Dean Chalmers
Programme:
Music - PhD/MSc by Research
Start date:
Sep-21
Mode of study:
Part time
Research title:
Temporal Remix: Compound Temporality in Postmodern Media
Biography
Dean Chalmers is a PhD candidate at the Reid School of Music, having joined Edinburgh College of Art in September 2021. Supervised by Dr. James Cook and Prof. Nick Prior, his research examines mixed representations of history and time in digital media, especially in the music and sound in digital games.
Research interests
- Ludomusicology
- Medievalism
- Retro Culture
- Popular Music
Topics in Popular Music (tutor), An Introduction to Responsible AI for SMEs
Research
Research
My research sits at an interdisciplinary intersection of ludomusicology, digital media, and cultural history. I am primarily interested in how historical periods, particularly those of the distant (medievalist) and recent (retro) pasts are digitally reimagined, reconstructed, and subverted through audio, video and ludic representations in contemporary digital media.
Beyond temporal representation in games, my research interests extend into popular music, cultural theory, the sociological impacts of emerging technologies.
Key research output: "Pixels et al.: Multi-layered Representation of Past(s) in the Audio, Visual and Ludic Elements of Shovel Knight and Other Screen Media." In History as Fantasy in Music, Sound, Image, and Media (Routledge). This work maps how contemporary digital games can use stylistic limitation and deliberate historical anachronism to construct complex, sometimes-nostalgic fantasy worlds.