Starting momentarily!

“Algorithmic Audiovisualities: Music and Media in the Age of AI,” organised by Universidade Nova de Lisboa’s CysMus research team, kicks off today Excited to presenting my recent screen music research as part of the Day #2 panel “Transcultural Practices and Perspectives” tomorrow morning from 10:30

Pleased to be presenting some of my recent research as part of the forthcoming conference “Algorithmic Audiovisualities: Music and Media in the Age of AI,” which takes place this coming weekend, November 13–15 (NOVA University Lisbon) Free access via Zoom cysmus-cesem.weebly.com/internationa...

🚨 CFP: Music and the Moving Image XXII 🗓️ Friday, May 29 - Sunday, May 31, 2026 📍 NYU Steinhardt, New York 📩 Deadline: 15 Dec 2025 ℹ️ More information and submission portal: form.jotform.com/252924045459...

Lovely to be invited to present my research at my alma mater @ucc.ie in this special event in memory of my late doctoral supervisor, Danijela It also marks the establishment of a new scholarship in her memory, supported by the truly wonderful human being and friend (and Oscar nominee!) Doug Murray

🚨 Screen Music / Ludomusicology CFP ℹ️ Symposium: “What Does Video Game Music Tell Us About Music?” 🗓️ 15–16 Sep 2026 📍 University of Liège (Belgium) 📩 Deadline: 31 Dec 2025 www.liegegamelab.uliege.be/cms/c_127714...

A reminder that the CFP is now live for the International Musicological Society (IMS) Music and Media Study Group’s annual conference. Taking place on 11-12 June 2026 at @ucdschoolofmusic.bsky.social (Dublin, Ireland), the theme is “Directions and Aesthetics of the Digital Era” Please share widely

After attending/presenting at previous iterations of the IMS Music & Media Study Group’s annual conference, how wonderful to have it come to us here in Dublin. 🗓️ June 11–12, 2026 📍 @ucdschoolofmusic.bsky.social ⏰ Deadline: Dec 5 Thrilled to be on the programme committee for this exciting event.

Thrilled to be back on terra firma at @tcddublin.bsky.social this week, where I recently accepted a Teaching Fellow position in the School of Creative Arts Excited to return to the TCD Film Department, where I am teaching a number of new modules I designed on screen music and videographic criticism

My latest article “Scoring Synthetic Media: Library Music in the Viral ‘A.I. Film’ Trend” has been published in Emerging Media—and it’s open-access! Huge thanks to my peer-reviewers and anyone who offered feedback on this work, especially the community at NYU’s Music and the Moving Image conference

Such a delight to be invited to speak in the symposium “Presentational Technologies in Music and Screen Media Research and Pedagogy,” organised by the AMS Music & Media Study Group last week Great to discuss my experience of teaching screen sound/music topics to my videographic criticism students

Conference on screen music/sound: 🚨 CFP: Sound on Screen V 🗓️ 5–17 Jul 2026 📍 Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester UK 📩 Deadline: 1 Oct 2025 I had the pleasure of attending (and, on occasion, presenting at) several iterations of this fabulous event. A really collegial, supportive gathering!

Thrilled to be invited to contribute to this online symposium on presentational technologies, organised by the AMS Music & Media Study Group (7 Aug, 1pm ET) My paper looks at democratising screen music studies w/ videographic criticism. Come one, come all! musicandmedia.ams-net.org/home/online-...

Such an incredibly well-deserved (and entirely expected) Best Actress win for Sarah Snook at the Tony Awards So thrilled that I got to catch the show during my time in NYC for Music and the Moving Image, especially w/ my decades-long love of the novella and having missed the West End run last June

For those curious: my MaMI paper “Music and Sound in Aleatoric Filmmaking: The Case of 𝘌𝘯𝘰 (2024)” was a new facet of my research on the intersection of new media technologies and popular music culture, expanding on my recent @researchireland.ie -funded Research Fellow role at @tcddublin.bsky.social

Overjoyed to get to present for the 7th time at NYU’s Music and the Moving Image conference, as well as chairing panels feat. work by truly inspirational colleagues. Having attended MaMI annually since 2019, it never fails to wholly enliven me and remind me why I do what I do. @stefanxgc.bsky.social

In 2020, I found myself in a Zoom room with these gents at the (first online) Music and the Moving Image conference. This led to a 2½ year collaboration on a special issue of 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘪𝘯 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴. Five years later, how amazing to meet together in-person for the first time!

