the blog
Half a million secrets
Secrets can remind us of the countless human dramas, of frailty and heroism playing out silently in the lives of people all around us. Frank Warren from Post Secret tells the story of over 500,000 secrets submitted....and he reminds us of the value of secrets, of keeping them, of sharing them and of the truths they contain.
On art, psychoanalysis and insanity
This South Bank Show on art and insanity is really interesting and includes some fascinating insights from psychoanalyst Adam Phillips about the relationship between creativity and madness. Each part is less than 10 minutes in length.
When what you are doing isn’t working…
I've been interested in Professor Michael Wesch's teaching methods for some time and have followed his use of social media in the classroom (via social media naturally). So I was fascinated to read this Chronicle of Higher Education piece on Wesch's decision to 'reboot' on hearing that his ideas aren't working as well for others as they are for him.
The professor's popular talks have detailed his experiments teaching with Twitter, YouTube videos, collaborative Google Docs—and they present a general critique of ...
Sixty museums in search of a purpose
András Szántó's analysis of the mission statements of 60 museums makes for interesting reading. The accompanying Wordle is a graphic account of the most commonly used words in mission statements (which is also interesting for what is omitted).
Composing a mission statement isn’t as easy as it sounds. Should a mission describe what a museum is doing, or what it should be doing? Is it about tangible goals to which institutions are held accountable, or Platonic ideals to which they merely ...
Emotion in organizations – references
A number of people at the ICP Conference today and yesterday asked for some references on emotion in organizations so here are a number of books I have found useful - enjoy! CAMPBELL, D. 2000. The Socially Constructed Organization, London, Karnac Books. FINEMAN, S. 2000. Emotion in Organizations, London, Sage Publications. FINEMAN, S. 2003. Understanding Emotion at Work, London, Sage Publications. GABRIEL, Y. 1999. Organizations in Depth, London, Sage Publications. HOCHSCHILD, A. R. 1983. The Managed Heart, Berkley, University of California Press.
What’s the point of direct funding to artists?
Diane Ragsdale has a fascinating article about the value of direct subsidies to artists. Although it's about the American context, the points she makes are equally relevant in Europe. She references Hans Abbing's book Why Are Artists Poor? The Exceptional Economy of the Arts in which he makes these points about why the poverty of artists is structural
The social construction of ‘art’as something holy, a notion which is contradictory to the notion of commerce and monetary exchange. He writes: “Although the arts earn approximately ...
Tweet your thesis
Summarise your thesis in 140 characters or less - great meme that has gone viral all over the world today. My summary is 'An unwanted feeling: a psychodynamic study of the creative potential of disappointment in organisations' http://storify.com/annetteclancy/tweet-your-thesis-1
Conference presentation
I will be presenting a workshop on my research - the organisation of disappointment - at the Irish Council for Psychotherapy annual conference in Dublin 26 and 27 January (I'm presenting on 27th). The schedule is here. The book of abstracts for what looks like a really interesting line up of speakers and presentations is here. (At the moment there is a typo in one of the references in my abstract - it should read Schafer, R 2003).
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays
As the year draws to a close I want to take the opportunity to thank you for continuing to read the blog. I'll be taking a short break and hope to return in the new year. In the meantime, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and very best wishes for the new year.
The art of listening
I heard the two men talking about a third old man who had recently died. One of them said, “I was visiting him at his home. He started to tell me an amazing story about something that had happened to him when he was young. But it was a long story. Night came, and we decided that I should come back the next day to hear the rest. But when I arrived, he was dead.”
The man fell silent. I decided ...
