iq

Intellect Quarterly / thinking in colour

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magazine no. 9

Serious Play
Louise Peacock demonstrates
that clowning is not as
marginalized as we might think

Transnational
Cinemas
The editors discuss forming a
journal across three continents

Aesthetic
Investigations
Alfredo Cramerotti discusses journalism
in the contemporary art world

Screen
Education
Terry Bolas reflects on the days when
screen education was just a phase
intellect news reviews features interviews
Call for Submissions

MUSIC Intellect seeks to expand its portfolio of publications in the

area of contemporary music studies. We champion innovative
scholarly work at the cross section of arts, media and creative
practice. Since 1986, Intellect has provided a vital space for
widening critical debate in new and emerging subjects.

Intellect welcomes book proposals from both new and

experienced authors producing original, adventurous
academic work in the areas of contemporary music research.

To send us your book proposals, please download a

questionnaire from our website (www.intellectbooks.com), or
contact books@intellectbooks.com for further information.

PHOTOGRAPHY Since 1986, Intellect has provided a vital space for widening
critical debate in new and emerging subjects. As a leading
academic publisher in the fields of creative practice and
popular culture, Intellect has a strong list of visual culture
and contemporary art focused publications. We aim to
offer a platform for creative artists to present and critically
reflect on their work. Intellect welcomes proposals from
both new and experienced authors producing original,
Call for Submissions

adventurous critical work in areas of contemporary

photography. Intellect seeks to encourage visual reflection
on photography, to marry photographic work and critical
texts, and to represent an equal balance between the two
forms.

To send us your book proposals, please download a

questionnaire from our website (www.intellectbooks.com),or
contact books@intellectbooks.com for further information.

2 | Thinking in Colour

Contents
10
Author Alfredo Cramerotti
discusses journalism in the
contemporary art world
16
Transnational Cinemas editors,
Armida de la Garza and Claudia
Magallanes-Blanco talk about the
conception of the journal
18
The role of clowning in modern day
society, explored by author Louise
Peacock
20
Journal editor Enric Castelló on the
Catalan Journal of Communication
and Cultural Studies
Contents
4 News in Brief
5 North America News in Brief
The latest on Intellect’s expansion
7 IQ Interview
The spotlight turns on Intellect’s
Design Consultant, Gabriel Solomons
8–9 Reviews
Tasters of Intellect publications in the
press over the past year
13–14 Author Terry Bolas on the
changing profile of film and media
studies in the UK
22–23 Editor Hamish Fyfe describes
the formation of the Journal of Arts and
Communities
24–25 Author Pat Francis explores
the conundrum at the heart of art and
design education
26–27 Editors Aarti Wani, Jyotsna
Kapur and Alka Kurian reflect on
Studies in South Asian Film and Media
29–30 Editor Winston Mano on the
role of media in Africa
Publisher: Masoud Yazdani
Editor: Sam King
Designer: Holly Rose
IQ / Thinking in Colour
Intellect Ltd.
The Mill, Parnall Rd,
Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG
Tel: 0117 9589910
ISSN 1478-7350 www.intellectbooks.com
©2009 Intellect Ltd. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, copied, transmitted in any form or by any
means without permission of the publisher. Intellect accept
no responsibility for views expressed by contributors to IQ;
or for unsolicted manuscripts, photographs or illustrations;
or for errors in articles or advertisements.
IQ | 3
intellect news reviews features interviews

News
in Brief
5Directories 5Twitter
We have now launched the Directory of World Cinema, Along with our new website, Intel-
adding a new dimension to the academic study of film. The lect has invested in numerous types
Directory of World Cinema – which is split into regions such of social media; we are now ‘tweeting’,
as Japanese, French and Iranian cinema – is at present a free ‘blogging’ and ‘msging’ to keep you up-
online repository where anyone can search for or add an en- to-date, promote creative thinking and
try. Intellect has committed to publishing six regional print foster discussion. So come and join us
editions in 2010; these edited volumes will contextualize online! www.twitter.com/intellectbooks
and expand on the pre-existing database. Take a look: www. For more information about all our
worldcinemadirectory.org. social media go to: http://tiny.cc/rSdLa.

5New Website 5The Big Picture 5Expansion

We have upgraded and redesigned the
Intellect website to increase functional-
ity and improve appearance, incorpo-
rating Web 2.0 features and expanding
our capacity to interact with our com-
munity of authors, editors and readers.
In engineering the new site we worked
with a global contingent of specialists,
including developers from Tehran and
designers from Fishponds (Bristol).
5Subject Areas
After much discussion, Intellect has
taken the decision to re-name the four
subject areas we publish in to create
a less restrictive and more inclusive
system for organizing our subjects. In-
tellect’s four subject areas are now: film
studies; visual arts; performing arts;
and cultural & media studies.
Our unique film magazine The Big Pic-
ture was launched this year and is avail-
able free, both as a download and from
a vast array of locations including the
BFI Filmstore as well as Curzon and
Picturehouse cinemas. Proving ‘there’s
more to film than meets the eye’, this
visually focused magazine goes beyond
the boundaries of the screen to provide
an original take on the cinematic ex-
perience. For further information visit:
www.thebigpicturemagazine.com.
At Intellect we aim to provide a vital
space for widening critical debate in
new and emerging subjects through an
innovative range of publications. Our
portfolio of journals is set to expand in
2010 with seventeen new titles being
added to our pre-existing collection; this
will create a total of 64 individual jour-
nals, each focusing on a highly special-
ized and often poorly represented area
of study. In 2009 we have also published
41 books in both print and electronic
form, and have started to develop a
photography list, which seeks to balance
critical reflection and visual content.
5Australia
As of May 2009 Intellect entered into a
new partnership with Inbooks, who are
now distributing our books in Austra-
lia and New Zealand. See page 6 for
more details.

4 | Thinking in Colour
 News

North America
News in Brief
5Conferences: CAA
Intellect had a presence at several academic conferences in North America this
year, including the College Art Association’s annual meeting, which took place in
February in Los Angeles, California. In previous years, Intellect titles have been
displayed and sold at CAA within the University of Chicago Press booth (our
North American distributors). This year, we decided to have our very own booth,
and with great results. The Intellect booth allowed us to have more space to
display our ever-growing list of visual arts books and journals, and also to get the
word out about Intellect (our arresting covers and range of titles stopped many
a browser in their tracks!). It was a great opportunity for us to meet new, exist-
ing and potential authors and editors, share the Intellect ethos, get feedback, and
generally be a part of the North American academic art world. 5Conferences: ICA
We were also at the International
Communication Association’s annual
conference, which took place in May,
in the heart of downtown Chicago on
the Magnificent Mile. The theme of
the meeting was ‘Keywords in Com-
munication’, focusing on the central
ideas and shared terms in communi-
cation which have remained relevant
5Wilmington Office 5Film Matters over time, and are valued in the field.
Intellect has now established a new Film Matters, a new magazine pub- Intellect authors and editors in at-
editorial office in North America. The lished by Intellect in partnership with tendance included Sonia Livingstone
office is based at the Department of the film studies department at the Uni- (ICA President 2007–2008), editor of
Film Studies at the University of North versity of North Carolina, Wilmington, Audiences and Publics and co-author
Carolina Wilmington. In addition to seeks papers written by undergraduate of Harm and Offence in Media Content;
the benefits we enjoy by having a base film scholars for its inaugural issue. Winston Mano, editor of the Journal of
on the other side of the Atlantic, the This call is open to any undergraduate African Media Studies; Nico Carpen-
partnership will offer unique oppor- student currently enrolled at an institu- tier, co-editor of Reclaiming the Media,
tunities for Intellect, including the tion of higher learning worldwide and and Towards a Sustainable Information
publication of a new undergraduate working towards a bachelor’s degree in Society, and series editor of the ECREA
academic journal called Film Matters. any field. Any original piece of written book series; Jan Servaes, editor of The
scholarship, involving film criticism, European Information Society and co-
history or theory, will be considered for editor of Towards a Sustainable Infor-
publication. mation Society.
IQ | 5
intellect news reviews features interviews
New Book Distribution
Inbooks are now publicizing
and distributing our books in
Australia and New Zealand
Since 1 May 2009, Intellect has entered
into a new distribution arrangement
with Inbooks, who are now publicizing
and distributing our books in Australia
and New Zealand.
Directory of World Cinema
We have now launched the
Directory of World Cinema,
adding a new dimension to the
academic study of film
directory of
world
cinema
6 | Thinking in Colour
Inbooks is a Sydney-based distributor
for international publishers of scholarly
and academic books. They provide a
comprehensive marketing and distri-
bution service to the trade, academic
and library markets in Australia and
New Zealand. Inbooks represents an
extensive number of academic publish-
ers, ranging from prestigious university
presses to library science, scholarly and
reference publishers.
Intellect has published a number of
new books recently, offering critical de-
bate on issues related to contemporary
culture and creative practice in these
countries, including Diasporas of Aus-
As an academic publisher of subjects
related to creative media, Intellect has
established a strong reputation in the
field of cinema studies through its book
and journal programmes. We are ex-
cited about the launch of an innovative
project, which will bring a new dimen-
sion to the academic study of film – the
Directory of World Cinema.
The project consists of three compo-
nents:
5The pre-print web-based database,
which will facilitate content collection
and provide free access to the content.
5A series of around 24 print volumes,
each of about 300 pages, covering a
world region. Each volume will be pub-
lished bi-annually without the duplica-
tion of material between each edition.
tralian Cinema, Developing Dialogues:
Indigenous and Ethnic Community
Broadcasting in Australia and Austra-
lian Post-War Documentary Film: An
Arc of Mirrors. We actively welcome
new book proposals from authors and
editors based in this region.
Inbooks contact and order information:
Locked Bag 535 Frenchs Forest
NSW 2086
Tel: +61 2 9986 7082
Fax: +61 2 9986 7090
Email: orders@inbooks.com.au
www.inbooks.com.au
5Post-publication online PDFs of
the published material that is sold to
libraries.
5The directory is intended to play a
part in the distribution of academic
output by building a forum for the
study of film from a disciplined theo-
retical base. Each volume will cover the
cinema of a particular world region,
and will offer film reviews, longer es-
says and research resources.
Visit: www.worldcinemadirectory.org
Where you can:
5Learn more about the project.
5Comment on any of the reviews.
5Write your own film or director
reviews.
5Offer to edit a volume of the directory.

