Sub-communities within this community

Collections in this community

Recent Submissions

  • San Diego Topographics 2 1986-1987

    Clarke, Stephen; University of Chester (Café Royal Books, 2019-12-19)
    When Stephen Clarke arrived on America’s West Coast in the mid-1980s having just completed his art degree, he had expected to feel a familiarity with its landscape. Growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s he had absorbed a version of California by watching popular American detective shows. Onto this childhood picture he later mapped the work of the photo-artists based there who informed his art practice —Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Lewis Baltz. For a year he took photographs of San Diego, struggling to navigate through an arid and sprawling landscape which he discovered was alien territory. [a version of this abstract was written by Julia Garcia Hernandez and first published in the RPS Contemporary Photography, No. 63, Spring 2016] San Diego Topographics 2 1986 - 1987 was published by Café Royal Books in an edition of 250. It was edited by Craig Atkinson, founder of Café Royal Books. San Diego Topographics 2 1986 - 1987 is one of Clarke’s four CRB photobooks dedicated to the subject of San Diego, California, USA. The published photographs form part of a larger project—including books, articles, and exhibitions—titled Alien Resident based on Clarke’s legal status while in the USA as a resident alien.
  • San Diego Topographics 1 1986-1987

    Clarke, Stephen; University of Chester (Café Royal Books, 2019-12-12)
    When Stephen Clarke arrived on America’s West Coast in the mid-1980s having just completed his art degree, he had expected to feel a familiarity with its landscape. Growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s he had absorbed a version of California by watching popular American detective shows. Onto this childhood picture he later mapped the work of the photo-artists based there who informed his art practice —Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Lewis Baltz. For a year he took photographs of San Diego, struggling to navigate through an arid and sprawling landscape which he discovered was alien territory. [a version of this abstract was written by Julia Garcia Hernandez and first published in the RPS Contemporary Photography, No. 63, Spring 2016] San Diego Topographics 1 1986 - 1987 was published by Café Royal Books in an edition of 250. It was edited by Craig Atkinson, founder of Café Royal Books. San Diego Topographics 1 1986 - 1987 is one of Clarke’s four CRB photobooks dedicated to the subject of San Diego, California, USA. The published photographs form part of a larger project—including books, articles, and exhibitions—titled Alien Resident based on Clarke’s legal status while in the USA as a resident alien.
  • Typography San Diego 1986 - 1987

    Clarke, Stephen; University of Chester (Café Royal Books, 2019-04-18)
    When Stephen Clarke arrived on America’s West Coast in the mid-1980s having just completed his art degree, he had expected to feel a familiarity with its landscape. Growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s he had absorbed a version of California by watching popular American detective shows. Onto this childhood picture he later mapped the work of the photo-artists based there who informed his art practice —Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Lewis Baltz. For a year he took photographs of San Diego, struggling to navigate through an arid and sprawling landscape which he discovered was alien territory. [a version of this abstract was written by Julia Garcia Hernandez and first published in the RPS Contemporary Photography, No. 63, Spring 2016] Typography San Diego 1986 - 1987 was published by Café Royal Books in an edition of 250. It was edited by Craig Atkinson, founder of Café Royal Books. Typography San Diego 1986 - 1987 is one of Clarke’s four CRB publications dedicated to the subject of San Diego, California, USA. These photographs form part of a larger project—including books, articles, and exhibitions—titled Alien Resident based on Clarke’s legal status while in the USA as a resident alien.
  • Mailboxes San Diego 1986-1987

    Clarke, Stephen; University of Chester (Café Royal Books, 2019-01-17)
    When Stephen Clarke arrived on America’s West Coast in the mid-1980s having just completed his art degree, he had expected to feel a familiarity with its landscape. Growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s he had absorbed a version of California by watching popular American detective shows. Onto this childhood picture he later mapped the work of the photo-artists based there —Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Lewis Baltz—who informed his art practice. For a year he took photographs of San Diego, struggling to navigate through an arid and sprawling landscape which he discovered was alien territory. [a version of this abstract was written by Julia Garcia Hernandez and first published in the RPS Contemporary Photography, No. 63, Spring 2016] Mailboxes San Diego 1986-1987 was published by Café Royal Books in an edition of 250. It was edited by Craig Atkinson, founder of Café Royal Books. Mailboxes San Diego 1986-1987 is the first of Clarke’s four CRB publications dedicated to the subject of San Diego, California, USA. These photographs form part of a larger project—including books, articles, and exhibitions—titled Alien Resident based on Clarke’s legal status while in the USA as a resident alien.
  • Rhyl Caravan Parks

