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Web, New Media, Social Media | Lecturing, research, knowledge transfer & exchange at Birmingham City Uni | How I use Twitter: http://bit.ly/2XILW1

Hacking the planet & amping my shit while teaching bright, lovely people at BCU about Web, New Media, Social Media | How I use Twitter: http://bit.ly/2XILW1

I work at BCU School of Media. All tweets are my own except the ones that I ripped off wikipedia. The others are a rehash of something I read in the Guardian.

Academic teaching famous non-subject media studies. Married to a faceless bureaucrat working in EU funding. We are Broken Britain. Sorry about the mess.

'Is this a hold up?' 'It's a science experiment.' // I'm a media academic @bcumedia.

It's summer but I'm still at my desk, marking, planning for next year, doing research @bcumedia. Just because we're not teaching doesn't mean we're on holiday.

There now follows a list of nouns which describe roles I hold in different social contexts: husband, father, lecturer, researcher, judoka, Guernseyman, Brummie

this account is now on strike until 5pm #j30 (https://twitter.com/jonhickman/status/86339652637831168)

lecturer & researcher (social media, digital culture, creative industries) @bcumedia. Currently writing up research on The West Wing on Twitter

All comments are my own but all typos and grammatical errors are my phone's. || I teach, research, and do knoweldge transfer @bcumedia

BASED ON A TRUE STORY. I teach, research, and do knoweldge transfer @bcumedia

multimedia… platters… irony and self deprecation. There's pudding! | degree leader (new media) & researcher @bcumedia

contains mild peril and some sexual swear words | @bcumedia lecturer & researcher

Rather than send you a traditional Christmas card I've bought a goat & I send you this jaunty e-greeting! Come Jan 2012 I will once again do Internet @bcumedia

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1.     Set up a package of work and deliver to a deadline;

2.     Judge personal skills and align these with tasks;

3.     Describe and reflect upon the working processes in a design studio.

B225 Studio has just completed the take over of a small design agency, hipsterdesign. We’ve inherited a bit of a mess. As a result, incubation work has been cancelled for one week only and we need you to help us clear the backlog -  after all we pay your rent and overheads!

Unfortunately our MD,  Jon Hickman, has been called away to lay off staff in Hipster’s office in East London and can’t be with us this week. You’re on your own. We’ve allocated you a pile of work from Hipster’s client roster. Your challenge for the week is as follows:

1.     Read through and understand the project briefs;

2.     Organise yourselves so that you can respond to as many of them as possible;

3.     Complete the projects ahead of next session.

Remember: you have class time today to organise yourselves and begin work, and then eight hours of directed study time. You will need to work efficiently and effectively, and ensure that all the work is divided up in an appropriate manner.

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The following is a spoiler laden essay on Six Feet Under, co written with Chris Wills (and also available on his blog).

Six Feet Under is a simple narrative complicated by three red herrings: Nathaniel Jr. (Nate), Nathaniel Sr. (Nathaniel), and death.

Six Feet Under constantly invites us to consider death as a way of life. The funeral parlour setting frames the story of each episode and frames the story arc. Into this structure the series opens with the death of the Fisher family patriarch - the enigmatic Nathaniel - which forces Nate to reconnect with the family business he tried to escape. In Nate the producers give us an archetypal male hero - he is the uncompromising, good looking, sexually succesful (and heterosexual) lead played by a named star; as an audience we would tend to understand Nate to be our key protagonist. Thrown back into a family business which he has no real aptitude for, he physically grapples with death just as the Fisher family must emotionally grapple with Nathaniel's passing. But this reading becomes increasingly problematic as the series progresses. We must soon regard Nate as a flawed anti-hero, but his influence becomes increasingly corrupting on those around him until we find ourselves asking "is Nate the villain of Six Feet Under?". In the final season, Six Feet Under presents a moment of crisis for this reading with Nate's death, leaving the obvious reading of the show short of a hero for some four episodes; the death of Nate is where the producers show their hand, revealing the need for the audience to find a new story to explain Six Feet Under. We will now consider an alternative reading of Six Feet Under - while you may prefer your own reading, we feel that this explanation of the show is more effective than the "Nate as hero" reading as it overcomes the moment of Nate's death while unifying the story to themes within the show other than death.

