To Whom This Place Belongs: Doreen Massey on the politics of landscape and space
Excellent Resonance FM interview with Doreen Massey.
View ArticleRadio Belbury: ‘The Minstrels’ Wheel’
If you haven’t done so already, you really need to listen to Radio Belbury. And if you don’t know where Belbury is you need to get yourself over to Ghost Box. This is # 9 “The Ministrels’ Wheel”....
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On the geopolitics of rocketry in Gaza
In 1983, when the craziness of Reagan-era missile-pointing was at its height, Jacques Derrida gave a topical address to Cornell University. Starting with the wordplay between ‘missile’ and ‘missive’,...
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A Muddy Testament: Finlay Munro’s footprints and other Calvinist landscapes
For all the contemporary interest in cultural landscape interpretation and conservation, there are plenty of sites that elude official attention. Many are just too awkward or too obscure. Finlay...
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Occupy Rockall: on plagiarism, patriotism and ‘heroic science’
Dealing with plagiarism is one of my least favourite aspects of academic life. Today’s case, however, is much more fun. And as it doesn’t concern any of my own students, it involves no additional...
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On Harry Smart – poet, geographer, artist etc.
There has been a bit of background chat in recent years about the correspondence between geography and poetry. A conference session was organised at the IBG in 2010. Last year, Royal Holloway...
View ArticleR. D. Laing Making Faces
Here is a video of the Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing, filmed at the height of his fame in 1973. I’m not sure why I am posting this: it just seems somehow remarkable. It is an odd conversation; and...
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Why I love Cockenzie Power Station
I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again: I love Cockenzie Power Station. When I hit Portobello prom of a morning, I invariably give it a backward glance. Later, when I’m crossing North Bridge over...
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An episode in the history of drone warfare: South Uist, August 1998
There is a significant event in the history of twentieth century Scotland that has, to my knowledge, never been properly acknowledged: the first successful transatlantic flight of an Unmanned Aerial...
View ArticleBig Dog has a new arm
Boston Dynamics has developed a new throwing arm, presumably so that Big Dog can play fetch with itself.
View ArticleWill Self on the psychogeography of the Scotland
The full text of Will Self’s Wreford Watson lecture on the psychogeography of Scotland has now been published, appropriately enough, in Scottish Geographical Journal. Readers familiar with this doughty...
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That which once was great is passed away
And what if she had seen those glories fade, Those titles vanish, and that strength decay; Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid When her long life hath reached its final day: Men are we, and must...
View ArticleThe Robo Bee
Harvard’s new RoboBee: a new step towards more sophisticated bio-mimicry and the likelihood of military applications on an analog insect body.
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At Dun Torcuill, North Uist
This is one of the most distinctive ancient monuments in Scotland: Dun Torcuill, a fine Hebridean broch or, if you want to be picky, a ‘galleried dun’. And this is the path to Dun Torcuill. When I...
View ArticleFully funded AHRC PhD studentship: Memory practices and the national...
Memory practices and the national inventory of Scotland FULLY-FUNDED AHRC PhD STUDENTSHIP UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH (Geography, School of GeoSciences) Applications are invited for an AHRC-funded PhD, a...
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New archives: Erskine Beveridge and North Uist
I came across a small haul of gold yesterday. One of my hawk-eyed PhD students, Ben Garlick, spotted some material in the archives of the Scottish Ornithologists Club belonging to Frederick S....
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St Kilda’s other stories
I have a bit of past form for being churlish about all the attention devoted to St Kilda. Last week my persistent grumpiness was put to the test by visiting the archipelago for the first time,...
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Blackbird and the oral tradition
Any film which stars Margaret Bennett and Norman Maclean is, in my opinion, off to a great start. They are among Scotland’s most notable tradition-bearers and have spent their lives shuttling between...
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National Collective’s #TradYES
This isn’t much of a political blog but my curiousity has been piqued by a new post over at National Collective which has just launched their #TradYES campaign – a means by which traditional artists...
View ArticleAgainst Scottish Wildness
I have a written an essay over at Bella Caledonia against the idea of wild land in Scotland. It is an unlikely argument to to make but I am troubled at how little critical attention has been given to...
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