Abstract

David Bowie’s contribution to culture is undeniable; far-reaching, multifaceted, intersecting many fields, social scenes and artistic disciplines. If one was to take a broad view of this contribution, Planet Bowie can be viewed as the location for rich expressive languages of fashions, personas, stolen ideas, queerness, outsider perspectives, mythologies and a cast of recurring characters and themes, sounds and musical motifs. This presentation will turn attention to the way his career has been narrated across constant creative transformations that flow parallel against a consistent musical voice and through the recasting of his star image and performative self across the media and art platforms that he is found in.

Leah Kardos is a musician and pop culture enthusiast active in contemporary classical, experimental, media and commercial music circles. As a writer, her fascinations include the arts of record production, digital creativities and the semiotics of sound in popular music. A signed artist with Bigo & Twigetti, her creative work focuses on the communicative power of timbre, memory and pattern recognition, and the beauty of spaces, having recently worked with performers and ensembles such as Ben Dawson, Laura Wolk-Lewanowicz, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, and Australian chamber orchestra Ruthless Jabiru. Originally from Brisbane, Australia, she currently lectures in music at Kingston University, London.