So what is Six Feet Under really about?

Read as a classic Hollywood narrative with Nate as a villain, the disruption to the stable world is Nate's arrival; the new equilibrium can only happen when he's dead. In the new stable world we see all other characters have changed, and grown, through their experiences with Nate - death aside Nate has not grown through the events, he has simply become more compromised and damaged more and more people. Within this reading, we will consider Claire Fisher, the youngest Fisher child, to be the true protagonist of the show. 

Claire Fisher

There are a number of points in the storywhere we see key truths revealed through Claire's eyes. Most notably, the finale of the show is seen entirely through Claire's eyes, but her role as an observer of events is a consistent theme throughout the show. Claire is the first character to recognise and accept David's sexuality; she is our witness whenever a character steps away from the confines of the funeral home and secret pasts are revealed, being present at Mya's conception in Seattle and when her mother reconnects with her youth at the party in the canyon; Nate's death is experienced most vividly through Claire, and she is the frst to understand Lisa's fate.

Reassessing Nate Fisher

Nate's role as a villain is complex but pervasive as he smothers other characters through performing his role as patriarch. Nate beats David at every turn: he takes the freedom (from the family business) which David craved, then walks back into the business as his equal (despite a lack of experience or qualification) and in doing so he annuls the years of life that David has invested into the funeral home. In his personal life Nate also beats David without trying, claiming fatherhood and marriage (twice); Nate cares for neither but they come to him easily, almost accidentally, enabled by social norms and laws that support his role as partriach. David has to work hard for success in family life and his business life, but social norms allow Nate to simply have these things even though he resents all of them.

Nate takes sex where he finds it, and while this easy sexuality will eventually be implicated in his downfall, no other character is allowed to have the same sexual success. David is criminalised and physically abused for taking what he wants, while Federico's bumbling naive attempt to be like Nate is disastrous for his marriage.
 
Sins of the Mother, Sins of the Father
 
The big contrast between Nate and Brenda is in now they attempt to or resist becoming their same-sex parent.  Nate truly does become Nathaniel Jnr in the end, proving just as inadequate a husband and father, underlined by the fact that his last act before going to his deathbed is to cheat on his wife.  Brenda, on the other hand, actively resists trying to become her mother, Margaret Chenowith.  This is understandable, given that Brenda's parents psychoanalysed her and her brother Billy to death when they were children (combined with a total disregard for boundaries).  Margaret's lack of boundaries extends to how she speaks to her daughter, her words often cruel, hurtful and undiplomatic - yet whilst she is set up as a thoroughly unlikeable character, as the series progresses it's increasingly hard to deny the truth in what she says regarding her daughter's relationships.  Brenda exists in a constant state of denial, particularly in Season 2 when she uses sex to mask her feelings of fear and vulnerability as she and Nate become closer.  Possibly she is also starting to feel suffocated - a feeling of suffocation that ultimately overwhelms Lisa in the following season, triggering the events leading to her death.  Thus, whilst Brenda's form of release carries its own hazards, she does at least emerge alive.  Something of a background figure for much of Season 3, Brenda re-emerges in Season 4 with a new relationship - only for Nate to blunder along and mess with her head.  The result?  Brenda acquires her own family at long last, albeit a rebounding widower and another woman's child.  Here again Brenda's fears of becoming her mother come to the fore, as she and Nate argue over whether or not to tell Maya about what happened to her real mother.  Brenda then herself becomes a mother, symbolically just after her husband's death.  Her own child, on her own terms, and one who she will bring up within an enriched extended family, one devoid of the destructive presence of a man who, had he lived would most likely have screwed up his relationship with his daughters just as he had screwed up his relationships with the other women in his life (except Claire, but we'll come to her later).
 
