arch International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM): Australia-Aotearoa/New Zealand 2024 Branch Conference

The Australia-Aotearoa/New Zealand branch of IASPM held their annual conference, hosted at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University and Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, from the 4th – 6th of Dec ‘24. This year’s theme of ‘Musical Translations & Transformations’ explored a range of popular music scholarship and practice, focusing on their intersections with diverse social, political, and industry contexts. Papers and panels covered topics such as activism in academia, transformative technologies, the politics of platforms, and critiques of hegemonic structures in the music industry.

The conference began with a Roundtable Discussion with Jadey O’Regan, Nazz Oldham, and Sarah Attfield – which considered the topic “How do we advocate for our industr(ies)? AKA – what are academics good for?” and profiled each presenter’s public facing work. Other panels across the conference included Gender, Sexuality, and Liberation in Music, Transforming Technology, Data and Discographies,  Stardom and Identity, amongst many others.

My presentation took place on the second day of the conference, as part of the Formatting Histories panel, alongside papers from Gay Breyley and Liz Giuffre. The paper, Pod v Doc: A Comparative Analysis of Music-Based Podcasts and Radio Music Documentaries, was an opportunity to explore the evolution and impact of music documentaries and podcasts, using my own production practice for Radio New Zealand as initial case studies. These documentaries included explorations of Bowie’s 1983 Western Springs concert, his visit to Takapuwaihia Marae in Porirua, and a celebration of Let’s Dance’s 40^th anniversary, which reflected over a decade-long process of reworking and enhancing content.

The paper went on to investigate the transformation from traditional radio documentaries to digital music podcasts, contrasting their production approaches, distribution models, and audience dynamics. I suggested that music podcasts have democratised music criticism, empowering fans to share expertise without the constraints of traditional media gatekeepers. However, this shift has also raised concerns about the de-professionalisation of music journalism, with many podcasts created by untrained and often unpaid amateur enthusiasts. The paper also addressed the commercialisation of music documentaries and podcasts, which are often driven by record labels. I concluded with a brief overview of how podcasts and documentaries can serve as impactful academic outputs, fostering public engagement with musicology.

Podcasting examples featured in the presentation included Switched on Pop, Song Exploder, Sound Expertise: Conversations with Scholars about Music, Sodajerker, and The Strangeness of Dub series from Morley College, while radio documentaries included the BBC’s Bowie in Berlin, and The Rise and Fall of Oasis, as well as Radio New Zealand’s Under the Influence series.

Although podcasting has come to dominate audio-based music investigations, I argued that radio documentaries still hold value, offering emotional, narrative-rich experiences. As the audio documentary-maker and journalism academic Siobhán McHugh theorised, podcasting has in many ways revitalised the traditional music documentary for radio – rather than replacing it.

My thanks to the local Organising Committee of Catherine Hoad, Geoff Stahl, Kimberly Cannady and Oli Wilson for their hard work arranging the conference (the 2025 event will be held in Dunedin, NZ, at the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka).

arch British DiGRA 2025 – conference announcement and call for papers

I’m excited to announce that our Game Cultures research cluster will host the annual British Digital Games Research Association (BDiGRA) conference, from 20-21 May 2025. Under the title ‘What is British Games Research?’, we’re inviting scholars from across the country to contribute to a discussion about what kinds of games research we do in the UK and, by sharing their work, to help build up a picture of our research field. Hopefully, this will inform the future direction of BDiGRA as an organisation, given its role in representing everyone who works on games research in, and around, the UK.

Our local chairs are Poppy Wilde and Nick Webber, and this event builds on our two successful games conferences in 2024 – History of Games, and Video Game Cultures. The call for papers follows below – why not take a look?

Submission link: https://bcmcr.org/bdigra25. Please write everything in the form, with no attachments.

—

What is “British Games Research”?

