Oliver Carter
Reader in Creative Economies
Birmingham School of Media
- Email:
- oliver.carter@bcu.ac.uk
- Phone:
- +44 (0)121 331 5469
Dr. Oliver Carter is a Reader in Creative Economies at the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research, Birmingham City University. His research focuses on alternative economies of cultural production; informal forms of industry that are often removed from a formal cultural industries discourse. He is the author of the monograph Making European Cult Cinema: Fan Enterprise in an Alternative Economy, and is currently writing his second monograph, which explores the cultural and economic development of the British adult film industry. This research has informed the award winning documentary series Sexposed and the feature Hardcore Guaranteed, both of which are distributed by Amazon Video. In 2018 he was awarded a British Academy Small Grant to explore the transnational trade in hardcore pornography between Britain, Scandinavia and the Netherlands, holding public research events in Copenhagen and Amsterdam that brought together those with knowledge and experience of the trade.
Areas of Expertise
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Amateur/informal cultural production
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Pornography studies
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Enterpreneurship
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Home video distribution
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Media regulation and censorship
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Media piracy
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Documentary production
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Film and television audiences
Memberships
2018 - Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
2018 - The Erotic Film Society
2017 - The Campaign Against Censorship
2017 - Society for Cinema and Media Studies
2016 - Vitae
2016 - European Communication Research and Education Association
2007 - Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association
Teaching
During his time at Birmingham City University, Oliver has developed and convened a number of modules across all levels of HE study, such as Popular Culture, Creativity in the Media, Documentary Theory and Practice, Media Culture, and Fandom, Subcultures and Cult Media. He convened the MA module Online Enterprise and Innovation, and is currently the Research Degrees Coordinator for Media and Cultural Studies. He supervises a range of PhD students, studying areas such as music piracy, independent film distribution, the informal Ukranian screen media economy, fan vidding and the economics of hyperlocal journalism.
Research
The unifying focus of Oliver's research has become an interrogation of the cultural and economic practices that relate to marginal media texts, and how they result in the creation of alternative economies. Through innovative research methods, he investigates how such economies operate, considering how people empower themselves through the use of technologies, disrupting markets, and economically benefiting from their practices. His research is especially concerned with the ways in which these economies develop over a period of time, and the ways in which they bridge the borders of legality and illegality.
Oliver's current research focuses on the cultural and economic history of the British adult entertainment business, specifically focusing on those who were involved in producing and distributing films between the period of 1960 and 2000, when the distribution of hardcore pornography in the UK was prohibited. He has become increasingly interested in how pornography, as a popular commodity, has been traded transnationally.
Postgraduate Supervision
An Investigation into the Development of the BDSM Scene in Birmingham and the West Midlands, Lesley Gabriel.
Beyond Revenue and Readership: Sustainability and Semi-professionalism in Hyperlocal Journalism in the Midlands, Ross Hawkes.
The Cultural Value of the Book in the Digital Age, Christian Moerken.
“All The Feels!”: Music, Affect and Critique in Fanmade Music Videos, Sebastian F. K. Svegaard.
The Role of New Interactive Technologies in Independent Film Distribution, Frank Mannion.
Methods of Making, Playing and Finding the Fun' – How Can Video game Design Work?, Zuby Ahmed.
Digital Media Cultures: Rhetorical Justifications and Situated Ethics in the Debate about Online Music Consumption, Andrew Chatora.
The Cultural Translation of Yoga Practices in the UK During the 20th Century, Simon Crisp.
Media Law, Freedom of Expression and of the Press: The Case of The Gambia, Sulayman Bah.
The Regulation of Online Broadcasting in Nigeria, Vincent Obia.
The impact of SVoD on traditional TV and film industries in the Ukraine, Kate Sivak.
Publications
Selected publications
2021
Journal special edition, ‘Golden Ages? Media, Space and Transnationality’ (co-edited with Professor Mariah Larsson and Professor Tommy Gustafsson), Porn Studies (forthcoming).
Journal article, The Watford Blue Movie Trial: Regulating ‘Rollers’ in 1970s Britain, Porn Studies (forthcoming).
2018
Journal article, Original Climax Films: Historicising the British Hardcore Pornography Film Business, Porn Studies.
Monograph, Making European Cult Cinema: Fan Enterprise in an Alternative Economy, Amsterdam University Press.
2017
Book chapter, ‘The Dragon Lives Again: Distributing ‘Bruceploitation’ via Home Entertainment’ (co-authored with Simon Barber) in Wroot, J and Willis, A (Eds.) Cult Media: Re-packaged, Re-released and Restored, Palgrave Macmillan.
Book chapter, ‘A Labour of Love: Fantrepreneurship in Home Video Media Distribution’, in Wroot, J and Willis, A (Eds) Watching Films at Home: Formats, Challenges and Practices in Distributing Domestic Media, Palgrave Macmillan.
