Author Archives: B Merritt

Who Will Win the General Election in 2015?

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ThisDr Ben Worthy post was contributed by Dr Benjamin Worthy, a lecturer in Birkbeck’s Department of Politics.

Peter Kellner, expert pollster and President of YouGov, spoke to the Birkbeck Centre for British Politics and Public Life on Wednesday 5 November. A podcast of the talk is also available.

Peter spoke of how influential polls could be. He gave the example of the YouGov poll run by the Sun in August 2013 before proposed military intervention in Syria in 2013. This polling had a real impact on the subsequent debate and may have contributed to the narrow defeat of the vote on military action (or to put it more precisely, on the government motion).

Public opinion can also be fickle – see the changes in public opinion over the War in Iraq and the fluctuation in the ‘support’ and ‘oppose’ column between 2002 and 2007. The public can also get it wrong (see how mistaken we are about everything here). Peter spoke about the need for leadership and the fact that a leader’s job is to sometimes to tell people they are wrong. Immigration is good example – see this gap between perceptions and reality.

So how about the big question – who will win in 2015? In brief, it isn’t clear. Most elections are decided not by switches to Labour-Conservative but by undecided and Liberal-Democrat voters. However, for 2015 there is not one but three wildcards.

Wildcard 1: How will the Liberal Democrats do? We do not know whether or to what extent Liberal Democrats will suffer (or not) for being in government. Previous election results were based on Liberal Democrats as a ’third party’ and a ‘protest vote’. How many seats will they lose from their 57? Will they be down to 30? 20? Or will their famously efficient ground organisation machine save them? This analysis concludes ‘there are so many possibilities, you can make up your own mind what it all means’.

Wildcard 2: How will UKIP do? This is less about which seats they may capture – possibly 10 but more likely four to six. More importantly, how may Labour versus Conservative seats will they throw in a particular direction? Here the number may be many more (see this blog by our own Eric Kaufmann and this analysis of UKIP support).

Wildcard 3: How will the Scottish National Party do? A recent YouGov poll gave the SNP an astonishing 19 point lead in Scotland, enough to capture 31 seats from Labour. Even if this does not happen, the SNP could capture enough of them to deprive Ed Miliband of victory. This is indeed Labour’s Scottish nightmare.

So these three wildcards may well shape who wins or loses, without mentioning even more complications such as the Greens, now polling higher than the Liberal-Democrats. The most likely result is some sort of ‘messy coalition’ made up of various parties of one combination or another. One thing is sure, as Peter puts it here, ‘Those days of decisive, first-past-the-post election outcomes might be over, at least for the time being’.

Ming: 50 years that changed China, at the British Museum

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This post was contributed by Yi-Wen Huang, a PhD student in Arts Management in Birkbeck’s Department of Film, Media and Cultural Studies.

Carved red lacquer on wood core, Yongle mark and period 1403-24, South China. Diameter 34.8 cm © The Trustees of the British Museum

Carved red lacquer on wood core, Yongle mark and period 1403-24, South China. Diameter 34.8 cm © The Trustees of the British Museum

A few weeks ago, I, along with my fellow students, attended the British Museum’s current exhibition Ming: 50 years that changed China which opened on 18 September. The visit ended with a Q&A session with the project curator, Dr Yu-Ping Luk. The exhibition is divided into five sections, namely the Ming Court, the Arts of War, the Arts of Peace, Beliefs, and Trade and Diplomacy. The arrangement of the exhibition allowed for the depiction of the aesthetic qualities of the works. In addition, the display and accompanying text alongside the exhibitions also provided a contextual perspective through highlighting how these objects reflected the social hierarchy and conditions of Ming China.

One of the questions that I had in my mind before attending the exhibition was trying to work out in what ways did the fore-mentioned 50 years in the Ming Dynasty change China? According to the curator, the 50 years between 1400 and 1450 were important for three reasons: the shift of the capital of China from Nanjing to Beijing in 1421, the emphasis placed on art by the Emperor Xuande and the explorations undertaken by Zheng He. The exhibits on display thus reflected these three shifts.