British DiGRA annual conference, 2025

Host: Game Cultures research cluster, Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research

Venue: Parkside Building, Birmingham City University (and online)

Date: 20-21 May 2025

Conference duration: 2 days, 09:30-17:30

Closing date for abstracts: 24 January 2025, 23:59 (anywhere in the world)

What follows will be familiar to you. British scholars have been consistent participants in the field of games research since its inception. There is an established tradition of game making across the nation; indeed, game development is the most widely dispersed of the UK’s creative industries beyond London. Our universities were early adopters of games into the curriculum, and we host a long-running national chapter of DiGRA – British DiGRA – that holds a remit to promote, support and develop British (digital) games research.

But hang on <record scratch> what is that? What, exactly, is British games research?

As researchers, we often gesture towards distinct national or regional games research cultures, to some extent characterised by publication in specific journals (with, for example, Game Studies having strong associations with Scandinavian game research traditions, Games and Culture a North American flavour, and GAME an alignment with Italian game studies). Researchers in Britain lack a similar venue, so how can we and do we imagine what “British games research” is? What are we about, intellectually?

Researchers have pointed to the importance of understanding games as both global (Kerr 2017) and local (Swalwell 2021), and recent years have seen increasing scholarly interest in both national and regional traditions in connection with games (e.g. Navarro-Remesal and Pérez-Latorre 2021; Švelch 2022). This has been parallelled by growing attention to the idea of regional/local games studies as well (e.g. Liboriussen and Martin 2016) but this has not yet extended to work on British game studies specifically.

If literature has addressed the idea of what a British game could be (e.g. Wade 2016; Webber 2020), we still don’t know – perhaps have not even thought about – what British games research is. This year, the British DiGRA conference seeks to answer that question. We will use this conference as an opportunity to map and take stock of current games research taking place in Britain, and/or in relation to Britishness.

The conference takes place in Birmingham, the heartland of British cultural studies, hosted by a research centre indebted to that distinctive intellectual tradition, characterised by attention to representation, ideology, identities, and the tension between the global and the local. Inspired by this critical approach, we ask: what is distinguishable, and even distinctive, about British games research? How can we talk about British games research in a way that embraces the diversity of culture in Britain? How do constructions of Britishness relate to ideas of Europeanness and to the constituent countries of the UK? As we negotiate these questions, we want to hear what your work is about, and what it does to shape this emerging space of scholarship.

Submissions:

Submissions might engage with the following themes, from the perspective of research happening in Britain, or in British contexts:

• Inclusive and decolonial approaches to defining British game studies
• Cities and the (hyper)local in British game studies
• Government policy in/and British games research
• Game cultures and communities: a view from Britain
• The theoretical underpinning of British game studies
• Game design traditions and futures in Britain
• Global influences on British games and games research
• Game development and creative industries discourse
• Historicising games research: key contributions and approaches from Britain
• Future directions for British games research
• British game technologies and their impact
• Games and AI in/and the UK
• Applied games in British contexts
• British art and British games
• The rural and British games (including landscape and folk horror)
• British narrative and hypertext
• Digital cultural heritage in British contexts
• Serious games and immersive experiences in British contexts

Submissions should be made to one of two tracks:

Track 1: Defining the field: abstracts of 200 words for 5-minute lightning talks about your research, helping us to build a picture of games research taking place in, or otherwise connected with, Britain.

Track 2: Traditional conference papers: abstracts of 500 words for 20-minute paper presentations, connecting with the idea of British games research.

To ensure equity and access to the conference, no author may present more than two contributions to the conference. This includes single and joint-authored submissions.

Submission link: https://bcmcr.org/bdigra25

Please write everything in the form, with no attachments.

Important dates

Call closes: 24 January 2025, 23:59 (anywhere in the world)

Notifications of acceptance: sent to authors by 21 March 2025

Event schedule

The event will run from 09:30-17:30 on both days.

Expected registration costs

Registration will be no more than £50 for in-person attendance for employed delegates. There will be a limited number of discounted tickets for PGR/unwaged delegates. The in-person fee covers refreshments and lunches on both conference days.

