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thinking in colour / 2008

Art & Design

Art, Community
and Environment

Music & Performance Media & Culture Plus

New Musical An Editor’s Q&A’s, Book
Reviews &
Theatre Journey more...
 iq
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for us on the blog too. 06 An Editor’s Journey Masoud Yazdani
Associate Publisher
May Yao

Challenges and rewards of editing a journal Editor

Melanie Harrison
Designer
Holly Rose

09 Art, Community & Environment Intellect Ltd.

The Mill, Parnall Rd,
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22 Image Critique
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Q&A » 04 Ravi Butalia | 27 BFI Filmstore | Reviews » 28-31 Book Reviews | needed in cooperation with us.
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www.intellectbooks.com IQ 2008 | 3
Q&A
iQuote » “Books open your mind, broaden your mind, and strengthen you as nothing else can.” – William Feather
intellect People Focus
Ravi Butalia
Q & A with Intellect’s Journals Manager
What kind of journals does
Intellect publish?
On the face of it, we publish
academic journals in the arts and
humanities. But it is more than
that. I like to think our journals
are about creating and sharing
the gift of knowledge. They
are about knowledge transfer
and economy, publications
that contribute towards the
development of humanity and the
progress of civilization. As we
grow and mature as a company,
we realize that the privilege of
publishing cutting-edge academic
research goes hand in hand with
deep-rooted social responsibility.
For instance, scholars in 54
developing countries have free
online access to all our journals.
We are also committed to green
publishing – all our journals and
books are printed on FSC (Forest
Stewardship Council) paper.
4 | Thinking in Colour
How is Intellect similar/
different to other publishers?
Intellect is similar to other
publishers in that we cater to the
academic market. Apart from that
we are completely different in our
philosophy. Intellect is a drop in
the ocean compared to most other
journal publishers. Small boats
can manoeuvre faster in the water
and are more agile than ships. We
embrace change readily and are
not afraid of taking risks. There
is an Andrew Heiskell (American
publisher and philanthropist)
quote which pretty much sums
up what we do. He says, “A
publication depends on a great
idea, not there being a market out
there. You start with an idea rather
than trying to get an idea which
goes with that market.” Most
publishers begin with the market
in mind, circulation figures etc.
The pith of the matter is the idea
and how we can make it flourish,
not the money. It is an organic
process. If the principle is in place,
the details will automatically fall
into place. That is not to say that
we don’t care about the market;
we do, but not at any price! After
all, what good is a journal if it does
not have an audience? There are
many other differences but the one
major distinction is the high level
of service we provide. We listen
carefully to editors’ dreams, wishes
and expectations, even if we
cannot fulfil them all, enabling us
to tailor our service to their needs
gradually. I’ve often been told that
we are more laid back, friendly,
accessible, and welcoming than
most other publishers.
How do you manage to publish
so many new journals when
other publishers are shying
away from new launches?
It is understandable that other
publishers are not launching
new journals. Much of this
has to do with the state of the
economy. However, recessions
come and go, economies rise
and fall, almost like the seasons.
There has to be an overarching
element that transcends economic
barriers if journal publishing is
As we grow and mature as a company,
we are realizing that the privilege of
publishing cutting-edge academic
research goes hand in hand with deep-
rooted social responsibility.
to be successful. There has to be
something that is more enduring
than the exchange rate. That
is where the philosophy of the
company and its business plan
comes in. The Berlin Wall type
of business plan, which remains
fixed, eventually succumbs to
fluctuations in the economy
whereas supple models that
change and adapt fast to life and
circumstances have a greater
chance of enduring and being
successful. I might add that even
this model cannot last long unless
it adheres to deeply embedded
principles. As long as there are
scholars and there is a need for
intellectual stimulation, there
will be a need for journals and
publishers. So, the reason why we
launch more and more journals is
simply because of the strength and
flexibility of our business model. It
also has a lot to do with the great
intellectual yearning out there,
hunger almost, for ideas to take
root and be nourished.
What makes a successful
journal proposal?
Synergy, simply put! It is the
kind of chemistry that can
be established between the
prospective editor and Intellect.
The originality of the idea behind
the journal proposal is, no doubt,
very important. However, it does
not automatically guarantee
a successful journal. It is only
the starting point. Thereafter, a
symbiotic working relationship
needs to be established, one that
can resonate in the world at large.
When an editor shares an idea
Ravi Butalia
iQuote » “Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.”– Plato
with us it is like planting a seed in
the soil. There is a lot of nurturing
involved on both sides. Essentially,
a successful proposal needs to
answer the questions: what, why,
who, when, where and how.
Once these six questions can be
answered satisfactorily, we invest
value by aligning the proposal to
our infrastructure. A successful
journal proposal thus becomes so
much more than just an idea - it
almost becomes a living organism
that has a life, movement, direction
and destiny of its own.
Tell us more about the process
involved in starting a new
journal?
When a new proposal is received,
my journal colleagues and I study
it individually. We make notes,
stating what we like, what we don’t,
what the possibilities are and so on.
Next, we get together and decide
quite rapidly whether a journal is
worth going ahead with or not. If
we see possibilities, we get back to
the prospective editor and raise lots
of questions, some of which can be
very challenging. It usually takes
2 to 5 drafts before we approve a
proposal.
Some journals develop swiftly,
sometimes in a matter of weeks.
Other journals may take months,
even years to come about. In
essence, there are two factors to
consider. The first has to do with
the subject area, how new or old
it is. An emerging discipline may
take considerably longer to develop
whereas an established one is
fairly straightforward to deal with.
The other factor has to do with
aligning the aims and scope of the
journal with practical reality. The
two must match; otherwise it is
like trying to sow a healthy seed
in the desert. Some prospective
editors are shocked as to how many
practical and financial factors need
to be carefully considered before a
proposal is approved.
Once a proposal is formalized,
we invite the editor/s to meet with
us before the contract is signed.
Such meetings, as far as we are
concerned, are the cornerstone of
the journals process. This is where
the journal really gets established.
It is all about relationship building.
Once established, what makes
a successful journal?
Rather than talk about the
obvious factors such as subject
matter and marketing, I’d like
to focus on the human side of
what makes a journal successful.
A brilliant academic does not
necessarily mean that the person
has the makings of a successful
journal editor. Communication,
coordination, planning and
organization make all the
difference. We regard teamwork
to be one of the most essential
skills for an editor. One cannot
have a successful journal without
inspired teamwork - it is just not
possible! A successful journal can
only be as successful as the team
that manages it. A good editor is,
in fact, a good leader, one who not
only has academic vision but also
the skills, abilities and attributes
to encourage and inspire the
wider community that benefits
from a journal. Starting from the
editorial team, then the boards,
subscribers and the wider academic
community, a truly successful
editor can enthuse and harness the
potential of this group, maybe even
change its direction. As Mother
Theresa stated, “You can do what
I cannot do. I can do what you
cannot do. Together we can do
great things.”
What are the most challenging/
rewarding aspect of your role
and of journals publishing?
As the company grows and
produces more journals, it is
challenging maintaining a rhythm,
consistency and a schedule for 150
odd journal issues a year. On the
other hand, it is wonderful meeting
with prospective editors, listening
to their ideas and nurturing a new
journal to fruition. No matter how
many times you do it, each meeting
with a new editor is a fulfilling
experience. Instead of just being
formal colleagues who email
occasionally, we become good
friends.
What are the challenges facing
journal editors in the future?
Perhaps one of the most pressing
challenges for Intellect editors is
the need to start thinking of ways
to take their respective journals
to the next level, which is on the
Internet. We are working hard to
introduce a content management
system whereby all submissions
and editorial management will
be done online. This will happen
soon, most probably by 1st January
2009, at the same time as our Web
2.0 site. The introduction of new
tools and methods of working
reflects the heightened need to
change with the times. In fact, we
don’t see how a journal can keep
progressing purely on the basis of
the model we have managed thus
far. A new vision is needed and for
that a new framework is essential.
That is why I am making a point of
meeting with all Intellect editors
over the next few months to share
lots of exciting developments from
the business plan that we have
just concluded for the coming
academic year. {
Proposing a
new journal
“There is nothing more
powerful than an idea
whose time has come.”
– Victor Hugo
Intellect is seeking editors to
start new journals. We commis-
sion journals that strengthen
our existing portfolio in the
arts and humanities. We look
for editors with exceptional
leadership qualities. The most
successful editors are those
who encourage and inspire
their community to submit
articles, conduct peer review
and help in the day-to-day
development of the journal.
Committed, passionate editors
who dedicate time and thought
produce the best journals.
We offer editors a full training
in journal publishing. This
includes guidelines for the
set-up, launch and mainte-
nance of the publication. In
addition to a journal’s network-
ing possibilities, we emphasise
the need for teamwork be-
tween Intellect and our editors.
Publishing a journal is an act of
collaboration, negotiation and
discussion. We encourage
editors to take an interest in
the entire process, including
production, marketing, sales
and distribution.
Launching successful journals
is an exciting challenge. The
long-term sustainability of your
ideas must be planned carefully
in order to make an exceptional
contribution to academia.
Please visit this link:
www.intellectbooks.co.uk/
publishwithus.php
to download a journal editor
questionnaire.
IQ 2008 | 5
Film Studies
iQuote » “Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great.” – Mark Twain
intellect Journal Focus
Ian Henderson
An Editor’s Journey
Ian Henderson, editor of Studies in Australasian Cinema,
considers the challenges and rewards of establishing a journal
When Intellect first
approached me to become
an editor of a new journal
focused on Australian film I
was really startled. Firstly to
discover a publisher taking
this kind of initiative with
regard to an Australian topic:
even in Australia publishers
can take some persuading on
this front. So we got off to an
excellent start; the intellectual
value of such a venture already
understood. I then began
to feel daunted by the task
ahead. I was certain there was
6 | Thinking in Colour
a market for such a journal,
as Australian film has become
increasingly prominent in recent
years, with the establishment
of international studios in the
country and the exchange of
workforce between Hollywood
and Australia. But more to
the point, films by and about
Australia’s Indigenous peoples
had really begun to challenge
traditional forms of Western
cinematic storytelling. I felt
there was an important role for
the journal in bringing critical
approaches to these films to
an international audience.
I decided that the journal
should also be a forum for
discussions of New Zealand
films and films from or about
the Pacific. There is something
arbitrary about bracketing
together Australian and
other films from the region,
something that can irritate some
people, and understandably
so. While these countries share
histories of British colonialism,
their cultures are quite distinct,
not least because of the extreme
diversity of Indigenous cultures
and histories in the region, and
the different ways in which film
industries have developed there.
Still, while turning the proposed
journal into Studies in Australasian
Cinema, I hoped we could stress
this diversity. I also wanted to
invite critical discussion about
anthropology and film, and the
representation in feature films
of the peoples and spaces of
Australia, New Zealand and the
Pacific, often directed, written
and even starring people who
were not from there. Studies in
Australasian Cinema would also
Film Studies
iQuote » “The only thing that will stop you from fulfilling your dreams is you.”–Tom Bradley
embrace the reception of non-
Australasian films in the region.
My initial ideas, then, settled
into three aims for the journal
in its first couple of years, a kind
of ‘start-up’ motor: SAC would
stress the diversity of Indigenous
cultures across a broad region
and their impact on cinema;
invite debate about reception
as well as film production
in the region; and critically
embrace representations of the
region from those who do not
live there. These goals helped
decide the kinds of expertise I
needed from an editorial board.
Academic research can
sometimes feel overly insular;
being an editor of a journal
demanded that I come out of my
intellectual shell in ways other
than I do when teaching, and
that has been both challenging
and rewarding. I had a ‘thing’
about asking other people to
do things for me, partly from
outrageous control-freakery
(editing forces you out of that),
partly from sensitivity to how
many tasks other academics
already have on their plate.
However I was amazed how
enthusiastic people I approached
to be on the editorial board
became about the journal. I
soon learned not to hesitate
to approach even the most
prominent scholars in the
field. Even so I think from the
beginning I underestimated
how much of a team-effort a
journal is: that’s its strength,
but also something that takes
considerable time and energy to
manage and make the most of.
Having a team, and recognizing
it as such—the editorial
board, contributors, referees,
guest editors, colleagues and
administrators within my
institution, and the production
team at Intellect—certainly
becomes any journal’s (and
the editor’s) greatest resource:
allowing proper input lightens
my load in the end, as well as
opening the journal to a broad
range of new ideas. I suspect I
won’t ever stop learning new
and better ways to enable the
SAC team; that might well be an
editor’s fundamental function
and reward. And I have also
learned not to limit what the
journal can publish and achieve
to the ‘traditional’ look or
role of an academic series.
The ‘editing’ proper of the
journal is also more intellectually
rewarding than I expected.
There is immense satisfaction
in working closely to shape
words and let ideas come to the
Above. Sam Woolagoodja. Photo courtesy of Michael Edols, ACS.
fore: my respect for the complex
art of writing has deepened.
Again, this is a team effort, with
dialogue between contributors,
referees, myself and copyeditors
at Intellect. I do put more time
than I originally expected into
trying to get the best out of other
people’s writing, for the readers
of SAC but also to enable writers
to extract their sharpest ideas.
The effort has certainly proved
worthwhile, not least for the
insights it affords into my own
writing, a torturous process of
redrafting if ever there was one.
Everything considered, the main
challenges of being an editor
are outwardly-directed team
building and inwardly-directed
intense work with (other
people’s) texts: both tasks were
somewhat new to me when I
began at Studies in Australasian
Cinema and both remain rich
sites for further learning. {
© Michael Edols, ACS.
Further Reading
Studies in
Australasian Cinema
Edited by Ian
Henderson
Subscription: 3 Issues
£33 personal / £210
Institutional
ISSN: 1750-3175
Australian, New Zealand and
Pacific regions are home to
many indigenous nations and
immigrant cultures from all
around the world, producing a
rich cinematic arena. Stud-
ies in Australasian Cinema is
a journal devoted to refereed
scholarly discussion of cinema
from these diverse regions.
The journal emphasizes this
variety with a special inter-
est in postcolonial politics and
contexts. Articles pay equal
heed to independent or ‘local’
films as they do to discussions
of global commercial films
produced or screened in the
region. Independent cinema’s
challenge to mainstream
views run alongside recogni-
tion of the complexity and
cultural potency of commercial
popular film in Australasia.
IQ 2008 | 7
 intellect publishers of original thinking
Media & Culture
Film Studies iQuote » “Man is a child of his environment.” – Shinichi Suzuki

