Phil Bagust | University of South Australia (original) (raw)
Papers by Phil Bagust
This paper considers NASA/JPLs recent and widely seen 'Seven Minutes of Terror' Mars mission YouT... more This paper considers NASA/JPLs recent and widely seen 'Seven Minutes of Terror' Mars mission YouTube video. It briefly reviews the history of NASA/JPL unmanned spaceflight video public outreach, and subjects the above text to a shot analysis. It then considers its status as a new kind of promotional 'filmic paratext' (Kernan 2004 & Gray 2010) highly dependent on social media distribution and fan-based 'para-para-textual' production. It finally asks the question – are the social lives and effects of popular texts like these really understood by their publicly owned sponsoring agencies?
Media International Australia, 2014
In May 2013 Flickr, one of the first great social media platforms and a pioneer in the use of the... more In May 2013 Flickr, one of the first great social media platforms and a pioneer in the use of the digital image as 'social glue', launched a new platform design, unannounced, to its 80million+ user community. The changes brought Flickr more into line with newer mobile-focused Web 2.0 competitors and were arguably inevitable if Flickr's owner, Yahoo, was to persist with the platform. However the changes elicited a storm of protest from existing Flickr users. The author followed the progress of this 'revolt' for a month on Flickr's own user forums, and uses the insights gained to ask questions about current theorising of Web 2.0 platform typologies, their corporate governance and business models, and the apparent quietism of their massive immaterial labour 'workforces'. He ends by asking if we need to think beyond current Web 2.0 governance models that seem so welded to dichotomies of public and private ownership.
Continuum-journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 2010
Darwinian selection may not be dead, but there is a 'new kid on the block', one that, at least fo... more Darwinian selection may not be dead, but there is a 'new kid on the block', one that, at least for scientists and conservationists, must seem perverse, fickle and frustrating. Certainly it works on timescales that seem mercurial compared to the geologic 'punctuated equilibria' of natural selection.
Australia Journal of Communication, 2009
The albatrosses are as close to perfect 'star-value' megafauna as birds can get. In recent decade... more The albatrosses are as close to perfect 'star-value' megafauna as birds can get. In recent decades the lives of albatrosses have become popular nature documentary-fare. In 2004 a unique event emerged into the global media-sphere that may presage the next logical stage in this evolution. In collaboration with ornithological researchers, the British bookmaker Ladbrokes organised what it called 'The Big Bird Race'. This paper proposes that we might look at the 2004 and 2005 Big Bird Races as the 'Ur texts' of a possible new nature-entertainment 'reality' genre -one that blends the still extant cultural prestige of 'nature documentary truth', high-tech surveillance, simulation and representation, the entertainment imperatives and self-reflexivity of the 'new documentary' -and adds to them the promise of real-time audience interactivity and gaming that internet delivery platforms are so well suited to.
Continuum-journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 2008
Sustaining cultures, 2007
We live in a world where climate change and resource limits will increasingly act as challenges... more We live in a world where climate change and resource limits will increasingly act as challenges to a 'business as usual' urban consumption-based, highly individualised, 'growthist' model of society Adaptation to a changed world of growth limits will probably require a reconnection with a spirit of local bioregionalism and unique ecological constraints of place and the communities that live in them, and a renewed appreciation for local food production and consumption We believe some of the best places to start this transition is in schools, especially primary schools.