What is your current role at Intellect?
At the moment I am Intellect’s Design
Consultant.
What inspired you to enter graphic
design?
Most probably comic books or graphic
novels. I used to collect them as a kid
and I really liked the typography and
the whole visual, graphic approach. I
didn’t know it was called graphic art
back then, but I thought the vibrancy
of the imagery and the use of typog-
raphy was great and I used to spend
hours tracing the covers trying to get
exactly the same effect. It wasn’t until
I was probably about fifteen that I
started to understand what it was all
about. I started to pay more attention
to adverts and magazines and thought
that perhaps this is something I’d like
to go into.
How is your role as a Senior Lecturer
at UWE different to your role at
Intellect?
There’s a very different discipline to
teaching than designing for clients. As
a lecturer you can’t simply teach your
own style. You have to be a lot more
open to the way people are learn-
ing and be responsive to individual
approaches. There’s been this whole
development over the last five years in
education, which has been a shift from
Comic Books or
Graphic Novels...
What has inspired our Design Consultant Gabriel Solomons
a teaching method (top-down), more
to a learning method (bottom-up), so
it’s really trying to understand the way
that people learn in order to be an ef-
fective educator.
It’s a different way of thinking than
the way that I approach my own work,
or when I’m doing work for a client.
I think with teaching you really need
to engage with and understand the
strengths individual students have and
try to bring those to the surface. It’s a
challenging area to work in that brings
a great sense of reward when you feel
that people are really engaging with
the subject and finding their passion –
finding out what they can achieve, and
what they can accomplish.
The downside, for me at least, is the
general attitude to the importance of
teaching in this country. It still seems
to be deemed as something that is not
as vital or as important as I think it
should be. It’s strange really consider-
ing the fact that an increasing amount
of practising designers are making a
conscious choice to involve themselves
more in teaching, seeing the value of
playing a part in the development of
future designers. The designers that
I most admire and respect are those
that are involved in education. To be
responsible in any kind of job, or with
any skill that you’ve got, it’s good to try
Interview
to put something that you’ve learned
back into the community and pass on
to the next generation, as opposed to
constantly focusing simply on your
own work. It’s important to have a bal-
ance of the two, and that’s why I don’t
teach full time, I do a bit of both.
What is your vision for Intellect’s
future?
I think Intellect has changed a lot
and has developed since I joined the
company five years ago. In terms of my
own input, there’s more of a cohesive
visual identity coming through which
was somewhat lacking before – more
of a unified ‘voice’ that bridges the
print and web sides of the company.
The most interesting developments
I’m currently seeing in terms of the
company’s growth as a whole are into
different areas such as contract pub-
lishing, which are areas of particular
interest to me. But there are challenges
inherent in this area because I believe
that the most successful companies are
the ones that capitalize on their core
strengths, which, in Intellect’s case, are
academic books and journals. Initiat-
ing new, more mainstream publishing
pursuits such as our recent film maga-
zine, The Big Picture, are riskier but I’m
excited to see what is going to happen
and to see if some of these projects can
become a success.
IQ | 7
intellect news reviews features interviews
Why We Make Art
And Why it is Taught
By Richard Hickman
£14.95, $30 | Paperback
ISBN 9781841501260
‘We should welcome and
inwardly digest this excellent
book that examines the
necessity for art as a basic
human need.’
Antony Gormley, Artist, London
Why We Make Art And Why it is
Taught has been a major influence
in my career as an artist and an art
educator. The depth of research that
Dr Hickman has undergone in the
areas of creativity and self-esteem
have impacted my way of thinking in
a most positive manner. His ideas on
our capacity to notice, understand and
communicate visually, should be a part
of every artist/educator’s pedagogy.
Julie Stanek, Art Educator, Memphis,
Tennessee
8 | Thinking in Colour
Reviews
Erudite, challenging and profound...
Journal of Adaptation
in Film and
Performance
Editors: Prof Richard J.Hand &
Dr Katja Krebs
ISSN: 17536421
2008 | 3 issues per volume
JAFP has more to offer, however, than
well-written pieces on adaptation quite
broadly conceived. The contributions by
practitioners and the reviews of major
new publications in the field are uniformly
useful, revealing the presence of very wise
and in-touch editors. JAFP is a high-
quality academic publication, beautifully
produced and printed. It should play a
major role in the continuing development
of adaptation studies as the most excit-
ing anti-discipline on the current cultural
studies scene. R. Barton Palmer
Image Critique
& the Fall of the Berlin
Wall
By Sunil Manghani
£19.95, $40 | Paperback
ISBN 9781841501901
Manghani’s Image
Critique & the Fall of the Berlin Wall
is a magnificent encounter between
visual images of the fall of the wall and
the most sensitively acute intellectual
theories about images; between the
critical analysis of images and the criti-
cal thought that such images engender;
between reflection as serious consider-
ation of the fall of the wall and reflec-
tion as what happens when the images
look back at us. Manghani crafts a
novel form of image critique out of
richly metaphorical writing, theoreti-
cal depths and carefully orchestrated
images. He performs in a blend of
scholarly and personal prose an edify-
ing experience of history, visual culture
and criticism. The brilliant flash of
lightning that inspires this book makes
music of the long roll of thunder heard
in these inspiring pages.Jon Simons,
Indiana University

