The exploration of radical environmentalism in the thriller Night Moves (2014), directed by Kelly
Reichardt, is a fascinating study in character development and ethical
complexity. The film steadily builds a
sense of extreme tension in relation to the planned destruction of a dam that
has unintended consequences. Shot over
just thirty days in southern Oregon, the sparsely populated landscape provides
a poignant backdrop to the inner turmoil of the three main protagonists. A sense of foreboding permeates the film as
it drifts inexorably towards its violent denouement.
Tuesday, 28 April 2020
Sunday, 26 April 2020
High Life
The
grim possibilities of multi-generational space travel to reach potentially
inhabitable reaches of the solar system are explored in Claire Denis’s film High Life (2019) where human “refuse” is
propelled into space as part of a system of extra-terrestrial laboratories. The
scarred and psychologically damaged human cargo are “recycled” as part of a
largely unseen nexus of scientific experimentation. The film presents an unsettling post-human journey
in which the limits to humanity become brutally exposed: in one strange
sequence the decaying spaceship docks with another experimental space station
full of dead and dying dogs. The doomed mission
lies trapped in a liminal state between the claustrophobia of confinement and an
inky abyss beyond.
Tuesday, 21 April 2020
Covid and Brexit: the accursed duo
The senior public health expert, Professor Anthony Costello, warns that the UK is likely to have one of the worst, if not the worst, death rate from Covid-19 in Europe. The UK has been experiencing a slow-motion catastrophe, unfolding over a period of weeks and months symbolized by the current incapacity and near death experience of the Prime Minister. Why has the UK been much more badly affected than Denmark, Germany, South Korea, and many other countries?
i) From the
outset the British government tried to pretend that they had a superior
approach to the coronavirus crisis that contrasted with the “panicky”
overreaction of their European neighbours.
There was a palpable sense of “British exceptionalism,” now liberated
from the strictures of European cooperation (the UK had only just “celebrated”
its departure from the EU at the end of January). Opportunities to share procurement
opportunities for essential equipment were simply rebuffed (and then denied).
ii) Tellingly,
many of the leading ideological zealots and opportunists behind the Brexit campaign
are now at the heart of the UK government, bringing with them the same degree
of hubris and insouciance that has marked policy making over recent years. The art of “winging it” and dispensing with
preparation has become a mode of governmentality, born out of a neo-colonial sense
of superiority, as the Irish writer Fintan O’Toole has brilliantly observed. It seems oddly appropriate that last summer’s
ill-fated leadership campaign for the Conservative Party, launched by the
hapless health secretary Matt Hancock, was quickly dubbed “the charge of the lightweight
brigade” (after a famous nineteenth-century military disaster).
iii) A major
strategic exercise in pandemic planning in 2016 — Exercise Cygnus — found
serious gaps in preparedness but was never acted on. All government attention since 2016 has been subsumed
by the on-going Brexit fiasco sucking resources and expertise away from every
other area of public policy. Breezy talk
of economic self-reliance has quickly fallen apart during the coronavirus crisis
leaving a landscape of broken supply chains, idle factories, and food left
rotting in the fields.
Sunday, 29 March 2020
Coronavirus
I was wrong about the Covid-19 virus. On Friday 6 March I met my students in Cambridge
to reassure them that I had every intention of taking them to Berlin for their
overseas field class: at that time there were just 8 recorded cases of the
coronavirus in Berlin and there seemed little reason to simply cancel the
planned trip. Just 24 hours later I had
changed my mind. The latest figures from
the Robert Koch Institute indicate over 2,000 cases of the virus in Berlin
(with over 53,000 cases across Germany as a whole). All of the cafes, museums, and restaurants that
we would have visited are closed. As a
group of 25 people all of our planned field excursions to parks and nature
reserves would have been illegal.
As I write this blog I am sitting at home in Stoke Newington
in North London. Under placid blue skies
there is an apprehensive atmosphere.
Many people wear improvised face masks.
Some strangers swerve to avoid each other in the street whilst others
walk towards you out of defiance towards new rules on social distancing. The few shops still trading have long and anxious
queues snaking into side streets. The
other day an army truck trundled down Church Street as if a distant coup was
underway but not yet announced to the wider population. Strange notices appear such as anti-jogging
signs in the local park. Accumulations
of refuse suggest that public services are beginning to fray under the
pressure. At night the city is quieter
than I have ever known—the silence is broken only by the sound of foxes or
distant ambulance sirens.
The coronavirus pandemic is already revealing stark
differences in the public health preparedness of different nations. The contrast between the UK and Germany is
striking: whilst senior members of the UK government fall sick after failing to
follow their own half-baked advice it is already apparent that mass testing in
Germany, combined with a better prepared health care system, is saving many
lives.