    Clarke, Stephen; University of Chester (Café Royal Books, 2015-06-04)
    Rhyl Caravan Parks was published by Café Royal Books in an edition of 150 in 2015, and was reprinted in 2020 in an edition of 250. It was edited by Craig Atkinson, founder of Café Royal Books. Rhyl Caravan Parks is one of Clarke’s four CRB publications dedicated to the topic of the seaside town of Rhyl, North Wales and is part of Clarke's larger project that documented family holidays in Rhyl. This photobook was published to coincide with Clarke’s exhibition End of the Season at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester. The black&white photographs record the caravan parks of Towyn situated west of Rhyl’s seaside resort. This CRB also marks Clarke's early exploration of his photographic archive that dates from the early 1980s.
  • Rhyl

    Clarke, Stephen; University of Chester (Café Royal Books, 2020-10-08)
    Rhyl was published by Café Royal Books in an edition of 250 in October 2020. It was edited by Craig Atkinson, founder of Café Royal Books. Rhyl is the last of Clarke’s four CRB publications dedicated to the topic of the seaside town in North Wales and was released to coincide with the reprinting of Clarke’s three other CRB books on Rhyl. Clarke's larger project focused on his paper archive of family holidays in North Wales. This photobook of black&white photographs shows Rhyl’s promenade and fairground.
  • Café Royal Books

    Clarke, Stephen; Atkinson, Craig; University of Chester
    An exhibition of the first 600 photobooks published by the independent publisher Café Royal Books. Café Royal Books is "dedicated to post-war photography from Britain and Ireland with a particular interest in unseen or overlooked work" (Stills). This exhibition at Stills: Centre for Photography in Edinburgh is an expanded version of the show Café Royal Books: Documentary, Zines and Subversion, held at the Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol in 2022. The 600 books exhibited will be added to the Stills Reference Library for public access. Clarke's contribution in the exhibition: twelve books and two prints.
  • Rhyl Seafront

    Clarke, Stephen; University of Chester (Café Royal Books, 2015-04-02)
    Rhyl Seafront was published by Café Royal Books in an edition of 150 in 2015, and was reprinted in 2020 in an edition of 250. It was edited by Craig Atkinson, founder of Café Royal Books. Rhyl Seafront is one of four Café Royal Books dedicated to the topic of the seaside town of Rhyl, North Wales and is part of Clarke's larger project that documented family holidays in Rhyl. The publication of this photobook coincided with the opening of Clarke’s exhibition, End of the Season, at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester. The black&white photographs record the architecture and features of this popular promenade prior to its total redevelopment.
  • Ocean Beach Rhyl

    Clarke, Stephen; University of Chester (Café Royal Books, 2014-06)
    Ocean Beach Rhyl was published by Café Royal Books in an edition of 150 in 2014, and was edited by Craig Atkinson, founder of Café Royal Books. It was reprinted in 2020 in an edition of 250. Ocean Beach Rhyl is one of four Café Royal Books by Clarke dedicated to the topic of the seaside town of Rhyl, North Wales and is part of Clarke's larger project that documented family holidays in Rhyl. It also marks the beginning of Clarke's exploration of his photographic archive that dates from the early 1980s. The subject is the fairground Ocean Beach, a major attraction at the seaside resort, which opened in 1954 and was demolished in 2007.
  • Arcade Britannia

    Clarke, Stephen; Ball, Rob; Meades, Alan; University of Chester; Canterbury Christ Church University
    An exhibition looking at the amusement arcade in British popular culture. It was proposed by Dr Alan Meades (Canterbury Christ Church University), author of a history of the British arcade from the 1800s to the present: Arcade Britannia (2022, MIT Press). The exhibition was developed by Alan Meades, Rob Ball (Canterbury Christ Church University) and Stephen Clarke. Clarke contributed twenty black&white photographs taken in the 1980s and 1990s of the seaside resorts of Blackpool and Rhyl. These photographs are part of his ongoing project about the British seaside. Many of the prints included were being exhibited for the first time; some works had been previously published by Café Royal Books.
  • TransEurope Express: Europe… and the USA… to the Millennium

    Morrison, Simon A.; University of Chester
    Titled Transatlantic Drift: The Ebb and Flow of Global Dance Culture, this book tracks the evolving story of electronic dance music from WWII to the Millennium, as the beat bounced between Europe and North America. It will be published by Reaktion, in 2024. Music is not formed in isolation; humans are social animals, keen to draw on influences, to come together collectively, to share music, whether in their hometowns or travelling the world to share melody, and to feel the beat, communally. From Detroit to Wigan; from Dusseldorf to Chicago; from New York to Ibiza, the story of dance music has been a conversation between many people, in many, many different areas, communicating through the beat. This book will interrogate those ideas.
  • Preface to Transatlantic Drift: The Ebb and Flow of Global Dance Culture

