Alongside contributing to the sessions on Contemporary Research Strategies in Cultural Geography at the recent AAG meeting in LA, I also co-convened a session on Ludic Geopolitics with Jason Dittmer (UCL). The session was initially planned to be a stateside follow up to the Ludic Geographies sessions I co-convened with Fraser MacDonald (Edinburgh) at last year’s RGS-IBG conference. When reviewing the responses to the Call for Papers a clear theme around geopolitics emerged. This was ideal given our shared interest in geopolitics, games and play. Whilst my new research project concerns military action figures, Jason has recently been conducting research into Model UN and Statecraft.
Ludic Geopolitics
Playing video games: producing space?
Samuel Rufat (Cergy Pontoise, Paris)
Capturing the ‘feel of battle’: embodied states of play
Daniel Bos (Newcastle)
Danger zone: Digital city and the re-spatialization of geopolitics
Sylvain Munger (Ottawa)
Social irrealism, aesthetics and the political possibilities of video games
Joanne Sharp and Ian Shaw (Glasgow)
Discussant
Tara Woodyer
Acting as a discussant for the first time was a somewhat daunting task, especially as I was speaking to a room of scholars who no doubt know more about geopolitics than I do, my co-convenor included. It was, however, interesting to engage with each of the papers in this level of depth and think about how they work together and what areas for further attention might be drawn out. Three key areas for reflection/discussion/future work appeared to be particularly pertinent:
1. Research on gaming
The papers, Samuel Rufat’s in particular, pointed to the need to move beyond common assumptions about who is playing video games and where they play. This might include sketching out complexities surrounding target audiences and the actual age of players, dimensions of identity other than age that play a role in shaping practices of consumption and interaction, different/multiple relations with avatars, different/multiple modalities of play, and different terms of engagement and attention. This concern might also usefully extend to the popular moral debates about videogames, for example, how they reinforce violent subjectivities and act as propaganda and recruitment tools. Reflecting on TV news coverage of soldiers playing First Person Shooters in Camp Bastian, how would ‘real life’ military personnel respond to some of these debates? Geographers have a key role in sketching out these complexities, asking critical questions about spatialities and temporalities.
As part of these complexities, we also need to address the relationship between representational and more-than-representational aspects of videogames. This was particularly highlighted by Daniel Bos’s paper, which echoes my own on video games, albeit focusing on a different genre of game. Here it is pertinent to address video games as an interactive (albeit somewhat scripted) medium, and play as an embodied, autotelic practice. It is necessary to engage with gamers, employing methods that allow us to grasp the habitual and non-cognitive alongside the representational (as argued in my 2008 paper). As part of this, it is also necessary to address the role of the academic in gaming practice – as proficient player or novice – and the situated context of gaming, including gamers’ movements between mediated and non-mediated spaces, and their social interaction with other gamers. For instance, the children I worked with in my PhD research made sense of the video games they played in relation to wider socio-material practices of consumption and interaction that take place in non-mediated space. Similarly, Call of Duty players I have worked with enjoy sharing clips of their play on YouTube. In addition, more consideration needs to be given to the various genres of video game. Whilst geopolitics scholars might focus on First Person Shooters, we should not lose sight of their predecessors, and how gamers’ wider interactions with other game genres may help shape their practice.
The papers by Sylvain Munger and Jo Sharp also raised important questions about the place of video games in wider ethical-political practices: ethical decision-making and the imagining (and enactment) of different futures. Interestingly, these papers engaged with both utopian and dystopian registers. They also pointed to questions of production. What are the political intentions of designers with regards to the possibility of imagining different futures? If our role as academics is to intervene in our socio-material worlds, is there a case for academic games designers?
2. Play and Geopolitics
Play needs to be taken seriously in geopolitical study, as tools for recruitment and training, test beds for defence industry innovations, and strategies for legitimating and sustaining geopolitical logics. Whilst research into video games is obviously relevant, we need to ensure that we do not ignore the role of other kinds of games and toys in the development of geopolitical subjectivities. Here I’m thinking specifically of Jason’s work on Model UN and Statecraft and my own work on military action figures. This is not just a case of recognising the historical trajectories of digital forms of war play, but realising the continuing importance of other war toys. Taking play seriously in this way means appreciating the significance of everyday mundane practice and the more-than-textual in the study of geopolitics and security. This inevitably raises questions about how this kind of research is accepted within the wider field of critical geopolitics, as discussed in the session on feminist geopolitics at last year’s meeting in New York.