Tuesday, 8 January 2019
Roma
Alfonso Cuarón’s film Roma (2018), named after the eponymous neighbourhood of Mexico
City, is framed through the experience of a middle class family’s maid Cleo
(played by Yalitza
Aparicio Martínez). The film evokes an
intense sense of time and place from the early 1970s inspired by Cuarón’s childhood
memories. The set design encompasses
specific details such as tile patterns along with the use of black and white
photography and rich soundscapes to lend the film an especially poignant
atmosphere. The narrative weaves together
the emotional turbulence of the main protagonists with wider events such as the
Corpus Christi massacre of university students of June 1971. Roma
provides a subtle exploration of the intersections between place, politics, and
memory, incorporating the claustrophobic drama of a family in crisis, as well
as the stark social divisions that underpin modern Mexico. Cuaron’s Roma
reminds us why cinema can be both aesthetically and politically compelling.
Truth is out there: Forensic Architecture
Forensic Architecture at 2018 Turner Prize. Photo: Matthew Gandy |
Still from Forensic Architecture documentary to accompany Turner Prize entry. |
“In my understanding,” argues the founder of Forensic
Architecture Eyal Weizman, “truth is something that is like a common
resource”. “The truth is just like air
or water,” continues Weizman, “something that we all need in order to
understand, that provides evidence for civil society groups that are
confronting state crimes and human rights violations worldwide.” In this brief yet eloquent interview, that
accompanies Forensic Architecture’s short listed entry to the 2018 Turner
Prize, we gain some fascinating insights into this radical interdisciplinary
research programme that Weizman initiated at Goldsmiths over a decade ago. This remarkable body of work brings questions
of epistemology and politics into dialogue as part of an unsettling of the
human subject within architecture, art history, and related fields.
The work of Weizman and his colleagues provokes a series of
critical questions that offer an important alternative to the recent emphasis
on neo-vitalist or object-oriented ontologies:
i) An enriched reconceptualization of the
human subject can transcend the limitations of humanism as well as the
flattening and undifferentiated dimensions to some post-humanist perspectives.
ii) The
conceptualization of buildings and also plants as evidentiary markers or
sentinels could surely be extended to other organisms such as insects because
of their extremely precise responses to environmental change. There is in this sense an interesting
parallel with the emergence of “forensic entomology” and the use of biological
data in criminal investigations.
iii) The radical
use of technological tools, and the democratization of digital cartographies
and other modes of representation, opens up new possibilities for articulating technologically
enhanced forms of citizenship.
iv) The idea of
truth as a collaborative synthesis derived from multiple perspectives, whose
modes of scrutiny or validation are transparent, is a welcome foil to more cynical,
nihilistic, or post-truth formulations. There is an emphasis on the accountability of
science rather than its degree of fallibility or infallibility.
Labels:
nature and science,
places and spaces,
politics,
reviews
Monday, 31 December 2018
Corbyn: a political tragedy
I voted for Jeremy Corbyn twice
in the two most recent Labour leadership elections.
The first time because he was the only candidate that seemed to directly
address substantive policy issues and the second time because I felt he
deserved a chance to succeed despite his lamentable performance during the EU
referendum of 2016. Had any other
candidate won I would have rallied round and supported them as usual: the only
time in recent years that I have withheld my support for Labour is for Blair in the 2005 general election, in
the wake of the disastrous Iraq War.
It’s clear that Corbyn takes a 1970s view of the European
Union that is both conspiratorial and wrong headed. His few remarks on state aid for industry
indicate a misunderstanding about the role of the EU in the fields of
technological change, competition policy, and regional development. Other socialist politicians in Europe have
urged Corbyn to adopt an internationalist perspective but he will not let go of
a parochial and backward looking stance.
The repeated mantra of the current Labour leadership for a “jobs first
Brexit” ignores the impact of a shrunken economy on any progressive political
programme.
If Labour’s support for Brexit is driven more by political
expediency than anything else then this stems from a misunderstanding of
British politics. Although many
constituencies with Labour MPs voted for Brexit in 2016 a majority of Labour
voters opted for Remain. Recent surveys
show that the shift towards Remain among existing and potential Labour voters
has further strengthened so that a pro-Brexit position risks alienating
millions of supporters. It would be far
better to combine a commitment to Remain via another referendum with a clear
programme to end austerity and tackle critical challenges such as the need for more
social housing, the impact of inequality, and declining public services.
Clinging to the “Lexit” position seems even more disastrous
when we move the focus from economic policy to cultural identity. Brexit is a project of and for the political
Right: the referendum was narrowly won by the Leave campaign on the basis
of cheating, lies, and the deliberate use of racist rhetoric to unleash a kind
of angry nostalgia. This is the vision
of Enoch Powell not Clement Attlee and Labour’s dalliance with a destructive
form of English nationalism risks shattering their commitment to anti-racism
and social justice. As the Swedish
sociologist Göran Therborn has recently argued, the defining failure of centre
left parties across Europe in recent years has been to allow worsening socio-economic
inequalities to be blamed on migration rather than neo-liberalism. This failure of political leadership predates
Corbyn but he has neglected to challenge dangerous misconceptions about the causes
of poverty, inequality, and industrial decline.
So here we are, just a matter of weeks away from Brexit,
unless article 50 is rescinded or delayed.
And time is rapidly running out for the Labour leadership to take a principled position
on the most critical political dilemma of our generation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)