Palace Museum scroll arrows: Detail from ‘Amusements in the Xuande emperor’s palace’ showing the emperor playing an arrow-throwing game. Handscroll, ink and colours on silk. Xuande period, 1426–1435. Anonymous. The Palace Museum, Beijing. © The Palace Museum

Palace Museum scroll arrows: Detail from ‘Amusements in the Xuande emperor’s palace’ showing the emperor playing an arrow-throwing game. Handscroll, ink and colours on silk. Xuande period, 1426–1435. Anonymous. The Palace Museum, Beijing. © The Palace Museum

The objects that impressed me the most were the long scroll paintings on loan from the Palace Museum, Beijing. These paintings depicted hunting activities, eunuchs playing polo and horse-riding. If you look carefully enough, you would be able to find images of the emperor appearing in different scenes participating in the various activities. These paintings reflected life in the imperial court through an insightful observational panorama brought to life through the technical skill of the artist on a long scroll. The landscape paintings with accompanying calligraphy were another display that I found interesting. Landscape painting has long been part of an intellectual tradition of the literati in China. In the Ming regime, landscape painting was one of the Four Arts (四藝 sih yi); the other three being able to master the musical instrument, the Gu Qin, being able to play Chinese Chess and becoming skilled in calligraphy. These landscape paintings at the exhibition explicitly reflected the elegant (雅 ya) culture among the literati. Finally, I was also fascinated by the display of the very first Koran in China which reflected the multicultural and multi-faith in the society in Ming China.

The Q&A session after our visit with the project curator Dr Luk was the most rewarding part of the visit. Through sharing her experience in curating the exhibition, Dr Luk highlighted how this exhibition was the result of five years of research, preparation and collaboration between scholars and professionals from different institutions. Learning about how the objects were loaned from China for this exhibition also provided some insight on the various negotiations that had to take place between government institutions in China. It was also interesting to think that there was a need to consider political sensitivities when presenting information about the objects on display.

It was great to be able to learn more about the exhibition through the Q&A and additional activities about this exhibition, such as the Curator’s Introduction are being organised throughout the duration of the exhibition. Based on what I learnt on our trip, I will definitely be trying to attend more of these events.

Making video work for you with Birkbeck’s Derek Jarman Lab

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This post was contributed by Nick Eisen, an alumnus of Birkbeck’s Postgraduate Certificate in Journalism.

Birkbeck’s Derek Jarman Lab, runs four-day training courses that address the internet’s increasing demand for video in getting your message across. For an example of the Lab’s work see their video Ways of Listening with John Berger and Tilda Swinton.

The Lab says in its publicity that “Film can be a fantastic tool” and “can add greatly to the impact of your work”. As a Birkbeck alumnus working in media, I decide to try the course, which takes place over two weekends.

On the first morning, Managing Producer Bartek Dziadosz shows me to the Lab, in the basement of 36 Gordon Square (entrance round the corner in Endsleigh Place), a few doors north of the School of Arts. Also there are students Nikki and Liz, from Pittsburgh, and Yunus, a Birkbeck economist with plans, one day, to make a film about personalities in economics.

The day begins with an introduction to the equipment – lots to take in, but much becomes clearer with practice.

The afternoon brings classes on film theory referencing Roman Polanski’s Chinatown; an exercise filming a conversation between two gallant volunteers from the Lab team, Bea and Lilly; a class from Lilly on film production, and one-to-ones on the projects we have each planned for the course. Homework is to prepare shooting schedules for our pieces.

Shooting

Next day, we shoot. Nikki and Liz are making films about London; Yunus casts me as Alex from a Clockwork Orange in a tour of Anthony Burgess’s local haunts; I am filming an interpretation of the poem The Spider And The Fly.

Yunus and I start off at a Burgess local – the Duke of York pub. It’s shut. Yunus improvises by turning an interior sequence into an exterior one. He has me standing outside the pub, grinning and holding a glass of milk like Malcolm McDowell as gang leader Alex from Kubrick’s film of A Clockwork Orange. I am surprised how quickly I ignore strange looks from passers-by.

For my project, my main sequence is to speak the poem I’ve chosen to camera. I want to shoot this in a pub, but settle on a restaurant where the staff prove friendly.

Playing a human spider in a crowded restaurant doesn’t bother me. I’ve now grown used to acting strangely in public.

Yunus and I adapt to circumstances through the afternoon – that’s movies… !

Back at the Lab, Bartek downloads our work and gives a class on lighting.