The Adelaide parklands symposium, a balancing act: past-present-future, 2006
Vampires: Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil , 2006
The Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), otherwise known as the Marsupial Wolf or more comm... more The Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), otherwise known as the Marsupial Wolf or more commonly simply as the Thylacine, is today one of the world's most celebrated 'recently extinct' larger mammals, the last specimen having 'officially' died as recently as 1936. This paper will concentrate on the alleged dietary habits of the animal, and particularly on how this information was used, along with other aspects of its predatory lifestyle, to build a campaign of hatred and fear in 19 th century colonial Tasmania that would rival any wolf fable from central Europe. Robert Paddle , has researched this indigenous Australian vampire myth and locates its persistence in a mixture of old European werewolf and gothic constructs transported to the new world, and (more prosaically) in the persistence and amplification of a few contemporary reports of dubious provenance that made for sensational media coverage at the time and that continues to fascinate the Australian public to this day. Finally, this paper also briefly canvases the strange persistence to this day of the 'extinct' (or is it?) Thylacine in Bigfoot-like 'cryptozoological' myths, not just in Tasmania but on the Australian mainland as well, suggesting that (short of unlikely scenarios where that animal may still exist in the wild) this may well be another case of wilful reenchantment (to quote 'The X-Files mantra -"I want to believe") in an increasingly secular rationalist world.
Imaging the Future (conference paper), 2005
Imaging Nature, 2004
Darwinian selection may not be dead, but there is a 'new kid on the block', one that, at least fo... more Darwinian selection may not be dead, but there is a 'new kid on the block', one that, at least for scientists and conservationists, must seem perverse, fickle and frustrating. Certainly it works on timescales that seem mercurial compared to the geologic 'punctuated equilibria' of natural selection.
Sonic Synergies (conference paper), 2003
The words in the quote above are the words spoken softly to the audience by Rob Gordon (John Cusa... more The words in the quote above are the words spoken softly to the audience by Rob Gordon (John Cusack) in the recent film version of Nick Hornby's 'new lad' novel 'High Fidelity'. For Rob, making a compilation tape is not just a creative act of mixing other artists' texts in such a way as to create a new text, (in so doing prefiguring the kind of 'cut n paste' sampling and mixing technologies that are becoming common place, not just in the music industry, but for home users as well) but is also a way to 'pour his essential Rob Gordon-ness' into a musical package that will announce him as a unique and worthy individual to his audience (in this case a girl he wants to impress).
Australian Journal of Communication, 2001
The 1999 announcement by the Australian Museum regarding the possible cloning of the long [presum... more The 1999 announcement by the Australian Museum regarding the possible cloning of the long [presumed] extinct marsupial predator the Thylacine [popularly known as the 'Tasmanian Tiger'] produced widespread reactions in both the popular and specialist press. The story synthesised technical and ethical elements of the cloning debate and used them to re-energise an already powerful Australian 'bush myth' in public discourse. More than that however, the author contends that this is an exemplar of the kind of polemic that is being increasingly driven, not by science, religion or liberalhumanist governmentality, but by the spectacular 'simulation' agendas of the 'media/promotional/entertainment' complex.
Books by Phil Bagust
Book Reviews by Phil Bagust
Sydney: Local Consumption Publications, 2003, 210pp. (pbk), ISBN 0-949793-30-2 Reading Shane Homa... more Sydney: Local Consumption Publications, 2003, 210pp. (pbk), ISBN 0-949793-30-2 Reading Shane Homan's lively and highly readable socio-historical analysis of Sydney's live, popular music scenes reinforces 1) how little the issues have changed in the half century since rock and roll exploded on our antipodean shores as one of the first cultural exports of the new American hegemon, and 2) how, in spite of different historical and regulatory trajectories, the most recent questions his book raises are not restricted to Sydney, or even Australia, but are perhaps inevitable outcomes of the intensely urban (yet global) and highly mediated realities of the (now) neo-liberal phase of late capitalism. As I sit here, long time rock punter, street press writer, public radio DJ and Adelaide pub barfly (retired), at least two of our most famous inner