Thrilled to be back in East Village for the 21st Music and the Moving Image conference at NYU Steinhardt I look forward to chairing some exciting panels and delivering my own paper on Gary Hustwit’s amazing documentary, 𝘌𝘯𝘰 Generously supported by @sminews1.bsky.social @ucdhumanities.bsky.social

I am thrilled to have been invited to speak as part of the Trinity Senior Common Room Research Salon Series 2024–25 this week, in which I will be presenting on “Posthuman Soundtracks: Screen Scoring and Popular Music in the Age of Synthetic Media.” 17:15 sharp, Thursday 17 April

Wonderful to get to closing night of Irish National Opera’s 𝘋𝘦𝘳 𝘍𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin Huge congratulations to @fergussheil.bsky.social and all the cast, chorus, and creative team involved in realising this ambitious staging.

Wonderful to return to my alma mater @ucc.ie—albeit on a flying visit—to perform for the third consecutive year with the Irish Video Game Orchestrata @ivgorchestra.com at the Aula Maxima 📸 @ben.ivgorchestra.com 📽️ Projected visuals by @concernedape.bsky.social, whose music I always adore performing

Another unexpected guest next door! Such a special (and at times, deeply moving) speech and Q&A with @stephencolbert.bsky.social in Trinity’s Graduates Memorial Building this afternoon, in honour of his Honorary Patronage of the Philosophical Society @colbertlateshow.bsky.social

Super time at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre last night for Armando Iannucci’s stage reimagining of Kubrick’s 𝘋𝘳 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦, after its recent transfer from the West End to Dublin Stellar ensemble led by Steve Coogan, who—channeling Peter Sellers—dizzyingly oscillates between the show’s 4x lead roles

Grad students and ECRs working in film/screen studies: I cannot recommend this event more highly. Such a supportive, collegial community that I still try to return every alternate year. Plus, it’s hosted by my dear alma mater / former place of work in 2025, @ucc.ie @uccfilmscreenmedia.bsky.social

🚨 Funded graduate research position Substantially funded doctoral research opportunity at DCU (Dublin, Ireland), valued at €25,000 p.a. + fees for up to four years Further details linked below, should prospective doctoral scholars wish to explore the School’s varied departmental specialisations

My third @theolllam.bsky.social show in Vicar St, by now an annual affair Again, to my US-based music/musicology mutuals: I cannot recommend the fruits of this utterly unique transatlantic collaboration more highly: transcendent post rock-infused Irish trad fusion, feat. Joe Dart (Vulfpeck) on bass

Screen Music conference CFPs for 2025: 🚨 “Music, Media, Global Messages” 📍 @yorkstjohn.bsky.social 🗓️ 9–10 June ⏰ Apply by: 1 April 🔗 studygroupmam.com/2025/01/31/c... 🚨 “Screening Live Performance” 📍 @uosmusic.bsky.social 🗓️ 3–4 July ⏰ Apply by: 21 March 🔗 screeningliveperformance.soton.ac.uk

Lovely to be invited to speak in Trinity Senior Common Room’s annual Research Salon series, alongside an array of wonderful academics from Schools across @tcddublin.bsky.social I look forward to revisiting ideas from my recent talk at Boston University’s Posthuman Pop symposium @bostonu.bsky.social

A fun and deeply fulfilling return to TCD’s Film Dept for Hilary Term this week, feat. exciting new research, as well as teaching a module I devised I also received a wonderfully warm welcome from colleagues old and new at the @ucdschoolofmusic.bsky.social, where I’m teaching screen music this term

Blue skies and golden sunshine': how David Lynch found a substitute for the film-set during Covid lockdowns with daily weather musings from Los Angeles. By @jdmcglynn.bsky.social @tcddublin.bsky.social www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

“No matter what the weather is, I wish for all of you blue skies and golden sunshine, all along the way.” RIP David Lynch, 1946–2025 If anyone’s interested, here is a short article I wrote about the strangely consistent world he sculpted in his lockdown weather reports back in 2020

🚨 CFP: Screen Music Pedagogies Study Day 🗓️ 3 Sep ’25 📍 Leeds, UK Great to learn of this timely event highlighting the neglect of screen music studies in pedagogic research, despite its popularity in third-level Music curricula Deadline: 28 March ’25 @tobyhuelin.bsky.social @iansapiro.bsky.social

Great photos by @jfcryan.bsky.social of last night’s Honorary Conferring at University College Cork It is especially wonderful to see the inimitable Jeremy Irons receiving his Hon. Doctorate at my alma mater, especially given his ties to the college and to Cork in general.

