Society and Space: Interview with Shiloh Krupar

Stuart Elden interviews Shiloh Krupar, author of Hot Spotter's Report.

krupar_hot coverStuart Elden:  This is one of the most original takes on politics, ecology, and geography in a long time. Part of this comes from the truly creative blend of social science writing, political commentary, art and satire. Can you say something about the choice of style and format?

Shiloh R Krupar: Hot Spotter’s Report is actually based on a series of solo performances, creative lectures, and theatrical scripts (an example can be found here). I had not initially imagined that it would be formalized according to the academic standard of the scholarly monograph. By taking the project in that direction, the question for me was actually: What can this body of work gain from the style and format of the academic book? I’ve been pleased with how commingling separate pieces into a book has contributed to the larger project: It helped me articulate the common threads among the cases and solidify a repertoire of techniques. The book format essentially allowed me to curate my work in a new way, adding another iteration of the same materials and establishing important continuities. Such connections were not always apparent or had been understated, given the sometimes very different genres and effects/affect of the separate pieces. I also found that working on a solo book could function as an extended “event” and better serve my collaborative endeavors. I realize that this doesn’t get at your question exactly, but the book format came as a later iteration of work that was neither linear nor delivered to wholly academic audiences from the start.

Read the full interview.

Published in: Society and Space - Environment and Planning D
By: Stuart Elden