The University of Portsmouth’s School of Media and Performing Arts, in collaboration with University of the Arts London, has been awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) grant to research the history of British music video since the 1960s.  This 2-year project, led by Dr Justin Smith (Principal Investigator, Portsmouth) and Dr Emily Caston (Co-investigator, UAL) will assemble a panel of industry executives and creatives from record labels and production companies to work with an advisory committee of academics to select a canon of music video titles for conservation within the BFI's National Archive which will be distributed to the general public by Soda Pictures as a box set DVD and exhibited across the UK in four national cinema screening sessions with leading music video curator David Knight (BUG, editor Promo News TV, curator UK Music Video Awards). The project will also create the first national database of British music videos free to access at the BFI and British Library. With original masters donated by record labels and production companies we will create two new collections of major national significance, at the BFI National Archive and British Library respectively, to accompany this database. These will be documented and analysed in a journal special issue, and a book relating the as yet untold story of British music video art.

We seek to appoint a full-time Research Administration Assistant on a fixed-term contract of 24 months. Working closely with and under the direction/instruction of the PI and CI, s/he will coordinate focus groups and interview panels at the BL and BFI, provide assistance with OCR scanning, assist the CI in digitising video material and securing licensing agreements. S/he will arrange, record and transcribe meetings at the BFI and BL, panel discussions and interviews. S/he will liaise with BUG and Soda Pictures on marketing and public engagement. The Research Administration Assistant will also be required to maintain the project workflow spreadsheet, to contribute to the project’s social media presence, and to work alongside the PI in the project office at Portsmouth.