Books & journals intellect Book Focus

Alternative Worlds in Journal of Chinese Cinemas

Art,
War!Community
What is it good andfor? Environment:
Hollywood Cinema
By James Walters
£14.95 / ISBN 9781841502021
Editor: Hong Hwee Lim
ISSN 17508061
3 issues per year
Educational Perspectives
Q & A with Nikki Cooper, Martin Hurcombe and Debra Kelly
224pp/July 2008
Glen Coutts and Timo Jokela
Queer Cinema Studies in Australasian Cinema Picture a warm, sunny after- that we share many interests, but Strathclyde, Glasgow. The Univer- for an edited book first emerged.
in Europe Editor: Ian Henderson noon in a café in Poznan, Poland. the most striking being a passion sity of Lapland has an international We were convinced that the action
ISSN 17503175 It was June 2000; two academics for environmental and community reputation for environmental and research and the arts projects being
Edited by Robin Griffiths
3 issues per year met for the first time to share a cof- art, education and the promotion community art and the University carried out deserved a wider audi-
£19.95 / ISBN 9781841500799
fee and discuss the art education of active participation in the arts. of Strathclyde offers the unique ence. We also knew of many other
160pp / May 2008
conference they were attending. The result was a lasting friendship four-year undergraduate degree in artists, writers and academics
This meeting would eventually lead and strong collaborations between community arts. with something worthwhile to say.
to the book Art, Community and Envi- our respective universities. Timo Shortly after the conference As we worked together with our
ronment: Educational Perspectives. The Jokela works in the Art Educa- in Poland we signed an exchange students and community partners,
conference was organized by the tion department, in the Faculty of agreement. To date, many students we considered the processes and
University of Warsaw through the Art and Design at the University and staff have benefited from strategies used. What is unique

Art & Design

International Society for Education of Lapland in Finland and Glen learning and teaching, for a short about this work? How do we know
through Art (InSEA). Coutts works in the Department of time in the other institution when arts interventions, especially
In the course of that chance Sport, Culture and the Arts, Faculty and country. It was during these temporary ones, are effective? How
meeting over coffee we discovered of education at the University of periods of exchange that the idea should they be recorded and dis   

Books and Journals

Writing on Drawing: Essays on Art, Design and Communication
Drawing Practice and Research in Higher Education
Edited by Steve Garner Editors: Linda Drew &
Laura Lanceley
£24.95 / ISBN 9781841502007
224pp/October 2008 2008 ISSN 1474273X
3 issues per year

Art, Community and Environment:

Journal of Visual Arts Practice
Educational Perspectives
Editor: Chris Smith
Edited by Glen Coutts & Timo Jokela
ISSN 14702029
£24.95 / ISBN 9781841501895 3 issues per year
224pp/September 2008

Above Pallas- Fathers’ sign. Timo Jokela. 2005.

