As an epitome of postmodern television, Mad Men engages in narrative breaks, non-linear storytelling, open symbolism, and self-reflexivity. Such a model of memory-shifting and creative historical presentation is hard to relate to scripted television, seemingly conflicting with the standard model of television production as seen in sitcoms, occupational dramas and crime or detective series. It’s also a far cry from the agenda-bearing television of the postwar era—if Mad Men is promoting a particular politics or family model, it’s certainly not the promotion of the nuclear family. Yet, as an hour-long weekly drama, Mad Men has clear narrative structures, and a team of writers, directors, actors, and creative staff to produce a series, one with defined plot lines, season-long character arcs, a sequence and chronology, even if one of the trademarks of the show is its non-linear narrative gaps.

http://ivc.lib.rochester.edu/current-issue/

InVisible Culture is an electronic journal of visual culture. The journal is dedicated to explorations of the material and political dimensions of cultural practices: the means by which cultural objects and communities are produced, the historical contexts in which they emerge, and the regimes of knowledge or modes of social interaction to which they contribute.

From Design Observer

Rob Walker

Where We Work

The fascination with the personal spaces of creative individuals is established, even familiar: Many people clearly want to see the artist’s studio, the writer’s desk. Projects like From Your Desks and Windows of The World respond to that desire, and aim to connect us to space and place in a way that possibly reveals something about a creator: The objects around her, the view from his window. I understand this, at least in the abstract

http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/where-we-work/33438/

Counterparties: Why Facebook bought Instagram

Instagram created not a social network, but instead built a beautiful social platform of shared experiences…

“I have made friends based on photos they share. I know how they feel, and how they see the world. Facebook lacks soul. Instagram is all soul and emotion.”

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/04/10/counterparties-why-facebook-bought-instagram/

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join our group of researchers in the School of Health Sciences and Social Care at Brunel University in West London. The successful applicant will join a team of experienced academics and will work on the ESRC funded research project Photographing Everyday Life: An Exploration of Ageing, Lived Experiences, Space and Time. For full details of the post click here

The study is exploring the significance of the ordinary and day-to-day and focuses on the everyday meanings, lived experiences, practical activities, and social contexts in which people in mid to later life live their daily lives. The project involves visual methods (photographic diaries) and in-depth interviews with people aged 50 years and over with different daily routines.

This is a dynamic and challenging post that requires particular skills in researching with photographic diaries, and the ability to analyse and disseminate  visual data. It would suit an enthusiastic computer literate, flexible post-doctoral researcher with experience in working with large qualitative datasets of visual and textual data.  Candidates will need to demonstrate good research knowledge, experience in visual methods, especially the analysis of visual data, and the willingness to be creative when disseminating visual research.  Candidates are expected to be well organised, responsible, capable of using their own initiative, and able to work to deadlines. This post provides exciting opportunities and possibilities to participate in the dissemination of visual research and to be actively involved in the writing and authorship of peer reviewed publications.

A critical review of between 800 to 1200 words is required by June 30th 2012.

“Visual Methods in Psychology: Using and Interpreting Images in Qualitative Research” (Reavy, 2011) Routledge.

Changing our Textual Minds: Towards a Digital Order of Knowledge (Van Der Weel, 2011) Manchester University Press.

Please contact the editor including your full postal address and short bio.
William G. Feighery
Editor
Visual Methodologies

http://journals.sfu.ca/vm/index.php/vm

Art Makes a Statement for Business, Too

By JEAN EFRON

Published: March 31, 2012

Daniel Rosenbaum for The New York Times

Jean Efron, an art adviser, with a sculpture by Elizabeth Catlett at Terrell Place in Washington. In a former life, the building was a protest site against racial segregation, and “we decided to reflect this event,” Ms. Efron says.

Corporate buyers are looking to complete their space in an interesting way. They also select paintings, photography and sculptures for their employees’ enjoyment and to project a certain image. Some view their art as an extension of their corporate work life. I enjoy the challenge of coming up with a plan that reflects what a client wants to say about itself.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/jobs/art-as-an-extension-of-the-corporate-image.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=art%20makes%20a%20statement&st=cse

An excellent review of photographic approaches in organization studies by Joshua Ray and Anne Smith has just been published in the prestigious U.S. journal ‘Organizational Research Methods’ – there’s a great footnote to the paper encouraging readers to join inVisio, so thanks for that Joshua and Anne!

An opportunity to work with Sarah Pink as a research associate!

Required to work on an interdisciplinary project focusing on how knowledge related to Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) flows in organisations.  This is an exciting opportunity for an ethnographer interested in knowledge, practice or organisations to participate in an interdisciplinary project that addresses contemporary applied questions in ways that are rooted in solid academic scholarship. You will be an experienced ethnographer with a PhD and a background in anthropology, sociology, geography or a cognate discipline.  You will preferably have experience of doing ethnography in organisations/workplace ethnography and an interest in embodied knowledge and/or in visual and innovative methods.

For more details visit http://jobs.lboro.ac.uk/index.php?page=Details&id=1802 and for an informal chat about the post please email Sarah Pink on s.pink@lboro.ac.uk

Fourth Edition of “Contro-Sguardi: International Anthropological Film Festival “ Perugia (Italy)

Theme of the year 2012: “For a culture of Work”

CALL FOR VIDEO, PHOTOS, SOUNDS AND PERFORMANCE  (Deadline: 20 February 2012) For more information click here please note the website is translated from Italian via Google Translate so might read a little strangely!

“Cary Peppermint and Leila Nadir founded the ecoarttech collaborative in 2005 in order to explore environmental issues and convergent media and technologies from an interdisciplinary perspective, including art, digital studies, philosophy, literature, and eco-criticism. For ecoarttech, the term “environment” does not refer only to nature or geographic spaces; rather, we understand it as part of an interwoven network of biological, cultural, mental, and digital spaces, and we imagine the health of each as indistinguishable from the health of others. In the words of Gregory Bateson, the planet is part of humans’ “eco-mental system”: “if Lake Erie is driven insane [by pollution], its insanity is incorporated in the larger system of your thought and experience.”"

http://www.ecoarttech.net/