Monday 6th December - 06:00 PM GMT
The Good, The Great and The Ghosts of the Past
Are we losing faith in the new and reverting to tradition?
A century ago, in what some would see as the highpoint of modernism, the new held all the cards. New literature, new art, new music, this was the driving force of culture. But now with a vast archive available to all, the past is in. Not one of top ten best selling artists of all time was born less than 60 years ago. Old tv series are some of the most popular shows. Might we be losing faith in the new and reverting to an era of safety and tradition? And is this a broader sign of our loss of belief in progress itself?
Should we see our attachment to the Beatles, Blackadder and Bach, as a deep conservatism that should be overcome? Should we dream again of an age where the new in every form is the only thing worth having? Or does the past hold the great works and the contemporary is but thin and weak by comparison?
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Myriam François
Author, broadcaster, podcast host
"Creating a sense of co-existence and community is about forging a shared identity which all members of society can identify with and I think this will necessarily begin with quite a profound reform of education."
Dr Myriam François is a trailblazing journalist, filmmaker and writer currently working at Al-Jazeera. Myriam’s writing is featured widely in the British press, including the Guardian, TIME, Foreign Policy, the Telegraph, CNN online and Middle East Eye, among others. In 2019, Myriam started the We Need to Talk About Whiteness Podcast to pioneer conversations around structural whiteness in the UK.
Jenni Murray
Journalist and Broadcaster
Dame Jenni Murray is a journalist and broadcaster, best known for presenting BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour between 1987 and 2020. She is also author of 'Fat Cow, Fat Chance' and 'A History of the World in 21 Women'.
Stuart Semple
Multidisciplinary Artist
Stuart Semple is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, sculpture, technology and activism. His art is sociologically engaged and often discuss youth politics, accessibility and democracy.
Grafton Tanner
Author, podcast host, and musician
'We call to one another in the darkness of the Internet, reuniting with hosts of friends and followers, but the act is all theatre.'
Grafton Tanner is a brilliant writer exploring the intersection of nostalgia, technology, and the rhetoric of neoliberalism. His books, including 'The Circle of the Snake: Nostalgia and Utopia in the Age of Big Tech' and 'Babbling Corpse: Vaporwave and the Commodification of Ghosts', have been widely acclaimed.
Tanner’s work has appeared in NPR, The Nation, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Real Life. In addition to his writing, he hosts the fascinating audio series Delusioneering, which delves into the myths of capitalism. He also writes and performs music with his band Superpuppet, and is currently working on a book about the re-emergence of exorcism in the late twentieth century.
'Tanner’s meditation on looking back may be just what we need to dare look forward again.' – Douglas Rushkoff, author of Present Shock
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Meeting leading artists who have depicted war, this is a journey encompassing people, places and events from every continent. From Picasso's Guernica and its impact on the Spanish Civil War, to Nick Ut's 'Napalm Girl' photograph, which was credited with helping to bring an end to the Vietnam War, art has stretched beyond borders. Hiroshima survivors share their testimonies, as well as Iranian musicians, Indigenous Australian artists and photographers of the Civil War in Northern Ireland.