The report sums up the goal of its research as being “to provide a better understanding of how art and culture are used as levers of power and diplomacy within the context of the UN”. It concludes that more resources put into Cultural Diplomacy can translate into more Soft Power (the US, for example, is found to be a ‘Soft Power Superpower,’), but that ultimately, at the UN, culture is often being “used to preserve and express hard political power.” These findings are a useful addition to the study of Cultural Diplomacy. The report suggests that, at the UN office in Geneva, culture can be both a vehicle for political messages and a forum for cultural clashes. Faith by many diplomats in the power of Cultural Diplomacy is strong in Geneva, where it forms an important element of life at the UN.
The report finds that Cultural Diplomacy is important, and valued by diplomats as a key means of securing influence, even if its precise impact may be difficult to measure. Culture, diplomacy, and political powerĪ new research report, The Art of Soft Power: A Study of Cultural Diplomacy at the UN Office in Geneva(Melissa Nisbett and James Doeser, King’s College London (2017)), takes the UN’s Office at Geneva as a venue in which to study the role of cultural activities in contemporary diplomacy. She regularly teaches university and community courses in creative writing, poetry, and book-making she lives in southern California.December 2017 Research from King’s College London into the use of culture in UN diplomacy raises interesting questions about the efficacy of the arts in creating soft power. Genevieve earned her MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and her PhD in Literature & Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. Her writing can be found in Third Coast, Spillway, Denver Quarterly, Poetry Magazine, and other journals. Genevieve Kaplan is the author of (aviary) (Veliz Books, 2020), In the ice house (Red Hen Press, 2011), and four chapbooks, most recently I exit the hallway and turn right (above/ground, 2020).
Materials & TechniqueĪ hand-woven and sewn book. Soft Book, an object that exposes and celebrates its own making, offers readers a tactile and intellectually stimulating engagement with the book form. Readers find each page opens flat, so the back of each embroidered word-and the stitching process-is highlighted. Raised cross stitches create each letter of single-syllable words to reveal insights about the book-making process: “say book” to “sew book” to “sift book,” and so on. Soft Book, geared for adults, invites both a reading experience and a visual/tactile one.
Soft books, children’s books for pre-readers, offer comforting, tactile interactions.
0 kommentar(er)