Online attendance will attract a fee of £10. We encourage in-person attendance as far as possible for delegates presenting at the conference.

If you have any queries, please contact the conference chairs, Poppy Wilde (poppy.wilde@bcu.ac.uk) and Nick Webber (nick.webber@bcu.ac.uk).

arch Gender Equality: 40 Years On!

Gender Equality: 40 Years On! introduces the work and activism of Birmingham based women. The project investigates women’s contribution to addressing gender equality in Birmingham. The Barbara Webster Collection is the starting point for a research project which included an exhibition, Roundtable discussion and a series of oral history podcasts produced by Dr. Siobhán Stevenson.

The research aims to make historical links between current concerns with diversity and equality in the arts, and activities linked to the Women’s Liberation Movement from the mid 1980s, Birmingham, UK. The project explores a newly acquired collection of archival materials, donated by Barbara Webster, head of the Women’s Unit (1984-87) at Birmingham City Council. The project highlights the significance of the work done by women in the 1980s, ensuring that their voices and legacy continues to be heard. The podcasts and exhibition reflect on gender equality then and now, by considering how past voices, campaigns and activism helps us challenge contemporary inequalities.

Listen to the oral history podcasts from the project

Produced by oral historian Dr. Siobhán Stevenson, the podcasts capture the voices and stories of women involved in addressing inequalities in Birmingham, in the 1980s. Each podcast includes two women in conversation, discussing their experience and reflecting on the challenges of working towards gender equality. They explore collective power, intersectional identities, race, sexuality and the representation of diverse women’s stories. The women participating in the podcasts have been generous with their time, thoughtful in their approach and the outcome is a significant contribution to women’s local history.

Sincere thanks to all the women involved in the podcasts: Ming de Nasty, Mo White, Sue Gorbing, Emma Woolf, Surinder Punn and Dr. Karen Patel. Particular thanks to Dr Siobhán Stevenson for her expertise, guidance and kindness.

You can also explore the booklet which reproduces and celebrates the Gender Equality: 40 Years On! exhibition that took place in March 2024.

The research project is funded by the British Academy Leverhulme Small Grant Scheme based on the Barbara Webster Collection. For more information about ADM Archive and how to access the Barbara Webster Collection, contact the Arts Design and Media Archive ADM-Archives-Requests@bcu.ac.uk.

To find out more about the Gender Equality: 40 Years On! research project, contact annette.naudin@bcu.ac.uk.

arch BCMCR’s research clusters respond to the new research theme, Transgressive Identities and Subjectivities

Our 9th October 2024 BCMCR event was led by Dr. Poppy Wilde and Dr. Matt Grimes, providing a stimulating overview of the research theme for 2024-26 – Transgressive Identities and Subjectivities. This prompted a flurry of engaging and thought-provoking suggestions and contributions from across our research cluster teams that will, over the coming months, be developed and presented at a conference in June 2025, and then pulled together for an edited collection, forming part of the BCMCR book series. Here I’ve tried to capture just some of the ideas discussed. 

Firstly, I wanted to address the timeliness of the theme. It crackles with relevance and possibilities; our current social, political and cultural landscape right now provides the backdrop to and the fuel for numerous and ranging dialogues around, for example, identities, privilege, conflict, belief systems and art. Truth has moved to post-truth. The news media is fake. Does something only exist when seen through social media? Is transgression from the norm now the norm? 

As set out in their research theme statement, Poppy and Matt seek to explore how transgression is practiced, embodied, and displayed, what transgression can do for the self, and how its impact on wider culture and society can be understood. And so, at the 9th October event, they invited BCMCR’s research clusters to listen to their plans for their research theme, and respond with ideas, provocations and propositions from their own areas of research. 

Setting the scene for the event’s discussion, Poppy and Matt laid out examples and interpretations of what could be understood as transgressive identities and subjectivities. They are giving attention to notions of the self, and rather than it being a fixed and static creation, it is always moving and negotiating pathways towards what we wish to become and what we are at present – we transgress away from our previous selves in a reflexive act. And, if this is so, what are the implications for communities, culture and society? How we are seen and understood by others depends on other’s subjectivities as much as our own. 

