Strange Bedfellows – A collaborative blogging project
A friend of mine who is working on his PhD in Archaeology at the University of York recently sent me a link to an interesting project. Strange Bedfellows is a collaborative blogging project at the University of York funded by the Humanities Research Centre and the Centre for Modern Studies. It hopes to use the blogging format to assess the relationship between analysis and creativity in our modern age.
One of my biggest regrets from my time at York is that I wasn’t more involved with the Humanities Research Centre. The Centre is the center (excuse the horrible pun) for really exciting work involving public engagement and humanities research and, in my limited experience, is run by a group of passionate and intelligent people.
If you are interested in learning more about the project or applying to be a part of it, I’ve copied their call for bloggers below:
S T R A N G E B E D F E L L O W S
Creativity and Analysis in an Age of Austerity
We are looking for ten bloggers to participate in an exciting new project exploring the relationship between analysis and creativity across a number of disciplines and a range of activities. The project will run from September 2012 – August 2013 and will explore a variety of questions: What is the relationship between analyzing a text / film / piece of music / piece of visual art, and creating one? What are the advantages and problems that analytical/creative multi-taskers face when they operate like this, and what models of influence do they recognize and employ? How do the analytical and creative processes enhance, modify, or stymie one another? How do the academic and creative sectors work together, and how should they? In a political climate where both the arts and the humanities are being judged unworthy of public support, can these sectors work together to articulate their value (intrinsic or otherwise) to the general public, as well as their necessity to the
public welfare?
Alongside a speaker series, a conference and public engagement projects, we want to host a blog with ten contributors, who over the course of the year will consider how they understand the relationship between analysis and creativity, and how this relationship impacts on their work. You may be a literary student, academic, or critic, and you use your studies or professional activity to influence your own creative output. You might be a filmmaker with an interest in theory, or philosophy, or the plastic arts. Or perhaps a musician inspired by poetry, or a poet inspired by
music. Or something completely different.
If you are selected to take part, we would like you to blog at least once every two weeks, but the exact frequency is flexible. We will set up a blogger profile for you on our website (currently under construction) and we’ll also hold a full briefing event nearer the start of September, and keep in
touch throughout the year via email and in person to discuss the project’s progress.
What’s in it for you? Bloggers will benefit from a great opportunity to develop a keener insight into their own practice, and to gain experience of public engagement and collaborative working across disciplines. There may be opportunities to contribute towards an end-of-year conference and edited collection of papers summarizing the project’s findings, and copy-writing for an academic project looks great on your CV. You’ll have the opportunity to meet and talk to internationally-renowned scholars and likeminded creative practitioners. In addition, the website provides the perfect platform
to promote and publicise your creative and/or analytical work.
If you are interested, send 250-300 words describing what you would like to blog about and why, along with a CV, to strangebedfellowsproject@gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you.
Funded by the Humanities Research Centre and the Centre for Modern Studies,
University of York
