Welcome to Creative Scotland, indeed!

Yes, the disturbing information was passed on for Variant's attention  
by a concerned 'whistle-blower', and we've been putting it out there  
since in the public interest, trying to make this 'terrorologist'  
activity public.

To recap: Creative Scotland is formed from a triangulation of policy  
geared towards “single purpose government” (the Scottish government's  
own description), its raison d'être economic growth, so it makes  
perfect business sense that, alongside the drive for 'terrorism  
studies' (an expanding part of the knowledge economy), 'creatives'  
should only naturally be instruments for purposes of state propaganda.  
Fore, the economy!

Unfortunately, an unabashed entrepreneurial rigidity has been allowed  
to supplant what little institutional autonomy could be clung to in  
Scotland (with little mentionable academic, institutional, union nor  
artistic defence) so it's hard to see where any comparable outrage such  
as the anthropologists' (at similar attempts at co-option of their  
expertise) might manifest...

Any suggestions, Simon?


Leigh
-------------------------------------------
http://creativescotland.blogspot.com
Creative Scotland is the ................ merger and expanded
remit of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen. It is
an avowedly entrepreneurial exploit. Yet marketplace
“truths” require far greater scrutiny, as has been amply
demonstrated in recent months...

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On 29 Mar 2010, at 23:10, Simon Biggs wrote:

