CREATe 2012-2016: Impact on society, industry and policy through research excellence and knowledge exchange

On the eve of the CREATe Festival May 2016, the Centre published this legacy report (edited by Kerry Patterson & Sukhpreet Singh with contributions from consortium researchers)

Research Perspectives on the Public Domain: Digital Conference Proceedings

The public domain is a subject of vital interest to legal scholars, but its implications are far reaching – indeed, the public domain concept is germane to subjects as diverse as film and media studies, economics, political science and organisational theory. It was a central purpose of the workshop to arrive at a workable definition of the public domain suitable for empirical investigation. The traditional definition (1) takes the copyright term as the starting point, and defines the public domain as “out of copyright”, i.e. all uses of a copyright work are possible. A second, more fine-grained definition (2) still relies on the statutory provisions of copyright law, and asks what activities are possible with respect to a copyright work without asking for permission (e.g. because use is related to “underlying ideas” not appropriating substantial expressions, or because use is covered by specific copyright exceptions). A third definition (3) includes as part of the public domain all uses that are possible under permissive private ordering schemes (such as creative commons licences). A forth definition (4) moves into a space that includes use that would formally be copyright infringement but is endorsed, or at least tolerated by certain communities of practice (e.g. machinima or fan fiction)

Copyright Contracts and Earnings of Visual Creators: A Survey of 5,800 British Designers, Fine Artists, Illustrators and Photographers

There is a common perception that digitisation has prompted changes in creative labour markets. In particular, it is widely assumed that exploiters insist on "grabbing rights" (i.e. broadly conceived assignments of rights), that visual artists are not able to negotiate, that they are paid less and less, and that they are compelled to waive their moral rights. This study suggests a much more equivocal picture. In place of a straightforward narrative of decline, the results of the survey suggest that in most fields there has been less change over the last decade than one might have expected: that, terms of exploitation are most often about the same. That is not to say that there are no discernible changes in particular occupations and media. Respondents and interviewees identify some important shifts. Perhaps surprisingly, it seems there are changes in practice that are, from the creator's perspective, both positive and negative. The most positive change is identified amongst the fine artists where half (50%) see their personal bargaining position as having improved, with only 6% perceiving a weakening. The most disturbing changes are in relation to photographers. About half of all photographers (49%) say their bargaining position has worsened, with only 22% reporting improvements. A significant percentage of photographers (40%) report an increase in assignments (compared with 6% who think they have decreased). Moreover, 24% report an increase in moral rights waivers (compared to 3% who identify a decrease), and a decline in the practice of attribution. 31% of photographers see attribution as decreasing over the last decade, and only 8% increasing. 28% say income from secondary use has decreased, while only 16% say it has decreased

Researching and enhancing athlete welfare: Proceedings of the Second International Symposium of the Brunel International Research Network for Athlete Welfare (BIRNAW) 2013

Copyright @ 2014 Brunel University. All rights reserved by the authors who assert their rights under the Berne Convention. Copyright rests with Brunel University London. All research designs, concepts, models and theories herein are the intellectual property of the contributing authors. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of Dr Daniel Rhind via Brunel University London.The chapters within this book are based on presentations delivered at the 2nd BIRNAW Symposium which was held at Brunel University London in November 2013.Sport is a cultural phenomenon that touches the lives and captures the imagination of many people. Most people assume that sport is “a good thing” and that participation in sport will bring physical, psychological and social benefits to participants and societies. However, as this body of work shows, this is not necessarily or always the case. Abuse and exploitation can and does occur in sport – a fact that sports enthusiasts and sports organisations have been slow to acknowledge. The Brunel International Research Network for Athlete Welfare (BIRNAW) is a remarkable initiative that brings together researchers and policy makers from a variety of disciplines, organisations and countries. The activities and publications of this group have successfully provided an evidence base that has drawn attention to the issues in a powerful and convincing way. Its impact on the world of sport has been significant and is an excellent example of research informing sport policy and improving the practice of sport. Through the work of those involved in BIRNAW, inspired by the vision of Celia Brackenridge and her colleagues at Brunel University London, awareness has been raised, and safeguarding measures are being put in place to ensure the welfare of athletes. There is still much to be done, but the world of sport, and those athletes whose welfare is now safeguarded, already have much to thank them for

BBC Radio 4's Anaylsis, 1970-1983

The 'historical turn' in British Media Studies has yielded new histories of television but little work on the history of post-television radio. This thesis hopes to contribute to that neglected area. The research, based on radio and written archives and interviews with former BBC staff, examines the BBC Radio 4 current affairs programme, Analysis between the years 1970 and 1983. It addresses a number of questions about the programme, including the precise reasons for its creation, how it evolved, and how it covered a range of current affairs topics. In addition, this history of current affairs radio provides useful, new insights into the rise of professionalism in the BBC, the existence of informal networks, impartiality and bias, the tension between elitism and populism and the specificity of current affairs. The thesis includes a full discussion of the history of current affairs radio from 1927 to 1960. In this section the relationship of the literary elite to the BBC in the 1930s is addressed and the evolution of the 'topical talk' and the post-war 'talks magazine' are described. The precise origins of Analysis in the late 1960s are explained with reference to the tension between the more journalistic and populist 1960s news sequences and the elitist and anti-journalistic talks tradition from which Analysis emerged following the publication of Broadcasting in the Seventies. The role of individual presenters of Analysis is examined and the evolution of the form of 'broadcast talk' employed on the programme. There is a chapter on Analysis in Africa and a concluding chapter which evaluates the relationship between Analysis and the emerging political ideology of Thatcherism. By focussing on one programme over a period of time, and following the careers of named individuals who worked in BBC radio, it is possible to reveal conflicting broadcasting values and ideals of professionalism and current affairs and to trace these back to their antecedents in the pre-war BBC