Photograph by Timo Jokela.
intellect publishers of original thinking
The Mill, Parnall Road, Bristol BS16 3JG 0117 9589910 www.intellectbooks.com IQ 2008 | 9
Art & Design
iQuote » “The earth laughs in flowers.” – E. E. Cummings
 
seminated? Such questions
were the focus of many of our
discussions and we needed to find
a way of sharing the variety of per-
spectives we knew to exist on this
area of arts and education practice.
An unexpected opportunity arose
through the National Society
for Education in Art and Design
(NSEAD), the leading UK authority
in art and design education.
The Readings in Art and Design
Education series, published by
Intellect and supported by NSEAD,
presented an opportunity to com-
pile an anthology with a focus on
art education that happens outside
the formal sector of schools and
colleges. Many editions in the
Readings series consist of papers
previously published in the Inter-
national Journal of Art and Design
Education, but this collection is
different. Only five of the sixteen
chapters have previously appeared
in the journal. It is also the first
book in the series to be richly il-
lustrated in full colour.
The book contains sixteen
chapters that explore the complex
relationship between art practice,
community participation and the
environment, built or natural.
The theme of this volume is the
broad educational potential of
environmental and community
art, explored from the personal
perspectives of authors from the
UK, Finland and Australia. To fully
explore these emergent dimen-
sions in art education would
require at least two volumes, one
on the environment and the other
on community. The formal sector
of education in art and design, in
the UK at any rate, has been subject
to constant review and reform, but
informal contexts such as com-
munity centres and local projects
10 | Thinking in Colour
have managed to escape the levels
of prescription bemoaned by art
educators in schools. Because
many of the projects discussed in
this book are community driven,
happening outside of school,
college or university walls, they oc-
cupy an educational ‘twilight zone’
free of attainment targets, league
tables, national tests and other
such constraints.
We have chosen to take a broad
view of art and design education,
embracing the informal sectors
of society and the tricky and often
elusive concept of community
art. What is going on in differ-
ent countries and in the different
sectors of education there? When
does art practice cross the line into
pedagogy? What do artists and art
educators mean when they talk
about ‘ownership’, ‘empowerment’
or ‘agency’? What can school-
based art educators learn from
people working with community
groups outside the school curricu-
lum and vice versa? These are just
some of the questions addressed
by contributors to this edition.
Readers reflecting on their own
experiences will no doubt think of
many more.
The book is divided into three
sections, with the general themes
of ‘Environments’, ‘Communi-
ties’ and ‘Education’, which the
contributors explore from their
personal perspectives as artists,
academics or authors. Inevitably,
however, there are many points
that transcend the boundaries.
In Environments, three authors
focus on arts practice and its impli-
cations for education. Jokela offers
an account of his background as an
artist and art educator, explaining
how his art is inextricably linked
Above Elderly people create
snow sculptures in the
schoolyard. Photograph by
Maria Huhmarniemi.
with his identity as a Laplander,
and with the wilderness of Finnish
Lapland. McWilliam outlines an
ongoing project with outdoor edu-
cation and community art students
at the University of Strathclyde, us-
ing a vignette of the students’ own
reflective writing to describe how
they are challenged to consider the
relationship between art, environ-
ment and aesthetics. Miles shifts
the focus from wilderness and
rural to urban environments, argu-
ing that education has a responsi-
bility to investigate the problems of
urban sustainability and changing
notions of ‘the city’.
The next section, Communities,
contains four chapters with the
recurrent themes of participation,
ownership and empowerment.
Using examples of local projects
directly involving community
participants, Dawes considers the
Art & Design
iQuote » “Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.” – Albert Einstein
changing role of the artist in the
light of recent political shifts in
Scotland on community and cul-
tural policy. Huhmarniemi takes
us on a very different journey.
Teachers and students in Finland
are engaged in various community
art projects in towns and villages
all over the country, but are often
unable to meet face to face for
debate or tutorial support. This
chapter describes how virtual
learning environments might
lead to the creation of effective
educational communities. Another
Finnish author, Hiltunen, argues
that community art enlivens and
energizes through the notion of
‘agency’. She describes the inclu-
sive approach of some remarkable
projects, in which representatives
of every sector of even the most
isolated village were encouraged
to participate. Bennett, in the final
Above Teams at work -
mapping responses to
the site. Photograph by
Peter Boyle.
chapter in this section, describes
a collaborative project called
‘Window Sills’, which explores the
notion of ‘territories’ and the in-
terface of public and private space
within a specific community.
The third and largest sec-
tion contains nine chapters. In
both her own chapters, Adams
examines the potential educa-
tional benefits of study in, and
through, the built environment.
Her collaboration with Chisholm
describes a small-scale project
where student teachers focus on
the built environment as a formal
educational resource. By contrast,
Austin succinctly outlines a unique
undergraduate programme for
community artists training to
work in the informal sector. She
considers the essential ingredients
of a degree programme, asking
what areas need to be addressed
Further Reading
Art, Community and Environment: Educational
Perspectives
Edited by Glen Coutts and
Timo Jokela
Part of the Readings in Art
and Design Education series
£24.95 / $60
ISBN 9781841501895
Published September 2008
Art, Community and Environment
investigates wide-ranging issues raised by the interaction between art
practice, community participation and the environment, both natural
and urban. This volume brings together a distinguished group of
contributors from the United Kingdom, Australia and Finland to
examine topics such as urban art, community participation, local
empowerment and the problems of ownership. Featuring rich il-
lustrations and informative case studies from around the world, Art,
Community and Environment addresses the growing interest in this
fascinating dimension of art and education, forming a vital addition
to Intellect’s Readings in Art and Design Education series.
to provide graduates with the and planners; they argue that the
range of skills necessary to work in project’s ‘workshop’ approach can
community arts. Coutts examines be seen as ‘laboratories of urban
the relationship between ‘public’ literacy and empowerment for
and ‘community’ art in Glasgow, young people’. In the final chapter,
asking where there might be Coutts reflects on a project that
points of overlap, distinction or used multimedia techniques to
tension. He questions the purpose encourage Glasgow’s students to
of community art and asks how consider the role and function of
we should gauge its effectiveness. public art and urban design.
Jokela offers a similar account The chapters in this book range
of a programme for trainee art from descriptions of specific proj-
teachers in Lapland, arguing that ects to polemics on the purposes
a ‘project-based’ approach has and efficacy of public and commu-
much to commend it. McKenzie nity art. We hope that the personal
takes a fascinating look at whether and theoretical perspectives of the
public sculpture might have played artists, writers and academics who
a didactic role in the nineteenth- have contributed will play a fruitful
century Glaswegian education sys- part in the debate about the educa-
tem; while from Australia, Hooper tional potential of environmental
and Boyle outline a project entitled and community art. {
‘Living City’. Inviting young
people to work on urban design
projects with artists, designers
IQ 2008 | 11
Music & Theatre
iQuote » “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Andre Gide
intellect Journal Focus
Unsung Heroes:
New Musical
Theatre & the
Creative Industries
Dominic Symonds and George Burrows,
University of Portsmouth
The news that London’s
West End experienced its best year
at the box office has been her-
alded as a sign of hope in the face
of the economic downturn. The
Society of London Theatre (SOLT)
reported 2007 attendances to be
13.6 million, a 10 per cent rise
from 2006. Gross receipts rose 18
per cent from 2006 to a total of
around £470 million. This is big
business, and it is in no small part
a reflection of London’s buoyant
musical theatre scene.
Of course, this is not really
big news: this is the third year in
a row that SOLT have announced
‘unparallelled growth’ in West
End theatre-going, and a decade
ago the publication of the Wynd-
ham Report revealed that West
End shows ‘consistently outper-
form’ Hollywood blockbusters.
The Phantom of the Opera, we were
told, had outgrossed the movie
Titanic.
Musical theatre, then, for all
of its frothy charm and carefree
whimsy, is the star pupil of the
creative industries: industries
which, according to the Depart-
ment for Culture, Media and
12 | Thinking in Colour
Music & Theatre
iQuote » “Sometimes questions are more important than answers.” – Nancy Willard
“Innovative musical theatre as show-
cased by SharpWire in Battersea Arts
Centre’s Scratch series. SharpWire’s
most recent work has been seen as
part of the Tête à Tête festival at the
Riverside Studios, London.”
Sport, “have their origin in indi-
vidual creativity, skill and talent
and which have a potential for
wealth and job creation through (NBC 2007), and a Canadian current West End musical scene dustries’ should support. I’d Do and have done for many years
the generation and exploitation version of How Do You Solve a are either revivals themselves Anything might offer unparal- now (The National, The Royal
of intellectual property”. On the Problem Like Maria? (CBC 2008), (Carousel, Gigi, West Side Story), leled broadcast time to promot- Court, The Soho Theatre), pre-
other hand, whilst the type of offer unknown performers spin-offs from the film, TV or ing the latest incarnation of cious little work is generated
musical theatre that registers the chance to find fame and music industries (Hairspray, Oliver! in the West End, but do that can be called ‘musical the-
in the SOLT statistics certainly fortune as stars of this glitter- Eurobeat, or Never Forget - the shows like Oliver!, Grease or The atre’. The Royal Opera House
hits the ‘wealth’, ‘job creation’ ing economy: and the appetite ‘Take That’ Musical), or such Sound of Music need introduc- is the closest thing we have to
and – arguably – ‘exploitation’ of both audiences and contes- long-running shows that they ing to the theatre-going public a subsidised platform for new
buttons, and no doubt profits tants for this type of entertain- have become institutions them- in the way that unfamiliar and musical theatre.
from significant skill and talent, ment seems insatiable. Not that selves (Les Misérables, Phantom innovative new musical theatre Before being brought to
its claim to ‘creativity’ might be this is anything new either: it of the Opera) – as much a part of needs promotion? task we should recognise
