About

Who are you?

I'm James; I live in the UK.

What's with the name 'recumbent gaze'?

I researched the idea of the gaze on my Master's degree, in relation to technology and sociology. I use this as a symbol to show what my site is about: the main image is a picture of me lying down, reading a book, and thinking.

So what kind of site is this?

Recumbent Gaze is like a personal magazine. It's semi-academic. A straightforward academic site is problematic on the Web, because extended and complex thought does not translate well into HTML pages. Much as I like the Internet, I also like books, and they are better at some things.

Some of my material is based on reading and research, but overall my presentation is more magazine style than straight academic. Some of the articles are better than others; sometimes I publish work that needs further editing. When I get the time, I go back and re-work it.

Why are you doing it?

It's fun, and I do it to give me a discipline. Knowing you have a potential audience changes the way you work; it puts it into a wider context and gives you an incentive.

Where do you get your ideas?

I spend a lot of time reading and have lots of thoughts about cultural matters. Recumbent Gaze is my way of documenting this, for myself as much as anything else.

Sometimes, I present ideas that I am researching in a more rigorous way 'behind the scenes'.

What about the design?

I decided on a magazine-like presentation to emphasise the writing more than the graphics. I enjoy taking photographs of my 'recumbent gaze' in different locations, and will occasionally add to these.

It's difficult to estimate how many web sites I have viewed - many hundreds, possibly a thousand or two? I'm not sure. What I have found is the sites I visually enjoyed had a 'soft' design, by using pastel colours. They were attractive, in a characteristically 'feminine' way. The VDU is not easy to look at; I like to counter that with colours and images that are 'light' and pleasing to the eye.

As the site grows, I will occasionally re-design it to accommodate the growing content.

So what do you look like?

This:

Not sure if I agree with everything you say; you're a bit contentious sometimes aren't you?

You don't have to agree, and I know I am sometimes contentious. The beauty of the Web is that it gives you a platform where you can articulate your own ideas, in any way you wish. You don't have to follow the conventional or fashionable way of looking at things; you can exercise your critical powers and question and challenge as much as you like.

Why would you want to do that?

<joke> As Groucho Marx said: 'whatever it is, I'm against it'. Or perhaps: 'I wouldn't want to belong to a club that would have me as a member' </joke>

So how would you sum up Recumbent Gaze?

My writings develop over a quite a long period of time, and it's inevitable that my ideas change, with the the logic of a diary, rather than a definitive statement. But I quite like a remark EM Forster made about a poet, who was “standing at a slight angle to the universe”. Except I'm lying at a slight angle to the universe. And sometimes the angle is more than just slight.