The debate surrounding music piracy versus the so-called collapse of the music industry has largely been bipolar, and yet so many other processes of music distribution have been developing. From online “sharity” communities that digitize obscure vinyl never released in digital format (a network of cultural preservation, one could argue), all the way to netlabels that could not care less about making money out of their releases, as well as “grime” networks made up of bedroom musicians constantly remixing each other, there is a vast wealth of possibilities driving music in the digital world. This panel will present key examples emerging from this “grey area”, and discuss future scenarios for music production and consumption that stand proudly outside the bipolar box.
With an interdisciplinary academic background in American Studies, Cultural History & Cultural Studies, Dr. Seago has taught for a wide variety of American and British universities and colleges, including the University of Kansas, The Royal College of Art, Sotheby's Institute and the London campuses of the University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin and Syracuse University.
Dr. Seago's research interests focus upon the area of cultural globalization - with particular reference to music, art & design. He has published in a range of journals and article of his on global popular music in the 21st century was awarded the Stone-Suderman Prize by the Mid-Western American Studies Association. He has also recently been commissioned to write an entry on 'Globalization and Popular Music' in the five-volume ' Encyclopedia of Globalization' edited by Professor George Ritzer and due for publication in 2012.
His book 'Burning the Box of Beautiful Things; The Development of a Postmodern Sensibility' (Oxford University Press) examines the relationship between art and design education and the rise of contemporary pop culture in the UK during the 1950s and 1960s. As an authority on the cultural history of this era Dr. Seago has featured in several BBC radio and television programmes .
Dr. Seago has lectured and presented academic papers at a wide range of universities, colleges and national and international conferences. In March 2010 he was an invited speaker at the Salzburg Seminar’s international Study programme session on ‘Global Citizenship : America and the World’ while in September 2009 he was one of the main speakers at the Salzburg Seminar American Studies Alumni Association’ symposium on ‘Globalization and American Popular Culture’.
Dr. Seago is a member of the Editorial Board of American Studies : The Journal of the Mid-America American Studies Association. He is a member of the College Court of the Royal College of Art, a Fellow of the Salzburg Seminar ; UK representative of the Salzburg Seminar American Studies Alumni Association (SSASAA) and a member of the British Association of American Studies (BAAS) , the International American Studies Association (IASA) and the Association of Cultural Studies (ACS). He is also a member of Queens Park Rangers Football Club.
PhD in Media Culture (Royal College of Art, London, 2003).
MFA in Visual Communication (School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1992).
Heitor is currently Professor of Design and New Media at the University of Porto, Associate Director of ID+: Institute of Research in Design, Media and Culture, and Post-doctorate Research Fellow at INESC Porto: Institute of Engineering and Computer Systems. He is also currently a member of the UTAustin-Portugal program coordination team for the development of digital media, and member of the Scientific Board of FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia.
His main research areas include media studies, participatory media, post-subcultural ethnography, and cultural criminology. Heitor belongs to the editorial board of Crime Media Culture (Sage), The Poster (Intellect) and Radical Designist (IADE).
Recent curatorship work includes the annual futureplaces digital media festival, in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin, and Nomadic.0910 - meetings between art and science, at the University of Porto. Heitor will also chair the 9th European Academy of Design conference, in May 2011.
Jeff Ferrell is a writer whose books include Crimes of Style, Tearing Down the Streets, and Empire of Scrounge.
Patricia Aufderheide is University Professor in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. She is the author of, among others, Reclaiming Fair Use (University of Chicago Press, 2011) and Documentary: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2007). She heads the Fair Use and Free Speech research project at the Center, in conjunction with Prof. Peter Jaszi in American University's Washington College of Law. She has been a Fulbright and John Simon Guggenheim fellow and has served as a juror at the Sundance Film Festival among others. She has received career achievement awards in 2006 from the International Documentary Association,in 2008 from the International Digital Media and Arts Association and in 2010 from Women in Film and Video (DC). Aufderheide serves on the board of directors of Kartemquin Films, a leading independent social documentary production company, and and on the editorial boards of a variety of publications, including Communication Law and Policy and In These Times newspaper. She has served on the board of directors of the Independent Television Service, which produces innovative television programming for underserved audiences under the umbrella of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and on the film advisory board of the National Gallery of Art.
Sam Howard-Spink is Clinical Assistant Professor of Music Business in NYU Steinhardt's Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions. His research interests include the political economy of international music industries and emerging network and hybrid business models, national and supranational intellectual property policies, globalization and cultural hybridity in the BRIC countries, remix/mashup culture, the Access to Knowledge and information rights social movements, and cultural economics in the continental Americas.
In his first year at MPAP Sam founded the NYU Music Video Games Research Project and was awarded department Teacher of the Year 2009. He is also the curator for CMJ Play, a new one-day conference examining business opportunities for musicians in the interactive, mobile apps, and gaming sectors, held in the middle of the CMJ Music Marathon in New York City every October. Sam has been interviewed by Destructoid.com about music and gaming in The Convergent Future of Music Games and Higher Education .
A Londoner by birth and New Yorker since 1999, Sam is completing his PhD dissertation on musical and copyright economies and cultural hybridization in the U.S., Brazil and Canada through NYU's Department of Media, Culture and Communication. A journalist and editor for 16 years in the U.K., Asia and the U.S., Sam has written for Music Week, Music & Copyright, The Guerrilla Guide to the Music Industry, The South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, IBM Think Research and openDemocracy.net, and has published academic articles in First Monday and in Portuguese translation in Brazil. Sam is also a hiphop/scratch DJ, capoeirista, and expert-level Guitar Hero.
