After the fires in Greece this year, an event has been created to support the village of Olympia on its road to recovery. http://www.scholars-for-olympia.com/
Viewing entries in
Olympic Games
This photograph is from the north part of Syntagama Square in Athens, just next to the Zappeion Hall, which, at the time, was functioning as the non-accredited Olympic media centre. This peaceful manifestation sought to raise awareness about the lives that were lost in the construction of Olympic venues.
As many people know, the Athens venues were under pressure to complete on time and the claim was that the rush to do this was neglectful of adequate safety measures. As a consequence, the sentiment here was that the lives were lost because of this pressure and, indirectly, because of the Olympics. The crosses here symbolize each life that was lost.
I have the impression that this coverage did not reach mainstream audiences. Here, everything was peaceful and reminded me of the value of such opportunities to express controversial positions during an Olympic Games. How can the Olympics aspire to remaining apolitical - as it describes itself - while functioning as a mechanism of important social expression?
This week, I will begin working with a new PhD student, Ana Adi, who comes to Scotland from Romania. Ana will be working on media, cultural and political aspects of the Beijing Games. Ana will work closely with Culture @ the Olympics and I am delighted that she is now here with us in Scotland. Here is her biography:
Ana Adi, BA MA (Bucharest), MA (Missouri)
Ana Adi is a doctoral researcher in the School of Media, Language and Music at the University of Paisley (University of West of Scotland). Ana comes to the University after completing a Fulbright scholarship at the Missouri School of Journalism of the University of Missouri-Columbia where her dissertation was on emotional engagement with online news video releases. Ana has worked as a PR Executive for various agencies and organisations such as Mojo AD in the United States and McCann PR in Romania. She also has extensive experience as a radio producer.
An expert in Public Relations, Ana’s background is in Political and Administrative Studies and Strategic Communication. Ana’s PhD investigates the role of new media structures and public relations in China, as they relate to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Ana is a Staff Writer for Culture at the Olympics: Issues, Trends and Perspectives. Ana is a true polyglot, fluent in English, Spanish, French and competent in German, Dutch and Italian, along with her mother tongue, Romanian.
The TCS conference is just about to begin its final plenary, which includes an author of personal interest to me, N. Katherine Hayles. Her book, Becoming Posthuman, has been a central reference point for my own ideas on posthumanism over the last few years. It's also relevant for my forthcoming, co-authored book 'The Medicalization of Cyberspace'. This is my first TCS conference and it's been a rich mix of ideas and presentations. It's also a good excuse to visit Tokyo for the first time, where we've already had a typhoon and an earthquake!
I would like to inform you of an advertisement for a PhD studentship.A stipend is attached to the studentship. Please feel welcome to contact me directly in relation to this [preferably by email].
Please note that the deadline for applications is 27 July 2007, but the formal advertisement does not appear until Monday 9th July, so there will be no other information on the University website until then. However, application documents are available. Please also note that applications can be sent electronically.
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New Media at the Beijing Olympics School of Media, Language & Music, University of Paisley, Scotland, UK. Closing date: 27 July, 2007.
This project investigates the development of new media within China, in association with the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. In so doing, it responds to new agendas in media research in three areas: studies of the media in China, studies of new media, and the role of the media in the construction of the Olympic Games to an international audience. In combining these areas, the student will focus on media discourses surrounding the Beijing Olympic Games. The aim will be to consider the ‘external’ impression of the Beijing Olympics, by studying the cultural and political dimensions of the Games. This work will draw on key theoretical insights into international media events and digital culture. It will also theorize the transformation of journalism as a profession in the context of new media publishing and broadcasting.
Key concepts: citizen journalism, social software, media event, Olympics.
This research will draw on collaborative research projects undertaken by Dr Miah with the London School of Economics and the University of East London. Partner institutions also include various Beijing Universities, particularly the Communication University of China, a leading provider of broadcasting expertise in Beijing and China. Collaborations are also underway with the Annenberg School of Communication, various new media organisations and the student will be assisted to attend the Beijing Olympics in August 2008. The student will support the teaching of ‘Sport & Spectacle’, a course directed by Dr Miah focusing on the media, cultural and political aspects of the Olympic Movement. The project also benefits from an External Adviser Charlie Beckett, Director of POLIS at the London School of Economics. There will also be an opportunity to provide Editorial Assistance to the academic magazine ‘Culture at the Olympics’ http://www.culturalolympics.org.uk
The 2012 logo was launched yesterday. While most of the coverage I have seen seems to be reporting negative opinions, I can't help but wonder what kind of logo would have inspired other kinds of comments. Having watched the promotional video and read a bit more about the logo, I can see that this will be an interesting logo to study. In comparison, previous Games logos are easily forgotten. My intuition is that this logo will become embraced by the UK, as time goes by, providing it can get over the initial hurdles. In this case, there seems the usual polarisation of the populist versus the attempted avant garde. This includes typical complaints that £400,000 was spent on something a school kid could have designed. Have we no understanding of art and design!?Nevertheless, in the spirit of discussion, I've created a group in Flickr for Logo spotting. Join and send us something.