    Morrison, Simon A.; University of Chester
    Titled Transatlantic Drift: The Ebb and Flow of Global Dance Culture, this book tracks the evolving story of electronic dance music from WWII to the Millennium, as the beat bounced between Europe and North America. It will be published by Reaktion, in 2024. Music is not formed in isolation; humans are social animals, keen to draw on influences, to come together collectively, to share music, whether in their hometowns or travelling the world to share melody, and to feel the beat, communally. From Detroit to Wigan; from Dusseldorf to Chicago; from New York to Ibiza, the story of dance music has been a conversation between many people, in many, many different areas, communicating through the beat. This book will interrogate those ideas.
  • Lost, Found, Reimagined - Roberto Gerhard’s Viola/Cello Sonata(s)

    Sproston, Darren; University of Chester
    The Viola Sonata (1948) sits at a pivotal time in Gerhard’s output. Through the 1940s he had composed his Symphony: Homenaje a Pedrell (1940-41), Don Quixote (1940), Alegrías Suite (1942), Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1942-43), Pandora Suite (1944-45) culminating in the tour de force which is The Duenna (1945-47). The Sonata marks the point at which Gerhard starts to seriously style his method of adopting serial technique leading to the exploration of its use beyond mere pitch manipulation. The Viola Sonata had been lost for a number of years until deposited at the Cambridge University Library as part of the Roberto Gerhard archive in 2016. There are two manuscripts, the full score and the solo viola part. It consists of 33 pages on 12 stave landscape manuscript paper. The dedication is to the viola player Anatole Mines (1915-1993) who performed the premiere of the work in 1950 accompanied by Gerhard. Until 2016, the only available legacy of this work was its revision in the form of the Cello Sonata (1956). This paper investigates the differences between the Viola and the Cello Sonata to discover the extent to which the later work arranges or reimagines the former.
  • New York, Chicago and Detroit in late 80s (ish) USA

    Morrison, Simon A.; University of Chester
    Titled Transatlantic Drift: The Ebb and Flow of Global Dance Culture, this book tracks the evolving story of electronic dance music from WWII to the Millennium, as the beat bounced between Europe and North America. It will be published by Reaktion, in 2024. Music is not formed in isolation; humans are social animals, keen to draw on influences, to come together collectively, to share music, whether in their hometowns or travelling the world to share melody, and to feel the beat, communally. From Detroit to Wigan; from Dusseldorf to Chicago; from New York to Ibiza, the story of dance music has been a conversation between many people, in many, many different areas, communicating through the beat. This book will interrogate those ideas.
  • An interrogation of concepts of journalistic professionalism within (HE level) journalism education in the context of ethics learning and teaching

    Roberts, Simon; Piasceka, Shelley; Duffett, Mark; Erzan-Essien, Ato (University of Chester, 2023)
    The journalism field continues to undergo a significant transformation impacting on practitioners and their place within the public sphere. These changes are also apparent in the way journalists perceive themselves as well as their audiences (actual and potential) in particular. The impact of audience news consumption from online platforms has been especially significant during the last decade with characteristics traditionally associated with journalistic professionalism, such as gatekeeping and autonomy diminishing and their association with the field called into question. Professionalism however, has long been a contested notion in journalism. This research begins with an exploration of its various sociological definitions and their relevance to the field of practice. A hypothesis then emerges from a review of key learning and teaching resource material which suggested the paucity of clear meanings in the documentation reflected a broader understanding of professionalism in the journalism field and rendering the ascription of terms such as ‘professional’ and ‘professionalism’ to practice as problematic. This set the groundwork and rationale for the identification and interrogation of concepts of professionalism through interviews with journalism educators at HE level. The resulting isolation of characteristics of journalism practice in teaching and learning could be reflective of journalistic professionalism. The subsequent interview data was then analysed using a realistic evaluation approach which established a set of indicative themes considered to be key notions of journalistic professionalism. The findings confirmed the idea of journalistic professionalism was problematic because of the fluid contemporary environment of the journalism field. Perceived notions of professionalism however, were primarily driven by academization which, it was concluded, were intrinsic to an overarching definition of journalistic professionalism. Furthermore, when examined through the theoretical framework of social responsibility, three new themes were derived from the amalgamation of interview data with the ‘dimensions’ outlined by Singer (2003) and Larson (1977). These themes – the COAd theme (normative dimension, organizational theme and academic driver), NOE theme (the normative dimension, organizational and ethical themes) and EE theme (the evaluative dimension, existential theme), provided a set of clearly identifiable notions by which to differentiate between those in the field – ‘professionals’, adhering to normative journalistic practices, ethical behaviour and organizational obligation, and ‘non-professionals’, who identify as journalists but are not tied to any specific requirements, ethical or otherwise.
  • Uptown and Downtown Manhattan in the latter 1970s

