twitter and academia

I'm not sure I can say enough nice things here about Mark Ayres. A quick bio: Ayres is a television composer that worked on Doctor Who in the 80s. He provided incidental music for The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, Ghost Light, and Curse of Fenric. He worked with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop during the tail end of its existence, and now helps the BBC and the unofficial restoration team with audio restoration and cataloging. He's also quite friendly on Twitter, and doesn't mind answer some technical questions when they come up. And since my dissertation is on the music and sound design of Doctor Who I always have question. Like these ones:


https://twitter.com/emilyooo/status/162657482072784896
https://twitter.com/MarkAyresRWS/status/162710662378815488
https://twitter.com/emilyooo/status/162757550884917250
https://twitter.com/MarkAyresRWS/status/162840565757657088
https://twitter.com/MarkAyresRWS/status/162841081120174080

I got in touch with him about this when I was revisiting notes I had taken while reading Wiped!, noticing that in its detailing of recording episodes that it mentioned the music being played into the soundboard during the weekly studio recordings for episodes. Very helpful to know that by the late 60s the BBC adopted clicktrack/timecoding for video and sound editing on the TV side.

Ayres was also quite helpful while I was working on my doctoral comprehensive exams back in March of 2011. I had read different accounts on the use/transmission/recording of sound in stereo, and he cleared things up pretty quickly (and it started with a similar to topic to above: when did music enter the process?):

https://twitter.com/emilyooo/status/43846208690716672
https://twitter.com/Legopolis/status/43848901861703680
https://twitter.com/emilyooo/status/43849938433622016
https://twitter.com/MarkAyresRWS/status/43989910755086336
https://twitter.com/emilyooo/status/44596568799723520
https://twitter.com/MarkAyresRWS/status/44791514924199936
https://twitter.com/Legopolis/status/44613629865238528
https://twitter.com/MarkAyresRWS/status/44791858559332352
https://twitter.com/emilyooo/status/44613778213572608
https://twitter.com/MarkAyresRWS/status/44792102617481216
https://twitter.com/MarkAyresRWS/status/44797346843852800
https://twitter.com/emilyooo/status/44793596200763392
https://twitter.com/MarkAyresRWS/status/44801404237389825
https://twitter.com/MarkAyresRWS/status/44801501071278080
https://twitter.com/MarkAyresRWS/status/44801556595490816
https://twitter.com/LukePietnik/status/44794057943298049
https://twitter.com/MarkAyresRWS/status/44801986146734080
https://twitter.com/MarkAyresRWS/status/44802205336875008

What's amazing to me is how Twitter can so easily become a space for collaborative research and academic/intellectual pursuit. Yes, it is an incredible source for news (and entertainment), but the academic potential is absolutely wonderful. I know it's helped me already. And its usefulness depends on willing participants and knowing whether you can trust your source. Luckily for me and my research, Mark Ayres is one of the best people to talk to.

And beyond this, Ayres has also provided a great amount of information through interviews with Radio Free Skaro, Hoo on Who, and a few others as well. Some of my best jumping-off points for my research have been Twitter and podcasts. Who would have thought ...

ek