The peculiarities of cultural policy as a policy sector give rise to many difficulties for policy-makers – particularly the creation of poorly-defined and confused policies – stemming from the essentially-contested nature of the core concept with which it is dealing. This is identified as a problem of policy ambiguity, with ambiguity being endemic to the sector. This ambiguity is expressed in multiple ways in terms of policy contents, expectations, outputs, outcomes and mechanisms, and these serve to make the sector a subject of political disagreements, policy inconsistencies and evaluation confusion. Differences between ambiguity as a deliberate choice for policy participants, and as a consequential effect of the structural characteristics of the policy sector are identified. The results of these in terms of the policy forms that are generated for the cultural sector, and the creation of dissent about these – and about the legitimacy and rationality of cultural policies – are identified, as are the results of ambiguity in terms of expectations, contestation, clarity, implementation effectiveness and the control of policy.

https://www.idunn.no/file/pdf/66793967/ambiguity_and_cultural_policy.pdf

Ambiguity and Cultural Policy

The aim of this article is to argue that healing stories in the Jesus tradition should be understood as exorcisms, even if the concept of demonisation does not occur in the narrative. In the theistic and mythological context of the 1st-century Graeco-Roman religious and political world, external forces responsible for social imbalances pertain to the demonisation of body and spirit. Medical cure was also embedded in the same biopolitical setting. The article describes aspects of this biopolitics and the role of ancient physicians. However, Jesus’ revolutionary acts were not deeds of a medical doctor, but ought to be understood as the healing activity of a faith healer who empowered traumatised people by creating safe space for them within a quasi-fictive kinship network. The article concludes with an application of the dialectic notion ‘ Christus medicus – Christus patiens’ in the life of the present-day network of Jesus-followers.

/pdf/christus-medicus-christus-patiens-healing-as-exorcism-in-3ngzj9h6bi.pdf

Christus medicus – Christus patiens: Healing as exorcism in context

http://academic.oup.com/isle/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/isle/isaa070/35379948/isaa070.pdf

Disastrous Photography and the Anthropocenic Imaginary

Legion By Kelly Richardson Albright-Knox Art Gallery Buffalo, New York February 16-June 9, 2013 As an exhibition title, Legion snugly fits around this collection of Kelly Richardson's video works. Including ruined landscapes that nod to the morbidity of human relationships with nature and technological "reality," her work addresses the marks of the human army that has scarred its way across the earth. However, "legion," recalling both biblical demons and mass militant forces, reflects not the work, but the audience. Richardson affirms that as humans, we are the legion responsible for shaping the scenes set austerely in front of us. Through works like Exiles of the Shattered Star (2006), Legion explores the contemporary human relationship with environmental detriment. A thirty-minute video projection of a too-green hillside filmed in the English Lake District, Exiles evokes the pleasantries of nature; sounds of birds and bullfrogs imbue the scene with life, evoking ecosystems and natural community. However, Richardson overlays this hillside lake with continuously falling, digitally rendered balls of fire reminiscent of meteoric acid rain. Projected on a screen just big enough to encroach upon the human scale, Exiles typifies Richardson's address of environmental misuse. Though they are installations, her projected pieces read more like cinematic screens, windows, or portals--firmly placing scenes in front of the audience. Richardson uses the prescriptive "What if ..." of dystopian science fiction films to combat the eeriness of a hyperbolic hypothetical future with familiarity, gently leading viewers into sad acceptance of the state of the environment. Rather than making abrasive assertions designed to shock or blame, Richardson soberly levels with the audience, employing a dichotomy of doom and hope. The audience accepts the scenes of melancholy degeneration and understands that it is too late for anger. Knowing this, however, denies viewers satisfaction, and compels them to crave change. In front of these projections, their own shadows invade the image, and they confront the reality that they are part of the great army that has caused the depicted damage. However, a hopeful beam of light on a hilltop grants that the human legion also has power to rectify this injury. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This quiet, confrontational activism parallels Richardson's updated notion of the sublime. In her works, the majesty of untouched nature is present only as a ghost behind a veil of devastation. This new sublime looks unlike the wild and uplifting grandeur of nineteenth-century landscapes. The viewer no longer soars off a cliff over a glorious river valley. Richardson instead places viewers on solid, damaged ground stretched out accessibly before them. Nature remains overwhelming, but the sublime landscape becomes like a picture of a great beast brought down by a horde of insects. …

Kathryn Shriver

Papers

Review: My Name is Legion, For we are Many