called into question. Still, this is replicates the age-old theme of the tourist itinerary of London Of course, the commercial some of the exciting projects
exactly the dilemma that is central many a Hollywood movie musi- as Madame Tussauds or Covent theatre is competing against that are pro-actively encour-
to the creative industries, where cal or Broadway show, from Garden. the subsidised sector, and this aged by mainstream though
– as one report puts it – ‘market Babes in Arms (1937) to A Chorus The SOLT statistics raised in itself has created significant small-scale (and sometimes
value’ insistently trumps ‘art-for- Line (1975), where a rags-to- interesting questions about controversy. Until recently this subsidised) theatres: Battersea
art’s sake’. riches storyline convinced us whether musical theatre re- involved the simple distinction Arts Centre’s regular Scratch
The success of the recent that – in the words of John Lahr ceives privileged treatment in between commercial and sub- productions; the Greenwich
outpouring of musical theatre hits – ‘the commonest citizen could relation to ‘straight’ West End sidised venues – the National Theatre’s Musical Futures; the
has been attributed to their high rise by pluck, luck and talent theatre – on this subject Kevin Theatre, the Almeida, the Don- Tête à Tête festival at Riverside
profile marketing through televi- into the aristocracy of success’. Spacey of the Old Vic has been mar, the Young Vic, etc. – none Studios; new venues such as the
sion reality shows such as How That all of this points to a particularly vocal; but perhaps of which are major musical the- Menier Chocolate Factory and
Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? thriving industry is unquestion- we can frame this question atre venues (notwithstanding the Trafalgar Studios; provin-
(BBC1 2006), Any Dream Will able, but the issue of ‘creativity’ slightly differently, and focus the Donmar’s excellent support cial venues such as the Water-
Do (BBC1 2007), I’d Do Anything is still something that keeps on the resources that are fed of new-ish (1998) work such as mill in Newbury (much of John
(BBC1 2008) and Grease is the Word cropping up: these shows, after into supporting new work for Jason Robert Brown’s Parade). Doyle’s work) and the Theatre
(ITV1 2007). These shows and all, are all revivals of tried and the musical stage – work that, Where several high profile Royal, Plymouth (Buddy when
international equivalents, such tested commercial products. we might argue, shows the real venues and institutions support it really was new work, and this
as Grease: You’re the One that I Want Other staple elements of the creativity that the ‘creative in- new playwriting admirably season’s ‘ghetto’ musical  
IQ 2008 | 13
Music & Theatre
iQuote » “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – Saint Augustine
Imagine This); supportive com-
munity frameworks such as
Mercury Musical Developments,
set up to nurture new musical
theatre writing; and the Edin-
burgh Fringe, which this year
opened its new venue dedicated
to musicals, Musical Theatre @
George Square – actually four
different spaces showcasing
over 40 new musicals as part of
the festival. But these venues
and festivals – important as they
are – offer only limited seasons
of new musical theatre, and
sadly, some of the other initia-
The success of the recent
outpouring of musical theatre hits
has been attributed to their high
profile marketing through television
reality shows
tives that had been championing
new musical theatre work until
recently have collapsed: notably
the Cardiff International Festival
of Musical Theatre and the Vivi-
an Ellis Awards. Buoyant though
musical theatre may appear, the
SOLT figures actually repre-
sent a total of just 45 different
musicals produced throughout
2007 (including the old chest-
nuts), compared to 108 commer-
cially presented plays. Add in
the many new plays presented by
subsidised venues, and you get
an idea of the imbalance.
The rub is, of course, that
musical theatre is an expensive
proposition, and that on-costs
for a new musical with the usual
production costs, plus live musi-
cians and creative costs that
are usually trebled (composer/
14 | Thinking in Colour
lyricist/librettist; director/chore-
ographer/musical director), will
amount to well in excess of what
it costs to stage a play. Some
reports claim that the West End
minimum price tag is £3 mil-
lion, so there is no surprise that
producers need to safeguard
their investment with a tried and
tested product (though need it
cost quite that much?).
When the government
decided to offer tax breaks
to the film industry for work
produced in the UK, the subsidy
controversy grew more complex:
if a commercial sector indus-
try comparable to the theatre
industry could get tax breaks,
then why couldn’t commercial
theatre producers? After all, Arts
Council England’s Economic
Impact Study of UK Theatre
(2004) revealed that theatre in
London generated upwards of
£1.5 billion to the economy in
related activities, and a further
£1.1 billion throughout the rest
of the UK. But if commercial
theatre was to receive public
subsidy, what are the chances
that it would be the old gang
(Oliver, Joseph and Maria)
creaming off the spoils rather
than the new faces, the un-
knowns and the experimental?
In any case, SOLT has already
staked a claim to £250 million of
public funding to ‘bring the 40
commercial theatres in the West
End up to date’. Olly, Jo and
Maria will fare very well from
a new lick of paint, but under-
neath the arches the new work
will struggle on with unpaid per-
formers playing profit-share to a
handful of mates.
But if the West End is gen-
erating almost £500 million per
annum, and if two-thirds of this
income is derived from musical
theatre, the claim to ‘dire straits’
seems hard to justify, especially
with top-price West End tickets
now commonly costing over
£50 each; indeed, we might ask
where the industry is directing
its research and development
funds, its support for new initia-
tives, its championing of the in-
dustry specialists of tomorrow?
To be fair, these things are hap-
pening: Olivier Bursaries for ac-
credited drama school students
support upcoming performers,
Mousetrap Theatre Projects
encourages young audiences
and the Theatrical Management
Association supports managers.
Stage One, formerly the Theatre
Investment Fund, offers bursa-
ries to new producers and some
support for new productions,
and the proposed National Skills
Academy is set to deal with the
shortfall of trained workers in
‘backstage and technical live
music and theatre’.
It all seems impressively
geared up to keep the industry
going for a long time into the
future, and seems to have re-
sponded to the ‘warning signs’
of the Wyndham Report from
ten years ago: ‘slowing growth,
too few new productions, too
few young theatre-goers, and
a regional network which has
for some time been chronically
under-resourced’. The industry
is safe, then, and looks set to be
continually reborn: in its own
image.
But that troublesome spectre
of ‘creativity’ still keeps disturb-
ing the water, and meanwhile
we are left scratching our heads
about whether ‘creative indus-
tries’ really is an oxymoron. {
Dominic Symonds and George
Burrows are editors of Studies in
Musical Theatre.
Further Reading
Studies in Musical
Theatre
Edited by Dominic
Symonds and George
Burrows
Subscription: Three Issues
£33 personal / £210
Institutional
ISSN: 1750-3159
Studies in Musical Theatre is a
refereed journal which considers
areas of live performance that
use vocal and instrumental music
in conjunction with theatrical
performance as a principal part of
their expressive language.
intellect journals
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Theatre & Music
iQuote » “Let your performance do the thinking.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
intellect Journal Focus
The decision to give up bowl-
ing and take up wicket-keeping
enabled me to prolong my cricket
career into my seventies. Good
wicket-keepers go almost unno-
ticed because they do an unobtru-
sively effective job. If you’re lucky
you’ll take a spectacular catch
down the leg side or, better still, a
leg-side stumping. But that doesn’t
happen very often. The routine is to
take whatever comes your way and
start the ball on its way back to the
bowler. Editing a journal is much
the same. You receive an article
as gracefully as you can, setting
in motion the processes that will
return it to the author, with sugges-
tions for improvement. An experi-
enced wicket-keeper will advise the
bowler on line and length without
damaging their self-esteem; and
writers are just as sensitive. An edi-
tor has to act as a buffer between a
peer-reviewer and a fledgling con-
tributor. ‘To be honest, this is utter
crap,’ becomes, in editorial transla-
tion, ‘Our Reader found much to
recommend in this piece, but…..’.
Inside the temples of academia,
truth is couple-coloured.
My first serious breaching of
the iron gates of publication came
when I was asked to prepare an
edition of Julius Caesar. Within a
week of its publication, I received
communication from the British
16 | Thinking in Colour
Peter Thomson
On Editing Studies in
Theatre and Performance
National Bibliography. There were
two handwritten lines of queries on
the letter. The first read ‘Thom-
son, Peter William (editor) JULIUS
CAESAR’. The second read ‘Are
you also author of THIS WONDER-
FUL WORLD OF GOLF?’ I hadn’t
realised that the winner of the
British Open Championship had
exactly the same name as mine,
but it was with a diminished sense
of self that I answered, ‘No, but I
wouldn’t mind the royalties’. Who
remembers editors? Addison and
An experienced wicket-keeper will
advise the bowler on line and length
without damaging their self-esteem;
and writers are just as sensitive.
Steele for their first run of Spectator;
Francis Jeffrey of Edinburgh Review;
Boris Johnson (regardless of what
he did with a later run of Spectator);
Richard Schechner at the Tulane
Drama Review. But none of these
men would wish to be remembered
only as editors.
Studies in Theatre and Performance
(STP) began as a response of British
Drama Departments to the new
rigours of the Research Assess-
ment Exercise. It was demonstrably
the case that our academic status
was being judged exclusively on
what we wrote (by a panel that
included no drama specialists).
‘Practice’ – like self-abuse – was
assumed to be something you did
in your spare time, and it stood to
reason that the research qual-
ity of such practice was nothing
whatsoever to do with the Profes-
sors of Architecture, Music and
Old English who were our judges.
Apparently, in 1981, one member
of the Advisory Panel suggested
that the decline in applicants for
Anglo-Saxon might be stemmed if
a few Drama Departments were to
be closed. (If I remember rightly,
that panel settled for inviting
seven universities to discontinue
Drama – which would have left
no more than five at a time before
polytechnics were universities.) It
beggars belief that the academic
community yielded so quickly to
Thatcher’s determination to sub-
ject universities to the stultifying
rules of engagement of the market
economy. In the prevailing circum-
stances, Studies in Theatre Production
(its original name) was a mixture
of snook-cocking and desperate
defence.
The first tentative issues were
printed by a man I’d met playing
cricket. He was a terrible cricketer
and a homespun printer, a gentle-
manly sharer in a D-I-Y venture.
Chris McCullough and I battered
staples through the loose sheets to
make them into something approx-
imating a journal and then posted
off copies to the Standing Confer-
