I was introduced via email to David McLoughlin from the Brasil Music Exchange. We’ve sent a few emails back and forth and he’s sent me a link to their new compilation of new jazz (above).
This seems like a good link, though I don’t quite know what the connection is yet. Just a conversation I’d like to have. I suspect there’s some mutual advantage to be had from connecting the Fora do Eixo research I’m doing with the agency that promotes Brazilian music on an international level.
I suspect the advantage for me is just better understanding the context and infrastructure of the music industries in Brazil. And hopefully there’s something that will come out of that that’s useful for everyone else concerned.
After visiting with the cultural networks in Brasilia, I went to São Paulo to meet with some fellow academics at the University of São Paulo (USP).
There is an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) research fund in collaboration with FAPESP to support collaborative research between British researchers and academics in the state of São Paulo, and I was keen to meet some potential collaborators while over there.
Originally, the scope of this research was modest: I wanted to research Fora do Eixo, and hoped that I could find another researcher on the Brazil side who might be able to find something related or relevant that would help make a good case for the AHRC/FAPESP fund. It turned out better than I expected – and the project has grown as a result.
I had spoken to Eduardo Vicente on Skype before, introduced to me by Leonardo di Marchi, who I’d met in Rio. Eduardo is Leo’s post-doctoral research supervisor, based at USP. On arrival, Eduardo introduced me to his colleagues Davi Nakano and Rosana de Lima Soares.
George Yudice from the University of Miami talks about his research into cultural networks, and the political, economic and international context for studying organisations such as Fora do Eixo.
One of the main reasons I went to the Cultura de Red meeting in Brasilia this week was to discuss my research about Fora do Eixo.
I wanted to explain the process (and speed) of getting academic funding in the UK, the possibility to partner with a Sao Paulo researcher through FAPESP, discuss my approach to the research, explain that I will be looking at criticisms and debates about Fora do Eixo, as well as their own perspective – but most importantly, to seek some guidance and feedback from the people concerned.
Unfortunately, I did not record my 15 minute talk that led to this discussion, but the contributions that followed from Felipe, Fabricio, Frank and Artur were recorded and are available here for further reflection and discussion.
What resulted was very encouraging, reassuring and gave me lots of ideas for ways in which to take this. It also opened up some interesting and unexpected possibilities – and added some urgency to the whole project.
Thanks to everyone who attended this talk, and especially those who contributed and agreed to be recorded for this project.
Driade is the Media Manager for Fora do Eixo, and lives with 22 others in a house in Sao Paulo. Here she explains what it means to take the collective life to the extreme and what her job entails.
Nikki Froneman organises arts exchanges between Latin America and Africa through her organisation Proyecto 34ºS. At the Cultura de Red meeting in Brasilia, she talked about how places outside of Latin America could learn from the kind of networking that goes on here.
Felipe Altenfelder, who I’ve interviewed in the past for this blog, tells a fairytale about the relationship between ‘Music’ and Fora do Eixo. It’s a parable with a modern twist to it – but one that he feels describes the complex relationship between the organisation and the music of Brazil.
It was dark outside, so the video’s not very good – but the story is what matters, of course. And as with many such things, it all begins with a beautiful woman at a party…
Later this week, I fly to Brazil to attend a meeting of Cultura de Red – an organisation that brings together cultural collectives and networks from all over Latin America. They’re interested in sustainability, creative (and solidarity) economy, free culture — as well as training, sharing best practice, co-operation and collaboration on projects.
I first heard about it from the people at Tiuna el Fuerte – the collective I visited in Venezuela as part of Un-Convention, and lots of members of Fora do Eixo will be there too. I have sort of volunteered to host a drop-in chat session so that I can talk to people about my planned research, but my agenda there will simply to be to get to know people, interview them, and perhaps find ways of working together some more.
I’m also keen to spread my research (once I’ve done it) outside of the borders of the UK and Brazil – so having a connection with this sort of network will be really helpful in this regard.
I’m working on a number of parallel projects at the moment. My work in the area of independent music collectives in Brazil is occupying mental space with a book I’m writing about Music in the Digital Age, and another about Radio in the Digital Age – and I’m seeing lots of overlap between them.
I was reading an article about Fora do Eixo that is in development by a Brazilian academic (who had kindly translated her work into English for me) and it happened to mention that the local collectives in the network organise their own online media, as well as connect through the central systems such as Toque no Brasil and the FDE main site.
She said that some of these local collectives have aspects of online radio as part of what they do – and it got me wondering why there isn’t a nationwide independent music radio station online, run as part of the Fora do Eixo network – and borrowing some of the best principles and techniques of independent radio production and management from US College Radio, the Prometheus project, grassroots community radio and pirate radio in the UK.
I'm Andrew Dubber, Reader in Music Industries Innovation at Birmingham City University (among other things). Over the past year, I have learned about and become extremely interested in the network of independent music collectives that exist in Brazil.
Joining live music venues, artists and festivals as well as labels and studios around the country, the collectives have developed a separate economy from that of the mainstream music industry... to the point where they now actually have their own currency. Really.
This is where I'll be gathering notes and observations, interviews and ideas about the collectives, as I develop a research proposal, bid for funding - and then hopefully spend some serious time documenting and analysing this phenomenon - and how some of its lessons might illuminate and inform other independent music economies.
