Andrew Burn (professor)
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Andrew Burn (born 1954) is an
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
professor and media theorist. He is best known for his work in the fields of media arts education, multimodality and play, and for the development of the theory of the
Kineikonic Mode The kineikonic mode is a term for the moving image as a multimodal form. It indicates an approach to the analysis of film, video, television and any instance of moving image media that examines how systems of signification such as image, speech, dr ...
. He is a professor of English, Drama and Media at the UCL Institute of Education. Burn was also the director o
ReMAP
a research collaboration with the
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
.


Early life and education

Burn was born in Shifnal,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. His family lived in
Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...
, before moving to Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...
in
Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
, where his father was Dean of All Saints' Cathedral. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, and went on to study English at
St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pro ...
, winning the Eugene Lee-Hamilton prize for the best Petrarchan sonnet in Oxford and Cambridge in 1975.


Career

Burn's teaching career started as a secondary school teacher, working for over twenty years in
Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there ...
,
St. Neots St NeotsPronunciation of the town name: Most commonly, but variations that ''saint'' is said as in most English non-georeferencing speech, the ''t'' is by a small minority of the British pronounced and higher traces of in the final syllable ...
and
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
. He served as a member of the Labour Party's ruling administration of Cambridge City council between 1982 and 1987, representing the King's Hedges ward. He contributed to the peace initiative to twin the city of Cambridge with Szeged,
Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
. During the specialization of
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
secondary schools in the late 1990s, Burn played a key role in ensuring his school,
Parkside Community College Parkside Community College is a secondary academy school with 600 places for children aged 11–16, situated in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire. It is part of the United Learning Cambridge Cluster, along with Parkside Sixth, Coleridge Community Colleg ...
, became the UK's first specialist media arts college. The work lasted roughly a decade, with the college focusing on
film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
,
animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...
and video games. It is described in the book Burn co-authored with James Durran regarding
media literacy Media literacy is an expanded conceptualization of literacy that includes the ability to access and analyze media messages as well as create, reflect and take action, using the power of information and communication to make a difference in the w ...
in schools, which was published in 2007 by
SAGE Sage or SAGE may refer to: Plants * ''Salvia officinalis'', common sage, a small evergreen subshrub used as a culinary herb ** Lamiaceae, a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint or deadnettle or sage family ** ''Salvia'', a large ...
. The book represents key aspects of Burn's theory and research, in particular how media education can foster cultural, critical and creative work by young people, especially in their production of their own films, animations and videogames, cultural forms which occupy a large part of Burn's research work. After working in secondary education, Burn moved into Higher Education, after studying for a
Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
degree in Cultural Studies and a PhD in film semiotics at the UCL Institute of Education. His doctoral supervisor was
Gunther Kress Gunther Rolf Kress MBE (26 November 1940 – 20 June 2019) was a linguist and semiotician. He is considered one of the leading theorists in critical discourse analysis, social semiotics and multimodality, particularly in relation to their educat ...
. He was appointed lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at the IOE in 2001, becoming a Reader in 2007, and Professor in 2009. He is Professor of English, Media and Drama, based at the UCL Knowledge Lab. He is the first professor of media at UCL, initiating an expansion of postgraduate programmmes in media studies and UCL’s first undergraduate degree in media. He has been a visiting professor at the
University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
and the University of Agder. In 2003, Burn was the first person to establish and coin the term,
Kineikonic Mode The kineikonic mode is a term for the moving image as a multimodal form. It indicates an approach to the analysis of film, video, television and any instance of moving image media that examines how systems of signification such as image, speech, dr ...
. The work was based in multimodality theory, studying the overall function of various modes in film, animation and video game. The
Kineikonic Mode The kineikonic mode is a term for the moving image as a multimodal form. It indicates an approach to the analysis of film, video, television and any instance of moving image media that examines how systems of signification such as image, speech, dr ...
is also related to
film theory Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for und ...
, but argues for integration of analysis across filming, editing, dramatic action, language, music and other modes. It has since been expanded to analyse time and space in young people's media productions, and how these express aspects of identity. Burn is also director of MAGiCAL Projects, an enterprise for developing and marketing game-based tools for education and leisure. Missionmaker is one example, enabling games to be created by young people to learn about game culture and design.


