study Collection … Continue Reading

The identities and expressions of ‘academic Twitter’: presentation / live streaming

I just caught wind of a very interesting looking presentation taking place 3pm GMT today at the London School of Economics by Bonnie Stewart. Stewart will be discussing “the intersection of Twitter and higher education, and how ‘academic Twitter’ cultivates scholarly identities and forms of expression that differ from conventional institutional practices.” I have pasted … Continue Reading

New senior posts in history of architecture/photography/digital culture at Birkbeck

A couple of interesting new posts have been announced today in Birkbeck’s History of Art department (which has some important interactions with my own department, for instance through the Vasari Research Centre). These are senior posts, one in the History and Theory of Architecture and the other is in the History and Theory of Photography/Digital … Continue Reading

Remembering Ed Soja (1940-2015)

It’s sad news to hear of the passing of Ed Soja after what appears to have been a long battle with illness. In just the last 15 hours or so, I have already read a number of personal reflections from academics who knew Ed as a teacher, collaborator and theoretical inspiration. Reading about these small … Continue Reading