Phil Cohen Works

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The Greeks and the Gifts they bring : Post Olympic heritage and place making in East London

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  Introduction The story of the Trojan horse and its role in ending the seige of the city  is a  cautionary tale about a fake legacy gift. It has  bequeathed to us the most famous line of Vergil’s Aeneid  through which schoolboys of my class and generation were introduced to the fiendish intricacies of Latin verse: Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes – I fear the Greeks … [Read more...] about The Greeks and the Gifts they bring : Post Olympic heritage and place making in East London

Mapping the Anthropocene: Some reflections on a short story by Barry Lopez

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  Today we are all too familiar with  the two cultures of cartography, belonging to the worlds of science and art .  Digital mapping technologies produce   ever more precise   and dramatic visualisations  of big  quantitative  data  sets generated by  the procedural methodologies  of natural and social science. The map’s power to abstract and totalise has never been … [Read more...] about Mapping the Anthropocene: Some reflections on a short story by Barry Lopez

Last Posts : on the after affects of the archive

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This is the text of a talk given to a conference in Belgrade on  'Dialoguing between the Posts 2.0' in June 2019. I am grateful to Spela Zorko and Sanja Petovska for inviting me and for being such convivial hosts. Introduction I  am delighted to have been invited to this conference and to have participated in so many interesting discussions, if only because it has taken … [Read more...] about Last Posts : on the after affects of the archive

IN SEARCH OF THE ANTIPODEAN

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This piece was written for Livingmaps Review and appeared in section of the journal entitled News From Point Nemo.  This is a geographical term denoting the most isolated and inaccessible points in the globe. As the journal’s editor at large, I have used this occasion to explore cartographic and other issues which arise from my travels, in this case to Australia and … [Read more...] about IN SEARCH OF THE ANTIPODEAN

WAITING GAMES PEOPLE PLAY

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SOME UNSEASONAL THOUGHTS ON  TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY This year I am giving a  Brexit Advent Calendar to those of my friends who voted to Leave because they thought it would de-stabilise the political class, liberate us from the bureaucratic toils of Brussels and open up the road to socialism in our  small island state. The online calendar depicts the Houses of Parliament as a … [Read more...] about WAITING GAMES PEOPLE PLAY