As attention turns to video games, it might also be productive to reflect on how these cultural products and associated practices relate to wider military-oriented digital practices surrounding GIS. For instance, one of my colleagues has been working with the Royal School of Military Survey to develop strategy-based exercises (such as Operation Brown Trousers!) for our GIS students. Having visited the School for the first time this year, I’m looking forward to finding out more about the use of games in their work. As Nick Megoran rightly pointed out in our session, we need to bear in mind whether we’re concerned with geopolitics and/or military geographies as we take some of the questions forward.
3. Ludic Geographies
The papers presented in the session spoke to a series of points raised in my work on ludic geographies more broadly. Firstly, the need to collapse the conceptual distance between reality and play: how play is both in and of the everyday; how emotions and affects experienced within play transfer into non-playing space-times; and how play helps shape futures.
The papers, particularly Sylvain’s, took my notion of the becoming-with of play to a new level. Sylvain’s discussion of how technology is changing the body of soldiers contrasted my sense of flow as affirmative, recasting it in terms of docility. Notwithstanding the importance of this idea, we need to ensure our attention to becoming-with technology doesn’t obscure other forms of flow. It is productive to take broader work on the ludic and apply it, and critically evaluate it in relation to gaming.
Jo and Ian’s paper on social irrealism spoke to my writing on the role of play in ethics, how it might prompt critical moral questions and forms of ethical generosity. This relates to wider questions about the role of play in affirmative forms of critique, which move beyond masterful knowing and moralistic judgement based on separation of the detached critic. This involves experimentation with new futures and aesthetic politics of invention.
Jo and Ian’s paper was based on their article recently published in Social and Cultural Geography: ‘Playing with the future: social irrealism and the politics of aesthetics’, 14(3), 341-359.
I look forward to seeing how the theme of ludic geopolitics develops.
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the legendary Dambusters raid where 19 Lancaster bombers took off from a runway in Lincolnshire to drop bouncing bombs in Nazi Germany’s industrial heartland. Whilst the RAF has marked this anniversary with a flypast over Derwent reservoir, a more grounded and geographical approach to commemoration might be to read Alastair Pearson’s paper, ‘Allied Military Model Making During World War II’. As a ludic geographer, the paper is interesting because of its engagement with the miniature and the practice of crafting models. The paper traces how terrain models handcrafted from basic materials by the Allies during World War II were an invaluable aid during key military operations, including the Dambusters raid. The model-making section of the British Army was formed as early as mid-1940, using professional and commercial artists, sculptors and architects on a voluntary basis. Pearson’s paper details the history of this development, alongside the various model contruction techniques employed. Models used in the planning of aerial bombing raids were typically of scales between 1:2,500 and 1:5,000, and paid particular attention to points of recognition that could be used for navigational purposes. The model used as part of the famous Dambuster raid is one that managed to survive the war. The raid involved the use of the purpose built bouncing bomb. Large-scale models of the target area were used as part of explosive tests in the development of this new weapon. More detailed models of the route and surrounding area were then used as an aid in training pilots in the precision of timing and position needed to achieve maximum effect with the bouncing bomb. Ground photos, intelligence information and aerial photography were use in the construction of these models, images of which have been reproduced in the paper.
Pearson, A.W. (2002) Allied Military Model Making during World War II, Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 29(3), 227-241.
Alternatively, you might like to mark the anniversary by making your own model of a Lancaster Bomber. Airfix have launched a new model range to mark the 70th anniversary of this iconic military operation.
Bringing the topics addressed by former blog posts together… A Lego re-make of Casino Royale currently doing the rounds on social media. Enjoy!
Having been available online for some time, our Progress in Human Geography paper, ‘(Re)enchanting geography? The nature of being critical and the character of critique in human geography’ is now in print, yay.
