The Pride and Prejudice of Online Fan Cultures Why Star Trek and GOT owe a debt to Jane Austin obsessives READ ON Approaches to Po-Mo [NOTES] Postmodernity vs.the Postmodern vs.Postmodernism READ ON Autoethnography as a research method: Advantages, limitations and criticisms. The aim of this article is to review the literature on autoethnography as a research method. READ ON The Mattering Map a model of meaning making, of what matters in psychological life. READ ON Consumers with high self-brand connections (SBC) [STUDY] respond to negative brand information as they do to personal failure, as a threat to their positive self-view READ ON
Plurimediality and the Serial Figure [NOTE]
The serial figure, as we call it, is not merely a character in a series; rather, it exists as a series – across a variety of media READ ON
The Day my Doctor Died [ARTICLE] a Child’s Experience of the First 'Regeneration' in Doctor Who READ ON
A Brief History of Applause [ARTICLE] Once, people measured their leaders -- and themselves -- one clap at a time READ ON
Cabinets of Death: the macabre in post-religious culture. 'Artifacts that flicker on the edges of death and beauty, create a certain frisson, an ontological confusion' READ ON
The creephouse: dolls in fiction
Dolls are creepy. There’s no denying it... We are you, they seem to say, but not you READ ON What is Cosplay? [ARTICLE] Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion READ ON
Music and Fashion [ARTICLE] The relationship between fashion and popular music is one of abundant and mutual creativity READ ON Unboxing Videos The ‘unboxing’ video offers the viewer the vicarious experience of removing a newly purchased product from its packaging. It is a visual document of the consummation of the purchaser–product relationship READ ON
Writing Lessons for Astrophysicists [ARTICLE] Literature doesn’t depict, it observes. It observes a reality that it conjures into existence by observing it, just like, well, like Schrödinger’s goddamn cat READ ON
Slash Slang [ARTICLE] Not just punctuation slash symbol anymore? READ ON
The Bare Truth: Porno-chic Models of Femininity as a National Narrative [PAPER]
Egos Inflating Over Time [RESEARCH] 30% increase in narcissism between 1979 and 2006 READ ON
Justin Bieber and Generation Y [ARTICLE] 'the gleeful reaction by some to Mr. Bieber’s misbehavior may connect to two directives imposed upon children today: the need to overprepare for the demanding and perilous world of work, and the loss of innocence that preparation entails' READ ON
The Lost Boyhood of Justin Bieber [ARTICLE] Bieber's adult problems: 'All this isn't easy. I get angry sometimes' READ ON / MORE
The Barbed Gift of Leisure [ARTICLE] We have always sensed that free time, time not dedicated to a specific purpose, is dangerous because it implicitly raises the question of what to do with it READ ON
Why You Can’t Stop Perusing Your Facebook Profile [RESEARCH] New research suggests that all that rereading, revising, and updating satisfies the fundamental human need to feel good about yourself READ ON Super Power Fantasies [ARTICLE] In his book Do The Gods Wear Capes?, Saunders argues that Superman is a "moral agent who acts always out of his commitment to 'the good.'" READ ON
Girl Geeks and Boy Kings [ARTICLE] Facebook was, in its early days, powered by women—or rather, by photographs of women READ ON
Whitewashing of Latino Characters in Film 'There have been many instances where a Latino role was offered to a non-Latino actor, especially in the case of Latino historical figures' READ ON
In Defense of Sports 'The joy that sport offers us comes in two forms: as passive spectators and as active participants. The dichotomy drawn between these two kinds of leisure is a false one' READ ON
Liking your Like We are endlessly flattering one another, too—sharing everything we do with everyone we know, and reflexively praising every biographical detail that comes over the transom to us READ ON
Twilight and Fandom What is a fan? Henry Jenkins says one becomes a fan by translating viewing or reading into some type of cultural activity READ ON
Building an Anthropology of Bicycling The study of bicycling as a social and cultural phenomenon is more than studying bike culture READ ON Does Identity Exist Without Visibility? Warhol understood that brand identity was the definition of success – for people as well as products. Instant recognition – the shoes, the hair, the face, destroys the distinction between public and private. READ ON
The Shifting Lines of Moral Force Why do costumed superheroes suddenly have complex interiority: family backgrounds, ambivalence, moral crises, self-doubt and even explicit political motivation? READ ON
Hong Kong, Globalism and Halloween [ARTICLE] It's more popular than Mid-Autumn Festival ... it's about being cosmopolitan READ ON
What are superhero movies really all about? [ARTICLE] 'Almost never do superheroes make, create, or build anything. The villains, in contrast, are endlessly creative' READ ON
The Amis People: Call us Jacko [ARTICLE] 'Amis young people have been creating an alternative style of body exhibition .. from a complex interplay among global hip-hop ... and pan-indigenous identity' READ ON
The Beatles vs the Nerds: the Liverpool lads and American adolescence The hairstyles the Beatles wore .. were pageboys, and they all were clad in identical suits. They were wearing greaser-style shoes, which we would soon learn to call Beatles Boots ... All of the prudent and wise said the same: They look like girls! READ ON
| The Lives of Lana Del Rey [FILM] the controversial singer's new music video, Chelsea Hotel, charts a character's smirkingly dismissive rise to fame VIEW
How Robot Interaction Changes Us [AUDIO]
Sherry Turkle: 'Why are we at a point in our history when we would want to construct false relationships? Because when we construct robots, we are changing ourselves' PLAY
Bum Rap [FILM] Music labels cultivate images that conform to stereotypes of young, urban Black men VIEW
