All posts by jwbaker

James Baker is Director of Digital Humanities at the University of Southampton. James is a Software Sustainability Institute Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and holds degrees from the University of Southampton and latterly the University of Kent, where in 2010 he completed his doctoral research on the late-Georgian artist-engraver Isaac Cruikshank. James works at the intersection of history, cultural heritage, and digital technologies. He is currently working on a history of knowledge organisation in twentieth century Britain. In 2021, I begin a major new Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project 'Beyond Notability: Re-evaluating Women’s Work in Archaeology, History and Heritage, 1870 – 1950'. Previous externally funded research projects have focused on legacy descriptions of art objects ('Legacies of Catalogue Descriptions and Curatorial Voice: Opportunities for Digital Scholarship', Arts and Humanities Research Council), the preservation of intangible cultural heritage ('Coptic Culture Conservation Collective', British Council, and 'Heritage Repertoires for inclusive and sustainable development', British Academy), the born digital archival record ('Digital Forensics in the Historical Humanities', European Commission), and decolonial futures for museum collections ('Making African Connections: Decolonial Futures for Colonial Collections', Arts and Humanities Research Council). Prior to joining Southampton, James held positions of Senior Lecturer in Digital History and Archives at the University of Sussex and Director of the Sussex Humanities Lab, Digital Curator at the British Library, and Postdoctoral Fellow with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. He is a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College, a convenor of the Institute of Historical Research Digital History seminar, a member of The Programming Historian Editorial Board and a Director of ProgHist Ltd (Company Number 12192946), and an International Advisory Board Member of British Art Studies.
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A little music

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Those who know me know I listen to rather large amount of music. If I don’t have a pair of headphones stuffed in or sitting on my ears, chances are – if I’m not at meeting or watching telly or similar… – that there is a radio on in the background. Not that I’ve managed to translate this passion into my research. Hopefully, having some excellent music curators and projects such as Europeana Sound around me will eventually inspire.

Anyhow, and much like 2012, 2013 has been an extraordinary musical year for me and my ears. Highlights include seeing Dark Dark Dark at the Trebendo, Paris; surprise comebacks from Boards of Canada (their Tomorrow’s Harvest is my most listened to record of the year by far) and Forward Russia (yes please new material please thank you); the continued blossoming of Gilles Peterson’s 6 Music show to probably the best thing on the network; British Sea Power unleashing both bears during their Kenwood House set; berating the Mercury judges for not selecting either Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time or Cold Spring Fault Less Youth; still not getting the Arctic Monkeys; discovering Hookworms when all the ‘Best of 2013’ lists started appearing; and getting tickets to see the Fall of Math anniversary show in March (I am very much a 65Kid).

To celebrate, and in some way attempt to capture, this music and these memories I’ve picked (and organised into some sort of sensible listening order) 52 tracks that I consider my picks of the new music that appeared in 2013. Of these, if I had to choose, I’d say Jon Hopkins’ Immunity is my album of the year and Kiran Leonard’s Port-Ainé my track of the year. But that could just be my mood this morning talking…