Going Concern

Cultural Anxiety 2.0

Simon Mills — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:09:58 +0000

Dave Everitt (De Montfort University) & Simon Mills (De Montfort University)

This paper has been accepted for publication in Media, Culture & Society and the final (edited, revised and typeset) version of this paper will be published in Media, Culture & Society, 2009 by Sage Publications Ltd, All rights reserved. © Sage Publications Ltd, 2009.

Abstract
The term ‘Web 2.0’ describes a new approach of web developers to existing technologies and user-generated material. Following the resulting impact of this label on web culture we will ask if, in the use of the 2.0 suffix in an ever increasing number of areas (Design 2.0, Media Studies 2.0, Education 2.0), we are currently witnessing a phenomenon of ‘cultural nervousness’.

Specifically, has this cultural nervousness within the Humanities led to what could be perceived as ill-conceived attempts to apply the key concepts of Web 2.0 to subjects in which they may not be a good fit?

This cultural nervousness may be seen to drive the invocation of the ‘magic’ of a high-status, but poorly-understood, discipline in an attempt to borrow validation from it. Could this be interpreted as a panic response to technological influence in the Humanities?

We propose an interdisciplinary approach, involving not only an investigation of the use of the relevant technology, but its historical development.

Our analysis encourages an understanding of Web 2.0 as a process of transition from technological development into cultural presence and power. This analysis also throws into relief the tension between a utopian strain in technological development and neo-liberal capitalism.

DOWNLOAD PDF: Cultural Anxiety 2.0 (Unedited)

Framed: Interviews with New Media Artists and Writers

Simon Mills — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 20:37:36 +0000

framed is an interview project I’ve been working on over the last year with various new media artists and writers about their past, present and future practice. All of the interviewees involved were once featured in the frAme online journal I used to edit at trAce.

http://www.framejournal.net/

Gloryhole

Simon Mills — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 22:27:10 +0000

Commissioned by www.hidrazone.com

Gloryhole is a project that aims to fuse Simon Mills’s interest in using randomness to explore meaning and affective intensity in multimedia art with Catherine Byron’s poetry.

http://www.hidrazone.com/artists/simon_mills/gloryhole/gloryhole.html

Let Us Turn

Simon Mills — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 22:15:42 +0000

A response to Walt Whitman’s poem from Leaves of Grass, I think I could turn and live with the animals

An exploration of fear and sublimity when the subject experiences the organic as profoundly other

A reaction to the concept of nature in a technologised landscape

An experiment with spontaneous meaning-making using the random juxtaposition of image and word

Lights down/sound up

Requires Macromedia Flash Player Vers 7 or above
Size: 3.3 MB
This piece was created for projection so is best viewed sitting a little further from a computer screen than usual

view work

“The processing may be digital - but the analog is the process.”
Brian Massumi

The War Room

Simon Mills — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 20:45:40 +0000

A web project by Simon Mills & Alan Sondheim

‘As the stunted attention-span of the mainstream-media loses focus on the remains of “Battlefield Iraq” we felt a place was needed to retain the memories and feelings of anyone affected by war (potentially anyone).’

http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/warroom

Lost

Simon Mills — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 20:51:24 +0000

A web project by Simon Mills & Alan Sondheim

A collaborative web project with writer/artist Alan Sondheim which invites further collaboration from the internet audience regarding the subject of loss.

http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/lost/

Postcards

Simon Mills — Wed, 05 Jan 2005 20:58:51 +0000

Here are a selection of images I’ve created for postcards:

Winter sunset through trees

Oak Leaves

Winter Trees

Sculpture

Winter Trees II

Old Portfolio

Simon Mills — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 21:13:34 +0000

Whilst rooting around some folders on an old PC the other day I rediscovered an old portfolio of commercial work I made a few years back. Pretty much all of the websites I worked on have all changed or gone offline now. So it goes . . .

http://www.ultimateconcern.net/old_portfolio/