Journal of Writing in Creative Practice
Editors: John Wood and Julia Lockheart
Vol. 1 issues 1.1 and 1.2
ISSN: 17535190
3 issues per volume
The Journal of Writing in Creative Prac-
tice is the ‘official organ’ of the Writing
PAD (Writing Purposefully in Art and
Design) network, founded six years ago
by Julia Lockheart and John Wood at
Goldsmiths, University of London.
As a participant member of several
highly rewarding Writing PAD confer-
ence events, I am pleased to see this new
publication take up and take forward the
issues and concerns of a growing con-
stituency of interest in writing within cre-
ative practice. Having just completed its
first volume this journal already occupies
a particularly necessary critical niche in
the ever-growing panoply of titles in the
creative industries’ field.
The ambitious editorial pledge is to
support writing not just ‘for’ and ‘in’ (as
one might anticipate) art, craft, designing
and performance but also ‘as’ art, craft,
designing and performance. With the
current heat now gently simmering in
the debate on methodology in practice-
based Ph.D.s and in the role of writing
and research within arts education in
general, there is no doubt that this jour-
nal is poised to make a timely contribu-
tion to the discourse in this contested
field.
The journal is a gripping read; erudite,
challenging, at times playful and on occa-
sions profound.
Claire Scanlon, Northbrook College,
Sussex. This review was first published in
Networks 08, 2009
The Trustus Plays
By Jon Tuttle
£14.95, $30 | Paperback
ISBN 9781841502243
Jon Tuttle is a writer of
great humor, compassion and human-
ity. He writes about people in the midst
of discovering each other and, in turn,
themselves. What he finds in them are
stories rife with bracing complexity
and an aching sadness.
David Lindsay-Abaire, winner of the
2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
The Place of Artists’
Cinema
Space, Site and Screen
By Maeve Connolly
£19.95, $40 | Paperback
ISBN 9781841502465
Maeve Connolly is the first film scholar
in any language to explicate in depth
contemporary artists’ insights on the
cinema, new media, photography and
cinephilia. She engages the special-
ist as well as the educated reader, by
addressing the difference between
information and translation, anima-
tion and re-enactment in the context
of major art exhibitions all over the
world. In discussing installations, im-
mersions, performances and interactive
experiences, Connolly demonstrates
the central placement of the cinema as
the source of creative and conceptual
inspiration for the media of the future.
Angela Dalle Vacche, Professor of Film
Studies, Georgia Institute of Technology
Reviews
Issues in Curating
Contemporary
Art and Performance
Editors: Judith Rugg and
Michèle Sedgwick
£29.95, $60 | Hardback
ISBN 9781841501628
In the last decade the boundaries
between the artist and the curator have
become more ambiguous: artists have
adopted curatorial roles in staging
their work and conversely curators
have become increasingly directorial
in their approach to the gallery show
as a conceptually driven project. At the
same time the developing audit cul-
ture in the field of research has slowly
infiltrated the art and design sector
as a whole, putting greater emphasis
on the need to articulate the curato-
rial process as one that is linked to the
production of knowledge. This set of
essays explores some of the tensions in
these positions, exploring not only the
way in which this set of events impacts
upon different contemporary practices,
but also how these different practices
each raise very particular issues of
authorship, intervention and control.
Theoretical issues are explored by a
number of authors, with new contri-
butions by writers such as JJ Charles-
worth, Jane Rendell and Paul O’Neill,
but one of the distinctive aspects of the
volume is the emphasis upon detailed
case studies of curatorial projects that
emphasize the complexity of the terrain
within which curators are operating.
It will make a valuable contribution to
debate in this area.
Joanna Lowry, The University of Brighton
IQ 9 | 9
intellect news reviews features interviews
Aesthetic
Investigations
Alfredo Cramerotti invites us to imagine journalism
and art as a multilayered single activity
There is today an emergent mode of journalism
which does not pass through broadcast or media
news, yet reaches a (specialized, but consistent)
worldwide audience. It is a mode of research,
produce, and distributed ‘knowledge’ on histories
and situations which uses the globalized circuits
of art exhibitions, biennials, film festivals, cultural
celebrations, and so forth. This reception and redis-
tribution of information affects our idea of the way
we know things about the world, and about our-
selves. The interaction between art and journalism
has developed to the point of forming a new mode
of journalism, an ‘aesthetic journalism’, varying in
intensity according to the degree of journalistic
method applied by the artist.
Imagine journalism and art as a multilayered
single activity, rather than clear-cut separated
fields. Journalism provides a view on things, art a
view on the view, feeding back on the first. Even if
10 | Thinking in Colour
one is a coded system that speaks for the truth (or
so it claims), and the other a set of activities that
questions itself at every step (or so it claims), both
are methods of representation and mediation for
what is our human condition. When a journalist
undertakes an investigation, (s)he selects a number
of images and words out of a continuum of life (a
subtraction from a huge and complex number of
relations and processes – what we call ‘reality’).
When an artist makes an artwork, (s)he creates
a narrative where there was none (an addition to
reality). The flux between adding and subtracting
creates the environment in which we live. In terms
of representation, very little changes if a story is
factual or fictional – an account and a depiction
is produced. What changes dramatically, however,
is how this story is told and distributed, and the
consequences that will affect our behaviour.
Reality and its representation
Since the Age of Enlightenment – when to ad-
dress public interest was of primary concern for
the bourgeois – the profession of the journalist
has become an object of negotiation. It implies to
some degree an ethical stance: to serve the high-
est number of people possible, and to be a witness
of history, but not its maker. In this process, the
journalist may or may not denounce her biased
view, and the fallibility in the pursuing of truth;
now there is a constant conciliation between the
sources of information, the employer’s interests,
the power exerted over the subject of the reporting,
and over the audience, but also the expectations by
the very public it serves. This negotiation between

multiple terms is the reason why, today, journalism
is conducted in the pressroom, and not on the field.
As something (we are told) happens somewhere,
we get instant access to broadcasted footage in real
time, mediated by experts that comment on the live
feed of the images, and by digital editors that mix,
overlap, crop and insert graphics and running texts.
What we get in omniscience, we lose in context
and sense. We no longer know in which situation
something takes place, since the context is very
much constructed, mediated and delivered to the
viewer for consumption: more news, at any time;
more journalism, universally coded; more events,
thanks to the multiplication of newsworthiness. We
have reached the point of metamedia – the explana-
tory industry. We consider everything as either
reliable or manipulated, and depend for judge-
ment on media watchers and critics, commentary
programmes, articles on the interpretation of other
articles, and so on. In this context, to explain means
also to influence.
Aesthetic Investigations
If journalism constantly struggles between its
‘mission’ and its power position, art, on the other
hand, is no less implicated in a dualism: artists are
keen to appeal to a particular audience (the art
audience of the globalized circuits), pursuing at
the same time something beyond the artistic field,
‘more real than reality’. Often non-fiction work by
artists is uncritically taken for reliable information,
as a valid counter-account to media journalism.
However, since an act of interpretation is never neu-
tral, art and journalism find themselves on the same
level regarding the narratives they propose; this
brings us back to my earlier invitation to imagine
a notion of information that includes an aesthetic
approach to reality.
An aesthetic approach to journalism
Here we see the value of journalism ‘being’ aes-
thetic, rather than journalism ‘using’ aesthetic
means (which it does very well and always has
done). Journalism is necessary for us to deal with a
g
IQ 9 | 11
intellect news reviews features interviews
growing complex civilization, separations of roles
and procedures in administration, science, culture,
and technology; it has become the modus operandi
for dealing with that which cannot be experienced
first-hand. Since the journalistic attitude is so suc-
cessful in proposing the model ‘as’ the event, it has
spread in many other areas outside the journalistic
field, setting the boundaries of normalcy for both
representation and reality. In this sense, the jour-
nalist is an artisan, someone who carefully designs
information (declaring or not its distortion) in
order to present an understandable picture of the
world ‘out there’.
Art and journalism are therefore two sides of a
unique activity­, which generates a main question: is
it possible to work with aesthetics, to allow mean-
ing based on the viewer’s interpretation, and still be
informative, precise, and relevant? If truth-telling is
shifting from news to art, how can we negotiate the
confinement of art within the boundaries of institu-
tions, biennials, and a few public projects?
Aesthetic journalism, in my view, should work
on the border of reality and fiction, using docu-
mentary techniques and journalistic methods but
self-reflecting on those means; ultimately, it is not
about delivering information but questioning it,
reversing the tradition of both fields (art and jour-
nalism). An activity – either produced by artists or
journalists – that queries the realm of fiction as the
site of imagination, and that of journalism as a site
for reality. The hybridization of journalism with art
adopts imagination, narrative, and abstraction to
implement the research and delivering of informa-
tion; it does not attempt to be objective at all costs,
nor discard creativity in favour of neutrality. Here,
we start to get closer to the core of reality itself
when we make our reality not a given, irreversible
fact, but a possibility among many others.
The possible horizon of meaning
Aesthetics is about what our senses experience;
aesthetic investigation becomes a tool to question
both the selection of the material delivered to us,
and the specific reasons for why things are selected.
Cultural production in general, and art in particu-
lar, is increasingly at the forefront of understand-
ing the world we live in. If in the 1950s or 1960s,
12 | Thinking in Colour
the economic mechanisms were the main referent
for our experience as members of a given society
(either in terms of conformity or antagonism),
this is no longer the case. Today cultural dynamics
play an increasingly important role, and criteria of
economic achievement are no longer sufficient for a
proper comprehension of phenomena like, to name
one of the most abused terms, the ‘clash of civiliza-
tions’. It seems we have to rethink society bottom-
up, and readdress many of our referents in cultural,
even aesthetic terms. Not surprisingly, multination-
als and corporations put huge effort into reinvest-
ing their profits in cultural and artistic projects, in
order to create a ‘culture’ that can travel beyond
national schemes and monetary value.
The last generation of artists feel they cannot
leave a commitment to social and political mean-
ing outside their practice, and embrace strategies
of production and distribution of work outside the
specific constraints of art. This trait could shape
the future view of the world, via a re-adaptation (in
artistic terms) of journalism and the news industry.
But rather than abandoning the aesthetic approach
in search of a journalistic neutrality, the real chal-
lenge is to ‘contaminate’ one with the other, making
it impossible to distinguish the two approaches and
therefore ‘alerting’ the viewer about the mecha-
nisms at play in representation and reporting.
Whether this will become the essential feature for
our understanding of the world, only time will tell
us.
Alfredo Cramerotti,
April 2009, www.alcramer.net
Further Reading
Aesthetic Journalism
How to Inform Without Informing
By Alfredo Cramerotti
£19.95, $35 | Paperback
ISBN 9781841502687
As the art world eagerly embraces a journalistic approach,
Aesthetic Journalism explores why contemporary art exhibitions
often consist of interviews, documentaries and reportage. This
new mode of journalism is grasping more and more space in
modern culture and Cramerotti probes the current merge of art
with the sphere of investigative journalism.