Of course, mention of Brenda must also include mention of Billy, for parallel with Brenda's coming-to-terms with her intimacy needs is her having to come to terms with her younger brother's feelings for her.  There are hints from the earliest episodes that Billy might harbour incestuous feelings for his sister, but these finally come to the fore in a scene in Season 4 when the pair are watching the animated film of Charlotte Light and Dark, the book based around Brenda's childhood (and the mental disorders she feigned when being observed by her father's various colleagues, just as she feigns intimacy with her sexual partners as an adult because it's "what they want").  Billy makes a pass at Brenda, but she recoils from him - subconsciously however, she cannot have been completely repulsed as, in a dream she has shortly before giving birth (and triggered by a suggestion made by her mother), she gets into bed with Billy and they start to make love.  Whether these incestuous impulses are ever realised is not answered directly by the show, although it's notable that, amongst the future deaths of the main characters in the final montage, Brenda is seen dying in a nursing home whilst Billy drones on about their disturbed childhood for the umpteenth time.
 
Ruth is a different case altogether.  Whilst Brenda fears giving in to her emotional needs, a lot of Ruth's frustration stems from attempting to satisfy hers.  Although appearing prim and uptight initially, it is quickly revealed that, even before her husband's death, Ruth was having an affair with a hairdresser, Hiram.  When this peters out, various other relationships ensue - Nikolai the florist, Arthur the junior embalmer, and finally geologist George Sibley.  Ruth marries him after a whirlwind romance, only to subsequently discover a litany of ex-wives, estranged children and mental health issues.  Significantly, each of these relationships entails Ruth assuming the role of mother and carer, rather than equal; even with Nikolai, who employs her for a time, Ruth still takes it upon herself to try and protect him, in particular when she uses part of her savings to pay off a gangster associate threatening Nikolai.  The lack of gratitude that she receives in return signals the end of their relationship; this desperation to please being greeted by at best indifference and at worst ill-treatment is magnified to a grotesque degree in David's experience with the psychopathic hitchhiker.  Indeed, of the three Fisher children, David most closely resembles his mother in his behaviour and, like her, has to work his way through a long arc to self-acceptance and realising that his own happiness cannot constantly be subservient to that of others.
 
Part of Ruth's journey to liberation comes through her relationship with her sister Sarah's friend Bettina.  Ruth sees in Bettina the woman she was never able to be due to marriage and motherhood coming upon her at a very young age - and indeed the woman who she envies Sarah for being (although Sarah tells Ruth that in fact she envied her for being able to have children; thus the two sisters symbolically appear to be two halves of the same person).  In one episode, Bettina encourages Ruth to shoplift, explaining that they will get away with it because, as women over the age of 40, they are "invisible".  The transgression is perhaps less significant than the accompanying dialogue, as it highlights once again how certain groups tend to be marginalised in the Great American Narrative.  It's also a piquant comment on the treatment of actresses of a certain age in the biggest industry in the Fishers' home city (made even more piquant through being delivered by Kathy Bates).  Ruth's crucial moment of revelation comes near the end of the series as, in a fantasy sequence, she takes aim at and shoots down all the useless, unreliable, demanding men with whom she has fallen into relationships.  Significantly, this happens at the exact same time as Nate is lying in a hospital bed, his death just hours away.  For Ruth's eldest child, having repeated this sins of his father, is the one remaining man still holding her back.  His death, whilst horrifically painful for her, is necessary in order for her to be truly free.  Ruth goes forward as a friend, a lover and a devoted mother and grandmother - but on far more equal terms now that the men who demanded from her are either dead or neutralised. 
 
One can compare and contrast Ruth and Margaret, Six Feet Under's two matriarchal figures.  Ruth is very selfless, with anything she does for herself almost an act of rebellion.  Margaret meanwhile is completely selfish and self-centred - but so is her husband, so they make a perfect couple.  Whilst she might see herself as better emotionally equipped to deal with his loss than Ruth is to deal with Nathaniel's death, in truth she is just as grief-stricken, and emphasising this through her melodramatic side is really just as effective a way of masking her deeper feelings as Ruth's self-repressive streak.  The funeral over, Margaret launches into a carefree relationship with Claire's college tutor Olivier, someone else who plays around with and insults others unashamedly.  Margaret has no real interest in being a "good" parent; Ruth has invested too much in trying to be one for very little return.  Ultimately though, Ruth moves more towards a happier central position, whereas Margaret remains pretty much where she started, and is arguably less liberated and enriched than her counterpart by the end.

