November 2007

Media annotation for archiving, retrieval and analysis.
Using underlying technology developed by CSIRO and members of the open source software community, Denis Crowdy has developed an application that allows sophisticated and flexible annotation of video and audio data for retrieval over a network. The project has been trialled in the Solomon Islands as part of an appropriate technology project involving solar powered multi-track remote recording, and is also being used in the ARC project Phil Hayward and Denis Crowdy are involved in. Jen Cattermole has been entering annotated media in to the system - the 1000 song marked being passed just last week.

October 2007

Music Honours 2008
Applications for Honours close on October 31st, 2007.
For more information contact, Mark Evans
For an application form click here

October 2007

The DCMS 2007 Student Compilation CD will be launched at Bar Broadway on Friday October 19. The CD features the following artists:

1. J-Daiz – Heaven Ain’t Hard To Find
2. Christopher Walkerden – Ya Mum Called Up ‘n Dissed Me
3. Tim Hart – Clouds & Shapes Like Aeroplanes
4. Airship Colour Majestic - T.V. Shows
5. Lisa Kukura – Denial
6. Ovell – The So Called Made Man
7. Jess Nowosad – How Do I?
8. Sascha Johannisson – Tree
9. Jon Reichardt- Easter Song
10. Wintersound - -Breathing Again
11. Dave Hosking – Sitting In The Water
12. Marvin Mahinay - Taine
13. Mark Della-Libera – Grist for the Mill
14. Alex Mesker – Outland
15. Matthew Burgess – All For Me
16. Jerome Madulid – My Neighbours the Madulids

September 2007 Seminars

Narratives of Time in Filipino Songs
Thursday 27th September - 4pm, Room 607 W6A
Assoc Prof. Manolete Mora, Department of Music, University of Hong Kong.

August 2007 Call for Proposals

Of These, Hope: Popular Music and Human Rights, Volume I. Anglo-American Music

As part of a two volume project on popular music and human rights, proposals are sought for the above volume. For the purposes of this volume, I define the concept of human rights intentionally broadly. Without attempting to pursue an agenda, it seems fair to say that at a time of such uncertainty and confusion, with human rights currently being violated all over the world, a new and sustained examination of
cultural responses to such issues is warranted. It hardly requires qualifying that in this respect music, which of course is always produced in a social context, is an extremely useful medium.

The scope for contributions to this volume is considerable. Chapters may reflect but are not limited to situations in specific geographical areas, they may offer thematic approaches to the question of human rights, they might focus on appropriate artists, or they may complicate, challenge, criticize, or praise the definitions and usage of human rights in the context of popular music. Of equal importance might be some of the more notorious events of the last thirty years, many of which are defining human rights moments. In similar ways that the artists who asserted and articulated their visions through association with particular musical influences are of fundamental importance to this study, so the movements/periods/creative emphases with which they are invariably considered offer many potential avenues of exploration.

This volume will contain twelve original essays, each of around twenty-five pages or so, all-inclusive, and each paper must have a post-1975 focus. I envisage essays able to speak to an academic audience as well as to the educated layperson, while in terms of a timeline I expect to submit the manuscript to the press by December 2008. For contributors this will mean that essays should be complete and submitted to me by around September 2008.

Please submit a 500 word abstract in the body of an email to Ian Peddie at ian.peddie@gmail.com. Please also include a CV. Deadlines for submission: October 15 2007.

Call for Proposals

I Dream A World: Popular Music and Human Rights. Volume II, World Music.

As part of a two volume project on popular music and human rights, proposals are sought for the above volume. For the purposes of this volume, I define the concept of human rights intentionally broadly. Without attempting to pursue an agenda, it seems fair to say that at a time of such uncertainty and confusion, with human rights currently being violated all over the world, a new and sustained examination of cultural responses to such issues is warranted. It hardly requires qualifying that in this respect music, which of course is always produced in a social context, is an extremely useful medium.

The scope for contributions to this volume is considerable. Chapters may reflect but are not limited to situations in specific geographical areas, they may offer thematic approaches to the question of human rights, they might focus on appropriate artists, or they may complicate, challenge, criticize, or praise the definitions and usage of human rights in the context of popular music. In terms of a geographical focus alone, the extent of human rights violations is enlightening; a provisional lists suggests that available options here include at least the former Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, East Timor, Latin and South America, Australia, East Germany, the former Communist Bloc, The Caribbean, China, and Myanmar. Of equal importance might be some of the more notorious events of the last thirty or so years, many of which are defining human rights moments. A mere handful of what comes immediately to mind in this respect is the "Dirty War" in Argentina in the late 1970s, the Pinochet regime in Chile, the fall of
the Berlin Wall, "ethnic cleansing," genocide in Darfur and Rwanda, ongoing wars and conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq, let alone other disputes, revolutions, coups and so on too numerous to mention individually.

This volume will contain twelve original essays, each of around twenty-five pages or so, all-inclusive, and each paper must have a post-1975 focus. I envisage essays able to speak to an academic audience as well as to the educated layperson, while in terms of a timeline I expect to submit the manuscript to the press by December 2008. For contributors this will mean that essays should be complete and submitted to me by around September 2008.

Please submit a 500 word abstract in the body of an email to Ian Peddie at ian.peddie@gmail.com. Please also include a CV. Deadlines for submission: October 15 2007.

Island Cultures Research Centre

Digital Representation and the Construction of Community: The Case of the Island Cache (British Columbia) by Associate Professor Mike Evans (Community, Culture, and Global Studies) & Associate Professor Stephen Foster (Critical and Creative Studies) - University of British Columbia (Okanagan). W6A 107 – Midday-1pm, Wednesday August 29th.