ence of University Drama Depart-
ments’ (SCUDD) sixteen member
institutions. We’d taken on the job
because we were doing our turn as
Chair and Secretary of SCUDD at a
midpoint between RAEs. But there
was no flood of articles, and some-
times no trickle. Shamefacedly, I
resorted to writing pieces to fill up
the space, and it wasn’t until issue
six (contributions from Sue Smith
and Lib Taylor, David Ian Rabey,
John Wesley Harris, Amanda Price,
Elaine Aston – and, to get it up
to 60 pages, Peter Thomson and
Jérard Poulet) that we moved from
stapling to binding. It must be
admitted that Studies in Theatre Pro-
duction, until first Olga Taxidou and
then Lesley Soule took on editorial
responsibilities, was presented
much as the better undergraduates
present their essays these days. To
Peter Thomson
iQuote » “Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Non performance can always be explained away.”– Harold Geneen
Above History of the Journal (1990 – 2008) from Studies in Theatre
Production to Studies in Theatre and Performance with Intellect.
be an amateur is one thing, to be
amateurish probably another.
The big shift came in 2000, un-
der the editorship of Lesley Soule
and Jane Milling. It was the move
to Intellect, and the consequent
transformation that established
Studies in Theatre and Performance as
a professional scholarly journal.
The change of title was significant,
too. The tracing and redefining of
performance has become a matter
of academic urgency, beside which
‘theatre’ struggles to make itself
heard. There is no longer a short-
age of submissions from across
the world. STP has become, in the
twenty-first century, a much bigger
business than any of us predicted.
There is real privilege in editing it,
and a danger that my own prefer-
ences will have too large a part in
its development. I dislike essays in
which the writer avoids speak-
ing in her/his own voice. Garbled
gobbets from Derrida, Lacan,
Deleuze, Foucault etc. do less to
form an argument than to cloud it.
If there’s a point to be made, the
great theorists won’t make it for
you. I like to give room to young
scholars, and I love receiving
work from regular contributors.
I shamelessly exploit my editorial
right to publish off-beat pieces
under the heading of ‘Notes and
Queries’. But it’s probably time
for me to move on. For the last six
years, and for a variety of reasons,
I have edited the journal single-
handed. It’s beginning to feel like
my journal. I have to remind myself
that the readership, not the editor,
should determine the content. In
May 2008, SCUDD advertised for
assistant editors. By the time this
up my wicket-keeper’s gloves.
Come to think of it, a wicket-
is published, one or two of the ap- keeper is too important to the field-
plicants should be in place, and not
long after that I’ll be able to hang
ing side to provide a safe analogy
with an editor. {
Further Reading
Studies in Theatre and
Performance
Edited by Peter Thomson
Subscription: Three Issues
£33 personal / £210
Institutional
ISSN: 1468-2761
Studies in Theatre and Performance (STP) is an academic, refereed
journal for scholars, teachers and practitioners to share the methods
and results of practical research, to discuss issues related to theatre
practice and to examine experiments in teaching and performance.
IQ 2008 | 17
The Soundtrack Interview
iQuote » Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul.” – Plato
intellect Journal Focus
Left to right
Larry Sider, Stephen Deutsch,
Piers Plowright & Dominic Power
18 | Thinking in Colour
Stephen Deutsch, Larry Sider
and Dominic Power
Interviewed By Piers Plowright
Founded by Stephen Deutsch, Larry
Sider and Dominic Power, the inten-
tion of The Soundtrack is to deal with
sound as a whole. The editors come
from different disciplines: Stephen
Deutsch is a composer, responsible
for a number of television scores,
as well as the writer of a number of
television plays. He is Professor of
Post-Production at Bournemouth
University; Larry Sider is an editor
and sound designer, Head of the
School of Sound and lecturer on
Sound and Post-Production; Domi-
nic Power is Head of Screen Arts at
The National Film and Television
School, Lecturer in the History of
Film Music at Kingston University as
well as being a BBC radio dramatist.
The editors of The Soundtrack were
interviewed on the eve of the pub-
lication of the second issue, at The
National Film and Television School
by well-known broadcaster, lecturer
and radio producer, Piers Plowright.
This edited version of their conversa-
tion discusses the issues surround-
ing a journal that creates a forum for
an inclusive discussion of the film
soundtrack.
PP: So why do we need a journal
called The Soundtrack?
SD: The notion of the soundtrack is,
at least from the point of view of this
journal, fairly new. It assumes that
everything which emanates from the
speaker is a coherent unity, which
tends to favour the spoken voice,
but coherent nonetheless, because
the audience hears it that way. Most
writing on the subject of film music
and sound treats their subjects as
separate areas, so you have a lot
written about film music that doesn’t
take into account anything going
on in the rest of the soundtrack.
Similarly with film sound - music is
regarded as something to be fought
or dealt with, but not part of the
whole world.
PP: Larry, when you started the
School of Sound, were you con-
scious of the same thing that
Stephen is talking about, that this
gap between various different sound
practitioners needed to be closed?
LS: I’d worked in sound for many
years – on documentaries, anima-
tion, experimental films – and then
began teaching sound and editing in
the mid-nineties. This showed me
that sound wasn’t being considered
seriously within film education. All
anybody wanted was clear dialogue
and nice music. But, when you think
about it, half of your film is happen-
ing in the soundtrack and very few
filmmakers know how to work with
that. Now sound has become more
of an area of study in its own right
and that has to do with technology
evolving in the last twenty years.
But it is separated within different
The Soundtrack Interview
iQuote » “Music is the art of thinking with sounds.”– Jules Combarieu
media, so film teaches sound one
way, radio teaches sound another
way. What we’re focusing on at
the School of Sound, and in The
Soundtrack, is that most of our
work involves images in one way
or another. Very seldom do we
listen to sound without looking
at something. So it’s very hard to
teach sound on its own, except in
a very academic way. As Stephen
said, we’re trying to present some-
thing in a way that people are used
to dealing with. And the sound-
track is becoming an art form in
our culture.
PP: Dominic, what’s your per-
spective on this? You obviously
share those feelings.
DP: My interest started through
film music, but I’ve become aware
that when I recall a particular film,
I’m recalling the timbre as much
as the image. Part of the function
of The Soundtrack is to explore the
aesthetics of sound, which has not
always been done. As Stephen and
Larry said, it’s always secondary to
the image.
PP: Are you planning to give room
to other voices?
SD: We’ve encouraged people
to write, we’ve even encouraged
people to send their own ques-
tions to the board. Our editorial
board contains some of the most
eminent names in sound and mu-
sic: Walter Murch, Randy Thom,
Rick Altman, Claudia Gorbman,
Elisabeth Weis, Michel Chion. In
this next issue we put a ques-
tion to the board: can you name
a film in which sound and music
work particularly well. Claudia
Gorbman and Liz Weis and Randy
Thom responded. Walter Murch
wrote a beautiful little article on
Barton Fink.
LS: The current issue says a lot
about what we’re trying to do
through the style of writing; we
hope you come away feeling that
you’ve learned something, that
you’ve entered new territory. A
number of the people who read
this journal are experts in their
field. So, to actually get behind the
scenes, and not just in a techni-
cal way, but in a theoretical or
conceptual way about how sound
works with image, and just come
away with new insights, that’s
what we’re aiming for.
PP: Presumably you also hope that
you’re bringing together the dif-
ferent disciplines in the journal,
which may also encourage greater
bringing together within film-
making.
LS: It has to do with integration
and the bringing together of what
seem to be opposites: theory and
practice, the practitioner and the
academic, art and entertainment.
There’ve been some strides made
within film education to do that,
but it is very hard in the current
climate where education is about
jobs; academia and professional
practice rarely mix and in the pro-
fessional world analytical thinking
is thought to be ‘not what we
do’. This is partly true and partly
untrue. The idea is to try and bring
together the best of both kinds of
thinking.
PP: And also make it something
that the general reader can have a
bit of fun with?
SD: I hope so. That’s one of the
issues with any journal like this
because it’s within the stable of
academic journals, and one of the
difficulties that academic journals
often have is that writers contrib-
ute to them and they go on a list
of journal articles written for their
universities, and it’s immaterial
whether anybody ever reads them.
DP: There is a problem with a lot
of hard academic writing; it can
be hermetic. At it’s worst it can be
incomprehensible, written with-
out a sense of communication.
And I think that’s a danger in an
academic journal - it means that
this stuff is printed but not read.
SD: What we’re hoping for is to
have a journal that people want to
read and enjoy reading.
PP: So someone like Marina
Warner in your second edition, for
example. She’s an academic but
she’s actually also a novelist and
a poet.
LS: The examples that she uses in
her paper would be relevant for a
lot of people working in film or
TV. What she says would make
them think “I can relate to that,
and that makes me think about
what I do in a more interesting,
off-the-wall sort of way.” After she
delivered that paper at the School
of Sound I remember looking at
Further Reading
The Soundtrack
Edited by Stephen Deutsch,
Larry Sider and Dominic Power
Subscription: Three Issues
£33 personal / £210 Institutional
ISSN: 1751-4193
This journal focuses its attention on the aural elements which combine
with moving images. It regards the sounds which accompany the visuals
not as a combination of disparate disciplines, but as a unified and coher-
ent entity. It assumes that irrespective of the industrial determinants,
the soundtrack is perceived as a continuum by the audience.
the people she was talking with,
and I was astonished, because
these were people who were not
academics, not art critics, and they
seemed to be touched by what she
said.
SD: What sort of journal is this?
What is it for? It’s to engender en-
thusiasm among people who find
there isn’t a constituency to share
their enthusiasm, but not just on a
fan mag level, but on a deep level
where we can enter into a debate
about some very important issues.
PP: I think you’ve made a great
start. Shall we have a one liner
from each of you, for your hopes
for the future of The Soundtrack?
SD: I hope we’ll get a big reader-
ship, who enjoy it, and who’ll
contribute as well.
DP: I’d like us to produce some-
thing that has the widest possible
readership, and that I’d like to go
back to and reread, as I do with
the best magazines and journals.
LS: I would like to see The Sound-
track have an effect both
on the teaching and the practice
of film-making and to create a
dialogue between the two. {
IQ 2008 | 19
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1986 1992 2001 the