This raises questions, which through the course of the coming months, Poppy and Matt seek to address, such as: 

• Is transgression necessarily an extreme or public act, or is it something that can also take place internally, in a small way and in isolation? 

• How does it shape our current and future selves, especially considering how AI could be understood as enabling a transgression of what is real or fake? 

• How does transgression relate to or inform the movement of people across boundaries, and how does this relate to the understanding of a person’s right to be safe, their legitimacy and value in a society, their ethnicity or cultural background? 

• How far can you understand activism and protest to be transgressive acts?  

• How much of a role does context play in whether and act is transgressive or progressive? 

As is evident from these few examples, the range and diversity of questions raised by the theme, and their relevance to historical, contemporary, and future-facing discourse is compelling. This was also clear from the number of suggestions for areas of investigation put forward by members of our research clusters. 

Ideas from the Game Cultures cluster included examining how rule breaking or cheating in a game is a transgressive act, and how gamers themselves will alter code to introduce new elements into games, such as contemporary references placed in historically based games. Boundaries are crossed between game author and game player….so who does a game belong to? Furthermore, games that allow players to create their own characters can become a conduit for someone to express a more ‘transgressed’ version of themselves, and connections between avatars and players can transgress normative understandings of self, relationships, and supposed divides between human and machine. 

The Cultural Theory cluster spoke about the rioting in the UK during the summer of 2024, spurred on by anti-immigration, racist rhetoric and misinformation. It has been positioned as an afront to law and order but is also understood as a manifestation of certain ideas of sovereignty. So, in this context, whose account is to be upheld concerning who transgressed against society and what is understood as acceptable behaviour and language? Polarised viewpoints point fingers at each other causing destabilisation of communities and the self. Additionally, they pointed to topics concerning migration, immigration, political subjectivities, ideas of the nation state and cosmopolitanism – ways of being and understanding are transgressed or are transgressive. 

The theme was welcomed by the Popular Music Studies cluster, while commenting that popular music is a practice in which artists often express alternative modes of selfhood, and songwriting allows for different identities and personas to be voiced. It was also noted how popular music that transgressed conventions, form or genre is often reinterpreted and interpolated into the mainstream, and this raises questions around ‘selling out’. Also, within the often unwritten and biased (towards patriarchy, capitalism etc.) rules and agendas of the music industry, transgressing these can be a progressive act, such as singer-songwriter Raye challenging the system of payment for songwriters and Music Venue Trust seeking to redistribute wealth created at the very top of the live sector to support the grassroots. 

In responding to the theme, the Gender and Sexuality cluster considered what is mainstream and what is transgressive? There are destabilising identities within incel culture, for example, which although seen by many as transgressing against current and progressive ideas of womanhood and women’s place in society, they may not see themselves as transgressing society’s ‘norms’, and indeed reinforce traditional patriarchal norms. They could be understood as reacting against progressive movements that have challenged patriarchal and heteronormative ideologies – such as those embodied in feminism and LGBTQ+ rights activism. 

Finally, we heard from the History, Heritage and Archives cluster. They discussed how questioning who gets to ‘label’ history, and whose story is told, can be a transgressive act. However, in labelling something as a marginalised or alternative history, these descriptions may not be recognisable to some, if they consider their history to be their normal. Which set of societal ideas of ‘normal’ gets to decide what is considered worthy of archiving and labelling – what is the motivation, who accesses them and why? They also pointed to how and when transgressive identities and subjectivities emerge, through an historical lens, through shifting spaces. 

There are three further clusters in BCMCR who didn’t present at the launch event – Media, Journalism and Place, South Asian Media, and Film and the Digital Image. 

