27 February 2012
Dundee designer teams up with King Creosote to try and save music industry
A University of Dundee academic will next week lead a panel examining ways of saving the music industry at this year's South by Southwest festival.
Dr Jon Rogers, programme director of Product Design at Dundee, will team up with the Mercury Prize-nominated singer-songwriter King Creosote, and leading technologists for a discussion entitled, "Can Printed Electronics Save The Music Industry?"
South by Southwest (SXSW) is one of the world's biggest music and technology festivals, and attracts tens of thousands of delegates to Austin, Texas, each year. This year's event takes place from 9th-18th February.
SXSW is seen as one of the most important international showcases for emerging musicians and bands, and its significance to other creative industries such as film and technology continues to grow each year.
The demise of the conventional recording industry as a result of the availability of digital downloads has been well documented, but Dr Rogers believes that the answer lies in embracing technology, such as printed electronics, to enhance the experience of listening to music.
He and his fellow panel members will debate and show prototypes of how printed electronics could save digital music in the context of connecting communities to record labels and artists.
Printed electronics is a new form of developing and manufacturing digital electronic products. Instead of electronic components being soldered to rigid circuit boards they can now be printed onto a variety of products. Dr Rogers says he is particularly excited about printing onto paper, as it is one of the most versatile platforms around.
"It can be worthless or priceless," he said. "It can be disposable or treasured for all time. Think of a day without paper? Can you remember one? I can't!
"And when we start to connect paper to the internet we are in a world-changing place - and we think this is a completely new form of technology that we are calling Paper Apps.
"Printed Electronics is an emerging technology with the potential to change how we interact. We can now reliably print basic electronic components onto paper and card; when connected to conventional electronics, this has the potential to re-connect digital to physical for album covers, fanzines, merchandise, and getting new music heard.
"Recently I heard someone say that no one was interested in album covers these days, and I was shocked. What we need to do is to find new ways of allowing people to experience things like this and re-discover an art form whose iconic images underpinned those iconic albums.
"We will bring physical prototypes as props in a discussion of what this technology could do and collaborate with the audience to test reaction and potential. We will be raising questions about what digital means to independent, hyper-local record labels, how bespoke digital printed electronics on paper can help artists and labels connect to people, and how this technology can alter the future of digital music.
"It is incredibly difficult to get invited to South by Southwest, so I'm delighted and very excited that the University of Dundee will be taking our place alongside some of the world's biggest tech names. I'm sure we're in for a lively debate about the future of music whilst demonstrating how printed electronics could revive an industry dominated by global corporations rather than local producers."
The panel will address a number of questions, including:
- How can radical new developments in printed electronics technology be harnessed for the music industry?
- Does digital music need to have a physical format?
- What is the future of physical products in the music industry?
- How can hyper-local record labels connect to their communities?
- How can the music industry respond to printed electronics technology?
As well as Dr Rogers and King Creosote (real name Kenny Anderson), the panel will comprise Tommy Perman from FOUND the band, an Edinburgh-based arts collective and experimental music group, Pete Thomas from the design consultancy Uniform, and Kate Stone, founder of printed electronics company Novalia.
SXSW 2012 takes place between 9th-18th March 2012. 'Can Printed Electronics Save The Music Industry' is part ofInteractive 2012, and will be held on 13th March at 11.00 in the Austin Convention Centre.
More information is available at http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP11099 and http://productresearch.dundee.ac.uk.
Twitter updates can be followed via @ileddigital and the #sxapaperapps hashtag.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
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University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
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