Mass sociolegal visualisation

'Law and governance are intimately entangled with time'. So began the call for papers for an international conference on 'New' legal temporalities: discipline and resistance across domains of time', the third event in a two year AHRC-funded Regulating Time networking project, co-organised by Emily Grabham (Kent) and Sian Beynon-Jones (York).

I designed and facilitated the opening plenary workshop in which about 50 participants performed two experiments en masse. The aim was to encourage collaboration, openness and to focus attention on the conference theme.

Photo release forms were obtained from all participants.

Experiment I: Text and/as image

Worksheet for Experiment I: Text and/as image. Printed A3.

Keywords for Experiment I. Selected from conference abstracts. Printed A3.

Images for Experiment I. Selected from my own collection. Each of the 88 images printed at A5.

Thinking racialisation, law & time with @aperrykessaris this morning pic.twitter.com/F3ZMYl5Eu1

— RegulatingTime (@RegulatingTime) September 8, 2016 

Sharing ideas on#lawandtime @regulatingtime @KLSResearch pic.twitter.com/QRS85Y5akt

— Amanda PerryKessaris (@aperrykessaris) September 8, 2016

Placing #lawandtime projects in relation to each other 1 @RegulatingTime pic.twitter.com/NfkgzUcGFb

— Amanda PerryKessaris (@aperrykessaris) September 8, 2016

Accelerationism and other #lawandtime ideas @RegulatingTime @KLSResearch pic.twitter.com/GW7ojTsETs

— Amanda PerryKessaris (@aperrykessaris) September 8, 2016

Experiment II: Model Making

Worksheet for Experiment II: Model Making

Turns out it is hard to model intersectionality with Lego....#lawandtime @RegulatingTime pic.twitter.com/D3Zwpxw235

— Amanda PerryKessaris (@aperrykessaris) September 8, 2016

Towards the end of #lawandtime ? @RegulatingTime @KLSResearch pic.twitter.com/dcnFng77Pr

— Amanda PerryKessaris (@aperrykessaris) September 8, 2016

Repressive effects of efficiency drives #lawandtime @regulatingtime pic.twitter.com/2sCKyFsLzI

— Amanda PerryKessaris (@aperrykessaris) September 8, 2016

Representing the unevenness of time in social life #lawtime @RegulatingTime pic.twitter.com/JaaJINkNpR

— Amanda PerryKessaris (@aperrykessaris) September 8, 2016

Working out how to document plenary on visualising #lawandtime @RegulatingTime fest last week @KLSResearch @SLSA_UK pic.twitter.com/ApkAsZf3iz

— Amanda PerryKessaris (@aperrykessaris) September 15, 2016

Object-based econosociolegal brainstorming

I used a visit to Room 72: Ancient Cyprus at the British Museum to experiment with a spot of object-based econosociolegal brainstorming.

My aim was to use the objects as prompts for rapid reflections on the econosociolegal past, present and future of Cyprus, particularly in the context of the current round of Cyprus-lead UN-facilitated talks aimed at the possible reunification of the island.

I tweeted my results as follows:

With 8+ currencies it must have been complex to do business in #Cyprus 530-310 BCE. Getting better all the time...? pic.twitter.com/v6ZvhvjBlT

— Amanda PerryKessaris (@aperrykessaris) September 15, 2016

In the event of #Cyprus reunification how might memories good/bad/mixed be 'fed' to productive effect? pic.twitter.com/YaABWP8qOv

— Amanda PerryKessaris (@aperrykessaris) September 15, 2016

Contemporary #cyprus holding her econosociolegal future in her arms. pic.twitter.com/ETD9kOSy98

— Amanda PerryKessaris (@aperrykessaris) September 15, 2016

Economic life has a long history of provoking pragmatic + beautiful outcomes in #Cyprus pic.twitter.com/6Q98uFpMY4

— Amanda PerryKessaris (@aperrykessaris) September 15, 2016

What new examples of 'Cypriot fusion' can we expect in months and years to come? #Cyprus pic.twitter.com/YYjH9eazFL

— Amanda PerryKessaris (@aperrykessaris) September 15, 2016

Legal Object Workshop 2017: How to apply

Kent Law School is pleased to offer up to 10 funded places to attend the first Legal Object Workshop at the British Museum (London) on Friday 10 March 2017 10:00 – 16:00.

The workshop is coordinated by Amanda Perry-Kessaris with Lisa Dickson, Luis Eslava, RoseParfitt and Sophie Vigneron who will be allocating the funded places by competitive selection based on applicants' object proposals (instructions below).

Preference will be given to doctoral and early career researchers.

During the workshop participants will present, discuss and reproduce an object in which they can identify significance for their legal research.

Following the workshop participants will produce an object commentary for online publication.

This event is part of the Legal Treasure Project at Kent Law School.

To apply for a funded place

1. Choose an item from the British Museum collection

·       check item ‘location’ to ensure it is currently on display at the British Mueseum

·       note the item URL

·       consider this legal object resource page

2. Answer the following questions on ONE A4 page 

[Helvetica 11 pt, 2 cm margins, include questions as headings]

·       What is your name, email address + affiliation?

·       What is your chosen item name + URL?

·       What is your current research question?

·       How could you use your chosen item to answer your current research question?

·       What research benefits / limitations might be associated with using museum collections in this way?

3. Submit by 17:00 GMT Monday 26 September 2016 to legaltreasure@kent.ac.uk

Model making for sociolegal research Part 1

In 2016 Kent Law School purchased a Lego set. Curious?

It is commonly reported that we remember just 10 percent of what we hear and 20 percent of what we read, but 80 percent of what we see and do; and that over 80 percent of the information we absorb is visual. 