In a separate conversation with Poppy, the newly branded Media, Journalism and Place cluster responded to ideas of the theme in ways that both considered transgressive practices and transgressive peoples. Journalism has a long history, and with contemporary concerns about the reliability and trustworthiness of mainstream outlets we see a variety of new and emerging practices. Some of these involve a greater focus on more local news, and on higher quality journalistic practices, that might transgress current norms and conventions. Consideration of diasporic communities were also discussed, with questions resonant with other clusters. How do identities become transgressive (and to whom) when they are culturally displaced? What is being transgressed when we think of behaviours being linked to specific places, and either the behaviours or the spaces are changed? 

Both South Asian Media and Film and the Digital Image are brand new research clusters for 2024, so it will be exciting to see how these clusters develop and build both their agendas and priorities, as well as how those respond to the current theme, over the next few years. 

All in all, considering the ideas and suggestions generated for this kick-off event, the research theme of Transgressive Identities and Subjectivities promises to instigate revealing and timely discussions, talks, and events. 

arch International Communication Association Conference, Gold Coast

In June I attended the International Communication Association (ICA) conference at the Gold Coast, Australia. I was part of a panel focusing on Etsy, with Susan Luckman (University of South Australia), Kylie Jarrett (University College Dublin) and Samantha Close (DePaul University, USA). The panel description is as follows:

Etsy was launched in 2005 and at the end of 2022 had an estimated 5.4 million sellers and 89.4 million buyers. It has long since shifted from being a fringe community offering quirky goods to a publicly listed corporation with billion dollar merchandise sales and monopoly power. But despite its significant economic and cultural footprint – not to mention iconic status – Etsy remains an under-discussed platform in critical studies of the media industries and employment impacts of platform economies. In no small part, this relative lack of scholarly attention beyond some key feminist craft scholarship (Close 2014, 2016; Gajjala 2015; Luckman 2013; 2015; Patel 2020a; 2020b; White 2015), is a direct result of Etsy’s place within the feminised sphere of craft-making.

In light of the 2022 Etsy strike and more recent calls to boycott the platform, this panel will offer critical insights into how Etsy operates within the exploitative models of platform capitalism. Drawing upon critical feminist, Marxist and activist approaches, the papers highlight the unjust aspects of this form of platformised cultural production and critiques the politics at play in the nexus between artisanal production and global media platforms that Etsy exemplifies. Throughout, the papers are sensitive to questions of diversity, equality, and justice, exploring how the platform and the activities of sellers resist, but sometimes perpetuate, the kinds of inequalities recognised in other media industries. It considers, though, how these are amplified in the context of the transnational platform economy.

The first paper is inspired by the 2022 strike and asks theoretical questions about how, or if, we can understand Etsy traders as workers, interrogating the resemblance of their experience to that of other platform-mediated workers. The second paper draws on research conducted with the Etsy “union” – the Indie Sellers Guild – describing how traders understand their needs and what an alternative platform might look like. The third paper uses a semiotic analysis of the Etsy site to critique the white, middle-class aesthetic of the platform. It highlights how its normative mainstreaming of a particular visual style operates as gatekeeping, excluding a wider, more globally and financially inclusive community of makers, products, and purchasers. The final paper returns to the struggles of sellers, focusing on the recent calls for a boycott, but questioning the effectiveness of this strategy in the context of Etsy’s monopoly and its implications for diversity in the notoriously exclusive craft industry in the global North.

My talk focused on the Etsy strikes which took place in 2023 and 2024, and I discussed the strategies for resistance employed by makers to counter the dominance of Etsy in the craft marketplace, and the potential implications of the boycott in relation to access and diversity in craft micro-enterprise.

We are hoping to reprise the panel for ICA 2025, presenting our work in progress and any new developments and insights on Etsy, and its role in the craft ecology.

arch Education through Podcasting (EPOD) Conference, June 2024

The Education through Podcasting (EPOD) Conference, a collaborative effort between Keele University, York St John University, and Morley College, launched its inaugural event on Wednesday, June 19th, and Thursday, June 20th, 2024. Sponsored by Broadcast Radio, HHB, and Routledge, the conference was held at Morley College’s Waterloo Campus in Central London, coinciding with the 5th anniversary of Morley Radio, the College’s radio station, which offered tours of its impressive facilities.

