Tara Joshi’s POTTED HISTORY OF THE 1990S BRITISH (SOUTH) ASIAN UNDERGROUND This is from Mix Mag. Fantastic to see. Except for the annoying subscribe pop ups, the content and layout of this is all that was great about the 1990s UK music scene (no not that Britpop gak) – https://mixmag.net/feature/south-asian-underground-1990s-history-series-ritu-nitin-sawhney-sweety-kapoor “A POTTED HISTORY OF THE […]
Because of the money-suck, the corporate sponsorship (riotinto making the medals in London), the fake moralism about drugs, the ‘security’ policing, the clearing of the inner city of undesirables, the hypocrisy, this is an old ‘fax art’ poster from my archives, circa 1990. We made many of these on the politics department photocopier.
This is well worth a look (not only for the conference ad it has): https://bandungspirit.org/
Grey rainy day walk with the kids in the Arboretum of Nottingham, the city’s first park set out mid 19th Century. The park contains a monument to the thefts of the British in China and Russia. A stylised pagoda contains a replica bell (the original is stashed in a regimental hq in Preston) that was […]
Some notes from 2012… Gunnersbury Bagh. (Kill your darlings 10) 26/04/2017 ~ JOHN HUTNYK ~ [A set of cuts that jettison the last underworked section of the book – residue of a previous plan, now offcuts in the sawdust.] Ethnography as a hobby or habit. The day off. With comrades, significantly not anthropologists, I visited the 2012 London Mela with this […]
Another set of items for the exotica files (link below), is a set of documents held in the national Archives of Japan and I think very useful for the next time we get to visit Hoi An (soon I hope): The image below is Sataro Araki’s junk. He was a successful trader from Nagasaki who […]
Pretty happy to see this taken seriously. Its like I was waiting for someone to reach for the falling penny. When it happens, its come with a whole new angle, or several, but most importantly Robyn Marasco finds new ways to displace the trivialisers and poseurs. The reading via Jose Esteban Munoz has a lot […]
This is an actual event – by which I mean an important discussion that makes important moves, negotiates languages and ambiguities of the decolonial/postcolonial/colonial. There is good material here that moves us past the documentary and first steps of critical orientalism – to recall a longer complex anti-colonial history through to … well, travel with […]
Die Komödie des Despotismus, die mit uns aufgeführt wird … Der Staat ist ein zu ernstes Ding, um zu einer Harlekinade gemacht zu werden. Man könnte vielleicht ein Schiff voll Narren eine gute Weile vor dem Winde treiben lassen; aber seinem Schicksal trieb’ es entgegen eben darum, weil die Narren dies nicht glaubten. Dieses Schicksal […]
https://norient.com/video/shopping-is-civil-war https://norient.com/video/shopping-is-civil-war
Ah finally… a subversion of the bargain mentality, which is of course, a myth, and precisely the culture that has caused consumption to be the only means to economic recovery (apparently).. well.. short of a cultural revolution anyway…
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a cultural revolution is not a start, its the continuation… but es, this is pretty special, slightly mad, and smarter than your average prank. Maybe kate Moss can do the modelling?
Ahh, the alarms have just been set off in CCS – all out! No work.
Might go to the cafe and plot out plas for a chain strore called Trinketization. Much to learn from the 100 pound shop, but I do believe they need to attach a reading list.
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Hi John and Alison.
Armstrong and Miller on TV the other night (I paraphrase): “Excuse me madam, I notice you’re interested in buying expensive organic produce with idiosncratic imperfections – but I know of a farmers’ market a few streets away where you can buy the same apples for three times the price!”
The logical consequence of bargain-buying’s contribution to global capitalism: £100 “bargain”-buying’s contribution to local regeneration.
Now I have a second purpose aside from being a my first (“the purpose of a customer is to buy from retail businesses”): I’ll pop into the Waitrose in Islington for lunch.
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In a similar vain… there’s an episode of The Simpsons where in the title sequence Marge goes into a $ Mart and sees her dress for a third of the price she bought it for… so she buys three…
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yes, Mo, there is a great comic tradition that should be referenced here Pythons: ‘Went shopping, bought a piston engine’ ‘Why?’ ‘It was a bargain’. The piston of course must have been going cheap in the wholesale sell off of the countries’ industrial base, in favour of the comically named service economy and other affective scams. I think the 100 pounders are onto something here, Stephen Fry should do the knock-off ethnography of it (to match his mock cod-autobiography).
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Having just been back to Dalston in May after a couple of years away, I think this is a great commentary on the regeneration process going on there. Add a few brightly painted, cheaply constructed condo units and the neighbourhood is “transformed.” Same Dalston, twice the price.
It’s also a nice send up of the “value added” promises of the creative economy. The thing is, with a little care and devotion, those pound store items really do look pretty fantastic. I’m saving up for the Victorian Lady Bust.
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Vaguely on this topic – my current favourite pound-store product – which could have been a 100-pound-store product were it not for the fairly obvious fundamental flaw – laser-guided scissors!
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/laser-guided-scissors-1-poundworld/797522
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yep, I want some of those. I can see other potential applications too. Laser-guided back scratcher, lazer-guided slingshot, laser-guided champagne glass… laser guided budget cuts..
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