All Apologies

"regarding him say neither bad nor good for he has gone beyond the good and the bad"

While we do see Nate as a villain, he is allowed a brief moment of redemption, which is permitted through our hero Claire. As we say goodbye to Nate, Claire remembers him as a teenager, alone in his room, crying about the death of Kurt Cobain. It is perhaps also not entirely irrelevant that Kurt Cobain's death was premature, and hastened by a self-destructive act.  He left behind a wife (who has her own issues and is a not entirely sympathetic figure) and a young daughter. 

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The first book up is 'I play the drums in a band called okay' by Toby Litt suggested by Daz Wright.

I absolutely loved this book.

It was suggested under my "stylistically interesting" requirement, and it's got that. The book reads like a series of anecdotes, a conversation with a biographer or journalist, which taken together tell the story of international supertstar rock band called okay. Narrated by okay's drummer, Clap, we learn the history of the band and it's members through a series of vignettes. The structure means there's no tension and little drama to work through; it's one of those books that you feel could have just meandered along in a bit of a haze indefinitely.

To compare it to a film it was like 'Lost in Translation' - lots of ideas and emotion but a sense of stasis that is comforting and disquieting at the same time. And when you get to the end you feel you could just press play again (or start from chapter 1).

The other point of comparison I have is 'Espedair Street' by Iain Banks. Banks also offers up a hugely successful stadium band and narrates through one of its more modest members, but he uses a romantic storyline that drives the book and offers a fixed conclusion. Litt's take on the genre might frustrate those who like a beginning, middle and an end but if you can live without it's a lovely relaxing comfort blanket of a read.

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Remember how in 24 things would often get kick started by "chatter"? Yeah, chatter - mutterings on the Internet that something is afoot. In espionage drama (and heck, probably real life spying too) the 'net is monitored for tidbits of this and that which might fall into a sort of a pattern that tells you there's a problem.

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I'm going to be taking a good chunk of annual leave soon, so I'll need some sort of summer reading list. Rather than looking at a broadsheet for a list of unlikely awards fodder, I thought I'd put this out to my pals, to see what ideas they have. Some of you make me jealous with your knowledge of good reads, so don't let me down. Oh, and I thought I'd make it a challenge with some daft rules designed to unearth some gems.

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Dear Print Designer,

I noticed your poster today at Perry Barr station. It's an attractive enough poster, and very much in keeping with London Midland's house style. I noticed you'd used a QR code with the call to action "scan me". Now I'm a very obedient guy, so I did, but it was tricky, what with the QR code being down below my waist. I can see why you did this: there's space there in the poster template, and perhaps you don't want to clutter your artwork with this new fangled digital feature.

You're clearly not convinced by the need to use a QR code, are you? Otherwise you'd have not been so thoughtless about this positioning. You'd have considered the feature's function, thought about the context in which I'd interact with it, and made it accessible. You'd have had the confidence to have made it part of the design, not dropped it in as an after thought.

Essentially by offering this QR code you are making your poster an extension of my smartphone's browser - you're designing for screen, designing for Internet. Web designers think about usability, and you need to too.

It's nice to see you experiment, but let's learn from experience and move things forward.

Yours faithfully,

Jon

p.s. check your brand manual. The branding consultants are probably pretty pissed that you've nicked all that negative space from the company logo.

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It seems to have been Glastonbury weekend this weekend. That traditionally means that people come out telling you that Glastonbury jumped the shark and it's not like it was in the old days. So there's no point in going really is there? After all you won't have an authentic experience.

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accountancy_templates.zip Download this file

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We finished watching 'Six Feet Under' last night. I'll celebrate by sharing this rapture themed clip with you.

Incidentally I'm landscaping my garden today, so I'm going to look pretty stupid if the rumours are true.

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