Summary Project Proposal
The claim of the Olympics to be a mega event largely rests on the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. This is where Olympism stages its claims to be an internationalist movement, even a ‘world historical phenomenon’, where it seeks to anchor itself in the collective memory. By the same token the Ceremonies are also a focus of tension, and even conflict within the Olympics movement and between the IOC and the cities which host the games; they are where the aesthetic values of sport, commercialism and civic pride either merge or collide. The study sets out to identify the cultural politics of recent Olympiads through a detailed investigation into their Opening and Closing ceremonies, their media coverage and marketing strategies. The second part seeks to explore how far it may be possible to transcend the aesthetics of kitsch in designing the Ceremonies for the 2012 games.
We would like to organise a series of focus groups in East London, recruited from the Newham Olympics volunteer data base, and from residents living close to the main Olympics site. It is proposed to establish an inter-disciplinary team, including specialist researchers in the fields of narrative and performance analysis, cultural geography and urban studies, and mega event studies.
For further information contact Phil Cohen
© 2004·05
Host Cities, Education, Culture and Regeneration
A conference about the issues facing Olympic Host Cities. View the speaker presentations here
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