Screen Education
Terry Bolas discusses the days when screen
education was just a phase
How did you come to write Screen
education: from film appreciation to
media studies?
I had been very involved in the Society
for Education in Film and Television
(SEFT) in the 1960s when serious
consideration of film and television
took place only at the margins of
educational establishments. Yet by the
start of the twenty-first century the
study of the media, in all its variety,
was everywhere. It was such a star-
tling denouement that I was intrigued
and determined to investigate. What
surprised me was that no one had yet
taken up the challenge. For the many
film and media studies graduates seek-
ing doctorates, it was research that
offered tremendous scope. I did subse-
quently come across other researchers
looking into related areas like aspects
of the Film Society movement or local
film and cinema history. Perhaps it
was simply that media teaching was
now such an integral part of institu-
tions that its graduates had no more
curiosity about its provenance than an
English or history graduate would have
had about the institutional establish-
ment of their respective studies.
Why does your account of the history
start so early in the twentieth
century?
The momentum of the movement
picked up greatly in the 1970s and
most of the brief introductory histori-
cal accounts that do exist tend to make
only the scantest reference to preceding
decades. But the huge investment of
energy that took place in the 1970s was
only possible because of the structures
created by what had gone before. I was
aware of this because I had known –
Interview
and in some cases worked with – those
who had been pioneers in the 1930s
and 1940s. Subsequently much of the
momentum in the 1950s had come
from the ‘emergency trained’ teachers
who had attended the one-year courses
for ex-service personnel in the imme-
diate post-war period. They continued
to play important roles as volunteers
in the movement when I first became
involved. They established the Society
of Film Teachers (SFT), which sub-
sequently became SEFT. Fortunately
there is surviving and accessible evi-
dence of their involvement to be found
in the publications of the period: Film
Teacher, The Film Teacher’s Handbook,
Screen Education, Screen Education
Yearbook.
What were your sources?
When I first proposed my project I had
g
IQ | 13
intellect news reviews features interviews
worked on the assumption that the
two key organizations, the education
department of the British Film Institute
(BFI) and SEFT would have left sub-
stantial archives. Unfortunately this
was not so. There were partial archives
which were now being stored and
maintained with proper recognition of
their importance. But the current host
archiving bodies had only been in a
position to receive the material passed
to them; they had had no control over
what constituted the incoming docu-
mentation. I was particularly disap-
pointed that the SFT/SEFT records
from the 1950s and 1960s had disap-
peared, since I had acted as custodian
of these documents when I was the
Honorary Secretary of SEFT up until
1967.
For me the process of research was
rather different from that encountered
by most researchers. Since so much
of my enquiry depended on personal
recollection I found myself interview-
ing people whom I had known or
worked with some 35 years ago. The
response of my interviewees was a very
positive one, since many were aware of
the key period in which they had been
involved and understandably thought
having an account of it was a good
idea. Many were prepared to share
with me not only their recollections but
their personal media-teaching archives.
Apart from your involvement with
SEFT you worked in the education
department of the British Film
Institute in the late 1960s and early
1970s. What are your recollections of
that period?
The key figure at that time was Paddy
Whannel who headed the department.
Like several of the SEFT activists, he
had been trained as a teacher in the
immediate post-war period. While
encouraging the members of his staff
14 | Thinking in Colour
to develop their specialist areas of film
criticism, he was committed to finding
ways of introducing film and television
study into schools. When he and Stu-
art Hall produced their groundbreak-
ing book, The Popular Arts, in order
to give credibility to their enterprise,
the dust jacket emphasized that each
author had been a teacher in secondary
modern schools. Unfortunately BFI
governors demonstrated more con-
cern at Whannel’s drive for intellectual
rigour among his colleagues than to his
commitment to curriculum develop-
ment in schools.
Why did you leave the BFI and return
to teaching?
Those whose careers have been con-
sequent on their earning degrees in
film or media should be aware that
there was no such career structure for
teachers or lecturers until film and
media studies began to be established
in higher education in the late 1970s.
For most of us ‘screen education’ was a
phase we went through before return-
ing to a more conventional career path
in order to achieve promotion in teach-
ing or further education. Subsequently,
once in a post at a school, I always
endeavoured to find ways to introduce
aspects of film and media study into
the curriculum.
How do you view the current situation
around the delivery of media
education?
It is curious, to say the least, that there
was such a long gap of almost twenty
years after SEFT disappeared before
any comparable subject association
was created for film and media teach-
ers in schools, with the setting up of
the Media Education Association in
2006. Of course there had long been
an organization for those teaching in
higher education: Media, Communica-
tions and Cultural Studies Association
(MeCCSA). This body had responded
to the rapid and widespread expan-
sion of media and associated subjects
in the universities. The situation in
schools was different. Essentially the
years of collaboration between the BFI
and SEFT had been the pioneer years,
with only limited developments in the
curriculum and much teacher energy
directed to establishing the credibility
of media education. However, once
there was scope within the second-
ary schools for students to sit public
examinations in film and media, the
focus for teachers became their own
institutions.
Government has subsequently
thrown in a further complication by
stressing the importance of ‘media
literacy’ and giving responsibility for its
implementation to a national regula-
tory body: Ofcom. In 1964 the first
course in which students might train
and qualify as a teacher of film and
television studies was established; in
2009 there is now no similar provision
for would-be media teachers. Con-
sequently the teaching in schools of
examination subjects in film and media
is delivered by those who are usually
drafted in from other disciplines.
Further Reading
Screen education
from film appreciation to
media studies
By Terry Bolas
£19.95, $40 | Paperback
ISBN 9781841502373
Bolas’ account focuses particularly on the
voluntary efforts of activists in the Society for
Education in Film and Television and on that
society’s interchanging relationship with the
British Film Institute’s education department.
 International

Intellect Publications
Around the World
Our books and journals can be found in locations across the world. Take a
journey with our titles across international bookshelves from Toronto to
London, Liverpool to New York.

Toronto Liverpool
London London

Wilmington New York

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Intellect participates with a number of independent bookshops
across the world, who regularly stock our titles. If you know of a
particular bookshop that you think would be a good fit for our
publications, please let us know! Contact: books@intellectbooks.com.

IQ 9 | 15
intellect news reviews features interviews
Transnational Cinemas
The editors discuss the process of forming a journal across
three continents
Armida and Claudia’s story
Claudia and I met in Cambridge in 2006, at a
conference that aimed to explore the way docu-
mentary, especially in Latin America, was being
influenced by narrative techniques and aesthetic
choices from the feature film and vice versa. Clau-
dia gave a presentation on participatory documen-
taries made by indigenous peoples in Mexico, and
I on the use of mockumentary to discuss Mexican
migration to the US. We realized we came from
similar backgrounds and shared the same interests
– film and video and its relation to social contexts
and social change. Our partners were at that time
completing their Ph.D.s so we also had a sense
that our lives at home were similar. It was a perfect
personal and research match!
Then the University of Nottingham, where I was
working, opened its campus in China and I was
seconded there. I realized that much of the research
I was doing on Latin America, mainly about the re-
lationship between cinema and societies undergo-
ing massive change due to globalization – especially
audience research – was also relevant to China.
And then Claudia and I had an idea; if we could
organize a conference on what is happening to cin-
16 | Thinking in Colour
ema and people in Asia and Latin America, two of
the regions where some of the most dramatic social
transformations are taking place and which, in fact,
have more in common than would seem to be the
case, that would really give a chance to people who
had so far been working on aspects of the topic but
from other disciplines or fields to exchange ideas
and points of view. We wanted to have an interdis-
ciplinary conference that would allow colleagues in
area studies, film studies, sociology, cultural studies
and anthropology to bring and share ideas about
the transnationalization of cinema. The conference
was finally held in Puebla, Mexico, in August 2008,
at the Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla, where
Claudia works. The conference turned out to be
such a success, that we realized there was in fact
enough interest in the topic and enough academics
around the world already working on it to publish
a journal on the subject and I sent a proposal to
Intellect.
Ravi Butalia was also enthusiastic and very
receptive to the idea, but as the proposal was being
considered, something really strange happened:
Claudia and I were told that Intellect had received
another proposal for a journal on transnational