city music venues are facing renewed pressure from a swelling vanguard of gentrified, 'cafe set' apartment-dwellers to quieten their act. All of this after at least four other 'live music' pubs in our inner city area have faced similar challenges from a newly empowered aspirational (to use that perhaps overused word) property owning class in the last few years. How these venues have dealt with these challenges has varied-some have simply capitulated and installed the pokies instead, some have attempted to compromise by installing expensive soundproofing, and some have fought even more expensive and exhausting battles with local and state governments arguing prior use. Even the few cases where a victory of sorts has ensued has not, it seems, led to firm regulatory principals guaranteeing the right of live music venues to co-exist with a newly 'densified' inner urban landscape. But I'm getting ahead of myself. As always, to understand where we are we need to comprehend how we got here-and this is the task that Homan sets himself. Concentrating on post World War 2 Sydney, but with frequent references to other Australian urban scenes to provide a counterpoint, Homan teases out the historically problematic 'twinning' of the licensed public house as the cornerstone of Australian (until recently masculine) community and citizenship, with our equally long
Media International Australia, 2013
Drafts by Phil Bagust
Northern Gothic – music, dress, dance and drugs. Habitus and 'swampie' subculture in right-wing B... more Northern Gothic – music, dress, dance and drugs. Habitus and 'swampie' subculture in right-wing Brisbane. 1985-1990. Abstract As the only Australian state with a majority rural population, Queensland has always been 'different'. Until quite recently its subtropical capital Brisbane had long been a city with a 'frontier' mentality that often eyed the cultural and political agendas of 'liberals' 'south of the border' with reactionary suspicion. At no time was this suspicion and hostility more manifest than during the 1970s and 1980s. At a time when a social revolution, bound up with protest, rock n roll, drugs and the emergence of youth style cultures was sweeping Australia, the state was governed by the ultra-conservative, but politically popular, National Party under long term premier Johannes ('Jo') Bjelke-Peterson. Gothic and (as a subset of gothic was known colloquially) 'swampie', culture was part of a subcultural response to the prevailing conservatism. This paper is an exploration of the aforementioned subculture and its location as a site of cultural resistance and pleasure during the 1980s.
This paper considers NASA/JPLs recent and widely seen 'Seven Minutes of Terror' Mars mission YouT... more This paper considers NASA/JPLs recent and widely seen 'Seven Minutes of Terror' Mars mission YouTube video. It briefly reviews the history of NASA/JPL unmanned spaceflight video public outreach, and subjects the above text to a shot analysis. It then considers its status as a new kind of promotional 'filmic paratext' (Kernan 2004 & Gray 2010) highly dependent on social media distribution and fan-based 'para-para-textual' production. It finally asks the question – are the social lives and effects of popular texts like these really understood by their publicly owned sponsoring agencies?
Media International Australia, 2014
In May 2013 Flickr, one of the first great social media platforms and a pioneer in the use of the... more In May 2013 Flickr, one of the first great social media platforms and a pioneer in the use of the digital image as 'social glue', launched a new platform design, unannounced, to its 80million+ user community. The changes brought Flickr more into line with newer mobile-focused Web 2.0 competitors and were arguably inevitable if Flickr's owner, Yahoo, was to persist with the platform. However the changes elicited a storm of protest from existing Flickr users. The author followed the progress of this 'revolt' for a month on Flickr's own user forums, and uses the insights gained to ask questions about current theorising of Web 2.0 platform typologies, their corporate governance and business models, and the apparent quietism of their massive immaterial labour 'workforces'. He ends by asking if we need to think beyond current Web 2.0 governance models that seem so welded to dichotomies of public and private ownership.
Continuum-journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 2010
Darwinian selection may not be dead, but there is a 'new kid on the block', one that, at least fo... more Darwinian selection may not be dead, but there is a 'new kid on the block', one that, at least for scientists and conservationists, must seem perverse, fickle and frustrating. Certainly it works on timescales that seem mercurial compared to the geologic 'punctuated equilibria' of natural selection.
