Media and Performance Studies

What might the world of work look like in 2050? There has been considerable debate about the impact of urbanisation and technology on social relations, spatial inequalities, and individual wellbeing in the context of work, particularly in the Global South. While ‘smart’ cities exemplify utopian ideals of technology-driven efficiency and innovation, the role of technology in the world of work is dynamic and contested. In September 2019, the Cities 2050: Urbanisation, Sustainability, and Mobility cluster in the HKU Faculty of Social Sciences organised a three-day international symposium supported by the British Sociological Association’s Work, Employment and Society journal. The event brought together an array of UK, Asia and Australia-based world-class social science scholars, to dialogue and critically reflect on the rapidly changing dynamics and multi-faceted effects of urbanisation, climate change, technological change and mass migration in the context of work, offering new insights into the social relations and problems derived from the emerging worlds of work, the changing nature of the urban, and the intensifying complexity of cities across the global North and South divide.

http://www.socsc.hku.hk/cities2050/wes/

This paper discusses collaborative practice within creative industries and the socio-technical benefits of being ‘artsy’ with an entrepreneurial mindset, rather than focusing on short-term financial predictions. Riding the ever-rising wave of the arts, it is imperative to acknowledge that the creative empire is hungry for fresh intellect and innovative minds, and STEAM is heading towards quenching the thirst for pioneering practices.

Rumen Rachev’s performance “undoes” the intellectual labour of a PhD student by unsettling the emerging conventions, or systemization of practice-led-research (Buckley and Conomos 2009; Hasman 2006). Rather than following an orderly approach to practice-led research, Rachev’s fluid methodologies (Coleman and Ringrose 2013; Koro-Ljungberg 2016) promote un examen minutieux of what is meant by the ‘production of knowledge’ in the Art and Design field. Through questioning the role of critique in the academic domain, and examining the undoing the academic self via performance, this paper provides an insight into the relations between institutional critique and academic labour, while using the academia as the main stage.

The key role and the importance of arts and culture in shaping today’s creative economy and bringing vibrant range of creative and cultural activities to the public has been steadily growing in the past few years. This paper investigates the question of how design research contributes to belonging and wellbeing, specifically in the context of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Through a proposed three-folded structure: a) Toi Whītiki in Action, b) Aotearoa – New Zealand and Education Context, and c) Student Case Studies, this paper delves deeper into student creative projects and city co-design practices to enhance a city’s status of wellbeing and engagement with diverse culture.

A Note from the Editor: Essentials John Fletcher
Theatre Topics, Volume 31, Number 2, July 2021, pp. ix-xii (Article) Published by Johns Hopkins University Press

A Note from the Editor: Essentials
As those readers who saw the original call for papers know, my initial plans for a 2021 special issue centered on the notion of intimacy. I imagined a slate of pieces about intimacy choreography on stage and screen, intimacy awareness in theatre classrooms, and intimate ruminations about the ever-fascinating transactions between performers and audiences, between dramatic events and the places that house them, and between projects that speak to and with one another across time and space. That was in March 2020.

Essentials in Three Acts: Collaboration, Care, Time by Shawn Chua, Sozita Goudouna, Adham Hafez, Eero Laine, Sarah Lucie, Juliana Moraes, Malin Palani, Rumen Rachev, and Leah Sidi

The following is not an article. Nor is it a play, despite its structure. To some extent, it is a performance and an experiment. It was written collaboratively over a three-month period by a group of performance-makers and performance scholars in response to the difficulties of writing and studying during the pandemic. Following a cancelled international conference, we wrote from five different continents in moments of crisis shaped by personal, political, and geographical particulari- ties. Meeting over Zoom, we shared our fears for our industries, our communities, and our personal griefs. We also sought to think together in response to Theatre Topics’ call for articles on “Theatre Essentials.” Prior to this work, many of us did not know one another, although some had worked together through other projects and academic gatherings. The call to consider the essentials of the- atre has opened possibilities for us to examine what remains of theatre and our own work, as well as how a discipline and field might coalesce when gathering in person is considered a dangerous act.