2008 Future
The first issue of Artificial Intellect granted trade mark Intellect moved to a former
for newspapers periodicals; paper mill in the Fishponds Publishing 35 books and 37
Intelligence Review, The launch of our new
books and leaflets; all relating area of Bristol, redeveloped journals, employing eight full
Intellect’s first journal, was interactive website.
to the acquisition of knowledge. especially for its needs. time staff.
co-published with Blackwell
Scientific Publications. Publishing seven books and two Publishing twelve books and
Numbers in dates journals without any full
time employees!
eight journals, employing
three full time staff.

1985 1987 1988 1990 1991 1997 2000 2002 2004 2007

1984 1989 1993 1999 2006 2009 the

Expanding into North America
Future
Intellect was formed as Intellect published its Intellect rented a small Intellect granted Investors
a Limited company in first three books in a co- Intellect relocated its office
office on the Exeter campus in People recognition Intellect to publish directories of
England and Wales by publishing deal with the US to Bristol and employed From January 1st 2009, Intellect
of Plymouth University and for its human resources world cinema.
Masoud Yazdani and two publishers, Ablex. its second full time staff will have a base in North
employed its first full time management. Publishing
other university academics, member. Published eighteen America as well as our main
staff member. Publishing 10 25 books and 21 journals,
initially offering advice and books and five journals. offices in Bristol, England.
books and 3 journals. employing five full time staff.
running seminars. Visit our website for
Website launched. further details!
Media & Culture
iQuote » “It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.” – Oscar Wilde
Image Critique
intellect Book Focus
& the Fall of
the Berlin Wall
Sunil Manghani
With the same familiarity
of a nursery rhyme the simple
phrase ‘the fall of the Berlin Wall’
remains with us. It is a chapter
heading, a footnote and of course
a turning-point in the flow of an
argument or indeed the contest
of political ideologies: after the
fall … it all changes. It denotes
a time, a place and a sense of
change. It marks a new begin-
ning, as well as an ‘end of his-
tory.’ We live in a post-Wall era
and that carries with it certain
responsibilities, not least how
we choose to respond and relate
to the media news events that
the fall of the Wall prefigures.
In November 2009 it will be
twenty years since the fall of the
Berlin Wall. Whilst the event it-
self may seem for some a distant
memory, its global importance as
a political symbol, marking the
wholesale collapse of commu-
nism and the purported victory
for liberal democracy worldwide,
remains a significant feature of
our recent history. One of the
reasons why this event has had
such resonance is that a host of
television cameras were on site to
beam the pictures of celebration
around the world. At some level
we all shared in the occasion.
East Side Gallery, Mülenstrasse, Berlin, 2002. Indeed the event can be situated
in a growing chronology of ‘news
22 | Thinking in Colour
events’, the out crop of a consoli-
dated 24-hour news production
process. Yet, interestingly, for all
their historical, social and politi-
cal significance there has been
very little critical attention given
specifically to the images of the
fall of the Wall. It is as if those
television (and newspaper) pic-
tures – as some form of ‘Instant
History’ – were too self-evident a
portrayal as to require any further
explanation or examination.
Image Critique & the Fall of the
Berlin Wall obviously seeks to
redress this situation. Yet, in
writing this article I find myself
wanting to argue against my own
book. Not against the content,
but against the image of the book
that potentially goes before it
(compounded perhaps by the
various images which accom-
pany this article and ‘anchor’ its
meaning further). It is symp-
tomatic of the very nature of the
images I write about that they
easily override what one really
wishes to say. The book does not
seek to provide any straightfor-
ward analysis of visual represen-
tations of the fall of the Wall.
Instead, the primary interest
is to present an idea of what I
term ‘image critique’: a double
procedure of both a critique of
images and their critical engage-
Media & Culture
iQuote » “I shut my eyes in order to see.” – Paul Gauguin
Wall painting showing trompe l’oeil
effect, Berlin, 2002.
ment. In broad terms, I have
sought to remain faithful to the
tradition of critical theory, but
more specifically I engage with
the contemporary issues and
We live in a post-Wall era and that
carries with it certain responsibilities,
not least how we choose to respond
and relate to the media news events
that the fall of the Wall prefigures.
dilemmas that visual culture and
image studies have helped bring
to attention (a chapter-length
overview is given in the book).
The book begins with a layered
reading of what I term ‘in-
stant history’. Recent mediated
events reflect a new immediacy
of knowledge and informa-
tion, which have a levelling
effect – the critic and expert
becoming as much a spectator
as anyone else. The consump-
tion of instant history events can
be said to screen (out) history
in various ways, which relates
particularly to a new kind of
transparency of the media,
evident, for example, with the
rise in televisual 24-hour news
reporting (which in turn has
led to the very mechanisms and
logistics of live reporting itself
becoming newsworthy). There
is a potential flattening out of
ideological differences in con-
temporary journalistic practice,
but this does not necessarily
lead to a more complex report-
ing or picturing of events. Added
to which, we can consider an
event such as the fall of the Wall
as a form of instant replay. Not
only is its form of history to be
thought of as a specific moment
in time, as an event, but it also
refers to an inherent repetition
and circulation of meaning, the
event being instantly available
for citation and re-circulation.
In effect, this creates an ever-
present and malleable con-
tinuum of history. Nevertheless,
the dominant interpretation of
the fall of the Berlin Wall is one
of celebration and the victory
of capitalist, liberal democracy
(neatly captured and promul-
gated by Francis Fukuyama’s
thesis of an ‘end of history’). Any
‘other’ story seemingly remains
unknown (perhaps even un-
knowable). What is apparent, for
example, is a one-sided perspec-
tive; a ‘greying’ out of the East as
either a mere object of the past
or place of the mundane, with
the effect of always placing the
East aside as some ‘perpetual
abroad.’ It is a line of argument
I follow up with an analysis of
two film comedies, Helden wie
wir and Goodbye Lenin! Both films
present alternative and some-
what surreal accounts of
IQ 2008 | 23
Media & Culture intellect publishers of original thinking