Abstract
Enchantment is a term frequently used by human geographers to express delight, wonder or that which cannot be simply explained. However, it is a concept that has yet to be subject to sustained critique, specifically how it can be used to progress geographic thought and praxis. This paper makes sense of, and space for, the unintelligibility of enchantment in order to encourage a less repressed, more cheerful way of engaging with the geographies of the world. We track back through our disciplinary heritage to explore how geographers have employed enchantment as a force through which the world inspires affective attachment. We review the terrain of the debate surrounding recent geographical engagements with enchantment, focusing on the nature of being critical and the character of critique in human geography, offering a new ‘enchanted’ stance to our geographical endeavours. We argue that the moment of enchantment has not passed with the current challenging climate; if anything, it is more pressing.
Our initial engagement with the theme of enchantment emerged through the organisation of two sessions – ‘Enchanting Geographies’ – at the RGS-IBG Annual Conference back in 2007. The sessions addressed the then ‘emerging’ geographies of enchantment; those moments, events and encounters that reveal the power of objects and sites to enchant, delight and enrapture. Counteracting Weberian tales of the disenchantment of the modern world, the sessions elaborated upon Jane Bennett’s exposition of enchantment as ‘a mood of fullness, plenitude, or liveliness, a sense of having had one’s nerves or circulation or concentration powers turned up or recharged – a shot in the arm, a fleeting return to childlike excitement about life’ (2001:5). Enchanting Geographies drew together work on affect and materiality to address questions of wonder, awe and magic in the everyday and beyond, exploring those objects and sites “which motivate inferences, responses and interpretations”(Thomas 1998). Extending Alfred Gell’s (1992) notion of technologies of captivation, the sessions reflected upon the sites and things of enchantment as encountered through research (contemporary and historical) within and beyond geography. If we’re open and honest, the idea for these sessions was dreamed up on the back of a beer mat after we escaped early from yet another seminar that left us feeling rather depressed in response to the approach it took to academic study. We never dreamed our CFP would receive the great response that it did, or that we’d be writing about enchantment in the way presented in our recent paper some five years later.
Enchanting Geographies I
Enchanting encounters: film, tourism and the geographies of ‘Middle Earth on Earth’
Danielle Smith
‘The joyous things in the shop windows make me stand and gape’: the enchanting register of 1930s retail display
Bronwen Edwards
Realising enchanted geographies: suspending the known, willing the unknown
Julian Holloway
Patio poetics: the prosaic pleasures of the domestic garden
Amanda Claremont
A very modern ghost: postcolonialism and the politics of enchantment
Cheryl McEwan
Enchanting Geographies II
Enchanted moments: the pleasures of technology enthusiasm
Hilary Geoghegan
Crystals, angels and tarot cards: placing re-enchantment in the everyday
Sara MacKian
Forging connections: tracing he fragmentary lives of tourist souvenirs
Nissa Ramsay
Taxidermy as a technology of enchantment
Merle Patchett
Discussant
Professor Clive Gamble
It’s interesting to read our paper alongside Chris Philo’s paper, ‘’A great space of murmurings’: madness, romance and geography’, in the same issue. Chris’s paper explores how Foucault’s Madness and Civilisation changed between versions, using this as a window onto certain ‘romantic’ currents within contemporary human geography. His paper is instructive on how meaning is lost with abridgement and translation. Indeed, he offers a different reading of Foucault to ours, tracing a phenomenology and romanticism that belies the structuralist accounts of Foucault’s work. Obscured from view is a phenomenology of dark space and engagement with the potential of addressing madness ‘in all its vivacity, before it is captured by knowledge’ (History of Madness xxxii, cited in Philo 2012). By tracing the resonances between the work of Foucault and the French poet Rene Char, one can sense how the former was inspired by a poetic sensibility. Hidden from the later versions of Foucault’s Madness and Civilisation is a wish to return to the vibrancy of unchecked human passions, the possibility of glimpsing other ways of being-in-the-world, and their potential for fuelling hopes for realising alternative realities. This earlier Foucault is one I would love to engage with. In relation to enchantment and our desire to emphasis its uncanny side, it would be great to delve into this dark space.
It is certainly encouraging that others see the benefits of returning to our disciplinary heritage for what it reveals about, and can offer our contemporary geographical endeavours.
