Symposium for research students

REVEALING ALL 2: The second annual symposium for research students

 in cultural policy and management.

12 FEBURARY 2008

City University, Northampton Suite

www.city.ac.uk/maps/northamptonsquare/index.html

 

It is Free but you need to sign up to attend at:

 

http://www.ukcpmn.ac.uk/revealing-all.php

   

 

The annual symposia is for research students from all UK universities with a tradition of research in the fields of cultural policy and management.

The intention is to provide participating students with the opportunity to network, collaborate and receive formal feedback from their peers. We expect the symposium to focus on issues close to the hearts of those who make cultural policy and promote its implementation in this country. Papers will include analysis, primary research, comparative case studies, models of policy-making, impact studies etc. Last year the event attracted a number of individuals from government and independent agencies concerned with arts policy who provided feedback on the papers presented.

The sessions at the symposium will cover four themes: cultural value; post-colonial Africa; the creative industries and artists’ development and will include papers by students and key note presentations by John Holden, Kate Oakley and Gerri Morris. Sessions will be chaired by members of staff from City and Goldsmiths. Feedback will be given by presenters’ peers and members of staff present.

 

We propose publishing the papers presented at the symposia, in City University’s newly re launched, peer-reviewed ejournal, Cultural Policy, Criticism and Management – some of last years’ contributions are here. http://www.city.ac.uk/cpm/ejournal/ejournal_june2007.html http://www.city.ac.uk/cpm/ejournal/ejournal_august2007.html

 

 

How Digital Discovery Works

The Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary, University of London, will be hosting a seminar at 4pm this Wednesday, 28th November, with David Jennings, author of Nets, Blogs and Rock’n'Roll, on “How Digital Discovery Works: Deciding what to listen to next in a world of infinite choice”.

The seminar will take place in room 105 in the Electronic Engineering Department, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS. Directions of how to get to Queen Mary are available at http://www.elec.qmul.ac.uk/research/seminars/ as are details of future seminars. The room is under access control, so people from outside QM Electronic Engineering will need to contact C4DM to get in – the lab phone number is +44 (0)20 7882 7986.

Abstract: “The culture we choose to explore makes us who we are. Music fans have more choice in their listening than ever before. The on-demand availability of everything, and the choice it confers to step inside anyone’s cultural shoes, brings with it responsibilities and anxieties as well as excitement. The act of discovery — what are you going to listen to next? — moves to centre stage.
“Many enterprises want to help with discovery: Amazon, Google, Wikipedia, MySpace, Last.fm, radio, TV and press. But one of the most powerful (and truly “cross-platform”) media is word of mouth and the reputation that accrues via the exchanges in blogs, recommendations and fan sites.
“My talk will seek to explain some of the dynamics of word of mouth, and what the implications of these dynamics are for the marketing and promotion of music. There is an influential minority of fans who are keen to ‘pioneer’ in discovering new music and then spread the word to other fans. Meanwhile a mostly silent majority takes a more casual approach to discovery.
“Artists and bands cannot control the means by which they are discovered. They can only enable these means. It helps to understand the dynamics of communication and influence so that you can tap into their power.
“I propose three levels to what I call the Net, Blogs and Rock’n'Roll ‘architecture of discovery’: 1. The Net is the data-crunching and underground plumbing that processes massive volumes of user behaviours and spots the trends and patterns within them 2. Blogs are the human level of conversation, not as ‘clean’ and quantitative as the data level, but enriched by personality, trust and shared history 3. Rock’n'Roll is the spirit that keeps us interested in exploring the edges of our culture, and that challenges yesterday’s consensus.”

Bio: “David Jennings is Director of DJ Alchemi Ltd and author of Net, Blogs and Rock ‘n’ Roll. David is an independent consultant specialising in online learning and discovery. His clients have included learndirect, the Trades Union Congress and the British Standards Institute. He has written on music and technology for specialist and generalist press in the UK, and advised the (now defunct) National Centre for Popular Music. He has also created online reference resources for communities of music fans, including the wiki site for the cult album, ‘69 Love Songs’. Before setting up his own business twelve years ago, David was a Principal Psychologist in what is now the Department for Work and Pensions in the UK Government. He is registered as a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society and is a Certified Member of the Association for Learning Technology (CMALT). David was chair of the British Human-Computer Interaction Group from 1995-97, and a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Interacting with Computers for ten years. He has held board positions in arts charities and technology companies, including Wired Workplace Ltd, which he co-founded. He holds degrees from the Universities of Cambridge, Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam.”

Broadway, Harlem… and London

Dr Harvey G. Cohen spoke at a London Jazz Festival event in the Purcell Room last week, an evening of music and discussion on the theme of Harlem Meets Broadway.

Jack Jaffe of the newsletter Music and Words writes: “For me, this was the highlight of the week. Alyn Shipton, jazz critic on the Times and author of the definitive New History Of Jazz, chaired a first set colloquium with two King’s College academics: Harvey Cohen, lecturer in Cultural & Creative Industries and author of Duke Ellington’s America, and Cliff Eisen, Professor of Music History, and a Mozart, Frank Loesser and Cole Porter aficionado.