    Morrison, Simon A.; University of Chester
    Titled Transatlantic Drift: The Ebb and Flow of Global Dance Culture, this book tracks the evolving story of electronic dance music from WWII to the Millennium, as the beat bounced between Europe and North America. It will be published by Reaktion, in 2024. Music is not formed in isolation; humans are social animals, keen to draw on influences, to come together collectively, to share music, whether in their hometowns or travelling the world to share melody, and to feel the beat, communally. From Detroit to Wigan; from Dusseldorf to Chicago; from New York to Ibiza, the story of dance music has been a conversation between many people, in many, many different areas, communicating through the beat. This book will interrogate those ideas.
  • Glocalisation, Arab Values, and Traditions in Jeem TV Content

    Roberts, Simon; Petkova, Vera; Abdulraheem, Ayah (University of Chester, 2023-07)
    This thesis explores the ways in which Jeem TV negotiates cultural content and values in its programming. It also studies the Hierarchy of Influences at the pan-Arabic children's channel based in Qatar by focusing on its internal policy, and it examines the effect of societal factors and the external media market. The research examines these issues through the prism of the glocalisation process and the Hierarchy of Influence model proposed by Shoemaker and Vos (2009). Fifty-six hours of Jeem TV‘s programmes broadcast across three different seasons were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Interviews were also conducted with presenters, Arabic language experts, Arab sociologists, children‘s media experts, and individuals who worked with the channel. Jeem TV offered a version of Arab programming that encompassed both traditional values and adaptations. More specifically, the channel included other languages, such as English, non-Arab cultures, representation of genders, and new formats. Whereas the viewers‘ culture, as an external force, had an effect on Jeem TV‘s agenda, the external media market allowed some of the cultural values to be blended with other culture. Additionally, there is a correlation between the external media market and Jeem TV in the context of the economic and political dimensions. The thesis showed a complex interplay of processes on Jeem TV involving culture, religion, glocalisation process, globalisation, Jeem TV's policy, non-Arab cultures, and regional politics. Furthermore, the nature of the interrelation between these factors is dynamic. This suggested that established theories like gatekeeping theory and the glocalisation process which focus on a specific national context do not provide a full explanation for the processes that happened at Jeem TV.
  • Ilan Manouach’s 'Abrégé de bande dessinée franco-belge': ontography and the past and future of stories

    Grennan, Simon; University of Chester
    This chapter will consider Manouach’s own explanation of the genesis of Abrégé de bande dessinée franco-belge (2018) in theorisations of cross-media visual correspondence systems (Bogost 2012), utilising the concept of the ontograph, or “a graphical […] representation that provides concise and detailed information about the units and the ways they relate with each other in a particular situation” (Manouach 2019: np). Instumentalising this concept, as a method of production, Abrégé tests a general hypothesis derived from Jean-Christoph Menu's 2005 polemical analysis of mainstream commercial bande dessinée. The chapter will interrogate this idea – and Manouach’s methods for producing the book – in terms of a range of related concepts: first, the use of social conventions as productive constraints, according to Jan Baetens' proposal that "“the study of constrained writing should no longer be restricted to the study of internal constraints in high-cultural texts that are detached from their cultural and historical context" (2010:76). Second, what Crucifix calls “undrawing”, or the disruption of “the relationship between drawing and storytelling to refocus attention on the social and political economy of the drawn image” (Crucifix 2019:7). Third, collage, as a method of interrogation or resistance (Brockelman 2011) and, finally, Wilde’s theorisation of characters without storyworlds, or kyara (Wilde 2019). The chapter will conclude that Abrégé de bande dessinée franco-belge accumulates redacted and arranged fragments, of which readers have memories that appear stylistically and discursively similar. These memories establish an identity for Manouache’s sources by identifying storyworlds, rather than stories. Then the storyworld not only includes the causes and consequences of the object of depiction, that is, its past and future, but also the pasts and futures of the ideas that the reader employs to make sense of the image.
  • In touch and between: a tactile toolkit for creative practitioners to navigate touch within their creative practice