How Movies Teach Manhood [FILM]
Colin Stokes asks for more movies that send positive messages to boys: that cooperation is heroic, and respecting women is as manly as defeating the villain VIEWRap Images and Bitch [FILM] Rap artist Lupe Fiasco addresses the issue of images in the media and how they are absorbed by children VIEW
Cultural Representation as a Practice of Domination [FILM] At 2:28 mark Keene (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma) asks 'Who has the right to represent whom?' At 22:40 mark the host asks, as a practical matter, how one is to accurately and respectfully represent so many culturally distinct tribes. In her response, Keene denies the premise of the question, insisting on 'the right of the community to represent themselves' READ ON
Coupon's New York Punk Portraits [PHOTOS] William Coupon photographs of the Mudd Club’s thriving counterculture scene throughout the late 1970s VIEW
Why Being Online Means Staying Honest [FILM] Jeff Hancock: The Future of Lying VIEW Das Deutsche Mädel and girls[ARCHIVE] A magazine for German teenage girls in the Hitler Youth and related to art and 'volk' or back to the land. Here are front covers from 1936-1943 READ ON
Paul Zac at the Future of Storytelling summit [FILM] Zac director of the Center for Neuroeconomic Studies: 'Stories are powerful because they transport us into other people’s worlds but, in doing that, they change the way our brains work and potentially change our brain chemistry — and that’s what it means to be a social creature' VIEW
David Bowie and the Story of Ziggy Stardust [FILM] Narrated by Jarvis Cocker READ ON
Remix Culture and Creativity Nothing is original, says Kirby Ferguson [FILM] 'We are not self-made. We are dependent on one another. Admitting this to ourselves isn't an embrace of mediocrity and derivativeness, it's a liberation from our misconceptions.' VIEW
Oramics to Electronica: a documentary exploring how co-curation set the direction for this Science Museum exhibition [FILM] Team includes BBC Radiophonic Workshop, EMS and electronic musicians VIEW | But What if Something is Really There? [BOOK] The Science of Monsters by Matt Kaplan book review. Why do we believe in griffins and ghouls? A scientific history explains the hold they have on the human mind READ ON
The Uses Of Dissatisfaction [BOOK]
Adam Phillips on how we cope with not having what we desire, or not being who we want to be? READ ONBeyond the Couch [BOOK] The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves READ ON
What our Critical Vocabulary Says about our Time [BOOK] In 2005 Sianne Ngai published Ugly Feelings, a study of 'minor' states of feeling shaped by commercial culture e.g. envy and boredom and why these feelings are so natural to us nowadays. In her new book, Our Aesthetic Categories, she considers how those feelings help us form judgments about the aesthetic world, how we know to describe something as 'interesting' or adorable (or, worse yet, 'adorkable') READ ON
The Human Face of Big Data [BOOK] 'An information surplus – may soon define our lives'. Rick Smolan's book Book shows how data changes everything READ ON
I Want to Believe (My Eyes) [BOOK] Oliver Sacks: We create narratives to explain what we’ve seen, and when old-fashioned figures like devils and witches “are no longer believed in, new ones — aliens, visitations from ‘a previous life’ — take their place.” READ ON
My People(s) [BOOK] 'if every defined human group necessarily has, at any moment in its history, some ancestry from a variety of other collections of humans, how are we to delineate those groups and reconstruct their family histories?' READ ON
The Cultural and Social History of the Fairy Tale [REVIEW] 'Fairy tales, like our own lives, were born out of conflict' says author Zipes READ ON
The Folly of Fools: Deceit and Self-Deception [BOOK] False personal narratives, self-inflation ... is self-deception adaptive? READ ON
Cinema Self and Alienation: David Thomson claims the screen has detached us from reality [REVIEW] 'What is most important is the fact of the screen as something that separates us from reality. All along, I think, we have been watching screens, and it is only recently, with the profusion of electronic screens, some so small that people aged over 25 can't quite see them, that this has been appreciated' READ ON
We hate everything! Johan Kugelberg and Jon Savage visualise the legacy of the punk aesthetic READ ON
Keller and Wittwer: the performativity of advertising [EXHIB]
In I Knew Some of You Better Than Others, but I Miss You All, artists Keller and Wittwer confront their own bodies with images from advertising READ ON Full of Blood, Ev’ry Line a Vein: books and being [BOOK] Long before neural implants, the iPad and the talking phone, there was the book. It, too, was described as a living, breathing entity READ ON
How Mod Became the Mainstream [BOOK]Richard Weight, Mod: A Very British Style READ ON
David Bowie’s Style Decades [BOOK] David Bowie Style is the book's title, but isn't he really a serial appropriator of styles? READ ON
Storytelling through Costume: The V&A Hollywood Costume exhibition reviews [EXHIB]illuminates the costume designer’s process in the creation of character READ ON Guardian READ ON Clothes on Film READ ON
The mannequin who fell to earth [EXHIB] The V&A's plans to use David Bowie's costumes to chart his life and times in an exhibition READ ON
Writing beyond academic audiences [BOOK] Academics don’t write to be read; they write to be published. It’s good to be published, and better to be understood READ ON
Dressing James Bond: Designing 007 exhibition at the Barbican London [EXHIB] [FILM] A showcase of costumes and props from the films' 50-year history, from suits and swimwear to gadgetsREAD ON / VIEW
Can’t Get You Out of My Head: history of advertising jingles [BOOK] Though it’s easy to be cynical about gray-flannel advertisers going hip, the jingle writers of the 20th century created a potent language READ ON
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