Editing

Left - Right: Walter, Yunus and Liz

Left – Right: Walter, Yunus and Liz

The following Saturday, Walter, the Lab’s Head of Post-production, takes us through editing with a lesson on theory, then an introduction to the equipment – software and computers now, not the bulkier mechanical desks of yore – but we still talk about films and cutting, though celluloid and scissors have practically gone.

Practice brings increasing confidence, and Walter shows how intercutting and juxtaposition of images and sounds can resonate in surprising ways.

Paul, the Lab’s Head of Teaching, helps us with the further editing that comprises the final day, which ends with a screening of some of our work. Nikki has created a beautiful collage of London. Yunus’s use of effects and music suggests a vivid take on A Clockwork Orange, and my interpretation of The Spider And The Fly is kindly received. I can see how I would do it differently now, which of course is part of learning.

The Lab team have been friendly, patient, supportive and encouraging, making for a well-structured, rewarding two weekends.

Taking the course

At £250 (for Birkbeckers), this course is great value, particularly for those with audiovisual elements in their studies, though it’s a significant sum on a tight budget. So maybe start by confirming what you want from the course and how you expect it to give this to you.

To find out more, contact The Derek Jarman Lab.

MA Renaissance and MA Medieval Studies Students Visit the British Library

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This post was contributed by Nuria Gisbert, a student on Birkbeck’s MA Renaissance Studies

BL_BOOKSBirkbeck’s MA Renaissance and MA Medieval Studies students visited the British Library to familiarise themselves with the institution and its various collections. Prior to the visit, all students had to obtain a reader’s pass.

At one of the library’s seminar rooms, we were made very welcome by two members of the Rare Books and Music Reference Team, Christian Algar and Qona Bright. The Rare Books collection contains pre-1851 items, and is rich in incunabula and post-incunabula. The British Library holds over 12,500 incunabula, one of the largest collections in the world.

The Rare Books and Music Reference Team is composed of six members in total, and offers help and advice to students and scholars with their research, and with using the library’s extensive collections. The team can help with obtaining access to restricted items, offers specific pre-arranged research advice, and much more. The British Library’s Humanities section is particularly large, so navigating it properly can be difficult without some prior catalogue research knowledge.

Once we were all sitting comfortably within the seminar room, Mr Algar gave us an introduction to the institution’s history, and an explanation on how to use its many catalogues and research resources (both print and electronic). The British Library holds several reading rooms, where books may be pre-ordered online and then collected for perusal.

He had also organised an amazing display of unique manuscript and print books relevant to our fields of study. The titles displayed were impressively unusual in many respects, and offered fantastic insight into the period running from the late Middle Ages to Early Modern Europe.

The display included 15th– to 17th-century texts, portraying the shift or transition from manuscripts to printed books. It had additionally been chosen around a specific and very interesting theme: the consequences of power on languages and texts. Students were able to look at and handle most of the titles, which was a fabulous experience, especially with the oldest manuscripts.

To illustrate the effects of power on language development, Mr Algar gave us a short history talk on Cornish texts, and how the language did not make it from a hearing to a reading public, gradually disappearing due to the Tudor regime’s official standardisation and imposition of the English language throughout the country. Some of the books on display were either written in Cornish (including translated sermons), or were Cornish stories and legends that had been translated into English.

We were also able to look at different editions and versions of the Decameron, both in manuscript and printed format. A particularly interesting printed copy in Latin included hand-written margin annotations (presumably made by its owner). These lengthy notes corrected and explained passages that had been amended by the Catholic Church in the printed version. Any passages referring to the clergy or the Church had been removed from the printed version, as these were considered harmful to the dignity of that institution.

Regarding the British Library’s manuscript collection, 80% of these items are readily available for research, whilst others require special access and a letter from an institution. A small number of manuscripts are rated as highly restricted, mostly illustrated medieval volumes, and are best perused using the Library’s online digital version. These restricted items include 15th-century British books, which need special care and conservation for obvious heritage conservation reasons.

The visit, including the lecture and book display, were an absolute success with Birkbeck’s MA students. It will be extremely useful for our studies and future research to be able to access the British Library’s unparalleled collection of books and journals. Special thanks are also due to Mr Algar for preparing such a practical introduction to researching the collection, and for his illuminating talk on the effects and consequences of State and/or Church power and control on languages and the written text.