The conference focused on the exploration of podcasting from an educational perspective, bringing together a diverse range of disciplines and viewpoints. Key themes included podcasting as a learning environment, new audio developments and their influence on the podcasting space, and future directions for the podcasting industry. Notable keynote speakers were Nicole Logan from Reduced Listening, Sandy Warr from City, University of London, and Mark Steadman, a creative mentor and podcaster (and proud Birmingham City University alumnus).

I contributed a paper titled “Podcasting as a Tool for Internationalisation: Past Case Studies and Future Opportunities,” which examined podcasting as an efficient, cost-effective, and engaging way to provide students with cross-cultural experiences. The paper began by exploring the origins of educational radio, its use in distance learning, and its influence on the production of educational podcasts. I presented case studies profiling several international projects, demonstrating how radio and podcasting can develop collaborative, practice-based learning initiatives. Through audio excerpts, I showed how these initiatives encourage interactions between students from different academic institutions and countries, delivering practical skills while fostering a global mindset.

Today’s students live in a global economy that requires “employability and life skills, knowledge, attitudes, and the ability to live and work across borders and within different cultural contexts; in effect, to become global citizens” (Atkin et al., 2015, p. 3). Student exchange schemes can be an effective way to deliver these attributes. However, the Universities UK Group reports a significant decline in UK students participating in exchange/study abroad schemes in recent years. My paper discussed how podcasting could potentially serve as an affordable alternative, enhancing the internationalisation of HE curricula and delivering meaningful learning outcomes.

As Swiatek (2018) notes, podcasts can create multi-social relationships that “cross socio-cultural boundaries, as well as international time and distance divides” (p.180). This was demonstrated by the work of Chudová and Kallus (2022), who profiled a collaborative podcast project between Masaryk University in the Czech Republic and a partner university in Poland. Students created 15-minute recordings, including group presentations, panel discussions, or expert interviews, which were then used to produce a series of transnational podcasts. These podcasts encouraged clear and effective communication while building valuable soft and hard skills, such as time management, research, attention to detail, presentation, leadership, team roles, and practical media recording and editing abilities.

Although the presentation was primarily pedagogically focused, certain elements were informed by my past research for BCMCR’s “Media and Place” cluster, which examined audience interactions and the local/global reach of podcasting and terrestrial radio. It also provided a useful foundation for a practice-based research project I’m currently developing. Proceedings from the conference will be published by Routledge in 2025.

I’m grateful for the hard work of the EPOD Founding Committee: Professor Carola Boehm from the University of Staffordshire, Tim Canfer from Keele University, Camilo Salazar from Morley College London, and Associate Professors Russ Hepworth-Sawyer and Mark Marrington from York St John University. Based on the initial success of the conference, I am hopeful it will become a regular event.

Atkin, C. Rose, A. John Sharp, J. Hill, Y. Adams, K. Sayers, R. (2015), Internationalising the curriculum: a developmental resource for initiating transformational

Chudová, K. Kallus, C. (2022 Developing Creativity, Soft Skills and Skills for Life through International Podcasting, Erasmus INCOLLAB Project.

Swiatek, L. (2018) The Podcast as an Intimate Bridging Medium, in: Llinares, D., Fox, N., Berry, R. (eds) Podcasting. Palgrave Macmillan

arch Designs on Television

‘Empire Road’ wedding dress design by Janice Rider

I spoke recently at the ‘Designs on Television’ conference at University of Westminster. Few conferences focus on the work of television designers, so this was a refreshing event to attend. The majority of the conference concentrated on production design, but myself, and a couple of other researchers, examined costume design. My paper was entitled, ‘Creating Characters and Priming Performances: The Under-appreciated Roles of Costume and Make-up Workers in UK Television Production 1950-2000’.  

