September 1st, 2010 |
by Simon Barber
Published in
Events, Public Event
July 23rd, 2010 |
by Rob Horrocks
Published in
Events, General, Knowledge Transfer & Exchange, Technology
Editors and publishers conference
Monday 6th September 2010
Digital development and Application; Content and Creativity
The publishing industry is currently undergoing major challenges: digitisation: is changing the material form of the industry’s key artefacts; the internet is transforming the potential ways in which publications can be distributed and the expectations of their consumers; and these two lead to profound implications for the business models of companies in the industry. Through this event we hope to bring together individuals and organisations involved in academic publishing to identify the issues and set out a way forward. We will present research we have undertaken into the perceptions of publishers, and identity models for the future which have been developed in both publication and our own work with the music business.
June 29th, 2010 |
by Rob Horrocks
Published in
Events, Music Consumption, Music as Culture
On Friday 25th June Matt Grimes attended a one-day symposium on Popular Music Fandom. Here is a full report from his blog.
Popular music fandom: a one day symposium, took place at the University of Chester and was organised by Mark Duffett from the School of Media at Chester. As I will be conducting some research around fans as part of my PhD research I thought it would be useful to attend.
The keynote presentation was from Matt Hills from Cardiff University who is one of the UK’s key thinkers in Fan Culture and Fan studies. I had worked with Matt in the past as part of a research team that conducted some research about audience/fan online interaction with the BBC Radio websites as part of a Knowledge Transfer Project. Matt’s presentation was around considering new ways of looking at and researching fan culture based on three ideas of post-popular music, mnemic communities and intermediary fandoms. What I particularly liked was the area of mnemic communities drawing on the work of Bollas (1993) and how music has personal and/or community memory stored within it. He also touched on the idea of whether those memories are imagined and /or a community narrative. I thought this would be very useful to my research as my object of study centres around cultural/popular memory.
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June 21st, 2010 |
by Rob Horrocks
Published in
Cultural studies, Events, General, Public Event
You are invited to attend a screening of ‘Philip Donnellan’s The Colony’ (1964) followed by a discussion of an ongoing project to explore and promote the resources of the Philip Donnellan Archive.
6-8pm
Wednesday 30th June 2010
The Colony, originally made as an innovative TV documentary, explores the experience of members of the Caribbean migrant community in Birmingham and the Midlands. The film allows its subjects space to candidly evaluate their reception in the UK and their relationships with home and other migrant workers. Controversial at the time of its original broadcast the film is an enduring and powerful document of a key moment in post-war British history.
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June 1st, 2010 |
by Rob Horrocks
Published in
Creative & Cultural Industries, Events, General, Music Consumption, Music as Culture
A new one hour film about Birmingham’s music heritage called Made In Birmingham: Reggae, Punk, Bhangra received a private invitation only premiere recently.
Introduction to Jez’s premiere from Andrew Dubber on Vimeo.
In the video above, Jez Collins of interactive cultures explains the purpose and the genesis of the film, and how it connects with the Birmingham Music Archive.
May 27th, 2010 |
by Jon Hickman
Published in
Events, General, social media
Tonight I delivered a brief talk at the Midland’s arts centre. Below is a transcript of my talk (minus my live rambles and tangents and including some typos – sorry). Also speaking were Jon Bounds & Pete Ashton.
Firstly an apology: as an academic I can’t take a title at face value. I find I need to hand wring and worry about the terms of a debate before I can do anything at all. And then once I have problematised the issue, I find that the title is wrong and I start using different words.
As a media and cultural studies academic who has been criticised by the Daily Mail for wasting tax payers money running courses on social media, this condition is particularly acute. I need to be seen to have thought too much about things to justify myself. So that being the case, I struggled to get into this topic and felt I had to change it. I hope you don’t all rush to get your money back, but stay with me for a moment. The new title is:
Social Media & Glocalisation
May 26th, 2010 |
by Rob Horrocks
Published in
Creative & Cultural Industries, Events, General, Public Event, local authorities
The first West Midlands Cultural Research & Intelligence Network (CRAIN) conference takes place on Wednesday 2nd June 2010, 9:30-13:30, at Birmingham City University’s Margaret Street venue in central Birmingham.
The event, Chaired by Tim Challans (former co-ordinator for the West Midlands Culture & Sport Improvement Network), will highlight the latest research and intelligence relating to culture, sport and tourism and review the implications for the West Midlands: a region striving to assert itself as a national and international visitor destination and a leader in the digital agenda. The intention is for the event to dynamic and interactive, providing plenty of opportunity for delegates to dictate discussions.
Full details of the conference programme, speaker biographies and venue information are on the West Midlands Cultural Observatory website
The conference is being organised by the West Midlands Cultural Observatory, in association with Birmingham City University, the West Midlands Cultural Research & Intelligence Group and West Midlands Regional Observatory.
May 21st, 2010 |
by Rob Horrocks
Published in
Events, General, Knowledge Transfer & Exchange
Our Wednesday research seminar this week was a presentation by Xavier Mendik of Brunel University. Xavier introduced a screening of the documentary Fear at 400 Degrees: The Cine-Excess of Dario Argento’s Suspiria.
Xavier was invited to our regular research seminar to talk about the strategies he has developed for knowledge transfer work around the Cult Film Archive and Cine-Excess, the company he has formed to restore and reissue significant cult films. The release includes DVD extras that are designed as educational and knowledge transfer devices. The formula is working well with interest in the film and its academic based extras leading to significant interest from relevant media and sales reaching audiences beyond the academy.
Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977) classic cult Italian horror – a masterpiece of the modern macabre that uses excessive visual styles and even more excessive on-screen murders to create new pathways between art-house and atrocity. The documentary featured enough footage from the original to cause one member of the audience to “step outside for a breath of fresh air”.
Research group member, and chair of this week’s session, Oliver Carter commented: “I have followed Xavier’s work closely since the late 1990s and it was a pleasure to welcome him to this week’s session. Xavier’s work with Nouveaux Pictures and the Cine Excess label demonstrates the variety of possibilities knowledge transfer presents. We are thankful for him taking time to come to the Birmingham School of Media and look forward to sharing our approaches to knowledge with him in the future.”
April 20th, 2010 |
by Simon Barber
Published in
Creative & Cultural Industries, Events
William Ellis is a photographer who first worked with the Interactive Cultures team at the Scarborough Jazz festival during September 2009. William was exhibiting some of his photographs at the event and began to collaborate with our team of academics who were conducting a research project, experimenting with narrative by putting the festival online as it happened. William captured the essence of what it was like to be at the festival and contributed a steady flow of images to the ‘Just Like Jazz‘ website, often within moments of shooting them. The project was a considerable success, not least because of William’s contribution.
September 17th, 2009 |
by Simon Barber
Published in
AHRC KTF, Events, Technology
Left to right: Prof Tim Wall, Andrew Dubber, Dr Simon Barber and Jez Collins.
What is it?
‘Just Like Jazz‘ is a collaborative project between the Interactive Cultures research unit at Birmingham City University, and the Scarborough Jazz Festival. The team comprises Professor Tim Wall, Andrew Dubber, Dr Simon Barber and Jez Collins. Part of our academic interests include jazz and so we’re working with the Scarborough Jazz Festival to explore the ways in which jazz festivals can be portrayed online.