Material Reflections at Documenting Jazz 2020

As part of the Documenting Jazz 2020, delegates were invited to contribute their Material Reflections on an object or artefact, which is personally significant to their relationship with jazz and its documentation. There were no limitations on which object might be considered, however, participants were encouraged to think about things which have impacted upon their personal and professional identities, and/or have shaped their practice in some significant way.

Material Reflections is an ongoing project led by Dr Iain Taylor, within the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research (BCMCR) at Birmingham City University. It collects a series of short reflective pieces exploring the complex personal relationship that people form with material things. Bringing together perspectives from a range of academics, students and cultural practitioners the project seeks to highlight the breadth and plurality of ways in which material things impact upon our ideas, identities and practice.

Responses have been collected together in a special ‘zine edition of Material Reflections. Dr Iain Taylor, project leader for Material Reflections, Dr Pedro Cravinho, Conference Chair for Documenting Jazz 2020, wish to thank all of the delegates who shared their material reflections as part of this collection.

A short run of physical ‘zine issues of this collection was distributed exclusively at Documenting Jazz 2202.

A digital version will be available online following the conference at http://documentingjazz.com/documenting-jazz-2020-2/