cinema, which was in some respects very similar
to ours but which also had some complementary
differences. Ravi asked whether we would consider
the possibility of joining efforts with the other
editorial team, provided that we had the chance
to study their proposal and found it was indeed
pursuing the same ends. He also said it would be
all right if we decided not to go that way. Claudia
and I were a bit surprised but decided to look at
the other proposal. We immediately realized that
the editorial team seemed to be of one mind with
us. We were delighted to learn the team comprised
Ruth Doughty and Deborah Shaw, as Deborah had
invited me to form part of her proposed AHRC
bid on Transnational Cinemas. Claudia had had
the opportunity to meet Deborah precisely during
the Puebla conference, where Deborah presented a
paper on the tourist gaze in Mexican popular and
art film. Claudia and I knew that joining efforts
with Deborah and Ruth would enable the four of us
to create a highly original and academically strong
journal, that would be as transnational as the cin-
emas we aim to study: Claudia is based in Mexico,
I am in China, and Deborah and Ruth in the UK.
Deborah and Ruth agreed, and so did Ravi.
And here we are…
Deborah and Ruth’s story
We had co-edited a book and we had enjoyed
working together so much that we always knew we
would welcome the opportunity to do so again if
the right project came along. In the meantime Ruth
had developed a new unit called ‘Third and Trans-
national Cinema’ for the film students at Ports-
mouth University, and I was working on my book,
Contemporary Mexican Transnational Filmmakers
for Manchester University Press, and a paper ‘De-
constructing and Reconstructing “Transnational
Cinema”’. From our teaching and research it was
becoming apparent that this was a developing area
in film studies. As a result, we began to explore the
possibility of starting a journal bringing together
our research and teaching interests and to explore
the possibility of starting up a new journal with
Intellect.
This is where serendipity came into play and
forces conspired to make this happen far more
Transnational Cinemas
quickly than we had imagined. We contacted
our colleagues in the department of creative arts,
Dominic Symonds and George Burrows, editors of
Studies in Musical Theatre, for advice on submitting
a proposal to Intellect. Dominic told us that Ravi
Butalia, (the Journals Manager) was visiting Ports-
mouth the very next day. A rather unprepared Deb-
orah met with Ravi to discuss initial ideas. It was at
this point that Ravi mentioned that he had received
another proposal for a journal with a very similar
focus, and for a series of reasons had delayed giving
these still unknown editors his response. Rather
than becoming competitors, we soon became
collaborators, thanks to Ravi’s vision. Things then
went into overdrive; we submitted a full proposal
within the space of few days, which Ravi sent to
Armida in China and Claudia in Mexico. They gen-
erously allowed a couple of interlopers to share in
the creation of the new journal, and we were happy
when we discovered their identities, as Deborah
had met both Claudia and Armida at their excellent
conference the previous summer, ‘Transnational
Cinema in Globalising Societies: Asia and Latin
America’.
Even though we are based in three continents (as
befits a journal of this scope), we have established
a very good working relationship with Claudia and
Armida, guided by the expertise and warmth of
Ravi. We are on track to publish the first volume
early in 2010, and already have some exciting and
innovative articles by leading academics. We also
hope to have two new female members of the team
shortly as Ruth is expecting a baby girl in August
and Claudia in October.
Further Reading
Transnational Cinemas
Editors: Armida de la Garza, Claudia
Magallanes-Blanco, Deborah Shaw & Ruth
Doughty
ISSN: 20403526
2010 (forthcoming)
2 issues per volume
Transnational Cinemas aims to break down traditional
geographical and area divisions and welcomes submissions
from around the world that reflect the global nature of film
cultures.
IQ 9 | 17
intellect news reviews features interviews
Serious Play
Louise Peacock reminds us of the importance of playing
In 1999, at the Piccadilly Theatre in central Lon-
don, I saw Slava’s Snowshow for the first time. I
can’t even remember what prompted me to book
tickets for a show I had never heard of, by a per-
former I had never heard of. I’m very glad I did
though. I took my husband along (an experienced
theatre academic in his own right) and together we
were, quite literally, blown away by the show’s fi-
nale. If you haven’t seen the show, it ends with Carl
Orff ’s Carmina Burana blasting through the sound
system. Slava is on stage alone as wind begins to
blow the snow-white backdrop hanging behind
him. The backdrop is blown out of the way and a
huge light is revealed, pointed blindingly out to the
audience. The wind increases, snow (paper really)
swirls around the auditorium and the audience is
buffeted by the noise and the wind. After the finale
Slava and his clowns release huge lightweight balls
into the auditorium and they and their audience
play. By the time we left the theatre I knew that my
18 | Thinking in Colour
Image: John Quinn, clown-doctor, at work.
view on what was important in theatre had funda-
mentally changed. I wanted to create, track down
and research the kind of theatre that involved the
audience in play and that used clowns as a way of
engaging the audience.
Directly inspired by Slava and then guided some
years later by Angela De Castro (the original green
clown in Slava’s Snowshow), I set about watching
clown theatre and investigating clowns working in
settings other than circus and theatre. I had no idea
at that point that ten years after I first saw Slava,
Intellect would be publishing my book Serious Play
– Modern Clown Theatre. This book is the first of
its kind in taking recent clown performances and
viewing them through the lens of play theory. The
relationship between performance and play is at
the heart of my book, which looks at the tensions
and possibilities of the playfulness of clown perfor-
mance in a range of settings.
The book has six chapters and the first of these,
 Serious Play

‘Clown and clown play’, seeks to establish some def-

Image: Alegría - Cirque du Soleil Clowns: Yuir Medvedev and Marcos De Oliveira Casuo

initions – the academic consideration of contem-

porary clown performance is relatively uncharted
territory. So, the book not only makes reference to
the traditional terms of Auguste, Whiteface and
Tramp, it also introduces the notions of clown
Royal Albert Hall – London. Photo taken by Nigel Norrington.

shows, clown actors and clown theatre, taking

examples from recent performances to demon-
strate how the terms might be applied. The book
also draws heavily on the ideas of Jacques Lecoq
and John Wright, who have both been influential
thinkers around how playful theatre and clowns in
playful theatre can make an important connection
with the audience.
But the book isn’t all about what happens in
theatres, as the second chapter demonstrates. ‘The
development of the circus clown – Frame and
content’ examines the development of the circus
clown, and modern circus performances by com-
panies such as Circus Oz, Cirque du Soleil and the
Pickles Family Circus. The notion of performance
‘frames’ and the way they affect the reception of Perhaps most touching and interesting of all is
clowning is introduced here and runs through the the use made of clowns in hospitals, particularly
book. Theatre clowning, in all its forms, is at the with terminally ill children who may have lost most
heart of chapters three and four: ‘Clowns on stage’ of their opportunity for play. This is explored in the
and ‘Clowns who act: actors who clown’. Analysis of book’s final chapter ‘Clown healers’.
performance features strongly in these chapters and As well as offering an academic critique of
you can imagine the fun I had in watching a range clowning, what I really hope this book does is to
of clown theatre performances in order to select the demonstrate that clowning is not as marginalized
most helpful case studies to demonstrate the range as we might think. Clowns and clowning permeate
and purpose of clown performance. all kinds of performances and all kinds of social
Beyond that in ‘The truth tellers: clowns in reli- settings and, by existing, they remind us of the
gion and politics’ the book explores the way that importance of playing.
clowns function in society beyond conventional
zones of performance. So, with some help from Further Reading
the Rev. Roly Bain, I explored the use of the clown
Serious Play
within the Christian faith. The work on clown Modern Clown Performance
ministry in this book is rare in being written by an
By Louise Peacock
outsider. Most of the literature on clown ministry is
£14.95, $30 | Paperback
written by practising clown ministers. The work of ISBN 9781841502410
the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army and
Dario Fo are explored as examples of contemporary Clowns’ slapstick is their primary mode of performance and
allows them to provoke audiences to laughter wherever they
political clowning – though I have to admit that perform. This innovative book, focusing on contemporary
this is a clown function which is rapidly diminish- practice in the USA and Europe over the last fifty years,
ing. The role of the clown as social satirist has been investigates the nature and function of clown performance in
modern society.
taken over by stand-up comedians.
IQ | 19
intellect news reviews features interviews
A Global Project
Becomes Reality
The upcoming edition is proof that an
academic journal in English can indeed be
produced in a region like Catalonia
By Enric Castelló
Where I work, the only problem with ideas for new
initiatives is that many become reality. You have
to think twice before risking a ‘why don’t we ....?’
because it’s very likely that you will end up assum-
ing the consequences and putting your shoulder to
the wheel.  applying to a British publisher would be a handi-
The seeds of the Catalan Journal of Communi-
cation and Cultural Studies (CJCS) were sown in
informal conversations between members of the
department of Communication Studies of the Rovi-
ra i Virgili University in Tarragona. The initial idea
matured over many weeks: after all, this would be
– for us at least and from a Catalan perspective – a
key initiative in terms of international communica-
tion and cultural studies.
From the outset it was clear that we would need a
travelling companion as a guide and partner. After
considering a number of possibilities, we opted for
the Intellect proposal as the one that best suited
us. Intellect seems to have a philosophy that mar-
ries perfectly with our own entrepreneurial, even
intrepid, spirit. With a view to developing a pro-
20 | Thinking in Colour
posal, we set to work defining our aims, deciding
on the nature of the journal, setting up an editorial
committee and deciding on operational aspects of
the publication. Initially we had some doubts as
to whether the fact that we were a Catalan journal
cap and whether our cultural perspective would be
viewed as rather local. Intellect, however, happily
accepted our proposal and, after a few adjustments,
we got down to work with our sights set on the first
edition of the CJCS for September 2009.
The first edition is proof that an academic journal
in English can indeed be produced in a small coun-
try like Catalonia and fostered by a small university
like the Rovira i Virgili University. The only re-
quirements are to have a good proposal, apply solid
academic criteria, set high quality standards, be
suitably professional in dealings with the publisher,
authors and reviewers, and maintain the momen-
tum of the initial enthusiasm for the initiative –
and, of course, consistently believe in the project.
It is also very helpful to have a sponsor, which, in

