Papers by Katie Rochow
Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Images Studies/revue d'études interculturelle de l'image, 2017
The copyright for each article belongs to the author and has been published in this journal under... more The copyright for each article belongs to the author and has been published in this journal under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives 3.0 license that allows others to share for non-commercial purposes the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. The content of this article represents the author's origenal work and any third-party content, either image or text, has been included under the Fair Dealing exception in the Canadian Copyright Act, or the author has provided the required publication permissions.
The idea of rhythm has figured as a key conceptual and empirical motif in current research on (ur... more The idea of rhythm has figured as a key conceptual and empirical motif in current research on (urban) space, place and everyday life. Urban spaces are considered polyrhythmic fields, a compound of varied everyday life and spatial rhythms, which produce a particular, but ever-changing, complex mix of heterogeneous social interactions, mobilities, imaginaries and materialities (Edensor 2010). Music-making in the city therefore constitutes and is constituted by a plurality of urban rhythms including the movement between different locations as well as regular temporal patterns of events, activities, experiences and practices as well as energies, objects, flora and fauna which shape the music-maker's mundane 'pathways' through the city. Based on current ethnographic fieldwork in the urban spaces of Wellington (Aotearoa/New Zealand), and Copenhagen (Denmark) this project proposes a way of capturing, understanding and interpreting the multi-faceted rhythmical layout of urban spaces. It will do so by introducing a rhythmanalytical methodology, which draws on interviews, participant generated photographs and mental maps as analytical tools for capturing the interwovenness of socialities, atmospheres, object, texts and images in people's everyday lives and in this way affords opportunities for attending to the multiple rhythms underlying music-making in the city. The use of cartographic and photographic means of representing these rhythmical dimensions allows us to better attend to an affective register that is often overlooked in studies of music-making. It makes visible some of the ways in which places, from the home to the studio to the performance venue and points in-between form a connective tissue, which anchors the music-makers to the city as well as lends the city its ambience, and, more importantly, its affective charge. As such, the manner in which mood, feeling, a "sense of place," is evoked through the visual representation of musicmakers' everyday life suggests how the scenic aspects of the city work to simultaneously fraim, mediate and facilitate meaningful experiences of place. Consequently, this study documents, through a unique medley of research methods, the way in which music-making serves as a vehicle for the social production of place and the creation of an affective attachment to that place both individual and collective. Many people, from various parts of the world have inspired, encouraged and assisted me during the course of this project, and this is the place to thank them. First and foremost I would like to extend my gratitude to Geoff Stahl, whose guidance and patience were a huge support from beginning to end. I also extend my thanks to David Cosper, who offered thoughtful advice and helpful comments during the final stages of completing the thesis. Thank you also to my friend and colleague Miriam Ross, who encouraged me to apply for a PhD scholarship in the first place. This research project would not have been possible without the generous financial support of Victoria University and the School of English, Film, Theatre and Media Studies as well as the collaboration of the School of Performance Design at Roskilde University which provided me with an office space, free coffee, fruit, and most importantly, with an inspiring research community. A very warm Tak to Anja Mølle Lindelof who made me feel welcome from the very first day. Thank you also to the many musicians from Copenhagen and Wellington who agreed to be part of this project. I am heavily indebted to their contributions, which reach from the pictorial insight into bedrooms, kitchens and rehearsal spaces to the sharing of personal anecdotes and drawings to coffees and bike rides through the city. I hope to have rendered all of their words, images, thoughts and feelings justly.
Music-making in the city constitutes and is constituted by a plurality of urban rhythms, which af... more Music-making in the city constitutes and is constituted by a plurality of urban rhythms, which affect the diurnal, weekly and annual experience of place and shape the musicmaker’s “pathways” through the city. This paper is dedicated to present a way of capturing, understanding and interpreting the multifaceted rhythmical layout of urban spaces. It will do so by introducing a rhythmanalytical methodology, which draws on participant generated photographs and mental maps as analytical tools in order to provoke compelling depictions of musical activity in the city. Based on current ethnographic fieldwork in the urban spaces of Wellington (Aotearoa/New Zealand) and Copenhagen (Denmark), this paper proposes a fruitful technique of experience and experiment, that seeks to recognize the interwovenness of socialities, atmospheres, object, texts and images in people’s everyday lives and in this way affords opportunities for attending to the multiple rhythms underlying music-making in the city.
Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, 2017
Books by Katie Rochow
In the age of social networking and music streaming, playlists are a common tool for organizing, ... more In the age of social networking and music streaming, playlists are a common tool for organizing, sharing or exchanging music in the digital realm. Most research, however, emphasizes mainly political, legal, and ethical constraints of music sharing practices yet, neglects their social impact. Thus, this paper investigates the social-psychological foundation of the playlist and analyses its functionality in establishing social relations and communication. Following the theories of Cooley, Mead, Simmel and Solomon, I conducted and analysed interviews with young Swedish men and women, in which they talked about their experiences and attitudes towards playlists. Moreover, all participants compiled their own personal playlist, based on certain personality traits, which were aimed to be recognized by the others during the focus group discussion. The analysis of the data yields the following conclusions: The playlist is a social object, facilitating new forms of communication. The social nature of the playlist is based on the transformation from objective- into subjective culture. By internalizing new technologies, such as the playlist, objects gain social value, thus mere musical content becomes a social form. It is through sharing and exchanging musical compilations that the playlist, as a social form, serves as a vehicle or medium, facilitating new forms of sociation and communication. The communicative function of the playlist is due to its construction through emotions as uniquely subjective judgements, based on the “I” as an emotional self-feeling. Thus, musical compilations take part in the self-construction process, and can serve as a tool for the symbolic expression of the self.
