UL muses on the Changes that make up the many faces of Bowie

Will the real David Bowie please stand up?

It’s a fair question, considering that as David Robert Jones, Major Tom, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, and the Thin White Duke, he has had more personas than Jack The Ripper.

Bowie blew the lid off popular music in the 1970s, led the glam rock movement, achieving cult status with his alter ego Ziggy Stardust, and he has managed to stay the pace ever since. He is still blowing minds, to judge by an academic seminar on his life and work at the University of Limerick.

Over 300 sociologists, history, music, culture, and art academics from Europe, Australia, and America have gathered to discuss Bowie’s cultural influence. Dr Eoin Devereaux, department of sociology at UL, opening the event yesterday said: “The three-day symposium will see discussions taking place on themes, including analyses of Bowie’s lyrics, album artwork and his many re-inventions.”

Contributors include Bowie’s former press officer at RCA, Chris Charlesworth. The event has attracted speakers from academia and the music industries, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the University of London, and the University of Maine.

Dr Devereux said Bowie’s “work is characterised by its longevity”.

“He will be one of the few pop icons to be remembered and listened to in hundreds of years from now.

“Bowie is a true master of re-invention. His song writing and performances have captured the zeitgeist... and he has dealt beautifully with the themes of loneliness, love and alienation.”

The symposium has been endorsed on the official Bowie Facebook page.

A number of art displays are incorporated into the symposium, including work by the Australian artist Tanja Stark, who has created mannequins of several of the main Bowie personae, as well as matryoshkas (Russian dolls) of his album artwork.

Also on display are some prints of artwork by Bowie.