GUY MANKOWSKI

I thought a blog post making my PhD readily available online might be helpful. This was a Creative Writing PhD on self-design in the post-punk movement. The novel component of the PhD, entitled 'How I Left The National Grid', is available as  a free preview on Google Books, here-   https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/How_I_Left_The_National_Grid.html?id=yABKBgAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y   Abstract Through creative and critical practice, this PhD makes an original contribution by developing theories of self-design in relation to understandings and creative representations of the post-punk movement. These materials inform the creative component of this PhD, a novel entitled   How I Left The National Grid   (hereafter,   HILTNG).   Broadly, speaking, the results, discussion and conclusion for the PhD are as follows: The term ‘self-design’ builds upon the research of Stephen Greenblatt (1980).   Greenblatt used the term ‘self-fashioning’ to ex...

I contacted singer Jehnny Beth about the manifestos she’s written on behalf of her band, the Mercury Music Prize nominated group Savages. I was honoured when Beth suggested us having a Q & A on the subject of phones at live gigs, as her manifestos have recently changed the conduct of audiences… Guy Mankowski : In one of your manifestos you write that the use of phones, to film and take pictures at gigs, ‘prevents us all from immersing ourselves’. How do you think we have got to the point where people have created such a barrier to immersion? Gemma Thompson (Savages guitarist, sat next to Beth at the time): I suppose that whilst technology has increased in the last century quicker than any other time, human instincts are pretty much the same as they’ve always been. It is more difficult to have a direct focus, to concentrate on one thing without distraction, people want to be involved in everything, all of the time. GM : Do you see gigs as places at which there shoul...