Theatre & Music

iQuote » “Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”– Jim Rohn

the event of the fall of the Wall.
Whilst neither of these films is
necessarily entirely successful, I
suggest elements of them help to
more concretely illustrate what
an image critique of the fall of
the Wall might actually look like.
Overall, the book should be
understood as thematic (and
not systematic) in approach.
Adopting a blend of scholarly
and personal prose, the book
weaves its way through the case-
study of the fall of the Berlin
Wall in exploration of the issues
and debates of visual culture. A
recommendation of the philoso-
pher Simon Critchley is kept in
mind: in viewing philosophising
today we should not necessarily
be looking to ‘import the next
grand Continental paradigm …
but of doing something … do-
ing creative, inventive thematic
work’. Crucially, the idea of an
image critique put forward and
‘performed’ in the book is not
about making final, resolute
arguments through pictures –
nor about advocating a collec-
tion of better, more ‘truthful’
ones. Instead it refers to a more
open-ended and on-going
critical reflection; a thought-
image to be, as it were, a critical
space in which to discover and
wrestle with the full complexity
of ideas, things and events. {
Books and Journals
Bernauer Strasse Wall Memorial, 2002.
Russia, Freaks and Foreigners: Journal of Adaptation in Film and
Three Performance Texts Performance
By James MacDonald Editors: Richard J. Hand
£14.95 / ISBN 9781841501864 & Katja Krebs
224pp / August 2008 ISSN 17536421,
3 issues per year
Sex on Stage: Gender and Sexuality
in Post-War British Theatre Studies in Theatre and Performance
Editor: Peter Thomson
By Andrew Wyllie
ISSN 14682761,
£14.95 / ISBN 9781841502038
3 issues per year
160pp /Feb 2009

Media &Culture
Further Reading

Image Critique & the

Fall of the Berlin Wall
By Sunil Manghani
£19.95 / $40
ISBN 9781841501901
Published June 2008
Books and Journals
Taking the fall of the Berlin
Wall as a key marker in recent Finding the Right Place on the Map: Journal of African Media Studies
history, the book presents a Central and Eastern European Media Editors: Winston Mano, Monica Chibita & Wendy
new critical concept of image critique: a double proce- Change in a Global Perspective Willems
ISSN 17517974
dure of both a critique of images and the use of images Edited by Karol Jakubowicz & Miklós Sükösd 3 issues per year
as a means to engage with our contemporary mediated £19.95 / ISBN 9781841501932
culture for new critical purposes. Topics range from 302pp / August 2008
Francis Fukuyama’s End of History thesis to metapictures,
International Journal of Media and
contemporary East German film and the notion of the
public sphere/screen. In staking out a new critical visual Cultural Politics
European Media Governance: The Editors: Katherine Sarikakis & Neil Blain
theory, the book seeks to present the fall of the Wall as
a means to situate a complex interactive account of his-
Brussels Dimension ISSN 17408296
Edited by Georgios Terzis 3 issues per year
tory, politics, freedom, the media and visual culture.
£29.95 / ISBN 9781841501987
Check out Sunil Manghani’s blog for more information:
216pp / 2008
http://imagecritique.wordpress.com/image-critique/