This week was something of an Olympic week with meetings at the LSE a partial conference engagement on the Riverbank in London and the All Party Olympic conference at Portcullis House in Westminster. The latter was a fasincating programme of speakers which included Seb Coe, Colin Moynihan, Manny Lewis and its host Derek Wyatt. There is so much more to come
Research seminar for the Center for Olympic Studies Research: 'Human Enhancement Technologies and the Bio-Politico-Ethics of Sport'
Over the last 5 years, the world has encountered considerable developments in human enhancement technologies. Yet, beyond their techical successes and failures, stem-cells, genetics, nanotech, and information technologies have all featured in the everyday sociologies of the future that abound within media and scholarly texts. The world of sport has encountered a wide range of these applications and the positioning of sports medicine in relation to experimental medical technologies invites rich and complex speculations on the development of performance in elite sport. In this paper, I discuss the role of bio(ethics) in cultural studies and its bearing on the human enhancement debate by drawing on Zylinska (2005). Within the UK, the most recent instantiation of this debate is through the public inquiry into Human Enhancement Technologies in Sport (Science and Technology Select Committee, 2006), the first evidence session of which heard from former 100m Olympic chamption Linford Christie. I discuss the political positioning of sports insitutions in relation to these technologies and how they reflect a broader bio-politico-ethical stance against human enhancement (Garnier, 2006; WADA, 2006). Moreover, I suggest that this positioning is broadly indicative of a fundamental tension within the world of medicine over its legitimate role, and the ends of a commercial model for human modification. These circumstances limit the possibility of open debate about the relevance and merit of anti-doping programmes and weaken the credibility of sport's judicial ethos, the latter of which is highlighted by responses from athletes to Linford Christie's involvement with the public inquiry. Finally, I conclude that these characteristics of sport's political economy inhibit nations from developing technoprogressive approaches to the human enhancement debate. References
Garnier, A. (2006). An Open Letter to Those Promoting Medical Supervision of Doping. Lausanne, Switzerland, World Anti-Doping Agency.
Science and Technology Select Committee (2006, March 1). New Inquiry: Human Enhancement Technologies in Sport. Select Committee for Science and Technology, British Government.
World Anti-Doping Agency (2005). The Stockholm Declaration [on Gene Doping], World Anti-Doping Agency.
Zylinska, J. (2005). The Ethics of Cultural Studies. London, Continuum.
Last weekend, Beatriz and I were in Philadelphia, having been invited to contribute to the second meeting of the project developed by Monroe Price and Daniel Dayan exploring the Beijing Olympics. This was another excellent meeting with some great presentations and discussions. It was also my first time in Philadelphia and I really warmed to the place. We were located in the city centre on Chestnut Street, which is a great location, especially for shopping and cultural activity.
In the meeting, our contribution was to discuss the role of new and alternative media platforms at an Olympic Games, which develops our research from the last four Olympics. Beijing looks like an exciting and intriguing case study in this respect.
This was an excellent meeting, which is devloping into a book publication. Beatriz Garcia and I were brought in to this collaboration between the Communication University of China and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania by Professor Tian (Tina) Zhihui, star blogger and expert on all that is the Web. At this meeting, Beatriz and I gave a paper titled 'The New Media at the Olympics: Citizen Journalists and the Non-Accredited Media'.
At the CUC and Annenberg conference in Beijing, I had the chance to meet Daniel Dayan, who also gave a reprise of his work with Elihu katz on 'media events'. We had an interesting exchange about a range of issues, from Zidane's controversial head butt to what might have happened f if the athletes from North and South Korea had started a fight as they entered the stadium at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. This was a lovely meeting with good strong discussions and great sense of humour. It was a highlight of our trip to Beijing.