In Situ Listening:Soundscape, Site and Transphonia

This enquiry represents an exploration of environmental sound and artistic practice from the perspectives of in situ listening and transphonia. The initial term, in situ listening, has been coined by the author in order to constellate a group of intellectual trajectories and artists’ practices that engage with recorded sound and share a common theme: that the listening context, the relationship between mediated sound and site, is an integral part of the engagement process. Heikki Uimonen (2005, p.63) defines transphonia as the, “mechanical, electroacoustical or digital recording, reproduction and relocating of sounds.” The term applies to sound that is relocated from one location to another, or sound that is recorded at a site and then mixed with the sound of the prevailing environment. The experience of the latter, which is a key concern for this thesis, may be encountered during the field recording process when one ‘listens back’ to recordings while on site or during the presentation of site-specific sound art work. Twelve sound installations, each based on field recordings, were produced in order to progress the investigation. Installations were created using a personally devised approach that was rigorous, informed, and iterative. Each installation explored a different environment. These installations, and their related environmental studies, form the core content of this enquiry. In the first part of this thesis the installations are used to explore observations of transphonic audio content in relation to a number of subjective, surprising and intangible phenomena: disorientation, uncanny sensations or even the awareness of coincidence. These observations are supported and contextualised in relation to a wide range of historic and contemporary sources. Works in the second part of the thesis are used to motivate a meditation on the relationship between soundscape, site and time, which was proposed by the initial phase of the research

Agricultural science, plant breeding and the emergence of a Mendelian system in Britain, 1880-1930

Following Thomas P. Hughes’s systems approach in the history of technology, and making use of previously unexamined sources, this dissertation seeks to show that the development of British Mendelism may be explained, and the success it enjoyed more accurately gauged, by analysing the emergence of a system whose elements justified the theory, protected it, made it useful, and slowly territorialized the world. Accordingly, the analysis will cover the principle elements of this system: the system builders, institutes, ideas and varieties that were, in one way or another, Mendelian. The first of the Mendelian system builders, William Bateson, is already well known for his introduction of Mendelism to Britain in the years after 1901 and his coinage of a new name for the discipline; Genetics. He was joined by two colleagues, Rowland Biffen and Thomas Wood, both of whom collaborated with Bateson in creating a string of institutes concerned with changing agriculture by using the new Mendelian theory. The proponents of the new theory often talked of their new found ability to transfer characters and build up new varieties of agricultural value. These claims were welcomed by politicians and the popular press and the idea that the new genetics would lead to a beneficial revolution in agriculture became a popular cause of the day. However, the release of the first of these new Mendelian varieties in 1910 in Britain is far less well known than the almost simultaneous development of the chromosome theory at Columbia University by Thomas Hunt Morgan. On one view of the history of genetics, the discipline, which had been born in Moravia, and popularised in Britain, was from 1910 most fruitfully developed in Morgan’s fly room. From this perspective it might be thought that the British School, under Bateson, became a disciplinary backwater, at least in part because Bateson refused to accept chromosome theory. This thesis argues that far from being in a genetic backwater, Bateson along with Mendelian allies Biffen and Wood were at the cutting edge of a wide ranging movement to improve agriculture through the introduction of new Mendelian varieties

The Charming Science of the Other: The cultural analysis of the scientific search for life beyond earth

This dissertation presents the cultural study of scientific search for extraterrestrial life conducted over the past sixty years by the scientific community. It introduces an original piece of research that conceptualises the extraterrestrial life hypothesis as a significant part of the general world-view, constantly shaped by the work and discoveries of science. It sheds light on the ways in which alien life is imagined and theorised and presents its concept in both the scientific community and in popular culture. Drawing from anthropology of science it offers elaboration of ‘culture of science’ and ‘scientific culture’ and describes the scientific search for other life as a specific culture of science, here referred to as ‘charming science’. The three scientific search methods: message sending, analysing of cosmic signals and the search for extrasolar planets are conceptualised as the three search modes: messaging, listening and exploring respectively. This work introduces the extraterrestrial ‘Other’ as a profoundly cultural concept, firstly presented as the missing subject of ‘charming science’. Exploration of public understanding the extraterrestrial life and popular imagination of the ‘Other’ is intended to introduce the scientific search in broader social context and address the role of science in contemporary Western world. The dissertation draws on the multi-sited and multi-method ethnographic fieldwork conducted over two years in the UK. The research methods included interviewing (semi-structured face-to-face interviews and interviews conducted via email), participation (conferences and scientific meetings), and data collection from the global ‘online’ community including social networks