Journal & Book Publications

Interesting parallels are drawn between the two individuals, their lives, personalities and beliefs. As a trained mechanical engineer as well as an artist, Tsai was one of the most distinctive figures to emerge during the explosion of technological arts in the late 1960s. His works seemed miraculous for their time – responsive cybernetic automata, a gravity reversing upside-down fountain, and rapidly oscillating, metallic plant and grass-like phenomena that were awe-inspiring, shimmering spectacles. Significantly, he saw these sculptures as a part of himself, and their dynamic vibrations – the primary and defining characteristic of these works – as a form of self-expression.
Citation:
Dixon, Steve. ''Circular Intimacy: Re-evaluating Wen-Ying Tsai’s Interactive Sculptures.'' Tsaibernetics: Transgenerational Cybernetic Art, edited by Ryszard W. Kluszczynski, Gdansk, LAZNIA Centre for Contemporary Art, 2023, pp. 50-87, ISBN / ISSN: ISBN: 8361646957.

In a series of rich conversations, those present discuss our world in the second decade of this century; they look at decolonisation, indigeneity, climate change . . . this is what they see. Edited by Witi Ihimaera and Michelle Elvy, this fresh, exciting anthology features poetry, short fiction and creative non-fiction, as well as kōrero or conversations between writers and work by local and international artists. The lineup from Aoteraoa includes, among others, Alison Wong, Paula Morris, Anne Salmond, Tina Makereti, Ben Brown, David Eggleton, Cilla McQueen, Hinemoana Baker, Erik Kennedy, Ian Wedde, Nina Mingya Powles, Gregory O’Brien, Vincent O’Sullivan, Patricia Grace, Selina Tusitala Marsh and Whiti Hereaka. Guest writers from overseas include Aparecida Vilaça, Jose-Luis Novo and Ru Freeman. Ihimaera and Elvy have curated a luminous hui, a book to return to time and again.

Citation:
Golden, Steve. A Kind of Shelter Whakaruru-taha: An Anthology of New Writing for a Changed World. Auckland, Massey University Press, 2023, ISBN / ISSN: 978-1-99-101622-5.

Drawing on desk research, document analysis and semi-structured interviews with museum professionals, it analyses the case studies of the livestreaming bilateral museum diplomacy and metaverse live heritage pandemic diplomacy, followed by a discussion on the processes of museums decolonization that started to unfold in response to the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement. The research argues that the impact of the digitalization pressures did not only affect the ways, forms, and structures of cross-cultural communications in museums, but also moved them a bit forward in their decolonization processes.

Citation:
Grincheva, Natalia. ''‘Contact zones’ of heritage diplomacy: Transformations of museums in the (post)pandemic reality.'' Heritage Diplomacy : Discourses, Imaginaries and Practices of Heritage and Power, edited by Tuuli Lähdesmäki, and Viktorija L.A. Čeginskas, London, Routledge, 2023, pp. 76-93, ISBN / ISSN: 9781032535029.

While we can’t fully explain the “human factor” and the magic behind the birth of a global movement, can we harness data on their spread, impact, and intensity across different regions in recent decades to anticipate their future trajectory? The short media article discusses machine learning capabilities of the Data to Power mapping application to explore and forecast the global impact of Hallyu. The project utilises a wealth of three decades of Hallyu data to formulate a predictive model of the Korean Wave scope and its trajectory across various geo-locations, transforming data analysis into a robust data intelligence system.

Citation:
Grincheva, Natalia. ''Cultural analytics: Machine learning and understanding the Korean Wave (Hallyu).'' The Academic, 2023.

The research explores how the discipline has evolved, what geographies and thematic areas it covered in the past, and what is the future of this discipline. These explorations start a conversation on cultural diplomacy as an independent academic discipline that most recently has gained a wider and stronger attention and reached a higher stage of scholarly maturity. This article is evidence that the research on CD is rapidly progressing with time, incorporating new thematic areas for exploration as well as covering wider cultural and political geographies. The research findings suggest further trajectories for the development of cultural diplomacy as an academic enquiry, focusing on different diplomatic channels, modes of operation, structures, actors, meanings, and implications.

Citation:
Grincheva, Natalia . ''The past and future of cultural diplomacy.'' International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2023, doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2023.2183949.

Deconstructing and exploring the neo-liberal multilateral nature of K11 diplomacy, the research questions how K11 operates and navigates the international communication complexities within the global arts market. It analyses how this diplomacy is different from government-led bilateral cultural diplomacy of China and why it creates less frictions and contradictions on the international level. The article reveals that the rapid integration of K11 into the international art market is a combination of different factors. Beyond the economic power of K11 to sponsor major international events in collaboration with prestigious partners, it also possesses more flexibility and tolerance to navigate the normative environments of the ‘epistemic community’ of the global arts world, which do not always work well with national authoritative regime’s pressures. However, positioning itself as an apolitical player with a global vision, K11 is dominating a niche within the national art market, where it does not compete with state authorities. Moreover, it generates a high economic and cultural capital in China by nurturing contemporary Chinese arts and raising their prestige and value on the international level.

Citation:
Grincheva, Natalia. ''K 11 Alternative Diplomacies: Penetrating the Global Arts Markets.'' Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, vol. 10, no. 3, 2023, pp. 371-388, doi: https://doi.org/10.1386/jcca_00090_1.

This digital laboratory produced an epistemology that became manifest through the critical assemblage of resources, architecturally inflected interdisciplinary research, and a connected intelligence approach that was able to empower sustainable cross-institutional knowledge creation. The chapter also examines a novel case study, its experimentation, and alliances, and in so doing, advocates for the agential and ethical demands of research in the 21st-century humanities.

Citation:
Fensham, Rachel, et al. ''More Than a Lab: Infra-structuring the Humanities in the Digital Studio.'' Digital Humanities and Laboratories Perspectives on Knowledge, Infrastructure and Culture, edited by Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, and Christoper Thomson, London, Routledge, 2023, pp. 89-104, ISBN / ISSN: 9781032027630.

Interviewers are academics with significant knowledge and understanding of the appropriate arts management and cultural policy field, and to be willing to ask critical and probing questions. Interviewees are cultural leaders in their field and to have sufficient experience and standing such that they will have interesting insights and perspectives on the sector.

Citation:
Loh, Michelle. ''In conversation: Kenneth Kwok (Ministry of National Development, Singapore).'' Cultural Trends, 2023, pp. 1-10, doi: 10.1080/09548963.2023.2201974.