Volunteers for Closed Week, 3-7 September 2012

The Library is closing for a week in September to undertake essential Library housekeeping work, and the Library team are looking for volunteers to help.

This is an opportunity for:

- those with an interest in libraries

- pre-library school applicants to acquire basic Library skills

- Library professionals to maintain their skills


You will gain valuable insights into how a special Library collection is managed and organised by working on tasks including:

- Shelf tidying

- Journals and zines processing

- Basic catalogue work

- Collection care

Professional Library qualifications are not essential, but knowledge of how to use a Library and searching catalogues is required. You will need to be available for at least three days between Monday 3 and Friday 7 September, 10.30-4.30.

Lunch and travel expenses will be reimbursed.


Please email your CV to Sonia Hope, Library Manager explaining why you would like to volunteer at the Stuart Hall Library.

shope@iniva.org


Closing date: Friday 10 August.
Informal meetings to be held week beginning 13 August.

Stuart Hall Libary celebrates National Libraries Day, 4 February 2012

We are very excited at the prospect of the first National Libraries Day, which is taking place this Saturday, 4 February. We will be thinking about what makes Libraries special, particularly when in the digital age so much information is readily accessible on the Internet.

The timing is great for us: it's a chance to acknowledge the privilege of working in such a fantastic library, and an extra opportunity to share the knowledge, inspiration and surprises that we discover in our special collection.

It is also an opportunity to celebrate Stuart Hall's 80th birthday, which is on Friday, 3 February. Stuart Hall led with the drive and impetus such projects require to establish the Library at Rivington Place, culminating with the collection moving into the building along with Iniva and Autograph ABP in 2007. To mark the occasion, Library staff have been gathering as many of Stuart Hall's publications as possible in order to compile a bibliography of work both written and inspired by his contribution towards political and cultural theory, and the arts. The bibliography will be available on the Iniva website by 3 February.

More info about Stuart Hall and Rivington Place in The Guardian interview, 2007:
http://bit.ly/nzDxsJ

To prepare for Saturday's open afternoon, we are gathering material from our archive, printed, periodical, zines and artists' book collections to go on display. After short talks by Library staff and the Curator of our new Library exhibition, visitors will be free to explore the Library and take a closer look at the items. We will be available to answer any questions, and if you wish to join the Library you will be able to do so on the day.

Whether you are a researcher, have a casual interest or are just passing, we hope you'll pop in and say hello, find out what the Library has to offer and enjoy the relaxed, beautiful space.

Hope to see you on Saturday!

More info about the day and how to book can be found at:

http://bit.ly/xvFhaL

More info about National Libraries Day can be found at:
http://www.nationallibrariesday.org.uk/

Calling all Stuart Hall Library users

Are you a lecturer, researcher or curator?

A student?

An artist, library workspace user, or regular browser?

Stuart Hall Library is exploring how it might adapt its service so it can respond to changes in the cultural and financial climate. We are keen to hear about how you use and value the Stuart Hall Library, as well as your views on ways in which we can continue to deliver the service in the future.

We would like to invite you to take part in an informal focus group.

The group meetings will take place in the second and third week of February, and you will receive £20 as an acknowledgment of your contribution.

For more information contact library@iniva.org

Stuart Hall Library Reading Group discussion post 8 December 2011

Thanks to everyone who attended this month's reading group. A recording of the discussion will soon be available via the library website. You can also listen to recordings of our previous reading group sessions.

We discussed Raqs Media Collective's ‘X notes on practice: stubborn structures and insistent seepage in a networked world’, from Seepage (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2010) pp.101-116.