“Their discussion focused on two musician-composers, Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges, both of whom were exceptional talents. If Carter takes precedence, it was because he was a multi-instrumentalist, playing sax, trombone, trumpet, piano as well as a superb arranger. Harlem in the 1920’s was a magnet for musicians and Manhattanites attracted by the new music: jazz, as played at the Cotton Club. (And also a home from home for substance abuse, though the speakers didn’t refer to it.)

“The discourse was punctuated by a lively septet led by trombonist/broadcaster Campbell Burnap, with Dave Gelly (tn sax), Martin Litton (p), Pete Morgan (bass). Richard Pite (dr), Enrico Tomasso (tr) and Trevor Whiting (al sax). Campbell’s gravelly vocals could also be heard. The second set was mainly musical, with occasional anecdotes from the musicians. One wistful composition by Benny Carter, ‘All About You’, was souffl’d neatly by Martin Litton and I later discovered that it had no lyric. [...]

“Altogether, a very pleasant and entertaining 2.5 hours [...] The speakers were well-informed, the musicians excellent, the soaring horn of Enrico Tomasso was
sublime, and the audience went home smiling. More talk and play experiences, please.”

Yes, sir!

Rough Trade at King’s

[photo: Weilin Wang]

Geoff Travis, the founder of the famous indie record label Rough Trade, came to King’s College London on Monday 5th November for a rare onstage interview with Dr Harvey G. Cohen, as part of the CCI Live Interviews series.

Travis talked about a range of issues affecting the music industry now, and thrilled a certain (probably quite large) section of the audience with tales of the Smiths, who were signed to Rough Trade, and the Stone Roses, who got away.

Known primarily as a champion of UK post-punk and indie, Travis revealed a passion for soul music and extensive knowledge of the history of pop and of the UK and US record industries generally. He singled out Seymour Stein as one of his role models as an industry figure. Asked by one member of the audience, somewhat ambitiously, to select the musical highlights of the the past sixty years, Travis talked about drum and bass in the early 1990s as one of the most exciting scenes he’d ever witnessed.

Travis’s indie credentials were never far from view, not least when, talking about major labels, he joked: ‘The A&R person is very nice to you and tell you that he loves your music. Then you find out that he loves Mika’s music too.’

Travis stayed behind for a beer afterwards. He’s shown below during the interview (top), chatting with some students (middle) and with his interlocutor, Harvey Cohen (bottom). No comments about Harvey’s suit, please.

[photo: Richard Howells]

[photo: Richard Howells]

[photo: Weilin Wang]

Intellectuals in the media

One of the year’s major events in the MA Cultural and Creative Industries calendar took place on Friday 2 November – the conference
I’m An Intellectual: Get Me Out Of Here!, jointly hosted by King’s College London and the Radio Academy.

The day-long conference, held in a plush BBC conference room overlooking Marylebone High Street, considered from a variety of angles the basic question of how intellectuals and academic research figure in today’s media. The keynote speech was from the current Controller of BBC Radio Four, Mark Damazer, who is pictured below, centre, with the conference organisers (L and R) Dr Richard Howells (King’s College London) and Trevor Dann (the Radio Academy).

(Photo: Greg Funnell)

Damazer gave his vision of Radio Four becoming what he called an ‘oral encyclopedia’ – an online archive of both sound recordings and text. On the intellectual-ness of the channel and its listeners, he commented: ‘What matters is to be intellectually curious rather than to be an intellectual’, adding that Radio Four had ‘the best mass audience’ in radio. Damazer was asked some searching questions including why there weren’t more northerners on Radio Four, and on why the station seemed to appeal so little to younger listeners. Damazer admitted that Radio Four had not done enough to engage what he called the ’second wave of higher education’, and that there was work to be done.

Other highlights of the day included a talk from the sociologist Professor Frank Furedi, who pointed out the extent of the media’s dependence on stories about new research (for example in medicine and social science). There were also entertaining interviews with the film critic Mark Kermode (who holds a PhD and is visiting lecturer at Southampton University), and the Cambridge-educated comedian Hugh Dennis. Kermode (top) and Dennis (bottom) are pictured being interviewed below.

(Photo: Greg Funnell)

(Photo: Greg Funnell)

A panel entitled Radio Ga-Ga and chaired by our own Dr Harvey Cohen discussed how far there can be a mutually beneficial collaboration between academia and universities, and how academics can get their research and scholarship on air. Maria Balikska of the BBC World Service spoke of the explosion in demand for publically-accessible information, and reminded academics that they ignored this at their peril. A further warning came from another panellist who pointed out that the broadcaster has to take into account how the academic sounds. Eve Salomon of Channel Four Radio (a newcomer to the radio market) emphasised the responsibility of commercial radio stations to their advertisers. Another panel was entitled Red Light Spells Danger, and discussed how academics cope with the sometimes alienating media environment. The question of whether the BBC was northern enough was again addressed by Dr Paul Taylor of Leeds University in his speech.

After the event guests stayed behind and chatted over some much-anticipated cold lagers. Help throughout the day came from current MA CCI students Jonathan Kluger, Saskia Neuman and Kathy Williams.

The photo below shows (L-R) Trevor Dann, Will Saunders (Deputy Head of Entertainment, BBC Radio Four), Dr Richard Howells and Hugh Dennis posing beside a vintage advertisement for the BBC’s listings magazine, the Radio Times.

(Photo: Greg Funnell)