our case, is the Repsol/URV Chair of Excellence in
Communication.
The CJCS aims to become established as an inter-
national academic reference for media, communi-
cation and popular culture studies, both within and
outside Catalonia. We do not see our geographic
specificity as a barrier – quite the contrary, it seems
to be the best and most direct window to the inter-
national sphere. Ours is a project developed locally
for application globally, so any academic with an
international outlook who is interested in Catalan
and Spanish cultural studies will find, in the CJCS,
a point of encounter, a forum for debate and reflec-
tion, and a platform for communicating research to
the world.
The editorial team is particularly interested in
studies of popular culture communication, pro-
duction and consumption in Catalonia, but also
in other regions – whether in Spain, Europe or
the rest of world – sharing characteristics, oppor-
tunities, phenomena, problems and experiences
with Catalonia. The CJCS will specifically focus
on themes such as the media, cultural change,
globalization and localization dynamics, national
construction processes, the relationship between
languages and culture, cultural minority groups
and the media, popular culture and the relationship
between identity, heritage and communication.
Characterized by a multidisciplinary approach,
the CJCS is broadly aimed at academics in the
humanities and social sciences. Its pages are open
to articles describing both qualitative and quantita-
tive research, with the main requirement being that
they be original and thorough and that their results
be relevant to communication and culture.
The experience of putting the first edition to
bed has been extraordinary. Very rapidly, the first
obstacle was overcome: a lack of content. In just a
few months we received a large number of submis-
sions, many of exceptional interest. The initial risk
was thus converted into the task of processing a
large quantity of scientific production applying aca-
demic criteria. All works published in the ‘articles’
section of CJCS undergo a blind peer-review pro-
cess performed by international experts in the field;
this meant that establishing a network of contacts
and the dedicated support of members of the edito-
A Global Project Becomes Reality
rial board was central to the project.
With the first edition published, we are aware
that the complications are just beginning. Launch-
ing the journal was, in itself, an intensive and
valuable learning experience, as an academic issue
of this nature undoubtedly relies on constancy and
sustained quality so as to meet the needs of a spe-
cialist and demanding readership. Having Intellect
as our publisher is a wonderful guarantee, but it
also implies great demands and responsibilities.
We view the CJCS as a glocal project. We invite
you to use the CJCS as your international platform,
not only for academic communication and debate
on Catalan media and culture, but also on other
national traditions and cultural contexts. The
team who made the journal possible truly believe
in this project and in its global vocation. We do
not renounce our local origin, as, far from being a
drawback, it is the place to stand on that enables us
to address the world.
Further Reading
Catalan Journal of Communication &
Cultural Studies
Principal Editor: Enric Castelló
ISSN: 17571898
First published in 2009
1 issue per volume
Media, communication and cultural studies have experienced
significant growth in Catalonia and the broader Catalan-
speaking area. The Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural
Studies is committed to publishing research in these flourishing
areas.
IQ 9 | 21
intellect news reviews features interviews
Arts & Communities
Hamish Fyfe aims to unite the academy and wider society
Writing about the new Journal of Arts and Commu-
nities makes me feel like the chameleon that landed
on the kilt. The activity that the journal concerns
itself with is very hybrid. In an increasingly complex
world, the need to revisit definitions of the indi-
vidual rights and responsibilities that lie at the heart
of what it means to be a community and the value
of creativity in communities seems more important
than ever, but there is a relative absence of critical
space. Most kinds of assessment are gauged at pro-
viding numeric and monetized information which,
important though it may be, doesn’t really help
people get better at the core of their work. Whether,
and if so, how, this work relates to the academy is
another matter again.
Why then, despite the clear cultural capital created
by projects that link arts and communities has the
academy remained largely unresponsive to the expe-
rience of the socially responsive arts? Perhaps politi-
cally and contextually bound study has simply not
attracted the ‘theory’, which has characterized and
become the normative academic project of the last
forty years. Critiques of socially connected activity
like community arts have been consistently margin-
alized by the academy in favour of a series of socially
disconnected theories like semiotics and structural-
ism. These educational concerns however are minor
‘internal’ reflections of a more important socially-
rooted phenomenon. That is the division between
what is perceived as valid ‘knowledge’, what carries
epistemological weight, and the common sense
and local understanding that emerge from projects.
Clifford Geertz and his concept of local knowledge,
Michelle de Certeau with his conceptualization of
tactics and ruses, and the doxa of Ivan Illich validate
the study of the intelligences of living: the knowledge
which allows for social and political change.
Relationships between the arts and communities
are intellectually interesting and challenging because
their referents include 300 years of what is now clas-
22 | Thinking in Colour
sified as philosophy, political theory, anthropology,
linguistics, folklore, history, literary theory, sociol-
ogy and art history. This is against the background
of the fact that the vernacular voice, superstition and
local knowledge have been consistently ‘othered’ by
the critical studies of modernity and postmoder-
nity. The construction of the modern age has been
dependent on the positioning of notions of tradition,
storytelling, superstition and so on, very much at
arms length and thereby tending to keep structures
of inequality and domination in place. In the case of
the arts in community contexts, many of the modern
magesteriums of professional art-making are chal-
lenged and what have previously been considered
to be autonomous epistemological domains have
developed porous boundaries through the socially
responsive potential which the arts and communities
bring.
In his book Voices of Modernity Richard Bauman
quotes Robert Wood writing in 1775 about the
problematic strength of the Homeric tradi-
tion – a tradition that had literacy with-
out much of a literature. Along with
other theoreticians and practitioners
the project of the Journal of Arts and
Communities is attempting to respond
to the relative absence of an objective
critical enquiry. Wood counterposes an
earlier (oral) stage in the development of
human knowledge when common sense,
the language of common life, experiential
learning, and plain understanding prevail,
with a later, learned, (literate) stage in
which philosophy and science became
separate, specialized, esoteric pursuits,
characterized by their own special regis-
ters. For Wood the transition from orality
to literacy entails a dimension of loss, the
sacrifice of the simplicity, clarity, directness
and passion that distinguish the language of
 Arts & Communities

nature. There is a sense in which applying academic to do with them but whose taxes pay for them. These
scrutiny to the processes of arts and community people are our ‘customers’ too.
exposes both to the same danger. The creative shar- Like many early twenty-first century institu-
ing of the skills and knowledge of life, from knitting tions, universities are struggling to understand the
to ukelele playing, from reflecting on life and death profound change that is affecting their social and
to the further reaches of Japanese youth fashion, intellectual magisteriums. This is change in terms
represents the clear continuation of a vernacular – real ‘newness’, not just doing more of what we
tradition that has always been integral to human did before and trying to do it better. A social turn,
life but which has consistently been reduced by the technological change and creative accidents have
construction of the critical, rational and apparently produced a situation in which unpaid volunteers can
disinterested reflections of ‘scientific’ processes. create a massive and accurate repository of knowl-
There is an increasing emphasis in higher educa- edge in their spare time. The principles through
tion around the world on researchers engaging with which this knowledge is created go to the heart of
the public. If this is about responding to a loss of the research practices of universities. A process that
public confidence following Alderhay, GM crops and places publication before refinement, which posits
corrosive nanotechnology debates, if this is about uncertainty as an invitation to participate and which
making the occasional foray to a community hall in places far more emphasis on knowledge as a process
order to make hard ideas appear straightforward, if rather than the kind of ‘outputs’ that form most of
this is about recruiting more people from schools to the current products of universities, is profoundly
our university, making money from the applications challenging.
of research or telling a good public relations story, The capacity to receive information has always
then it’s easy to ‘sell’. If, however, public engagement been essential in education but now ‘the public’
is about reviving the historic civic mission of univer- with whom we are encouraged to ‘engage’ have the
sities and making a new settlement between society means to create and send information as well. The
and the academy that acknowledges tectonic shifts era of sovereign scholarly work in which a very few
in the way that social and intellectual capital is cre- people held knowledge and disseminated it, often
ated and shared, and if it’s about reflecting the inher- exclusively, amongst themselves is over. The some-
ent contradictions in a university system that applies times oppressive monologue of education is rapidly
exclusive, competitive, selective and commercialized becoming a much more liberating dialogue. Work
processes to create knowledge which contributes to that brings the academy together with wider society,
equity and social justice, then it’s harder to ‘sell’. as we hope the Journal of Arts and Communities will
Influential processes that have lain at the heart of in a small way, should be the field in which the new
the accountability of the academy over the past 25 creativities and literacies of the twenty-first century
years or so have created individuated and centripetal can be negotiated and developed.
tendencies that have resulted in intense inward-
facing conversations. The Research Assessment
Exercise (RAE), peer-review and the Quality Assur- Further Reading
ance industry, for example, all contributed to this.
An overall sense of uneasy competition has tended Journal of Arts and Communities

not to valorize any kind of engagement, collabora-
tive or otherwise, outside the realm of universities
themselves and this has tended to reduce the sense
of responsibility that might be felt towards the 97
per cent of the population who, despite widening
participation in university education (7 per cent of
the population of 18 year olds in the 1970s and now
nearly 50 per cent in the UK), never have anything
Principal Editor: Hamish Fyfe
Associate Editor: Huw Champion
ISSN: 17571936
First published in 2009
2 issues per volume
The Journal of Arts and Communities seeks to provide a
critical examination of the practices known as community or
participatory arts, encompassing work which incorporates
active creative collaboration between artists and people in a
range of communities of place and interest.