Beijing 4th Olympic Cultural Festival Closing Ceremony
Originally uploaded by andymiah.
Wow, a whole month without posting; I was beginning to develop withdrawal systems. So, I went from Lausanne direct to Beijing and China doesn't allow access to some blogging tools, including wordpress and blogspot. It reminded me how important it is to ftp my blog, but I still haven't worked out how to make that step.
There are too many stories to tell about Beijing, I don't really know where to begin. My flickr stream is packed with new content and still more to come, including inside views of the Bird's nest Olympic stadium.
This photograph is from the Beijing 4th Olympic Cultural Festival Closing Ceremony. More about that and other findings later.
This month, Beatriz and I are in Beijing undertaking research for the British Academy with a view to advising the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games on aspects of media and culture. This is our first visit to China and after one week into the trip everything has been superb.
The International Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario, in London, Canada announces its 8th International Symposium for Olympic Research to be held on the Western campus from Thursday evening, 19 October through Saturday, 21 October 2006. This is a call to all scholars interested in presenting a research paper at the symposium on socioculturalOlympic themes, to submit an abstract of their study. The deadline for thesubmission of abstracts is 15 May 2006.
Please send submissions to
Robert K. Barney, Interim Director of ICOS, School of Kinesiology, University ofWestern Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A-3K7, and/or by email to<rkbarney@uwo.ca,
and/or by FAX--519-661-4148.
Notification of those submissions accepted for presentation will be rendered by 15 June 2006. Afully completed and final text of those submissions accepted forpresentation must be in the hands of the Symposium organizers by no laterthan 1 September 2006.
The fully refereed and edited Proceedings of the Symposium, entitled "Cultural Imperialism in Action---Critiques of the Global Olympic Trust: Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium for Olympic Research" will be available to participants upon arrival at the Symposium.
This notice is also an advance announcement that ICOS's 9th symposium will be held in 2008 in Beijing during the week preceding the opening of the Games of the 29th Olympiad.
I had hoped that this page would let me embed a You Tube video, but it doesnt seem to be happening. Instead, here is a link to some recent uploads from Torino. (LATER SAYS:hurray, thanks wordpress guys.)[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWlQB9tAaDw]
On July 9-10 this year, the Humanistic Olympics Studies Center in Beijing hosts its 4th meeting. The Beijing Games is particularly interesting for my own research as it has signalled that it will be a 'Hi-Tech Olympics'. Professor Jin Yuanpu from Renmin university of China recently submitted a paper for the programme of the University of East London meeting on the Olympics, which details some of these points. The manuscript of this paper presents an advanced thesis on the various uses of technology in sport, its challenges and potentials. The theme for this year's meeting is cities and this will be particularly interesting for London 2012, which just this week signed agreements with Beijing to promote exchange and collaboration. As part of this, there is also interesting news for us academics. Quoting from the BOCOG site press release:
"Livingstone will promote London as a tourist destination and academic center during his three-day visit to China"
Tomorrow, Beatriz is speaking at a meeting at the University of East London. One of the keynote speakers is
Dimitrios L. Avramopoulos, Minister of Health and Social Solidarity, Greece, and founding president, World Union of Olympic Cities
I must confess to not having heard of this Union and found little advice from google. Even the IOC website says nothing about this initiative. I wonder if anyone can shed any light on this initiative. It sounds very interesting! The Athens Environmental Foundation has some details and a copy of an original lette from Avramopoulos and it sounds like one of the major initiatives Athens took on when it hosted the Games in 2004. Here is the copy from the AEF site:
"AEF has received a letter of strong support by the World Union of Olympic Cities (WUOC), an international organization that has been formally sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee. The WUOC has been created to join cities as international centers for the development of sports, cultural and international activities that symbolize the deeper meaning of the Olympic Movement.
In the letter to AEF, WUOC Executive President Dimitris L. Avramopoulos congratulates AFF for its efforts and encourages everyone to actively participate and support the foundation's global activities."
The B2008 website now boasts images of the landmark bulding - known as 'Water Cube' - for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, its National Swimming Centre.
While in Torino for the Games, I gave a lecture via some new software we are piloting at the University. Thanks to Kris, Boris and Robert for making this happen. After the death of one laptop and impossible firewalls at the Media Center, British Columbia Canada Place was really the only option. Thanks also to Daniel who convinced the pc to play ball.
Andy Miah gives a remote university lecture
Originally uploaded by bmann.