    Robinson, Dina; University of Chester
    Touch in performance and movement practice is not a new concept, although it tends to inhabit movement therapy, partnering techniques, alignment studies, and ethics. However, this article addresses the importance of touch in creative practice with reference to holistic embodied movement, sense of self, one’s agency and situatedness. Employing a somatic methodology and phenomenological lens, this article presents tactile practice as research carried out from 2019 to 2022 with master’s students and professionals delivered in the space and online as a lecture-workshop at People Dancing UK’s Perspectives on Practice. This overarching framework highlights methods of touch prior to the pandemic demonstrating how one perceives and responds to contact from another body whilst retaining authenticity; shifts in tactile engagement during the pandemic and how it aids solo practice; and opens up conversations on reintroducing touch post pandemic with possible cross-disciplinary practice. The research investigates/investigated tactile stimulations within passive, active and intra-active touch as a listening tool in the solo body and between bodies. Through various case studies, these are examined in relation to creative inquiry and artistic identity. The article aims to challenge power relations and conventional connotations around touch and practice as well as offer new tactile engagements within solo creative practice. It also proposes touch as a collaborative mesh for cohesion and keep us in touch through a practical tactile toolkit. This will resonate with somatic movement practitioners in particular, however its inclusive nature means specific approaches may resonate with practitioners in other creative disciplines.
  • “I read the news today… oh boy” Taking the Pulse of UK Popular Music Journalism

    Morrison, Simon A.; University of Chester
    A letter, published in the New Musical Express, complained that that venerable bastion of UK music journalism had lost its way and was not as good as it used to be. That letter was sent in 1953, a year after the title came into circulation. Almost as soon as the white hot elements of popular music criticism began to solidify, and then codify, into the discipline we now understand it to be, people have sought to announce its demise… and every announcement has been premature. We are in another such moment of the reading of last rites, and this chapter therefore sets out to truly test the health of this patient, while arguing rumours of its death have, once again, been greatly exaggerated. This chapter will make its diagnosis by the examination of two major organs. Firstly, the NME itself. One of the symptoms of this apparent demise is this very title, and indeed this arises at Open Days for the Music Journalism programme at Chester: “Where are the jobs in music journalism,” concerned parents will cry, “even the NME has closed.” Except that it has not. The NME persists as an online proposition, serving consumers of music by utilising the medium they – predominantly young people – use. The internet. Further, it is, for the first time in many years, returning a profit in its current form and indeed is currently hiring. An analysis of this title, and other online music journalism will therefore form an important aspect to the chapter, encompassing the rise of music websites such as Stereogum in the US and Dork in the UK. While even a cursory overview of the so-called ‘Golden Age’ of Music Journalism in the 1970s will reveal all of three places where young music critics could be published – the NME, Melody Maker and Sounds – the limits of publishing now extend as far as the outer boundaries of the internet itself, from successful websites such as Pitchfork, (turning over $5million annually), to intriguing and innovative personal blogs from where new journalistic voices emerge. The chapter will also consider the energy to be found when music journalism is not merely written down, but spoken, with YouTube blogs such as Needle Drop now massively popular. If NME is exhibit A, then the closure of Q is exhibit B. Notwithstanding the context of this business decision made during the global pandemic, an argument can be made that, rather like the 1970s NME journalists joyously ‘barbecuing the dinosaurs’ of their perceived dad rock, so it might be argued that it is also that very time for some of these big beasts of monthly music criticism, with the same cycle of cover stars, the same music featured within. On the plus side of the ledger, however, the resulting space in the market has allowed for an interesting and significant reappearance of the music inkie... local magazines like Bido Lito and The Skinny, but also semi-regional magazines such as Crack, Loud and Quiet and, indeed, the re-emergence of Sounds itself, as New Sounds. Drawing on new primary interviews with some of the key personalities in this evolving story, and research into the commercial health of titles such as the NME, this chapter will serve as almost a 'State-of-the-Union' overview as to where we are with this industry and what the future might hold. Both The Guardian and New Statesman have run features about the more positive picture for music journalism than might commonly be read into the industry and it is therefore key that an academic title such as this should also offer scholarly insight into that story, and where we stand with music journalism, in the third decade of the new century. Ironically, with so much access to music, we indeed need critical assistance in cutting through the noise and getting to what is worth listening to. We must not allow those key decisions to be the preserve of algorithms; indeed, after all these years, such important decisions are best left to human judgement and taste and, after all the industry has been through, we might just find that events bring us all the way back around to where we started… and the fundamental role of the music journalist.

View more