Australia Journal of Communication, 2009
The albatrosses are as close to perfect 'star-value' megafauna as birds can get. In recent decade... more The albatrosses are as close to perfect 'star-value' megafauna as birds can get. In recent decades the lives of albatrosses have become popular nature documentary-fare. In 2004 a unique event emerged into the global media-sphere that may presage the next logical stage in this evolution. In collaboration with ornithological researchers, the British bookmaker Ladbrokes organised what it called 'The Big Bird Race'. This paper proposes that we might look at the 2004 and 2005 Big Bird Races as the 'Ur texts' of a possible new nature-entertainment 'reality' genre -one that blends the still extant cultural prestige of 'nature documentary truth', high-tech surveillance, simulation and representation, the entertainment imperatives and self-reflexivity of the 'new documentary' -and adds to them the promise of real-time audience interactivity and gaming that internet delivery platforms are so well suited to.
Continuum-journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 2008
Sustaining cultures, 2007
We live in a world where climate change and resource limits will increasingly act as challenges... more We live in a world where climate change and resource limits will increasingly act as challenges to a 'business as usual' urban consumption-based, highly individualised, 'growthist' model of society Adaptation to a changed world of growth limits will probably require a reconnection with a spirit of local bioregionalism and unique ecological constraints of place and the communities that live in them, and a renewed appreciation for local food production and consumption We believe some of the best places to start this transition is in schools, especially primary schools.
The Adelaide parklands symposium, a balancing act: past-present-future, 2006
Vampires: Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil , 2006
The Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), otherwise known as the Marsupial Wolf or more comm... more The Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), otherwise known as the Marsupial Wolf or more commonly simply as the Thylacine, is today one of the world's most celebrated 'recently extinct' larger mammals, the last specimen having 'officially' died as recently as 1936. This paper will concentrate on the alleged dietary habits of the animal, and particularly on how this information was used, along with other aspects of its predatory lifestyle, to build a campaign of hatred and fear in 19 th century colonial Tasmania that would rival any wolf fable from central Europe. Robert Paddle , has researched this indigenous Australian vampire myth and locates its persistence in a mixture of old European werewolf and gothic constructs transported to the new world, and (more prosaically) in the persistence and amplification of a few contemporary reports of dubious provenance that made for sensational media coverage at the time and that continues to fascinate the Australian public to this day. Finally, this paper also briefly canvases the strange persistence to this day of the 'extinct' (or is it?) Thylacine in Bigfoot-like 'cryptozoological' myths, not just in Tasmania but on the Australian mainland as well, suggesting that (short of unlikely scenarios where that animal may still exist in the wild) this may well be another case of wilful reenchantment (to quote 'The X-Files mantra -"I want to believe") in an increasingly secular rationalist world.
Imaging the Future (conference paper), 2005
Imaging Nature, 2004
Darwinian selection may not be dead, but there is a 'new kid on the block', one that, at least fo... more Darwinian selection may not be dead, but there is a 'new kid on the block', one that, at least for scientists and conservationists, must seem perverse, fickle and frustrating. Certainly it works on timescales that seem mercurial compared to the geologic 'punctuated equilibria' of natural selection.
Sonic Synergies (conference paper), 2003
The words in the quote above are the words spoken softly to the audience by Rob Gordon (John Cusa... more The words in the quote above are the words spoken softly to the audience by Rob Gordon (John Cusack) in the recent film version of Nick Hornby's 'new lad' novel 'High Fidelity'. For Rob, making a compilation tape is not just a creative act of mixing other artists' texts in such a way as to create a new text, (in so doing prefiguring the kind of 'cut n paste' sampling and mixing technologies that are becoming common place, not just in the music industry, but for home users as well) but is also a way to 'pour his essential Rob Gordon-ness' into a musical package that will announce him as a unique and worthy individual to his audience (in this case a girl he wants to impress).
Australian Journal of Communication, 2001
The 1999 announcement by the Australian Museum regarding the possible cloning of the long [presum... more The 1999 announcement by the Australian Museum regarding the possible cloning of the long [presumed] extinct marsupial predator the Thylacine [popularly known as the 'Tasmanian Tiger'] produced widespread reactions in both the popular and specialist press. The story synthesised technical and ethical elements of the cloning debate and used them to re-energise an already powerful Australian 'bush myth' in public discourse. More than that however, the author contends that this is an exemplar of the kind of polemic that is being increasingly driven, not by science, religion or liberalhumanist governmentality, but by the spectacular 'simulation' agendas of the 'media/promotional/entertainment' complex.