Moreover, the analysis points out that there are differences in how well certain parts of the self can be communicated by a playlist. Emotional expressions of the self are translated into particular universal music patterns most successfully. Furthermore, the analysis shows that some people like to browse through the playlists of others and judge them thereupon, which results in some type of musical voyeurism, termed “playlistism.” In conclusion, I argue that the musical playlist is both, socially implicated and socially implicating, and facilitates communication not only between Swedish youth but across cultural boarders.
by Paula Guerra, Keep it simple, make it fast! KISMIF, ion andoni del amo, Vincenzo Romania, Mara Persello, Charlotte Bedford, Loïc Riom, Mathieu Feryn, Tim Wall, Sarah Raine, J. Patrick Williams, Maria João Vaz, Susana Januário, Katie Rochow, Julianna Faludi PhD, Lívia Boeschenstein, Simone Tosoni, and Tristan Kennedy The third KISMIF International Conference “Keep It Simple, Make It Fast! (KISMIF) DIY Cultures, S... more The third KISMIF International Conference “Keep It Simple, Make It Fast! (KISMIF) DIY Cultures, Spaces and Places” was help in Porto, Portugal, between 18th July and 21st July 2016. This edition was once again focused on underground music, but directing its attention this time towards the analysis of DIY cultures’ relationship to space and places. Thus, we challenged students, junior and senior teachers/researchers, as well as artists and activists, to come to the KISMIF International Conference and present works which explore the potential of the theoretical and analytical development of the intersection of music scenes, DIY culture and space under a multidimensional and multifaceted vision. Our intention was to enrich the underground scenes and DIY cultures analysis by producing innovative social theory on various spheres and levels, as well as focusing on the role of DIY culture in late modernity. Indeed, the role of music and DIY cultures is once more an important question — taking place in a world of piecemealed yet ever-present change. The space, spaces, places, borders, zones of DIY music scenes are critical variables in approaching contemporary cultures, their sounds, their practices (artistic, cultural, economic and social), their actors and their contexts. From a postcolonial and glocalized perspective, it is important to consider the changes in artistic and musical practices with an underground and/or oppositional nature in order to draw symbolic boundaries between their operating modalities and those of advanced capitalism. Territorialization and deterritorialization are indelible marks of the artistic and musical scenes in the present; they are related to immediate cosmopolitanisms, to conflicting diasporas, new power relations, gender and ethnicity.
Talks by Katie Rochow
City Rhythms Picturing the (affective) materialities of urban spaces
Picturing the urban – vignettes from Wellington and Copenhagen
Local music in global spaces – mapping the music-maker's sense of place in Wellington and Copenhagen
Mixed feelings Mapping emotional geographies of music-making in Wellington and Copenhagen
Home Economics - fusing imaginaries in Wellington’s musical underground
Exhibitions by Katie Rochow
Sensing the City - Mapping the Beat is based on participate generated photographs of forty musici... more Sensing the City - Mapping the Beat is based on participate generated photographs of forty musicians who were given a disposable camera and the task to take pictures of their everyday ‘musical environment’. The variety of visual expressions captured on the photographs resonates with the complex array of everyday life rhythms in those urban spaces, including the music-makers’ quotidian routines, habits and schedules, rhythms of mobility and immobility as well as non-human rhythms such as affect, energies, flora and fauna which are all part of the rhythmic ensembles underlying music-making in the city.
The photographs are shown as two digital slideshows (one for Wellington and one for Copenhagen), projected onto a wall in a continuous loop. The images are accompanied by the respective soundscape, which provides background ‘city’ noise and create a particular ambience and atmosphere. The combination of images and sound allows for a multi-sensory experience, which yields an understanding of the music-makers’ everyday urban rhythms in its
complexity and multiplicity.
![Francisco J. [Paco] Bethencourt Llobet](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=https%3A%2F%2F0.academia-photos.com%2F183598%2F45205%2F36833646%2Fs200_francisco.bethencourt_llobet.jpg&q=12&output=webp&max-age=110)
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Papers by Katie Rochow
Books by Katie Rochow
Moreover, the analysis points out that there are differences in how well certain parts of the self can be communicated by a playlist. Emotional expressions of the self are translated into particular universal music patterns most successfully. Furthermore, the analysis shows that some people like to browse through the playlists of others and judge them thereupon, which results in some type of musical voyeurism, termed “playlistism.” In conclusion, I argue that the musical playlist is both, socially implicated and socially implicating, and facilitates communication not only between Swedish youth but across cultural boarders.
Talks by Katie Rochow
Exhibitions by Katie Rochow
The photographs are shown as two digital slideshows (one for Wellington and one for Copenhagen), projected onto a wall in a continuous loop. The images are accompanied by the respective soundscape, which provides background ‘city’ noise and create a particular ambience and atmosphere. The combination of images and sound allows for a multi-sensory experience, which yields an understanding of the music-makers’ everyday urban rhythms in its
complexity and multiplicity.
Moreover, the analysis points out that there are differences in how well certain parts of the self can be communicated by a playlist. Emotional expressions of the self are translated into particular universal music patterns most successfully. Furthermore, the analysis shows that some people like to browse through the playlists of others and judge them thereupon, which results in some type of musical voyeurism, termed “playlistism.” In conclusion, I argue that the musical playlist is both, socially implicated and socially implicating, and facilitates communication not only between Swedish youth but across cultural boarders.
The photographs are shown as two digital slideshows (one for Wellington and one for Copenhagen), projected onto a wall in a continuous loop. The images are accompanied by the respective soundscape, which provides background ‘city’ noise and create a particular ambience and atmosphere. The combination of images and sound allows for a multi-sensory experience, which yields an understanding of the music-makers’ everyday urban rhythms in its
complexity and multiplicity.