> Please see the thread below. It is incredibly disturbing. This  
> government
> official hasn’t a clue how artists think and operate – and yet they are
> Deputy Director of Culture for the Scottish government! It is like  
> having
> Dick Cheney running Amnesty! They are seeking to co-opt artists into  
> their
> illegal war of aggression. In the best of times artists are obliged to  
> rip
> up the rule book and turn over the furniture but in this context are we
> obliged to do more? What artistic interventions might be appropriate?  
> Since
> Creative Scotland replaced the Scottish Arts Council this person is  
> now part
> of the oversight of arts funding in Scotland. This request could be
> persuasive amongst some artists seeking state support for their work.  
> It is
> a form of blackmail.
>
> The second section of the thread documents an earlier example of
> anthropologists responding to similar attempts to co-opt their  
> discipline.
> The url it points to offers more detailed documentation and background.
>
> Simon Biggs
> [log in to unmask]  http://www.littlepig.org.uk/
>
>
> Militarisation of 'creativity' in Scotland : moral and ethical dilemmas
> concerning the integrity of creative practitioners
>
> "how creativity can help in the study of terrorism and forensic  
> science and
> in how the outcome or story from that is told"
>
> ...Firstly, let me introduce myself: I'm Wendy Wilkinson and I head up  
> the
> Culture Division in the Scottish Government. As well as all things  
> culture,
> my remit also includes the creative industries...
>
> However, I'm emailing about a quite separate matter. And it may appear
> rather bizarre, but bear with me. I'd like to invite you to an informal
> meeting I'm arranging on 8 April, at my office in Victoria Quay,  
> Edinburgh.
> And it's to brainstorm/discuss how creativity can help in the study of
> terrorism and forensic science and in how the outcome or story from  
> that is
> told. This stems from work that Brian Lang, former principal of St  
> Andrews
> University, is doing to arrange a conference joining up the centre for  
> study
> of terrorism at St Andrews university, with the forensic science  
> centre at
> Strathclyde university and the centre for terrorism at the  University  
> of
> Central Oklahoma. Brian and I are both keen to explore how creativity  
> can
> contribute and we recognised the first step would be to consult our own
> creative talent here in Scotland. hence my invite. I am planning to  
> invite a
> couple of people from the computer gaming industry and perhaps a  
> writer or
> artistic director, so a small group and it would be attended by Brian  
> and
> the President of the University of Central Oklahoma who is over here  
> for a
> visit then. 
>
> I do hope that you can attend and would be grateful if you could let  
> me know
> what time you may be available on the 8th.
>
> kind regards
>
> Wendy Wilkinson
> Deputy Director: Culture
> Scottish Government
> Victoria Quay
> Edinburgh EH6 6QQ
>
>
> Anthropologists' Resistance to Militarisation
>
> The project [OCombating Terrorism by Countering Radicalisation’]  
> “provoked a
> furious response from academics”, mainly anthropologists, “who claimed  
> it
> was tantamount to asking researchers to act as spies for British
> intelligence” (Baty 2006). James Fairhead, who works for the ESRC’s
> Strategic Research Board and on its International Committee, declared  
> it is
> appalling that these proposals were not discussed in any of these  
> committees
> (quoted in Houtman 2006). Opposition to the project grew significantly  
> after
> the plans were published in the Times Higher Educational Supplement.  
> As a
> result, it was withdrawn before its closing date on November 8th 2006.
> http://www.sussex.ac.uk/anthropology/documents/marrades.doc
>
> The eleven originators of the Pledge are deeply concerned that the  
> "war on
> terror" threatens to militarize anthropology in a way that undermines  
> the
> integrity of the discipline and returns anthropology to its sad roots  
> as a
> tool of colonial occupation, oppression, and violence.  We felt  
> compelled to
> draft the Pledge to say that there are certain kinds of work<for  
> example,
> covert work, work contributing to the harm and death of other human  
> beings,
> work that breaches trust with our research participants, and work that  
> calls
> other anthropologists into suspicion<that anthropologists should not
> undertake.  In many ways we are restating the position that Franz Boas
> famously articulated in 1919.  We encourage you to sign the Pledge as  
> a way
> to support this position on ethical work in the discipline and as a  
> way to
> make a statement to government and military officials, the social  
> science
> and other scientific communities, and the broader public that that
> anthropologists will not participate in such work or support wars of
> occupation.
> http://sites.google.com/site/concernedanthropologists/faq
>
> "A soldier whose business is murder as a fine art, a diplomat whose  
> calling
> is based on deception and secretiveness, a politician whose very life
> consists in compromises with his conscience, a business man whose aim  
> is
> personal profit within the limits allowed by a lenient law -- such may  
> be
> excused if they set patriotic deception above common everyday decency  
> and
> perform services as spies. They merely accept the code of morality to  
> which
> modern society still conforms. Not so the scientist. The very essence  
> of his
> life is the service of truth. We all know scientists who in private  
> life do
> not come up to the standard of truthfulness, but who, nevertheless,  
> would
> not consciously falsify the results of their researches. It is bad  
> enough if
> we have to put up with these, because they reveal a lack of strength of
> character that is liable to distort the results of their work. A  
> person,
> however, who uses science as a cover for political spying, who demeans
> himself to pose before a foreign government as an investigator and  
> asks for
> assistance in his alleged researches in order to carry on, under this  
> cloak,
> his political machinations, prostitutes science in an unpardonable way  
> and
> forfeits the right to be classed as a scientist." (Franz Boas, in a  
> letter
> to The Nation, 1919)
>
> Workshop of Military Anthropology in the UK
> We find other, smaller-scale examples of universities and their  
> academics
> seeking to cash in on “terror research” by offering their knowledge as  
> a
> source of “protection.” One example involves the “Culture in Conflict
> Symposium” at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, on 16 – 17  
> June
> 2010 <http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/cds/symposia/cic10.jsp>. It includes a
> Workshop on “Spatial Sociocultural Knowledge” (read human terrain) and
> followed by a one-day Military Anthropology Workshop. There is no  
> clearer
> expression of the way academics have become comfortable players in the
> pyramid scheme of war corporatism than when they call themselves  
> “military
> anthropologists.”
> http://zeroanthropology.net/
>
> Protests against British research council: "Recruits anthropologists  
> for
> spying on muslims"
> A few weeks ago the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and
> Commonwealth (ASA) passed a resolution that criticized a huge British
> research program that recruits anthropologists for “anti-terror” spying
> activities, and anthropologist Susan Wright (Danish University of  
> Education)
> called for global coordination on this issue.
> http://www.antropologi.info/blog/anthropology/2007/ 
> protests_against_british_
> research_counci
>