‘The Raqs Media Collective was founded in 1992 by Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta. Raqs Media Collective make contemporary art, have made films, curated exhibitions, edited books, staged events, collaborated with architects, computer programmers, writers and theatre directors. The Collective are based in Delhi, New India. Raqs remains closely involved with the Sarai program at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies www.sarai.net, an initiative they co-founded in 2000’.

http://www.raqsmediacollective.net/

This text was chosen not because it presents new or original ideas, but because it offers a reminder to be aware of our own work and practices, of the ‘connectedness’ of the worlds we inhabit. It also favours agency and action – the current occupy movement is a good example of what the Collective are discussing.

In the text, the The Collective identifies and describes ‘five marginal figures’ to inform and inspire their practice:
‘The Alien navigates a boat at sea’
‘The squatter builds a tarpaulin shelter’
‘The electronic pirate burns a CD’
‘The Hacker network liberates software’
‘Workers protect machines in an occupied factory’

They summise, p.109 ‘She [the cultural worker] would need to take a lesson in breaking borders…from the migrant, in standing her ground and staying located from the squatter, in placing herself as a link in an agile network of production…from the pirate, in sharing knowledge and enlarging a commons of ideas from the hacker, and in continuing to be autonomously productive from the workers occupying the factory’.

It could be argued that this is a ‘manifesto of idealism’, full of possibilities, and its positivity is inspiring. However, in what ways can these acts translate into everyday actions by the artist or cultural worker operating within an institution/organisation? How feasible is it to expect or gain autonomy in such an environment?

Do the figures provide an alternative way of thinking about globalisation, as the Collective suggest?

The group was unanimous in its enjoyment of the text. The concepts articulated were open enough to be applied not just to artists. Its imaginative yet clear prose style was appreciated. The discussion turned quite quickly to everyday experience of 'connectedness' and the way in which it effects/affects our lives.

The whole text of Seepage is available online at:

http://bit.ly/sRc1Dg

This will be our last meeting until the Spring/Summer. During the break we welcome feedback about the group. Please contact us at library@iniva.org.

Happy holidays!

Stuart Hall Library Reading Group Discussion Post, 10 November 2011

Thanks to everyone who attended this month's reading group. A recording of the discussion will soon be available via the library website. You can also listen to recordings of our previous reading group sessions.

We discussed Les Back’s ‘Listening with the eye’ from The art of listening. (Oxford; New York: Berg Press, 2007) pp.97-115.

The text was chosen because it presents an alternative view of understanding photography, and provides a good example of the way in which different disciplines approach a particular practice.
More information on Les Back here:
http://www.gold.ac.uk/sociology/staff/back/

The discussion was probably the most impassioned we’ve had so far at the reading group; members felt that there were real critical and ethical issues at stake in the sociologist’s approach to photography. Back considers the possibilities for dialogue between the researcher and the ‘subject’, arguing that images can, ‘contain voices that present yet inaudible. We have to listen for them with our eyes’. (Back, 2007: 100)

One theory was that the About the Streets project, which took place in Brick Lane, London in 2002 and was being described in the chapter, was more about exploring the ethics of sociological enquiry than engaging critically with photography as an art form. Others enjoyed the open, human-centred approach to the narratives of the people who posed for the photographs. Some took issue with what they saw as the ‘naivety’ of the writing, and the perceived lack of critical analysis in the text. What became clear was that the standpoint of each individual evoked a particular, strong response to the text, which lead to an intense and exciting discussion.

Next meeting: Thursday 8 December, 6.30-8.00: Raqs Media Collective. ‘X notes on practice: stubborn structures and insistent seepage in a networked world’ in Seepage. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2010. pp.101-116.
You are welcome to visit the Library to make a photocopy of the text. If you are having any problems obtaining a copy, please contact us and we will make this available to you. Email the library for further information or to book your place:

library@iniva.org

Stuart Hall Library Reading Group Discussion Post, 13 October 2011

Thanks to everyone who attended this month's reading group, our first this Autumn. A recording of the discussion will soon be available via the library website. You can also listen to recordings of our previous reading group sessions.

We discussed 'Melancholic Migrants', a chapter from Sara Ahmed's The Promise of Happiness (Durham; London: Duke University Press, 2010) pp.121-159.

