Nick Keenan asked – a week ago – how we (that’s you) teach synthesis. I think I teach it, obliquely, like this. I teach the value of reflexivity and awareness: what am I doing? What choices am I making? What am I taking for granted? Part of that process is the belief that sometimes you …
Ed Vaizey’s recent speech on “cultural education” seems to suggest a near-future of cuts and centralization in arts funding. First, there’s the repeated suggestion of “confusion and duplication,” a “blizzard of initiatives” that represent wasteful effort. Vaizey doesn’t actually provide any real support for that claim, but it’s the rhetorical basis for the call to …
I’m introducing students to different models of devised performance – and, in passing, described Clay Shirky’s hierarchy of participation: starting with sharing, and moving in increasing complexity through co-operation and collaboration to collective action. Since that lecture, I’ve been thinking about the value of recognising the link beween these different kinds of participation – that …
It’s awkward timing that bloggers should start digging through David Cameron’s amnesiac record on LGBT issues at the moment when Attitude declares that he wants “gay love.” The attempt to bury a vote against same-sex adoption rights in 2002 as a procedural wrinkle demonstrates remarkable tone-deafness, given the Conservative party’s track record on queer issues: …