Design on television, and particularly within the female-dominated departments of costume and make-up are under-researched in comparison to film. There is a body of scholarship on women’s below-the-line roles in film by scholars such as Miranda Banks, Deborah Jones, Judith Pringle, Helen Warner, Erin Hill, and Melanie Williams amongst others. In television there is significantly less work, and therefore less appreciation of the complexity of the roles within costume and make-up, and the creative agency of workers.  

We can learn from the research that has been undertaken on film. Miranda Banks (2009) -talks of the invisibility of the costume designer’s work on-screen marginalising the recognition of their work. It is no coincidence that the costume profession is female dominated, leading to it being undervalued and often dismissed as ‘women’s work’. Erin Hill (2016), concludes that the occupational segregation perpetuates male domination in roles with the most power and prestige, whilst women’s roles have little visibility, and Melanie Bell (2021) notes that historically women in below-the-line roles are rarely recorded in official records.  

It is therefore important that we build our own archives and unofficial records. One way of doing this is through oral history interviews, and drawing from some of the recordings I have made with costume and make-up designers, was the basis of my presentation. I set out to explore the creative contribution of women working in TV costume and make-up. The women ranged from in their 50s to their 90s. 

Below is a comment by one of my contributors setting out what the work of a costume designer involves, and the importance of working collaboratively within a team: 

 ​“It was very rare you designed clothes. It’s about managing your budget and staff, working out how many staff you need. Fighting, you know, if they don’t want you to do this or do that. Planning. Obviously, the result of certain amount of design but it’s more in the way of being a social worker ….. There’s a lot of negotiating with the director, not so much for the producers, but with the directors, trying to get them to commit to things and because, you need to know what your budget is. ​ 

You’d get the scripts, and you’d work at those yourself. And obviously, you’d have to plot your days and do all that. So, where you were going get your costumes from, was it a costumier? Was it going out shopping? Was it hiring? Was it making? And then you’d have meetings. But yes, you need to get a visual idea and also chat with the design people just to see what their ideas were as well. So really very collaborative work”.​ Ann Doling: Costume designer. 

This gives an insight into the complexity of the role. One theme which emerged from the oral histories is that the women often felt their work was under-appreciated, both by the production team and by management. This was manifest on screen, as in the early days of television, costume and make-up often went uncredited. 

Costume Designer, Pat Godfrey mentioned that middle management were often dismissive of them, thinking of them as “silly little women in costume and make-up”.​ Another costume designer, Gill Hardie, described some members of the production team and crew thinking that costume and make-up staff, “were just a nuisance and got in the way”, because of making last minute adjustments to actors on set. ​ 

Working with actors whilst rewarding, could be also difficult, as you were managing anxious performers just before they went on set. Gill Hardie recalled the challenges of working with an actor who could be a bully, but was also very nervous and having to tell the odd white lie to manage his ego. For example, she pretended to re-fit a jacket that he was unhappy with, when it already fitted perfectly. ​Pat Godfrey talked about the challenges of working with actors with drink and drug habits. She was asked by production to look after an actor with a drink problem who insisted on going to the pub and she had to try and ensure that he did not drink too much. This seems to be considerably beyond the scope of the job. 

Make-up designer, Susie Astle told me, “the work of preparing the actor for any role is vital, we are usually the last people to see them before they went in front of the camera. I worked on a documentary about the Birmingham pub bombings and one of the survivors interviewed was so nervous, I sat under the table and held her hand. Costume and make-up were good listeners!” Again, this would fall far outside the role, but illustrates the importance of the trust that can grow between costume and make-up workers and the people they prepare for camera. 

Costume and make-up staff had to be quick-thinking and solve issues as they arose. Costume designer, Joyce Hawkins, recalled an incident that happened to her in the moments before a live television drama, starring a very young Judi Dench, in Hilda Lessways (BBC, 1959). ​“As Judi entered the studio her elaborate cascading bustle fell to the floor in a heap of satin and lace….as the direction “standby studio” rang out, I was on my knees frantically pinning it back up. Judi remained calm and I spent the scene huddled behind a sofa on set.”​ Whilst an amusing incident, it demonstrates the lengths required to make a drama look as good as possible. 