This text was chosen because it provides an interesting perspective on the individual migrant, concepts of multiculturalism, and ideas of happiness relating to affect studies. In the introduction Ahmed describes ‘the happiness turn’ (p.3) in which there has been an increase in research into happiness and ‘well being’ in the past decade, particularly in the disciplines of social policy and psychology. It has influenced David Cameron’s political discourse, and the Conservative party pledged to conduct a survey to measure the nation’s happiness [Stratton, Guardian.co.uk, 14 November, 2010, accessed 12.10.2011]. Also, its themes are closely linked with Iniva’s current exhibition, Entanglement: the Ambivalence of Identity.

More about Iniva's exhibition here: http://www.iniva.org/exhibitions_projects/2011/entanglement

The discussion illustrated the way in which theories of identity touch individual lives, and therefore became general. Group members were able to give examples of 'migratory experience', either their own, or that of their parents, or as travellers to other locations (temporary migrants!).

Some points for discussion:

- Is there any truth in the Trevor Phillips quote at the beginning of the chapter p.121 that, ‘Multicultural communities tend to be less trusting and less happy...’?

- How valid do you think Ahmed’s overriding argument is – that the 1st generation migrant suffers loss (of the old way of life) but that the obligation is to integrate?

- Ahmed’s conception of the migrant seems to be of a particular type. Do you think that differences in migratory experiences are sufficiently taken into account in her argument?

- What do you think of the readings of films and books chosen to illustrate Ahmed’s argument? Do you think it matters whether the reader has seen them in terms of making sense of the argument?

Next meeting: Thursday 10 November, 6.30-8.00: Les Back. ‘Listening with the eye’ in The art of listening. (Oxford; New York: Berg Press, 2007) pp.97-115.

A copy of the text is available in the Stuart Hall Library. If you are having any problems obtaining a copy, please contact us and we will make this available to you. Email the library for further information or to book your place: library@iniva.org

Stuart Hall Library Reading Group Discussion Post, 9 June 2011

Thanks to everyone who attended June's reading group, our last before the summer break. A recording of the discussion will soon be available via the library website. You can also listen to recordings of all our previous reading group sessions.

The reading for June was Frances Dyson's 'Atmospheres', in Sounding New Media: Immersion and Embodiment in the Arts and Culture (2009). We chose this text as part of our developing interest and broadening our knowledge of new media. The text's focus is on the work of Catherine Richards. You can find out more about her work here:
www.catherinerichards.ca/

These were some of our points for discussion:

- Can human beings meaningfully interact with technology? (ie. with the machines themselves?)

- Is ‘digital space’...equivalent to physical space, and digital presence...equivalent to actual presence’? p.161 [discussion of code]

- Arguably, the work is characterised by representation (theory) and metaphor, rather than (lived) experience. Also, can Richards fully determine how the work is experienced by the viewer or, as with other types of authorship, can there only be intention?

- P.158 ‘In the discussions of posthumanism...two rhetorical threads stand out: the first focuses on the transcendent private space of virtual or immersive environments, the second expands this space of “being-in” to theorize artificial life and “digital being” in general’.

- P. 159 The posthuman makes more sense ‘as a field of relations’ rather than a state of being.

- Dyson discusses the paralells and differences between writing and code: ‘although the computational worldview is similar to grammatology in not presuming the transcendental signified...it also does not tolerate the slippage Derrida sees as intrinsic to grammatology. Nor does code allow the infinite iterability and citation that Derrida associates with inscriptions.’.

- P.162 Dyson describes the artist Catherine Richards as channelling ‘ideas about embodiment, the senses, and notions of the self through her own “philosophical”, or rather “aesthetic machines”.

- P.171 ‘Neurotheologians’/spiritual neuroscience: “the study of correlations of neural phenomena with subjective experiences of spirituality... “ [Wikipedia definition] – Could Richards’ work evoke feelings of spirituality in the viewer?

