Context in brief
This Mongrel project attempts to address the place of new eugenic, nationalist and racist ideas in the emergent fields of discourse made possible by digital communications. The project involves current cultural strategies and uses of digital technology developed to undermine the expectations of racialisation in a manner which usurps them.
Mongrel continually takes as key points of reference the technologised links between peoples of different geographical, cultural and national heritage, allowing a continuing dialogue about the new eugenics, race, racism and strong fictions of national identity.
In addition, Mongrel is trying to draw attention to, and create dialogue about, the racism implicit in the construction of hardware, software and discourses governing the uses of new technology in arts and culture.
These contextual issues are drawn out and argued in the following analysis and polemic by Harwood, a version of which was published by the British Council in the current issue of British Studies Newsletters (Reinventing Britain issue, Spring 1997).
Cultural Prestige and English Art or ignorance and filth