Media Arts and Play Research

In 2012, Burn became a founding member and co-director of a collaborative research initiative between the UCL Institute of Education and the
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
. Th
DARE collaborative
(Digital, Arts, Research, Education) was created as a research partnership focused on digital media, the media arts, and arts education. It aims to promote conversations between researchers, educators, cultural institutions and media arts practitioners. It was rename
ReMAP (Research in Media Arts and Play)
in 2021, reflecting the wider range of interests across the general field of media arts among its growing membership. Projects conducted by Burn for DARE include a European study of film education with the
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
; Playing Shakespeare, which developed the Missionmaker videogame-authoring tool for Macbeth with Shakespeare's Globe; Playing Beowulf, which developed a similar tool for the Anglo-Saxon epic
Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...
with the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
; and Playing Macbeth, developing the Missionmaker tool once again in partnership with the British Library. These last three, which all explore the relationship between literature and videogames, are described in Burn's 2021 monograph, Literature, Videogames and Learning. Burn has also led a major project with the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
, the
University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...
, and the
University of East London , mottoeng = Knowledge and the fulfilment of vows , established = 1898 – West Ham Technical Institute1952 – West Ham College of Technology1970 – North East London Polytechnic1989 – Polytechnic of East London ...
, to create a digital archive of research on playground games and their relation to children's media cultures.Burn, A and Richards, C (ed) (2014) Children's games in the new media age: Childlore, Media and the Playground. Farnham: Ashgate This archive, at the British Library, includes the sound collection of
Iona and Peter Opie Iona Margaret Balfour Opie, (13 October 1923 – 23 October 2017) and Peter Mason Opie (25 November 1918 – 5 February 1982) were an English married team of folklorists who applied modern techniques to understanding children's literature and ...
, making it a repository of international importance. Burn and his colleagues were awarded the 2016 Opie Prize of the
American Folklore Society The American Folklore Society (AFS) is the US-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada, and around the world, which aims to encourage research, aid in disseminating that research, promote the responsible ...
for the book of the project. A successor project, also led by Burn, again with colleagues at the University of Sheffield, has digitised th
Opie manuscript archive
at the
Bodleian Libraries The Bodleian Libraries are a collection of 28 libraries that serve the University of Oxford in England, including the Bodleian Library itself, as well as many other (but not all) central and faculty libraries. As of the 2016–17 year, the librari ...
.


Kineikonic Mode

The Kineikonic Mode was developed from the idea of multimodality, a theory of the way in which different forms of communication work together. The rise in technology during the 20th century meant that many historic modes were revisited in the context of digital cultures and production practices. The study of the moving image, an important cultural form in modern society, is addressed by the
Kineikonic Mode The kineikonic mode is a term for the moving image as a multimodal form. It indicates an approach to the analysis of film, video, television and any instance of moving image media that examines how systems of signification such as image, speech, dr ...
. Burn established the theory of the
Kineikonic Mode The kineikonic mode is a term for the moving image as a multimodal form. It indicates an approach to the analysis of film, video, television and any instance of moving image media that examines how systems of signification such as image, speech, dr ...
in 2003 with David Parker. It was proposed as a general theory of film semiotics, but has often been used to explore the way that informal digital video production can construct, represent or dramatize the identities of young filmmakers. The term adapts two Greek words which signify "moving image". It provides a way to study how modes such as speech, music, dramatic action are orchestrated by the grammars of filming and editing to create meaning for makers and viewers. The theory can be applied to a number of cultural forms, including film, video,
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
and
animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...
. The concept of "mode" is derived from multimodal theory. By studying each mode individually and together, analysts can understand how the meaning of a text is constructed.


Personal life

Burn is an accomplished musician, playing melodeon and Northumbrian smallpipes with traditional folk ban
Camus
and composing tunes and songs in their repertoire. These include prizewinning tunes at the Rothbury Traditional Music Festival and the
Northumbrian Pipers Society The Northumbrian Pipers' Society was founded to promote both types of Northumbrian bagpipes – the Northumbrian smallpipes and the half-long pipes, now generally known as the Border pipes. There had been several attempts to encourage the pipes a ...
annual competitions.


Bibliography

* Analysing Media Texts, with David Parker (Bloomsbury, 2003) * Computer Games: Text, Narrative, Play, with Diane Carr, David Buckingham and Gareth Schott (Polity, 2006) * Media Literacy in Schools, with James Durran (Sage, 2007) * Media Teaching: Language, Audience and Production (2008) * Making New Media (Peter Lang, 2009) * Children, Media and Playground Cultures, with Rebekah Willett, Jackie Marsh, Chris Richards, and Julia Bishop (Palgrave, 2013) * Children's Games in the New Media Age, edited with Chris Richards (Routledge, 2014) * Literature, Videogames and Learning (Routledge, 2021)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burn, Andrew 1954 births Living people Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Academics of University College London People from Shifnal