We intend to use Lego to press ourselves to use that 80 percent. 

Let’s say I am facing a problem in my current research/administration/teaching project, and I want to get the advice of my colleagues. I can build a model for my colleagues of where my project is now, explaining what each piece represents and how it relates to the other pieces. The building process, including the selection of the pieces and where to put them, will force me to think very precisely about my project, but in terms that are still accessible to others. I learn new things about how my project fits together, and I offer a shared point of reference or vocabulary to my colleagues. After some discussion I might be in a position build another model that is closer to where I want my project to be. I may or may not actually get there. But we will all have used more of that 80 percent.

We initiated our Lego set in early July with a drop in session based around this worksheet, which proved to productive, albeit imperfect. 

Comments from participants suggested that the process was 'very useful because it made me think about planning my work in a completely different way, ie 3d and thus it was easier to see the blockages'; and 'creative and fun and oddly comforting' causing me to 'stand back and look at my work more objectively (from outside?). Perhaps that's why I found it calming.'

The contribution of KLS researcher Joanne Permian resulted in this, the first of a series of short films I am making to  demonstrate how 3D model making can facilitate thinking though, and sharing, complex projects and ideas:

Sociolegal model making 1 Decisions from Amanda Perry-Kessaris on Vimeo.

Sociolegal objects: resources

Projects
Legal Treasure Project
Thinking into | about practice


Podcasts

99% Invisible archive Objects

BBC Radio 4 ‘A history of the world in 100 objects’

RadioLab 'Things'
Zoe Laughlin, Co-Director of Institute of Making, The Things that Make Us

How to guides

Perry-Kessaris, A (2016) How to read an object 

Prown, JD ‘Mind in Matter: An introduction to material culture theory and method’ 17:1Winterthur Portfolio (Spring 1982)pp. 1-19

UCL Teaching and Learning Portal Object-Based Learning Guides and Case Studies

Matt Ward Techniques and tips… exercises in drawing

Online collections and performances

The history of BP in 10 objects

British Museum (via Google Cultural Institute)
Osbourne, D Object-ivity

Perry-Kessaris A (2016) STANDARD
VADS Free art and design images for education
Chiam, M, Eslava, L, Painter, GR, Parfitt, R, and Peevers, C (2014) The First World War interrupted: artefacts as international law’s archive

Externalise, materialise, confront: on the making of sociolegal worry beads Part 2

Preview: my sociolegal worries about funding and foreign-ness materialised and united

A field trip to Cyprus got me thinking about worry beads. I began wondering how they might be used by Cypriots to think about their emotions and worries associated with the past, present and future of Cyprus reunification talks. But realised that I ought to begin with what I know best: sociolegal research. 

By chance I began with a bead that materialised my worries about research funding. 

Deeper and of longer standing are my worries about what it means to do research as a foreigner. Of course in many respects any researcher is always a foreigner, and I hope that this bead may have much to say about that. But my focus in making it was specifically on my 20+ year history as a British researcher in India, Sri Lanka and Cyprus. In each case I have had a relationship with the country that extends beyond the research, but I have never shaken the nagging sense of hit-and-run.

The making of my second bead, which would confront this question of foreign-ness was triggered by finding a Cyprus Airports duty free bag. The words on that bag, together with the image of the airplane taking off, made me think about how being foreign helps you to fulfil your duty to be free (independent) but also opens the risks of carelessness (free from duty).

The bag reminded me that while I was in Cyprus in June 2016 it was announced that the UK had voted by referendum to leave the EU. So the concept of leaving was on my mind when I filmed the taxi ride to the airport.

The shame and sadness of leaving was also on my mind as I stole this photo of the EU passport channel at Larnaca Airport.

So I filmed myself making a worry beads out of the bag, Fimo modelling clay and some other bits and pieces.

Then I made this film combining footage from the taxi trip with footage of the making of my second worry bead.

Sociolegal worry bead 2: Free of duty duty to be free from Amanda Perry-Kessaris on Vimeo.

Externalise, materialise, confront: on the making of sociolegal worry beads Part 1

Preview: my sociolegal worry externalised, materialised, confronted.

Norman (2005) Emotional design: why we love (or hate) everyday things got me thinking about worries as a focal point for sociolegal research, in particular in my current site of interest: Cyprus.

This image, one of a poignant series in Lasn/Adbusters (2012) Meme wars: the creative destruction of neoclassical economics, helped me to think about linking worry and wonder  in the past-present-future

Dunne and Raby (2013) Speculative everything: design, fiction and social dreaming got me thinking about making material my research into worry and wonder in the past-present-future regarding the possible Cyprus reunification. For example: using soil to think through, analytically and emotionally, some of the issues relating to property in any future settlement.

Arnovitz (2013) My worry beads focused my attention on worry beads: a secular method of self-calming indigenous to Cyprus.

But while I was waiting to interview anthropologist Yiannis Papadakis, author of Echoes from the dead zone, it struck me that I should begin with the worries with which I most familiar: those of a sociolegal researcher.

So I sketched a draft version before Yiannis arrived, and discussed it with him during the interview. 

My perpetual  'outsider' worry was reinforced by the presence of worry beads among the tourist paraphernalia of Larnaca airport. Touché.

My application for funds to cover Cyprus interview transcription costs triggered my first effort to materials the idea of sociolegal worry beads.

Cut up one application form

Soak in boiling water

Pummel until satisfied

Add small amount of flour (not sure really required) and some PVA glue 

Spread vaseline or similar on moulds

Shape. Impale

Dry

 

Seal with PVA glue

 Label

Legal Treasure Tour 2016: an audiovisual essay