IQ | 23
intellect news reviews features interviews
Writing About Writing
Pat Francis urges us not to be intimidated by the blank page
Luckily whenever I have to write I don’t have major
difficulties in transferring the thoughts and ideas
that are in my head into the words that become so-
lidified on the page. Blank paper is not too horrific.
My sentences can be grammatical, spelt correctly
and make sense. I can structure and tell a story,
build an argument. Some tasks are harder than
others, but I am not silenced by the act of writing.
However, I work with very many people for
whom this is not the case. Some are articulate and
could talk the hind legs off a donkey, spout for Eng-
land or could persuade a pig to fly. Others are so
concerned about having to write ‘properly’ that it
is to the detriment of their ideas. Many just go into
a dark maelstrom of panic. And these are not all
students. Many tutors in art and design – wonder-
ful practitioners, and inspirational teachers – baulk
at the written task.
Often their ideas of writing are associated with
formal essays, and their voices, which are creative
and fluent, become stultified, false and formulaic
in their writing. But everyone in the creative arts
has to write far more than an analytical essay: often
they have to compile artist’s or personal statements,
descriptors of their work, exhibition catalogue
entries, press releases, reviews, blurb, letters that
persuade patrons to part with their money etc. It is
important that they either feel they are able to ap-
proach all, or some, or any, of these tasks.
24 | Thinking in Colour
I am a practical person who communicates my
ideas by all sorts of means: I gesture when talk-
ing, and frequently scribble and doodle words or
patterns as I attempt to explain something and am
constantly seeking metaphors as a way of elucidat-
ing a thought.
Working with students, and later being persuaded
to run workshops for staff, I was encouraged to
think about writing down my ideas in order to help
others. The compiling of the book took a few years,
as it was written in the summer holidays. Dur-
ing the academic year I was too busy working on
everyone else’s writing to be able to do my own. I
knew there were no books quite like the one I was
hoping to write, although the germs are there in a
few rare volumes.
With no clear answer as to how to structure and
style my book I took the decision to write it for
both students and tutors – it is founded on work-
shop activities, is adaptable to varying groups,
but also works for individuals. The main concern
was that it was not taken as being prescriptive. It
should be a starting point for the reader to use and
develop personal ideas and nurture their own voice.
I have deliberately offered exercises, a lot of which
are warm-ups, so that the readers can then extend
these into varying subject areas, differing levels of
study, and adapt them to appropriate background
or knowledge.

The eclectic approach of the writing is matched with the
fifty-five illustrations: these vary from diagrams to car-
toons, original artwork to collage. Some reflect the author’s
doodles but many come from students and tutors who have
inspired much of the work.
One key area of inspiration for the tone of this book is
the use of the words of creative writers. John Berger is cited
frequently for the vibrancy of his writing, as too is Jeanette
Winterson, whose word play and depth of insight set off
fireworks of ideas. Harriet Walter, from the theatre, devel-
ops a character through observation and this links to detail
in writing. Virginia Woolf is quoted for her thoughts on
diary keeping and voice, as is Eudora Welty on the growth
of the writer, and Penelope Lively on discoveries in old
photographs. These are just a few of the people drawn on as
inspirations to acts of writing.
This book has art and design in its title but the reactions to
it are revealing in that it can be adapted to many areas of the
creative arts: theatre, dance and music have parallels with
the visual paths of art and design.
The subtitle of the book – ‘taking a line for a write’ is a re-
working of the words of Paul Klee, ‘taking a line for a walk’,
which were to encourage student artists to explore the world
through drawing. In this book I have tried to stimulate the
Intellect’s new website
www.intellectbooks.com
P
Writing about Writing
idea of exploring thoughts, ideas, memories and reflections
through writing – letting go of preconceptions and being
open-minded. One mnemonic, used to help remind writers
not to edit as they go (i.e. not to stop and change, modify,
or correct as they first write), is WIDEL – Write It Down,
Edit Later. Let the first flurry of thoughts flow. So the laugh
raised by saying ‘widel’ out loud reinforces the concept of
this book: light-hearted and fun in action, but serious in
content.
Further Reading
Inspiring Writing in Art & Design
Taking a Line for a Write
By Pat Francis
£14.95, $30 | Paperback
ISBN 9781841502564
This very practical volume, written for tutors and students, nurtures
writing’s creative role in the process of art and design. It uses short
exercises and creative writing techniques combined with the energy
and liveliness of the workshop situation to help with academic issues in
writing assignments.
Intellect is proud to announce the launch of their interactive new
website. Through a range of Web 2.0 facilities, users can contribute,
share ideas, and obtain useful resources on publishing and academia.
Authors, editors and contributors are able to update their profiles,
and post links, comments and ideas. The new interactive conference
calendar is also a fantastic resource for the academic community,
providing detailed information on all events related to creative practice
and popular culture.
The website offers an easily navigable, comprehensive catalogue of
Intellect’s publications. All this, and you can still buy books, journals and
e-books through the newly developed online order system.
Go to: www.intellectbooks.com today and click on ‘Register’ to access
forums, blogs, ideas repository, comments areas, multimedia and
interactive content, latest news, and much, much more!
www.intellectbooks.com
IQ 9 | 25
intellect news reviews features interviews
Aarti Wani, Jyotsna Kapur and Alka Kurian
on sharing ideas and vision across the seas
Aarti Wani
Pune, a small town in Maharashtra, has lately em-
barked on a new journey. Nestling among hills that
surround it from all sides and known for its mild
and pleasant climate, it used to be considered a
pensioner’s haven. In the last few decades it trans-
formed itself into an educational hub with nearly
200 undergraduate and professional colleges and it
is currently witnessing yet another change. Eager to
don the mantel of a modern, techno-savvy city that
is at the centre of India’s communication revolu-
tion with its IT parks and call centres, Pune has big
dreams that are easily traceable in the malls and
multiplexes that are fast defining the skyline.
I have lived in Pune most of my life and taught
English in a city college for over a decade. Under-
graduate teaching can be pretty undemanding here
and, despite the number of colleges in Pune, the
academic scene was not interesting or challeng-
ing. Teaching, and its consequent association with
young people, spilled over into an engagement
with leftist groups working with the young. Gradu-
ally, this broadened to include work with women’s
groups and gender issues. At the same time, cinema
had started to intrigue and I found myself writing
mainly on Indian cinema – both in English and
Marathi. As the Marathi pieces found their way
into local progressive magazines, those written in
English could find a potentially international read-
ership because of the Internet. Daniel Lindvall, the
editor of Film International, noticed my pieces in
Monthly Review, a web magazine, and that was the
beginning of my association with Intellect. When,
in 2007, the thought of starting a journal on South
Asian media and culture was floated, I was happy
to be on the editorial team and hugely excited by
26 | Thinking in Colour
its possibilities for two reasons – one, it coincided
with a deepening of my interest in popular culture
that had now taken a more academic turn with the
undertaking of Ph.D. research in cinema studies at
JNU, New Delhi, and second, I saw it as an oppor-
tunity for creating a political space for understand-
ing, participating and intervening in the cultural
transformation of our world, with an emphasis on
the media and cinema of South Asia.
In the increasingly isolating and unsettling
fragmentation of our daily lives, the connection
and sharing of ideas and vision with Jyotsna Kapur
and Alka Kurian across the seas (made possible by
Intellect and the Internet) has been truly enabling
and I look forward to a long association.
Jyotsna Kapur
Checking my e-mail in the motel lobby before I left
for the day’s events at the ‘Society for Cinema and
Media Studies Conference’, Chicago 2007, I found
an e-mail from Intellect asking if I’d be interested
in helping launch a journal on South Asian film
and media. I was both excited at the possibility and
also wary. Wary because publishing, at least in the
US academy, which arguably still sets the norm for
global education, has become in certain regards
a career-building exercise rather than a means of
furthering analysis, understanding, and change.
There is an over-inflation of the written word as we
say more and more about little and little in special-
ized enclaves, speaking a coded language of sorts. I
decided to sleep over that query. The fact that I was
tenured certainly made it easier to sleep calmly.
Like Aarti, I teach in a small town. Southern Il-
linois University, Carbondale, is a public university
in the US Midwest, a region that has been sliding

downwards, like other former industrial areas,
since the 1980s neoliberal restructuring of the US
economy. My students are working and middle-
class, many of the first generation from their fami-
lies to enter college. In the last eleven years that I
have been teaching here, I find them increasingly
inhabiting a global sensibility. Not that there is a
choice – they face a job market that is thoroughly
globalized and the ongoing war against Iraq and
Afghanistan looms large. Yet, it would be grossly
unfair to characterize their global sensibility as
merely a threatened response, one enforced by eco-
nomic and military imperatives from above. There
is also an awareness of sharing a time and place,
i.e., this planet, and a curiosity regarding others
that I find animates this generation. Last year,
when I taught a class on popular Bombay cinema, I
had a waiting list of students who had to be turned
away. Perhaps, film students have an advantage
in recognizing the global nature of our existence.
After all, early film-makers, like Dzigha Vertov,
imagined film to be an international language that
would enable international solidarity. As a genera-
tion born into the digital age, the Internet, Youtube,
and Facebook, and with the hindsight of a cen-
tury torn apart by war, perhaps, they can see how
necessary, possible, and yet evasive that dream has
remained. The opportunity to teach this, to help
contextualize our present moment in history, is
what keeps me going. It reminds me why the study
of film and media in general is important, why it
really matters.
Studies in South Asian Film and Media is part of
that broader effort to help understand and act upon
this world through a critical study of South Asian
media culture.
Alka Kurian
In the year 2000, after a decade of teaching French
and European comparative literature at the Uni-
versity of Sunderland, and against conventional
wisdom and throwing caution to the wind, I rein-
vented my career having come unstuck on the path
of an alienated immigrant desperate to reconnect
with ‘home’. Sunderland is a small, working-class,
north-eastern English city, profoundly fractured
along class, race, and political divisions. A city
How we got started
bordered by the North Sea, and defined by weekly
football matches, post-coalmine and shipbuilding
yard unemployment, the Nissan factory, eager-
eyed university students, Bangladeshi-run curry
houses, and regular anti-racism protest marches. I
had grown up watching Benegal, Ghatak, Sen, and
Gopalakrishnan, which seemed tedious and ‘dry’
at that time, but which proved to leave a lasting
impression on me and offered comfort during mo-
ments of profound dislocation and nostalgia. The
university had gone through a substantial phase of
restructuring and faculty relocations, opening an
excellent opportunity for me to retrain myself in
film and cultural studies so as to be able to teach
Indian cinema: a desperate attempt to vicariously
re-imagine home through representation.
In response to an e-mail query sent in 2003 to In-
tellect asking if I could publish an article on Indian
cinema, Ravi Butalia wrote back asking if I would
rather help start a journal instead. And now an-
other fortuitous opportunity – thanks to a research
leave from the University of Sunderland – affords
me the time to write my book on South Asian cin-
ema as I cyber-connect almost on a daily basis with
my wonderful co-editors. This much-needed space
allows me to focus on this new and exciting cinema
that campaigns for fracturing monolithic South
Asian images, for redefining colonial and postco-
lonial identities, for reinterpreting and reimagin-
ing history, for challenging the sense of class and
caste-based entitlement, and for undermining the
disconnection between the local and global. This,
in my view, is the larger vision that brings the three
of us together.
Further Reading
Studies in South Asian Film & Media
Editors: Jyotsna Kapur,
Alka Kurian & Aarti Wani
ISSN: 17564921
First published in 2009
2 issues per volume
Studies in South Asian Film and Media (SAFM) is the most
promising new journal in the field. This peer-reviewed
publication is committed to looking at the media and cinemas
of the Indian subcontinent in their social, political, economic,
historical, and increasingly globalized and diasporic contexts.
IQ 9 | 27
Performing Arts Visual Arts Film Studies Cultural & Media studies intellect books & journals