2015
Book chapter, ‘“They’re not pirates, they’re archivists”: The role of fans as curators and archivists of popular culture heritage’ (co-authored with Jez Collins) in Baker, S (Ed.) Preserving Popular Music Heritage: Do-It-Yourself, Do-It-Together, Routledge.
2013
Book chapter, ‘Sound and Vision: Radio Documentary, Fandom and New Participatory Cultures’, (co-authored with Sam Coley) in Edgar, Fairclough-Isaacs, K. and Halligan, B. (Eds.) The Music Documentary, Routledge.
Book chapter, ‘Sharing All’Italiana. Riproduzione e distribuzione del genere I sui siti Torrent’ (English Title: Sharing All’Italiana - The Reproduction and Distribution of the giallo on Torrent File-Sharing Websites) in Braga, R. and Caruso, G. (Eds.) The Piracy Effect, Mimesis Cinergie.
Selected conferences (past five years)
2020
‘Practice Research: tensions, challenges and opportunities in doctoral education’ (co-presented with Dr Sian Vaughan), Vitae Researcher Development International Conference, Hilton Birmingham Metropole, 14-15 September.
2019
‘Your Choice: The Transnational Trade in Hardcore Pornography’, Sexual Cultures 3, University of Turku, Finland, 28-29 May.
‘Your Satisfaction Guaranteed: Distributing Hardcore Pornography from the Netherlands to Britain’, Society for Film and Media Studies, Seattle, 14-18 March.
2018
‘Tonight at Eight - The Politics of Performing in 8mm Rollers’, CineExcess, Birmingham City University, 8 - 9 November.
‘Pure Cheek: Making Ben Dover’, International Film Studies Spring School, University of Udine, Gorizia, Italy, 3 - 7 March.
2017
‘The Climax Story: Making 8mm Pornography in the 1960s’, International Film Studies Spring School, University of Udine, Gorizia, Italy, 28 March -1 April.
2016
‘Blurring the Boundaries: Fan Production in an Alternative Economy’, ECREA, Prague, 9-12 November.
‘Retro Bodies: The Rialto Report as Community Archive’, International Film Studies Spring School, University of Udine, Gorizia, Italy, 9-15 March.
2015
‘The Clones of Bruce Lee: The Political Economy of Bruceploitation’ (co-presented with Dr. Simon Barber), Martial Arts Studies, Cardiff University, 10 - 12 June.
‘Preserving All’Italiana: Fan Curation of Giallo Cinema’, The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh and the Giallo, Austrian Historical Institute and Sheffield Hallam University, Rome, Italy, 7-9 June.
‘A Labour of Love: Fantrepreneurship in Home Video Media Distribution’, Distributors, Discs and Disciples, University of Worcester, 23 May.
‘Makin’ Whoopee: Historicising the British Hardcore Pornography Film Industry’, Sexual Cultures 2, University of Sunderland (London Campus), 8-10 April.
‘Researching Vintage Porn: Topics, Issues, Objects and Methods’, (co-presented with Dr. John Mercer), International Film Studies Spring School, University of Udine, Gorizia, Italy, 20-24 March.
Invited speaker
2019
Danish Blue (introduction to the film), Danish Film Institute, Copenhagen, 12 June.
1969 and the End of Censorship in Denmark, Uncensored Festival, Hackney, London, 17-19 May.
‘House of Mirrors Researching the Watford Blue Movie Trial’, Pornography in the Pre-Digital Era: Distribution, Consumption, and the Law Symposium, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden, April, 24-25.
Selected media production
2019
Producer, That’s La Morté, film documentary, CineExcess Productions (awarded Best Documentary Feature at the Underground Indie Film Festival, Florida, 2019 and Best Educational Value Feature’ at the Helsinki Education Film Festival, Finland, October 2019).
Producer, Hardcore Guaranteed, film documentary, Rose Tinted Productions, Amazon Video.
2018
Researcher/Executive Producer, Sexposed, television documentary series (six episodes), Rose Tinted Media, Amazon Video (awarded UKAP Media Innovation award, 2018)
2011
Assistant Producer, 25, radio documentary series (10 episodes), Xfm. (awarded gold at the New York Radio Festival, 2012)
Media Work
2020
Interviewee, Meet the king of homemade porn — a banker’s son making millions, The Sunday Times, 26 July.
Interviewee, Coronavirus is bad news for Big Porn but great news for OnlyFans, Wired Magazine, May 4.
2019
TV interviewee, Neues von der Brexit insel, Arte TV, 8 July, Germany.
Interviewee, Da pornoen blev smuglet i bacon-containere [When porn was smuggled in bacon containers], Ekstra Bladet, 7 June, Denmark.
2017
Interviewee, How London beat The Deuce: meet the blue movie pioneers who sexed up Seventies Britain, Daily Telegraph, 26 September.