The examples provided, show the breadth of work encompassed by costume and make-up staff. The complexity of the roles are little understood, particularly those elements which fall outside the actual ‘designing’, namely: organisation, negotiation and collaboration​. In addition, costume and make-up play a significant role in preparing performers for the camera, both physically, in dressing and making them up, but also psychologically​.  

As all of this illustrates that there is plenty of scope for academic research around the creative work of costume and make-up staff, and I look forward to undertaking a portion of it. 

Banks, M.J. (2009), ‘Gender Below-the-Line: Defining Feminist Production Studies’, in Production Studies: Cultural Studies of Media Industries, ed. Vicki Mayer, Miranda J. Banks, and John Thornton Caldwell (London: Routledge, 87-98, 91. 

Bell, M. (2021), ‘‘I owe it to those women to own it’: Women, Media Production and Intergenerational Dialogue through Oral History’, Journal of British Cinema and Television 18/4, 518–537, 521. 

Hill, E. (2016), Never Done: A History of Women’s Work in Media Production, New Brunswick, New Jersey, London: Rutgers University Press, 6. 

arch Game Cultures cluster presents: History of Games Conference 2024

BCMCR’s Game Cultures cluster is proud to be hosting the 2024 History of Games conference, 22-24 May. Registration is now open!

In 2023, the History of Games conference celebrated its 10^th anniversary. During this time, the conference has visited Montréal, Copenhagen and Zoom. In Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1958: 65-67) says that in games there is a ‘complicated network of similarities’, and that he ‘can think of no better expression to characterize these similarities than “family resemblances”[…]: “games” form a family’. This is the departure point for our conference theme, “Families of Games”. Games, like families, are central to the creation of our lifeworld. In May 2024, then, we look forward to welcoming you to Birmingham in the United Kingdom to celebrate the growing family of international researchers investigating histories of games.

We are delighted to welcome three keynote speakers to History of Games 2024. Each keynote speaker will kick off one day of the conference, offering key considerations of the current state of game studies that deal in some way with historical issues – be they industry, research, or development.

Dr Tom Apperley interrogates “Hugh Hefner’s “Homo Ludens””.

Dr Regina Seiwald presents “La Famiglia: The Mafia and Videogames”.

John Szczepaniak explores “Tracing forgotten family lineages through oral histories”.

The conference website has full details of the event, including abstracts from our three keynote speakers.

The conference will also host over 60 paper presentations from delegates attending both in person and online. Register now to join us!

Banner graphic designed by Reuben Mount.

arch Seminal book on Punk, Ageing and Time published

BCMCR researcher Dr Matt Grimes and fellow punk scholar Dr Laura Way (University of Roehampton ), have a new co-authored editied collection titled Punk, Ageing and Time published today as part of the Subcultures Network  Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music (PSHSPM) series (Palgrave Macmillan

To date there has been no plotting of punk scholarship which speaks to ‘time’, yet there are some clear bodies of work pertaining to particular issues relevant to it, including ageing and/or the life course and punk, memory and/or nostalgia and punk, ‘punk history’, and archiving and punk. Punk, Ageing and Time is therefore a timely (pun intended) book.

What this edited collection does for the first time is bring together contemporary investigations and discussions specifically around punk and ageing and/or time, covering areas such as: punk and ageing; the relationship between temporality and particular concepts relevant to punk (such as authenticity, DIY, identity, resistance, spatiality, style); and punk memory, remembering and/or forgetting. Multidisciplinary in nature and international in reach, this book considers areas which have received very little to no academic attention previously.

There will be an online book launch Wednesday 17th April 15.30 UK time , featuring many of the international contributors to this seminal edited collection.

Email matt.grimes@bcu.ac.uk for a link to the online launch