From the snow of New York to the sun of Los Angeles. It’s that time of year again. Geographers from around the globe converging in an unsuspecting US city for a week of presentations, posters and parties. Not one to miss out on an opportunity to add a marker to my world map, I took it upon myself to not only present a paper, but to also organise a session, gulp.
The paper was based on my recently published co-authored article with Hilary Geoghegan (UCL), titled ‘Slowing the quick jump to explanation: making space for enchantment in cultural geography research’. It formed part of two sessions exploring Contemporary Research Strategies in Cultural Geography, co-convened by Nick Crane (Ohio State University) and Weronika Kusek (Kent State University), with Mona Domosh acting as discussant (Dartmouth).
Contemporary Research Strategies in Cultural Geography I
Scatter-shot: parsing ‘data in research in cultural geography
Kafui Ablode Attoh (Syracuse)
What maps tell and don’t tell: insights from mapping women in Tehran’s public spaces
Nazgol Bagheri (Missouri)
Toby Applegate (East Carolina)
Jacob Miller (Arizona)
Contemporary Research Strategies in Cultural Geography II
Slowing the quick jump to explanation: making space for enchantment in cultural geography research
Tara Woodyer (Portsmouth)
Scale, power and methodology: implications for doing historical political ecology in northern Canada
Kolson Schlosser (Slippery Rock)
Evoking landscape through ethnographic fiction
Matthew Jacobson (Missouri)
From journals to classrooms: walking the line between doing and teaching cultural geography
Jamie Winders (Syracuse)
The sessions provided an interesting mix of theory, practice and forms of critique, with discussion about how to take forward both research and teaching in cultural geography. In tune with our paper, the theme of experimentation ran through the sessions: a ‘field of dreams’ approach to planning using imaginary transit lines, GIS combined with ethnographic methods, following digressions, playing with scale, ethnographic fiction and using the unexpected in teaching. As I’m in the process of planning a new fieldcourse combining GIS and cultural geography, Nazgol Bagheri’s paper on Geo-ethnography was particularly interesting. I’m also looking forward to reading some of Matthew Jacobson’s ethnographic fiction and taking this idea forward in my own ethnographic research.
Meeting and getting to talk to Mona Domosh was a personal highlight, having heard so much about her work during my time at Royal Holloway’s Geography department. Having recently spent so much time delving into the work of the early humanistic geographers, meeting people who studied under them is really inspiring and instructive.
It was interesting that attention focused on teaching alongside research, specifically how to teach the more non-representational side of cultural geography. This was raised as a particular difficulty by the largely American panel and audience, with a sense that research and teaching were increasingly being pulled in different directions. It would have been interesting to see how the discussion would have developed if there had been a stronger British contingent present. Whilst I acknowledge the challenge of teaching the foundations of a sub-discipline that has dual ontological frameworks, I did find it troubling that there was a sense that theory and practice are distinct and non-representational geographies are best taught by taking students to places in which they ‘don’t belong’. There’s a danger here of slipping into a voyeuristic mode and reinforcing the force of structural constraints at the expense of addressing the more habitual, mundane aspects of everyday worlds, which are no less important despite the different senses of the political at play here. Being in Los Angeles, a city where social inequality is not merely evident, but rather jumps up and smacks you in the face, made this reflection all the more pertinent. Nonetheless, this discussion was timely as I’m in the process of planning sessions for my new Level 6 unit on cultural geographies.
Hilary and I are looking forward to writing a follow up piece to our Progress in Human Geography paper for a special issue of the Journal of Cultural Geography based on these conference sessions. Watch this space!
As an aside, I noticed Twitter style hashtags appearing in my notes for the first time. At I behind the times here? Probably…
#OverlyHonestMethods
#AccidentalCulturalGeographer
#FallingDownTheRabbitHole
#LifeOfPiApproach
Telling in and of themselves. Make of them what you will.