- P.171 in her discussion of Richards’ work I was scared to death/I could have died of joy, Dyson considers the idea of s(t)imulating human emotions: ‘The glowing, pulsing brains seem to be alive [...]they appear to be communicating, bringing to mind countless scenarios of consciousness disembodied, or, more recently, downloaded. – Does ‘responding’ to stimulus, as this artwork promises correspond with (human) feeling?

- P.175 ‘Not only have machines failed to deliver, but the future is always “not-me-now” and “not-me-here”, and this very negative constellation is shadowed by the cumulative history of our experience with machines that aare always in the process of becoming obsolete’. – Arguably, the relationship of humans to machines can only ever be disappointing; the promise of ‘a better future’ is unlikely to be fulfilled.

- P.178 However, the replacement of posthuman ‘immersion’ with ‘resonance’ describes the responsiveness/changes to the human inidvidual in relating to and interacting with technology: p.179 ‘In short, the posthuman subject is not so much disembodied by technology [...] as simultaneously etherealized and “retuned”.’

- P.181 As Richards comments: “If you are immersed in a signal, you start to resonate...to the system. So for me the question is: ‘Who has the power of the pulse – whose pulse is everybody syncing to?’

This meeting was our last until we come together again after the summer break, in October. Check the reading group web page or email library@iniva.org for details.

Have a great summer!

Stuart Hall Library reading group discussion post, Thursday 12 May

Thanks to everyone that attended this month's reading group discussion. For those unable to attend a recording of the discussion will soon be available via the library website. You can also listen to recordings of all our previous reading group discussions and download a copy of suggested texts for future meetings.

The reading for May was Siobhan Shilton's ‘Transcultural encounters in contemporary art: gender, genre and history’ in Michelle Keown, David Murphy and James Procter (eds.) Comparing postcolonial diasporas. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. pp.56-80.

We chose this text as part of our ongoing interest in visual arts in relation to the politics and repercussions of colonialism and neo-colonialism. Also, we were aware that few of the texts we have read and discussed in our meetings so far have addressed gender issues. We are also interested in the way that researchers study and approach people and issues relating to cultures other than our own, especially in the context of the use of language and theory.

Key points for discussion:
- Is there a difference between ‘transculturation’ and 'apropriation'?

- P.56 ‘Chapter is concerned with gender and diaspora space’.

- P.57 Shilton defines ‘transcultural’ in the context of art as that which ‘renegotiates the realtionship between cultures in ways that avoid attempts either to unify or hierarchize them...’

-‘Transculturation’ can be seen as a reciprochal, selective process of cultural adaptation/adoption/absorption (concept derived from Mary Louise Pratt)

- P.58 ‘Veiling’: Both artists address this issue, which Shilton calls ‘an overdetermined sign...’ Arguably, what is significant about the veil is: a) how it has become an political issue, and,
b) The majority of voices that are heard expressing opinions and judgements about it in ‘the west’ are men, and is this part of (from a feminist viewpoint) a continuing assumption that they assume ‘ownership’ over women’s bodies?

- P.65 Shilton uses the phrase ‘radical otherness’ to describe Khattari’s work. ‘Other’ in relation to who? Khattari is not ‘other’ to herself and so the question arises as to why those designated as ‘non-Western’ must constantly define themselves in relation to the way others see them?

- P.65 Shilton refers to Khattari’s use of the performance tradition by feminists of the 1960s; she comments: ‘[...] when the traditional space of the gallery...were male-dominated’. - Are galleries are still male-dominated today? - Shilton’s theorising is from the standpoint of an ‘objective viewer’ when in fact she is implicated in the ‘othering’ of the artists she is discussing.

- P.69 Shilton asserts that Satrapi uses the ‘bande dessinee’ graphic novel form, and adheres to many of its traditions; Satrapi also ‘shares its structure, and certain tropes with many Francophone narratives of immigration, exile and ‘return’.