Sydney: Local Consumption Publications, 2003, 210pp. (pbk), ISBN 0-949793-30-2 Reading Shane Homa... more Sydney: Local Consumption Publications, 2003, 210pp. (pbk), ISBN 0-949793-30-2 Reading Shane Homan's lively and highly readable socio-historical analysis of Sydney's live, popular music scenes reinforces 1) how little the issues have changed in the half century since rock and roll exploded on our antipodean shores as one of the first cultural exports of the new American hegemon, and 2) how, in spite of different historical and regulatory trajectories, the most recent questions his book raises are not restricted to Sydney, or even Australia, but are perhaps inevitable outcomes of the intensely urban (yet global) and highly mediated realities of the (now) neo-liberal phase of late capitalism. As I sit here, long time rock punter, street press writer, public radio DJ and Adelaide pub barfly (retired), at least two of our most famous inner city music venues are facing renewed pressure from a swelling vanguard of gentrified, 'cafe set' apartment-dwellers to quieten their act. All of this after at least four other 'live music' pubs in our inner city area have faced similar challenges from a newly empowered aspirational (to use that perhaps overused word) property owning class in the last few years. How these venues have dealt with these challenges has varied-some have simply capitulated and installed the pokies instead, some have attempted to compromise by installing expensive soundproofing, and some have fought even more expensive and exhausting battles with local and state governments arguing prior use. Even the few cases where a victory of sorts has ensued has not, it seems, led to firm regulatory principals guaranteeing the right of live music venues to co-exist with a newly 'densified' inner urban landscape. But I'm getting ahead of myself. As always, to understand where we are we need to comprehend how we got here-and this is the task that Homan sets himself. Concentrating on post World War 2 Sydney, but with frequent references to other Australian urban scenes to provide a counterpoint, Homan teases out the historically problematic 'twinning' of the licensed public house as the cornerstone of Australian (until recently masculine) community and citizenship, with our equally long
Media International Australia, 2013
Northern Gothic – music, dress, dance and drugs. Habitus and 'swampie' subculture in right-wing B... more Northern Gothic – music, dress, dance and drugs. Habitus and 'swampie' subculture in right-wing Brisbane. 1985-1990. Abstract As the only Australian state with a majority rural population, Queensland has always been 'different'. Until quite recently its subtropical capital Brisbane had long been a city with a 'frontier' mentality that often eyed the cultural and political agendas of 'liberals' 'south of the border' with reactionary suspicion. At no time was this suspicion and hostility more manifest than during the 1970s and 1980s. At a time when a social revolution, bound up with protest, rock n roll, drugs and the emergence of youth style cultures was sweeping Australia, the state was governed by the ultra-conservative, but politically popular, National Party under long term premier Johannes ('Jo') Bjelke-Peterson. Gothic and (as a subset of gothic was known colloquially) 'swampie', culture was part of a subcultural response to the prevailing conservatism. This paper is an exploration of the aforementioned subculture and its location as a site of cultural resistance and pleasure during the 1980s.
This paper reviews mediation of the Chelyabinsk (Russia) meteor explosion of February 2013 with p... more This paper reviews mediation of the Chelyabinsk (Russia) meteor explosion of February 2013 with particular reference to YouTube. It uses Chelyabinsk as a case study of the emerging role social media devices and platforms play in distributing spectacular citizen-generated disaster texts. It evaluates these texts as examples of either 'sublime art' or 'disaster porn' at reception. It considers the science outreach community's attempts to improve science literacy via social media engagement of similar events. It finally asks whether fundamental attributes of personhood and reality construction in web 2.0 environments might problematize the use of social media to improve STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) outcomes