Opening Act

The aim of Culture Machine is to seek out and promote the most provocative of new work, and analyses of that work, in culture and theory from a diverse range of international authors. Culture Machine is particularly concerned to promote research which is engaged in the constitution of new areas of inquiry and the opening of new frontiers of cultural and theoretical activity. It is also committed to the generation of possibilities for new scholarship and research. But other than these founding aims (which are themselves, along with the very concepts of 'founding' and of 'aims', possible themes to be analysed), Culture Machine has no specific agenda, no project or programme (cultural, theoretical, political, social or ethical) it intends to see worked out in its various manifestations. Instead, Culture Machine will endeavour be to cultural studies what 'fundamental research' is to the natural sciences: open ended, non-goal orientated, exploratory and experimental in approach.

Culture Machine's experiments in culture and theory are currently taking the form of an open access journal, and an open access archive, CSeARCH (which stands for Cultural Studies e-Archive). Acting as additions or supplements to the Culture Machine journal are the Culture Machine Reviews section and the Culture Machine InterZone.
 

The Culture Machine Open Access Journal

One way in which Culture Machine attempts to promote original and challenging work is by publishing an international, electronic, open access journal.  Publishing electronically of course provides Culture Machine with an opportunity to explore the effects, consequences, limits and possibilities posed for research into cultural and theoretical questions by contemporary technology -  computers, the Internet, the World Wide Web, printers, e-mails, CDs, CD-ROMs, DVDs, mobile phones, text and picture messages, blogs, podcasts,  free software, open source, wikis, 'social networking'  etc. But if one motivation behind the creation of the Culture Machine journal is the familiar intellectual idea of hosting a forum for the production, development, communication and testing of new ideas, another is the desire to provide contributors with a space in which to publish research that is open-ended and experimental; research, in other words, that encourages speculation and intellectual risk taking, and which does not simply succumb to the pressure to produce 'results'. Which is not to say the activities of Culture Machine can be simply opposed to 'end-orientated' research. Nor that these activities will themselves have no 'useful' or practical outcomes. The extent to which this is desirable, or even possible, is again something to be investigated.
 

The Culture Machine Reviews Section

Another way in which Culture Machine attempts to promote original and challenging work is by publishing a reviews section on a rolling, all year round basis (rather than annually, as in the case of the journal). 
 

The Culture Machine InterZone

A more recent addition to the Culture Machine site is the InterZone. Again, in contrast to the journal, the InterZone publishes research in culture and theory all year round. It is also unthemed, thus enabling Culture Machine to  promote and support a far greater diversity of work. Other than that, all the main features of the Culture Machine journal (and Reviews section) remain: the InterZone is open to both established figures and newer writers; it welcomes contributions consisting of so-called ‘inter-active’ texts, or any other forms that take advantage of and explore the uses and limitations of new technology; and accepts commissioned and unsolicited material from academics, post-graduates and non-academics. 
 

Contributions

Culture Machine welcomes texts written in English from anywhere in the world. 

Culture Machine also welcomes contributions consisting of so-called ‘inter-active’ texts, or any other forms that take advantage of and explore the uses and limitations of new technology.

Culture Machine accepts commissioned and unsolicited material from academics, post-graduates and non-academics. 

All contributions to the Culture Machine journal, Reviews section, and  InterZone will be refereed anonymously.

Culture Machine will publish one edition of the journal each year. 

Anyone with material they would like to submit to the Culture Machine journal, Reviews section or InterZone for publication is invited to contact the editors. (We reply to all serious mail.)
 

CSeARCH, which stands for Cultural Studies e-Archive, is not-for-profit and free to download from and upload to.

You can find CSeARCH at: 

www.culturemachine.net/csearch

Here you can browse the archive and read and download its contents. 

To upload work into the archive go to the 'Submit' page. Fill in the brief details and you'll then be sent a login name and password via e-mail together with a direct link. Click on the link and you'll be there - no need to login at that point the first time. (The password merely ensures that no one but you can edit your entries.) 

General Description

The Culture Machine electronic journal comprises three main sections made up of a number of elements or pages. The sections are:

USER MANUAL 

The function of the User Manual section is to help you find your way around the site as well as to provide basic user support and initial orientation information.  This text page is supported by a graphical representation of the Culture Machine site and contains hyperlink hotspots to different parts of the site.

 

JOURNAL 

Features peer-reviewed contributions. Feedback relating to individual contributions or the journal as a whole are posted in the Feedback section.  A summary profile of contributors is available under Contributor Profiles, or via the Contributors button on the main menu graphic. 

The InterZone publishes peer-reviewed research in culture and theory all year round (rather than anually, as is the case with the journal) and is unthemed (whereas the journal is themed). 

The Reviews section contains posted reviews of books, conferences, and other items of interest.

 

EDITORIAL

Features two pages detailing the work of the Editorial Team and of the International Advisory Board.  This section also contains the two listing services available to users of the journal under the Submissions and the Future Events listing.  Submissions contains a style manual for contributors. The Future Events is used by Culture Machine to make requests for contributions to the site and other Culture Machine projects.  The latter pages are updated during the period between the publication of individual volumes.

 

The two frame areas encountered on entering Culture Machine's portals feature throughout the site - with the exception of those places where links are provided to external Web site servers.  The dynamic area of the site, which is located in the screen's top frame functions as the information-interaction display area.  The lower frame contains the graphics based menu tool; this gives access to the main sections of the site via the selectable hotspots or zones contained within the graphic. The graphic menu tool at the bottom of the screen allows you to search across both the Culture Machine site and the World Wide Web. 

E-mail communication points are dotted throughout the site. Selecting an E-mail link will initiate an E-mail to Culture Machine through your own browser setup. Please use this facility for all communications with Culture Machine.

Navigation is principally via textual hyperlinks, supported by graphic/icon buttons located within individual pages. The text hyperlinks are differentiated by colour (they are also underlined).  When a link to a page has been activated the hypertext link will change colour, indicating that a route using that link (or an associate) has been used.

On entry to the journal the section contents are displayed: the author's name provides access to a summary profile of the contributor; the article title accesses the article selected; three discrete graphic objects provide access to the Reviews section, Feedback (comments/responses) and to the page that holds profiles of contributors to the journal.

If the article title is selected the relevant article will be brought up. (Note: any one document may contain links to a number of other areas). Selecting the title from within the article will bring up any Feedback relating to that particular article, as well as any discussion threads. Selecting the name of the author from within the article will bring up the author's profile. 

If the author's name is selected from the contents page, the author's profile will be displayed.  Two links are provided from within the profile: the article title will display the article; selecting the author's name at this point will provide access to any relevant Feedback etc. To navigate through the two other sections of the site, use the same methods as those described above.