Dr. @lauracwatson.bsky.social of Maynooth University joining us at the Long Room Hub in Trinity College Dublin today, deftly accounting for the feminist consciousness permeating contemporary popular music in Ireland, especially in the context of the Irish reproductive rights movement of the 2010s.

Wonderful to spend some time in University College Dublin these past few days, where I had the pleasure of delivering guest lectures on music and sound in video games and other forms of immersive/interactive media at the UCD School of Music

Just resharing this, as the deadline approaches (3 weeks from today) I’m not involved in organising this year, yet I cannot overstate just how much I value MaMI: both intellectually, and as an annual reminder of why I do what I do, w/ the most supportive (yet no less rigorous) community of scholars

Wild skies over Malahide Marina this evening 🌄 Glorious setting for a post-run stroll

On an unrelated note, best wishes to all of my wonderful colleagues and dear friends who are presenting at AMS-SMT in Chicago this week! Reliving fond memories of long autumnal perambulations through Denver and even longer reunions / catch-ups at last year’s conference in Colorado.

Given my recent and ongoing influx in followers, I thought I’d write a quick note to (re)introduce myself My name is James, I write about music / sound in screen media. I completed a PhD on film music at University College Cork in 2020, and I am currently a Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin

Great programme of film music for the RTÉ Concert Orchestra’s concert at the Helix tonight, feat. some lesser performed (and some very much performed) selections from Guðnadóttir, Barry, Morricone and Williams Under the baton of Anna Sułkowska-Migoń

Anyone interested in screen music studies in Dublin next week should certainly go to this As well as being an incredible thinker, Prof Mera is one of those rare academics who reminds me that rigorous scholarship need not be incompatible with enjoyable readable prose Check his work if nothing else!

Wonderful to hear Emma Dabiri in conversation at Trinity’s GMB earlier today: an author, academic, and human being whose work I deeply admire. As an early-career researcher in the Humanities, I’ve long been inspired by her effortless way of engaging audiences and the wider world with her research.

Great mail hauls lately, w/ 2024 screen music books by wonderful colleagues added to my to-read pile: Key Constellations (Táhirih Motazedian tinyurl.com/4m6a48rj) Pixel Soundtracks (Tim Summers tinyurl.com/3brn5b4w) Screening the Operatic Stage (Chris Morris tinyurl.com/yc6vu5se) Autumn 📖 sorted!

For those who’ve recently migrated over here—or indeed, for any of my fantastic colleagues interested in music for interactive media—the wonderful folks at the Irish Video Games Orchestra have assembled a robust “booster pack” of relevant .bsky accounts that may be of interest. A valuable resource!

🚨 CFP: Music and the Moving Image XXI The 21st iteration of NYU Steinhardt’s annual screen music/sound conference—certainly the most valuable and endlessly collegial scholarly gathering that I regularly attend—will run from Friday May 30 to Sunday June 1, 2025 🗓️ Proposal Deadline: Dec 16, 2024

Overjoyed to have had the chance to reunite with so many treasured colleagues and very old friends in Boston these past few days Thanks to everyone for the positive response to my talk at BU last weekend, too—it was a real honour to have met so many inspirational scholars working on related topics

Grad students of musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory, technology, and all other music studies-adjacent subjects and subdisciplines: consider submitting a proposal for the SMI/ICTM postgrad conference (16–17 Jan, ’25). Always a supportive, collegial event. It was my first ever conference, too.

What a joy to speak at the recent Emerging Scholars symposium on Posthuman Pop at Boston University It is hard to sum up how special this event was. I feel wholly enlivened having had the chance to share this space w/ such inspiring colleagues My infinite thanks to the organisers for inviting me 🙏

Fall scenes in New England 🍂

Amazing to see such an enthusiastic audience at our music panel on Friday, on the final day of the Arts & Humanities Research Festival at Trinity College Dublin Huge congrats once again to Dr Jonathan Hodgers (Music) and Prof Darryl Jones (English)—what a treat to be invited to chair the discussion