Tuesday 6 November 2012

Welcome!

Welcome to the official blog for the project "Do-it-yourself popular music archives: an international comparative study of volunteer-run institutions that preserve popular music's material culture".



It was announced yesterday that this project has been funded under the Australian Research Council's Discovery Project grant scheme (DP130100317). Research will begin in January 2013, with funding taking the project through to the end of 2015.

The purpose of this study is to comprehensively document the issues faced by DIY institutions in the preservation of popular music’s material history, while also analysing the contributions of these archives and museums to national cultural memory and the public record. It is especially interested in the work of volunteers in DIY archives and museums.

On this blog you will be able to follow the progress of the project, the places I visit and the things I learn along the way. Links to the archives and museums I hope to visit during the project can be found in the "Directory of DIY Institutions" and I expect this list to grow rapidly as more and more places engaged in DIY popular music heritage practices are brought to my attention.

I invite DIY practitioners who volunteer in such archives and museums and who might be interested in participating in the research to get in touch with me. I look forward to hearing from you!