intellect publishers of original thinking

The Mill, Parnall Road, Bristol BS16 3JG 0117 9589910 www.intellectbooks.com
24 | Thinking in Colour
 027 film»feature
Q&A: BFI
exclusive interview
iQuote » “A home without books is a body withoutliving
BFI Filmstore
An Interview with the BFI Filmstore Manager, Ian Ryan
How did you get into the booksell-
open Debate Passion
ing industry?
I started out working in librar-
ies and then in 1997 – 1st April
your discuss in motion strangely – I started a part time
job with Books Etc. The BFI shop
(pictures)
opened last March.
eyes discover What kind of collaboration is there
between the bookshop and the BFI?
filmint. filmint. filmint. On a basic level the shop is part
of the BFI. All profits made by the
Filmstore go back into the BFI and
the work it promotes. We get a lot
of support from all the different
departments. For example, the
Programming and Events teams
have been really good in helping
promote the Filmstore by encour-
aging guests to either take part
in signings, or by opening doors
to suppliers and distributors of
interesting books and films. Hav-
ing access to the more independent
and interesting releases allows us
to stay attractive, and helps set us
apart from other outlets. Another
department that has played a key
role in our success is education.
People tend to think of the BFI as
purely a place to go see films but it
invests a lot of effort in campaign-
ing to raise the significance of film
to schools and colleges.
Can you describe some of the key
differences between working di-
rectly with independent publishers
compared with big multinational
publishers?
To be honest for me there’s been
little difference between the two.
www.filmint.nu
Perhaps I have a slightly skewed
experience in this area. Whilst at
Books Etc I built strong relation-
alone
soul.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
ships with the reps from the larger
publishers and I’ve been fortunate
enough to bring these with me.
I suppose this is my chance to
champion the role of the rep no
matter whom they work for, be it
the large multinational or the small
independent. I’ve found them all to
be extremely helpful and open to
ideas. If I were to give any advice to
small independent shops it would
be to make sure you work with your
rep, make the most of them as they
have a lot to offer. In the current
climate they need us as much as we
need them.
What are the biggest challenges
facing independent bookshops in
the future?
In one word ‘Amazon’. I under-
stand that Amazon can work on the
basis of a 15% margin but it doesn’t
help when a customer can buy
books cheaper from Amazon than
I can buy them from the publisher.
This isn’t just large multinational
publishers offering Amazon huge
discounts – small independent
publishers are just as guilty. I’m in
a privileged position where I am;
the BFI is a destination in itself,
my customer base has a certain
amount of disposable income and
they are passionate about film.
Psychologically this is important
for me as it means they don’t neces-
sarily look for the cheapest option.
In my opinion what publishers have
allowed with Amazon is a complete
undervaluing of their product. The
most common question/accusa-
tion I get is that we’re overpricing
our books and DVDs – the ‘I can
get it cheaper from Amazon’ line.
It’s difficult for us with all these
advantages so I really feel for the
small booksellers out there. It’s not
all bad though – Amazon does have
its ‘Achilles heel’, which is its size.
It has too much to choose from.
The role of a good bookshop is to
siphon out the rubbish and offer
the products that the customer
is looking for. Also, it lacks the
personal aspects that a lot of people
find important.
Do you feel that the development
of the ebook industry will affect
booksellers significantly?
I could write pages on how I see the
ebook impacting upon booksell-
ers. I think that publishers should
look to the experiences of the
music industry – especially when
it comes to the dissemination of
digital media. There’s bound to
be sites like Napster etc springing
up. There’s a generation of people
who see no problem in download-
ing digital media and not paying
for it. To me this is a continuation
of the devaluation of artistic and
academic materials. I do wonder
how publishers in the future will
justify charging people £10 or £15
pounds for an ebook when people
perceive that all they are getting is
‘just a downloaded file’. Everything
is not all doom and gloom though.
The book is as near a perfect piece
of hardware as you can get. It’s
flexible, long lasting, won’t need
a new bit of kit to play/read it in a
few years time, can be dropped,
drawn on, left on the bus etc etc.
Also people like to own books.
They’re an outward expression of
themselves. Who doesn’t go round
a house and look at what books are
on a person’s shelves?
Could I take this opportunity to
quickly thank all the staff at the
BFI Filmstore. Without their hard
work, knowledge and, most impor-
tantly input, it wouldn’t be as good
as it is. {
The BFI Filmstore is a stockhold-
ing bookshop for Intellect’s film
books and journals.
8+
Contact the BFI Filmstore:
Belvedere Road, South Bank,
Waterloo, SE1 8XT
T: 0207 815 1350
E: filmstore@bfi.org.uk
W: www.filmstore.bfi.org.uk
IQ 2008 | 27
Book Reviews
iQuote » “If you only do what you know you can do- you never do very much.” – Tom Krause
Issues in Curating Contemporary Art
and Performance
Edited by Judith Rugg and Michèle Sedgwick
ISBN 9781841501628 hb £29.95
Published Dec 2007
Reviewed by Alexander Adams.
The questions of which roles
curators do and should play are
becoming more pressing. The
increase in the number of museums
(the Guggenheim “franchise” and
new institutions in Asia and the
Middle East, among others) and a
burgeoning biennale culture has
required a new class of curators.
These curators (many of them
artistes manqués) claim, explicitly or
implicitly, not just a status comparable
with artists but to be artists on the
basis that they recontextualise works
of art. Appropriation has been an
artistic strategy since Duchamp’s
readymades. Imagine librarians,
on the basis of organising books,
claiming to be authors and you have
a good idea of the situation. Curators
are not artists. They are transient
patrons who act as instigators,
enablers, commissioners and
gatherers of art. In effect, curators
are temporary Medici, however,
the actual Medici admitted their
patronage had politic aims: to
glorify their state and themselves.
In this book of twelve essays,
academics, writers and curators
examine different aspects of
curating. The scope of the texts
ranges from case studies in
curating to examination of the
basis for this contested practice.
28 | Thinking in Colour
Book Reviews
iQuote »“Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity.”– Bo Bennett
art and dance/performance) are any professional writer, though
touched on only lightly in single they are no worse than one
essays. Perhaps these subjects finds in the typical gallery press
deserve dedicated publications release. All professional writers
in future where they might be on art should be required to
examined in greater depth. study classic prose and fiction.
In this book of 12 essays academics,
writers and curators examine different
aspects of curating. The scope of the texts
ranges from case studies in curating
to examination of the basis for this
The field is controversial and new.
As JJ Charlesworth points out
contested practice.
here “‘curating’ is a neologism
so recent that dictionaries There are essays here that Fortunately, these aberrations
have not yet caught up”. perpetrate crimes against logic are in a minority and most
The self-effacement in Catherine and the English language. texts here are informative and
Elwes’s discussion of the dynamics “Disjunctive” is not the same thought-provoking. The lucidity
behind Anglo-Canadian video as “disjointed”, “privilege” is and reasonableness of some of
projects comes from her egalitarian not (yet) a verb and “normative” these authors are in danger of
background in Feminist co-operatives instead of “normal” (or giving curators a good name.
in 1970s London. The style of her “normalising”) is plain wrong. Alexander Adams is an artist
text serves her and her subjects well. Such examples should shame and writer living in Berlin. {
Chris Dorsett’s elliptical approach,
using personal association to the
viewing experience, proves effective
in drawing together multiple strands.
Charlesworth takes a broad view of
curating and clearly summarises the
problems of legitimacy that it faces.
Some essays focus on specific
projects. While this provides practical
examples of curatorship, length
restrictions sometimes mean the
implications cannot be fully followed
up. One exception is Richard Hylton’s
piece examining Autograph, a Black
photographers’ collective, and the
politics and power behind funding.
His engrossing discussion is a study
of how self-defined groups unite to
struggle for representation yet lose
important facets of identity once they
are co-opted by the establishment.
Above Penelope Haralambidou, ‘3 John Street: 1:50’, Spatial Imagination,
It is deftly written and engaging. The Domo Baal Gallery London, 2005. Photograph: David Cross of Cornford & Cross
Above The work of Jan Peters (foreground) and Martina Schmid (far wall), Ausland,
The Domo Baal Gallerry, London, 2003. Photograph: The Domo Baal Gallery
Two topics (computer-generated
IQ 2008 | 29
 Book Reviews
iQuote » “There are no failures – just experiences and your reactions to them.” – Tom Krause
Ebooks
Declarations of Independence:
American Cinema and the Partiality of
Independent Production
By John Berra
ISBN 9781841501857 pb £19.95
Published March 2008
All new titles £10
Reviewed by Christine Carr York.
Intellect books are also available in ebook
format for both libraries and individuals to John Berra’s academic discussion
purchase. All new and forthcoming Intellect of American independent cinema
has the best of intentions.
ebooks are just £10 each. Independent cinema’s relationship
with mainstream films and the
studio system is complicated and
merits intense scrutiny. From the
Individuals beginning, Berra is optimistic,
Providers: EBL, Ebooks.com and Ellibs. but does not always seem able
Search for a particular Intellect ebook by title, ISBN or au- to decide which aspect of study
thor and then buy and download a whole book or part of a deserves the most focus. He states
his objective is “to disprove the
book. popular assumption amongst
commercial journalists and
Libraries consumers of popular culture, that
Providers: EBL, Ebrary, Netlibrary, Myilibrary, Ellibs cinematic works that have been
declared as, or critically assigned
and dawsonera. the status of, ‘independent,’
Libraries can purchase individual ebooks from the above are autonomous of corporate
sponsorship, or influence, from
providers or discounted subject-focused ebook bundles can other forms of popular media,”
be purchased from EBL and Dawsonera. Each of the four but has much more in store for
collections – film, media, theatre and art – includes the reader (10). Berra would
the unlimited purchase of twenty Intellect ebooks. also like to “redefine what can
be meant by the term ‘modern
American independent cinema’”
Visit the ebooks area of our website for further information: and to “establish whether creative
autonomy can actually exist within
www.intellectbooks.co.uk/ebooks.php
the system of mass production”
(10-11). The author addresses
these objectives by examining how
specific independent films and
film-makers relate to the studio
intellect publishers of original thinking system. In doing so the author sets
The Mill, Parnall Road, Bristol BS16 3JG 0117 9589910 www.intellectbooks.com
himself quite a tricky task as there
is so much to include in such a
short book.
Berra assumes his audience
knows little about Hollywood’s
system of mass production so
the bulk of his initial discussion
focuses on the studio system and
its relationship to and acceptance
of independent film. He raises
some interesting, fleeting
points, such as suggesting that
independent cinema has taken
the place of foreign film in
America. The fact that the studios’
stranglehold on marketing and
distribution prevents a true
independent cinema from ever
existing is discussed at great
length, however. Even in his
analyses, Hollywood encroaches
upon the discussion. While no
study of American cinema can
The author is clearly invested in this topic and
a follow-up book would be more than welcome
as there is plenty left to discuss.
ever completely avoid mentioning
the Hollywood machine, it has
been analyzed many times before,
overlooking independent films.
For once, Hollywood could take
a backseat to the independents,
but the book seems to keep it
very much the centre of attention.
Perhaps in its inclusion, the author
is commenting on its power and
omnipresence in the industry.
Berra also includes other theorists
and academics in his study. The
negative side of this technique is
that he admits in the introduction
that critical discussion of
independent cinema is severely
lacking. Therefore, his attempts
at finding other theorists’ views
to support his own are perhaps
not always helpful. However, he
very wisely includes references to
the cultural changes and societal
upheavals that allowed the most
important independent films
such as Easy Rider to have such
impact. Berra is at his best in these
instances and when discussing
specific directors and films. Rather
than simply working from the
exterior to the interior, as stated in
the introduction, the study actually
benefits from jumping into the
in-depth analyses that are its heart
and soul.
In his acknowledgements, Berra
welcomes any discussion that
arises from his book’s publication.
Since generating discussion is one
of independent cinema’s aims,
it feels particularly appropriate
and appreciated. The author is
clearly invested in this topic and
a follow-up book would be more
than welcome as there is plenty
left to discuss. A close study of
American independent cinema is
long overdue, and this painstaking
inquiry gets the ball rolling.
Christine Carr York is a recent graduate
of the Film Studies Department,
University of North Carolina
Wilmington. {
8+
Send us your letters
and feedback as we’d
love to hear from you.
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall
Road Fishponds, Bristol BS16
3JG iq@intellectbooks.com
IQ 2008 | 31
 “Many ideas grow better
when transported into
another mind than in the
one where they sprang up.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes

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