The Long Tail of Lego
Following my series of posts about Lego, I came across an interesting piece on The Long Tail of Lego in The Great Debate section of the Reuters website. It’s an excerpt from Chris Anderson’s (2012) Makers. The New Industrial Revolution which discusses examples of Maker business targeting niche markets that are often underserved by traditional mass manufacturing. The specfic example discussed in this excerpt is BrickArms, a small company that ‘goes where the Danish toy giant fears to tread’, namely Lego-scale hardcore weaponry. Chapman, the brainchild behind BrickArms is now able to comfortably support his family of five solely on Lego weapons sales. This relatively small-scale company solves two problems for Lego: 1) it is able to make products that wouldn’t sell in large enough quantities to justify full-scale Lego production; and 2) it offers products that are particularly desired by older children and thus keeps them engaging with Lego for longer. This long tail of Lego keeps the brand relevant to wider audiences without tarnishing the Danish company’s wholesome image. It is reported that Lego have even offered informal guidance on which plastics and manufacturing techniques to use. Worth a read (using the link above), and interesting from a Ludic Geopolitics point of view. Will no doubt be making its way into my teaching on economic/military geographies some time soon…
The Politics and Matter Research Group I am part of at the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol is hosting a workshop Tuesday 18th – Wednesday 19th December 2012 on the theme of Politics and Matter.
The two-day event is open to the public and will be held at the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol. We would like to invite researchers to attend the workshop, and to use the space to explore emerging problematics and dynamics pertaining to their own work and interests.
Only on rare occasions do my high heels get an airing. The arrival of the new Bond film in Portsmouth brought one such occasion. 24 hours ahead of general release, Gunwharf Quays was the site for a glamorous charity premiere. Picture the scene. Ladies and gents donning their black tie finery, being served champagne and canapés in Tiger Tiger by handsome young men in tuxedos, surrounded by navy officers in their ceremonials. Bond theme tunes are playing in the background, whilst the accompanying music videos are streamed on big TV screens. Outside sits shiny Aston Martins – the classic DB5 and the Vanquish. The lucky few even get to sit inside and rev the engine. With a sense of anticipation growing, men in military uniform escort us to the cinema where we collect our Haagen Daaz chocolate fondant ice-cream (being careful not to spill it on our posh frocks!) and take our seats. Following a brief introduction by the organiser, and a talk by the charity’s trustee, Dr Richard Wilson, Skyfall was shown in all its cinematic glory. No spoilers to be had here, all I will say is we thoroughly enjoyed it – the obligatory shenanigans, cheesy lines, amazing stunts and a few twists and turns. For me, Connery remains the ultimate Bond, however, Daniel Craig has made the character his own. The evening didn’t end with the credits rolling. It was back to Tiger Tiger for a VIP after party and hobnobbing with naval personnel.
But what has all this to do with the usual topics of discussion on this blog about material sensibilities?
Well, inspired by the film, I bounced (quite literally!) into work the following day eager to encourage students to think about the geographies of 007. Yes, you read that right, the geographies of 007. The obvious place to start was Klaus Dodds’s writing on the geopolitics of these iconic films.
Read a geopolitical review of Skyfall here:
Read Klaus Dodds’s reflections on 50 years of James Bond here:
Perhaps a more obvious geography of James Bond concerns the scenery and settings. See here:
My good friend, Hilary Geoghegan, has also posted photographs from her recent trip to Skyfall location, Glen Etive, on her own blog. Stunning!
This was just the start. Next came ludic geographies/geographies of branding, focusing on Barbie Bond Girls. I’ve never actually seen any of these in the (plastic) flesh, but discovered their existence when I stumbled across this 2002 issue of Barbie Bazaar at a toy fair. Two timeless icons of the 1960s brought together. Both have dabbled in glamorous hi-jinks on an international scale and crafted an endurable image that has been cleverly altered to adapt to modern times. Barbie is perhaps the epitome of a resilient beauty. Looking back to the vintage Bond films, one can even find examples of Bond Girls resembling Barbie dolls rather than vice versa. For instance, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) features Diana Rigg as Tracy Di Vincenzo wearing a wedding dress that appears to be a life-size copy of Barbie’s own ‘Jump into Lace’ from 1968.
This leads one to also think of geographies of gender and race. There have also been new releases to mark the new film and Bond’s 50th anniversary. Corgi has created a 1:36 scale replica model of the official Skyfall car, the iconic Aston Martin DB5. Scalextric have also released a Skyfall licensed Aston Martin DB5 and Range Rover Vogue SE. The makers of Furby have given the furry creature a 007 makeover. This once highly sought-after Christmas toy has been banned from National Security Agency premises in Maryland due to its embedded security chip. According to an anonymous Capitol Hill source, there is concern that due to their ability to repeat what they hear, Furbies could be taken home and talk about classified material.
