Rebecca Coleman - Glitterworlds The Future Politics of a Ubiquitous Thing.

Glitterworlds

Part of the Goldsmiths Press Future Media series

The Goldsmiths Press Future Media series encourages authors to offer a relatively short, sharp intervention in response to actual or potential short-term, utilitarian and instrumentalist thinking about a particular scenario or performance of media and technological futurism. Our emphasis on feminist, queer, trans, anti-racist and/or speculative approaches to media and technological futures calls for alternatives to TED thinking.

Glitterworlds

The Future Politics of a Ubiquitous Thing

Rebecca Coleman

2020 Goldsmiths Press

Published in 2020 by Goldsmiths Press

Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross

London SE14 6NW

Printed and bound by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A

Distribution by the MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England

Copyright 2020 Rebecca Coleman

The right of Rebecca Coleman to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews and certain non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9781912685387 (hbk)

ISBN 9781912685400 (ebk)

www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-press

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Contents

This book has been a long time in the making. Thanks to Sarah Kember for initially asking me to write a book, many years ago, and for being patient and accommodating of the various iterations it has taken. Thanks to my wonderful colleagues at Goldsmiths and beyond, who encouraged me to think about and write on glitter (and didnt judge me for it) and have given me links, examples and gifts, some of which have found their way into the pages of the book: Kat Jungnickel, Michaela Benson, Ella Harris, Nina Wakeford, Carolyn Pedwell, Liz Moor, Sarah Keenan, Melissa Nolas, Jayne Osgood, Clare Stanhope, Meredith Jones and Yasmina Reggad. A much wider group of people has also supported me in writing this book, whether directly through discussions about it, or through otherwise inspiring me to keep going with it: Carolyn Pedwell (again!), Tara Page, Monica Moreno Figueroa, Jen Tarr, Dorthe Stauns, Susanna Paasonen, Vikki Bell, Helen Palmer, Anna Hickey-Moody, Nirmal Puwar, Yasmin Gunaratnam, Hettie Malcomson, Bev Skeggs, Celia Lury, Davina Cooper, Alejandra Energici, Elaine Swan. Goldsmiths Press have been great to work with. Thank you to Adriana Cloud, Liron Zisser and especially Ellen Parnavelas and Guy Sewell, who have been accomodating and inventive throughout the production of the book. Thank you to the young women who participated in the collaging workshops in 2016, through which my interest in glitter was sparked. Lou Coleman, Emily Coleman, Rita George and Phil Coleman have provided essential support, not least childcare and cups of tea. The book would not be here without you thank you.

I have tried out some of the ideas in this book with students on the MA Gender, Sexuality and Media module and MA Feminist Methods Masterclass module at Goldsmiths. Thanks for being open, engaged and constructively critical. Ive also talked about and worked with glitter in the How to do sociology with glitter workshop, Methods Lab, Goldsmiths, November 2018, run with Jayne Osgood; the Affective Methodologies workshop at Aarhus University, Denmark, September 2018; the Social Life of Time Conference, Edinburgh, June 2018; the Gender, Sexuality and the Sensory Symposium, University of Kent, May 2017; and the Debates in New Materialisms conference, Kingston/Central St Martins, September 2016. Thanks to the organisers of and participants in these events for making me sharpen my understanding of glitter, its politics and its temporalities. Max Liboiron and :mentalKLINIK kindly granted copyright to include their images in the Coda. The reviewers of the manuscript, including Anya Galli Robertson and Gay Hawkins, who waived their anonymity, engaged with the argument carefully and constructively. In trying to respond to (most of) their comments, the version that is published is greatly improved. I would like to thank them for their time, sensitivity and insight.

Parts of

The book is dedicated to Sam and Ray: instigators of change.

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