- Shilton concludes that Khattari’s work and Satrapi’s text focus on ‘distinctively visual processes of transculturation’.

Next meeting 8, 9 June at 6.30-8.00: Frances Dyson. ‘Atmospheres’ in Sounding new media: immersion and embodiment in the arts and culture. Berkley, CA: University of California, 2009. pp.158-181.
A copy of the text is available in the Stuart Hall Library. If you are having any problems obtaining a copy of the book then please contact us and we will make this available to you. Email the library for further information or to book your place:

library@iniva.org

Zines

It seems to be a very zine-tastic time at the moment in the library. Last week Sonia attended the It's Your Write event at the Museum of Childhood organised by The Papered Parlour . Sonia presented a talk along with The Women's Library, to discuss our respective zine collections. It was a fantastic event with extremely positive feedback and it was a great chance to promote our zine collection to fellow zinesters and the uninitiated. Please do check The Papered Parlour website for further information as recordings and documents of the evening will be uploaded shorttly. And continuing our current zine frenzy, we are getting excited about the 2011 London Zine Symposium taking place this Sunday. The event takes place Sunday 17th April 12-6pm at The Rag Factory, Heneage Street, London, E1 5LJ. The full programme of events including workshops, stalls, and the radical history of Brick Lane is now available on their website. With over 60 zine and comix distros on the day we are looking forward to buying lots of new zines for our library collection. We hope to see some of you there!

We gonna pop a cap(ital) in your (cl)ass: Karl Marx’s Capital volume III

Stuart Hall Library reading group discussion post

Thursday 14th April

Malik, Suhail. 'We gonna pop a cap(ital) in your (cl)ass: Karl Marx's Capital volume III' in Nav Haq and Tirdad Zolghadr (eds.) Lapdogs of the bourgeoisie: class hegemony in contemporary art. Sternberg Press, 2007. pp.53-68

Thanks to everyone that attended this month's reading group discussion. For those unable to attend the audio recording of the discussion is now available to download via the library website here. You can also listen to all previous audio recordings and download a copy of our reading list from the website.

If you are interested in attending future reading group discussions then please contact library@iniva.org

We welcome all attendees to the discussions, and the Stuart Hall Library reading group is open to everyone, whether you are in formal education, academia, artistic practice or have a general interest.

Please note that as of next month we will be changing the time of our reading group meeting. The sessions will now run from 6:30pm-8pm starting Thursday 12th May.

Key questions and points for discussion:

• Is there a class struggle between artists, owners, and institutions? Malik argues that '[...]the politics of class struggle in art will be to...recover the primacy of the artist as producer[...]'

• p.59 According to Malik, 'the real action is now happening between dealers and gallerists- and the producers of the commodities who are becoming less and less important agents.' Do you think this is true?

• p.66 'You can see why conceptual art is a great benefit because you just get rid of the commodity thing and start circulating freely.' Does conceptual art disrupt the idea of art as commodity? What is the 'use-value' of art?

• Malik claims that the 'inflation of the art market will change the arts.' Do you think this statement is true?

• p.68 Malik concludes ' I just don't see the bourgeois or for that matter the proletariat as the relevant figure for understanding capital today.' Do you agree, as the audience member asks, that the relation between one class oppressing another no longer exists?

Next Meeting

Our next meeting will take place Thursday 12th May 6.30-8pm in the Stuart Hall Library. We will be discussing Shilton, Siobhan. 'Transcultural encounters in contemporary art: gender, genre and history' in Michelle Keown, David Murphy and James Procter (eds.) Comparing postcolonial diasporas. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. pp.56-80

A copy of the text is available in the Stuart Hall Library. If you are having any problems obtaining a copy of the book then please contact us and we will make this available to you.

Email the library for further information or to book your place: library@iniva.org