This reminds us not to forget the gadgets, a key feature of any Bond film. Engineering and
Technology produced an espionage special for November. Beyond the gizmos there is another layer of technology to Craig’s depiction of our favourite secret agent – the pursuit of technological realism. This is a relief after the vanishing car of Die Another Day. A step too far for some, although Richard Hammond did demonstrate how this can be achieved in the Top Gear Bond Special (yes, I do tend to immerse myself in a topic, but why should boys get to play with the best toys?!). The arrival of Craig has heralded a shift in attitude to technology, with less emphasis on weird and wonderful gadgets and more attention to sophisticated communication systems to support agents in the field. This is marked by Skyfall’s Q reprising Bond: “I’ll hazard that I can cause more damage from my laptop, sitting in my pyjamas, than you can cause during a whole year in the field’. So, geographies of technology/cyberspace.
Read more about the ‘authenticity’ of Bond’s latest handgun (the Walther PPK with optical reader), implanted tracking systems (as seen in Casino Royale) and facial recognition (Quantum of Solace), the irony of tracking bank notes in Quantum of Solace given cutbacks in SIS budgets, and the legalities of SIM card analysis in Dan Bradbury’s ‘Licensed…to use mission-critical software’ article. If this doesn’t quench your thirst for Bond related techno-talk there’s further 007 inspired articles on real-life Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) ICT, robotic bugging devices, cyber crime and desktop deduction. There’s even a short fictional story that reinterprets classic Bond novels for the modern age, incorporating cutting-edge technologies into old plots. Think UAVs, DNA amplification, automatic number plate recognition, lensless cameras and hyperspectral imaging. That includes the likes of aerial drones and speed cameras for the uninitiated.
These various geographies have been compiled in a display taking centre stage in our departmental foyer.
Thanks to the geography students who have engaged with these ideas, the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths for organising the Portsmouth premiere and Klaus Dodds for introducing the discipline to Bond geopolitics.
References
In a previous post I mentioned that I had been lucky enough to watch a friend of mine create a series of Lego stop-motion animation videos inspired by London 2012. She has given me permission to post three of these, for which I am very grateful. Enjoy!
Of late, Lego has not only played a role in celebrations of sport, but has also had an impact on popular culture and art. Richard Gottlieb’s blog ‘Global Toy News’ alerted me to the Lego art of Nathan Sawaya. His Art of the Brick museum shows are currently touring North America, Asia and Australia. This is the first time major museum exhibitions have focused exclusively on the well-known plastic construction toy. Speaking about the exhibition, Sawaya comments:
“These works are very personal to me, since they reflect my growth as an artist as I strove to discover my creative identity. The museum exhibition is accessible because it engages the child in all of us while simultaneously illuminating sophisticated and complex concepts. Everyone can relate to the medium since it is a toy that many children have at home. But I want to elevate this simple plaything to a place it has never been before.”
Yellow
Melting Man
Lego has also inspired more fun pieces, for instance this adaptation of Van Gogh’s Self Portrait found on the Urban Retro Lifestyle website (thanks again RG).
Van Gogh Self Portrait
To this list, we might add the vast number of stop-motion animation shorts created using Lego and Lego mini-figures. The Guardian is usually good at creating these, but my current favourites are the Olympic inspired ones created by my friend – ranging from the likes of diving and relay races to the opening ceremony complete with fireworks. Having witnessed practice runs of these videos, I appreciate the time, effort and love of Lego that goes into creating these masterpieces. Hopefully I’ll be able to post at least one of the beauties soon, watch this space!
Why is the link between Lego and art important? As Richard Gottlieb points out, this activity emphasises the role of toys and the toy industry in the shaping of culture and society. At a time when increasing attention is being paid to geographies of craft, art and creativity, Lego deserves attention because of the boundaries it repeatedly blurs.
Of course, Lego is not alone in blurring these boundaries. One might also look to another iconic toy – Barbie – for examples, take for instance The Art of Barbie books.