Film Studies &

Cultural &
Media Studies
publishers of original thinking | www.intellectbooks.com

Film Studies Cultural & Media Studies

Futures of Chinese Cinema Diasporas of Aesthetic Journalism New Flows in Global TV

Technologies and
Temporalities in Chinese
Screen Cultures
Edited by Olivia Khoo
and Sean Metzger
ISBN 9781841502748
paperback | £19.95, $35
Australian Cinema
Edited by Catherine
Simpson, Renata Murawska
and Anthony Lambert
ISBN 9781841501970
paperback | £19.95, $35
How to Inform Without
By Albert Moran
Informing
ISBN 9781841501949
By Alfredo Cramerotti paperback | £19.95, $35
ISBN 9781841502687
paperback | £19.95, $35

Studies in Eastern Journal of Screenwriting Crossings: Journal of Horror Studies

European Cinema
Principal Editor: John
Cunningham
ISSN 2040350X
2 issues per volume
Principal Editor: Jill Nelmes
ISSN 17597137
2 issues per volume
Migration and Culture
Principal Editor: Parvati Nair
ISSN 20404344
1 issue per volume
Editors: M. Lee, R.
Humphries, D. Townshend,
G. Rhodes and S. Bruhm
ISSN: 20403275
2 issues per volume

To view our catalogue or order our books and journals visit www.intellectbooks.com or e-mail: orders@intellectbooks.com
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG. | Telephone: +44 (0) 117 9589910 | Fax: +44 (0) 117 9589911

African Media
Studies
Winston Mano
suggests that words
alone are not enough
to communicate the
way in which media
represents African
realities
Determination and vision are at the heart of many
academic projects. However, experience shows that
vision is nothing without determination. In fact,
the brief career of the Journal of African Media
Studies (JAMS) illustrates that both are needed in
full doses. The beginning of JAMS was not that
much different from the history of most media
institutions in Africa. The most daunting task was
not about establishing the journal’s rationale, get-
ting papers, recruiting editors or finding editorial
advisory board members, but lack of a prepared
and experienced publisher. Our first two years were
most challenging in the sense that our then pub-
lisher, although strongly spirited, lacked experience
in the business of publishing academic journals.
However, after we first made contact with Intel-
lect in early 2008, our project quickly came to frui-
tion. We agreed on a publishing contract, and, in
September 2008, the first issue of JAMS was already
African media studies
off the ground. As editors, we have been impressed
with Intellect’s professionalism but also with the
company’s adventurous spirit and infectious en-
thusiasm. Intellect seeks to push the boundaries of
academic publishing in order to transform journals
into more exciting and visually appealing publica-
tions. For a topic such as media and communica-
tion, words alone are not enough to communicate
the way in which media represent African reali-
ties or become part of people’s everyday lives. In
addition to including images regularly in journal
articles, JAMS therefore introduced a visual essay
which offers photographers and scholars an op-
portunity to narrate the role of media in Africa
through the image.
Since its launch in 2008, JAMS has been receiv-
ing a steady flow of articles from across the world,
and particularly from the African continent. In the
last few years, there has been an increasing debate
g
IQ 9 | 29
intellect news reviews features interviews
in the field of media and cultural studies on how
to move outside the Anglo-American axis that has
dominated scholarship on media and communica-
tion. JAMS seeks to contribute to these efforts by
encouraging scholars to critically interrogate the
applicability of theories originating from western
contexts.
This is also reflected in the particular way in
which the journal interprets media. JAMS un-
derstands media in the broadest possible sense,
incorporating not only formal ‘mass’ media, such
as radio, television, print, Internet and mobile
telephony, but also ‘informal’, ‘small’ or ‘indigenous’
media such as music, jokes and theatre. The latter
have been particularly influential in the African
context. A journal on media and communication in
Africa would not be complete without taking into
account the role of popular arts as mediating politi-
cal and social commentary.
Because of Intellect’s effective marketing and
promotional plans, JAMS is gradually becoming
known not only in Europe but most importantly
on the African continent. The company adopts a
progressive policy which enables scholars in low-
income countries to access journal articles free of
charge. We discovered that although small in size,
Intellect is willing to invest in top quality market-
ing campaigns that involve web messages, colour-
ful postcards and business cards. They regularly
send updates about JAMS to major mailing lists.
Marketing staff at Intellect are also active on the
academic circuit, attending major international
conferences hosted by professional associations
such as the International Communication Associa-
tion (ICA), the International Association for Mass
Communication Research (IAMCR), the Media,
Communication and Cultural Studies Association
(MeCCSA), the AEGIS European Conference on
30 | Thinking in Colour
African Studies (ECAS), and the African Studies
Association (ASA). The company also distributes
promotional material and complimentary journal
copies to all editorial and advisory board members,
which allows them to advertise the journal in their
different spheres. Intellect has provided excellent
support to our determination and vision.
The company is also responsive to circumstances
and the needs of its editors. A good example is in
January 2009 when they agreed to bring forward
the publication date of our second issue so that
the journal could be launched at a major African
media conference in London (see picture). Hav-
ing been told that most of the editors and some
of the advisory members would be at the event,
Intellect agreed to produce the issue in time for the
conference and also sent its marketing manager
to the event. The issue was ready in time for the
conference and JAMS received extremely positive
feedback from conference participants. We have no
doubt that Intellect will help realize our vision to
move media and communication scholarship out
of the Anglo-American axis. Determination and
vision exist on both sides.
Further Reading
Journal of African Media Studies
Principal Editor: Winston Mano
Associate Editors: Monica Chibita
& Wendy Willems
ISSN: 17517974
First published in 2009
3 issues per volume
The Journal of African Media Studies (JAMS) is an
interdisciplinary journal that provides a forum for debate
on the historical and contemporary aspects of media and
communication in Africa.
Performing Arts Visual Arts Film Studies Cultural & Media studies intellect books & journals

Visual &
Performing Arts
publishers of original thinking. | www.intellectbooks.com

Visual Arts Performing Arts

Readings in Primary Art
Education
Edited by Steve Herne and
Sue Cox and Robert Watts
ISBN 9781841502427
paperback | £19.95, $40
Design Integrations
Research and Collaboration
Edited by Sharon
Poggenpohl and Keiichi
Sato
ISBN 9781841502403
paperback | £19.95, $40
Zapolska’s Women:
Three Plays: Malka
Szwarcenkopf, The Man
and Miss Maliczewska
Edited by Teresa Murjas
ISBN 9781841502366
paperback | £14.95, £30
Walking, Writing and
Performance
Autobiographical Texts
by Deirdre Heddon, Carl
Lavery and Phil Smith
Edited by Roberta Mock
ISBN 9781841501550
paperback | £19.95, $35

The Poster Philosophy of Photography Comedy Studies Studies in Theatre and

Performance
Editors: S. Downs, M. Principal Editor: Daniel Principal Editor: Chris
Barnard, J. Gomez, M. Jordan, Rubinstein Ritchie Principal Editor: Peter
L. Chang, H. Barbosa and R. ISSN 20403682 ISSN 2040610X Thomson
Harland 2 issues per volume ISSN 14682761
2 issues per volume
ISSN 20403704 3 issues per volume
2 issues per volume

To view our catalogue or order our books and journals visit www.intellectbooks.com or e-mail: orders@intellectbooks.com
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG. | Telephone: +44 (0) 117 9589910 | Fax: +44 (0) 117 9589911
intellect news reviews features interviews

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The Journal of Screenwriting
Studies in Eastern European Cinema
Transnational Cinemas
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Studies In Australasian Cinema
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Creative Industries Journal
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32 | Thinking in Colour