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Will Brooker is Professor at the School of Performance and Screen Studies at Kingston University, London. He is the author of, among others, Batman Unmasked: analysing a cultural icon (2001), Using the Force: creativity, community and Star Wars fans (2002), Alice's adventures: Lewis Carroll in popular culture (2004), and, more recently, Hunting the Dark Knight: Batman in Twenty-first Century Popular Culture (2012). He is also editor of Cinema Journal.Recently, his work has turned to a study of David Bowie as a cultural icon and figure, involving an "immersion method" that means, among others, living as David Bowie for a year. This ongoing study has already received media attention [1] [2] and is, indeed, all the more intriguing for scholars involved in studies of popular music. Some of the day-to-day advancement of this study can be followed on Will Brooker's Twitter account (@willbrooker).Interview by Nuné Nikoghosyan (December 2015)How did you decide to take on the academic path and become a researcher?It was the MA in Film and Television Studies at Westminster, which I took part-time, as evening and weekend classes, during 1994-1996, that really steered me into academia. Prior to that I had completed a degree at UEA in Film and English, but I'd gone on to make films at Goldsmiths College -- the same class as Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen.I taught part-time for two years and then continued to teach while studying the MA, and those two years out of full-time education made a lot of difference for me in terms of active engagement and pleasure in studying. I had specifically and personally chosen to take the MA (and paid for it myself), whereas my BA seemed more expected of me.I was fortunate and gained a scholarship to the new Tom Hopkinson Centre of Cultural Studies at Cardiff, where I was the first PhD student, under Roberta Pearson and John Hartley. And from there, my course was set.How did you become involved in studying culture, in particular? I think everything is culture and culture is everything, so it would be hard not to study culture if you are a scholar of any kind.In terms of popular culture in particular, I studied Film at UEA, and I think cinema is inherently popular: as of course is most television. I read Victor Perkins' book Film as Film when I was 16, and at school, and I think it opened my eyes to the idea that popular culture could be taken seriously and analysed. I hadn't even seen the films he was discussing but I could visualise them, and I even storyboarded Marnie from his description alone!Even more specifically, UEA offered one senior year class called Critiques of Culture, which was probably my first introduction to the cultural studies of the late 1960s to the late 1980s -- Dick Hebdige, John Fiske, Angela McRobbie and the other key scholars of that period. I am sure that Roland Barthes' Mythologies and Richard Hoggart's The Uses of Literacy were very important influences on me.You are currently running a year-long research experiment attempting to live like David Bowie. Can you tell us a little on how you go about the immersion method? At the most fundamental level, I have playlists, reading lists and film lists for each period of Bowie's life and career, so I can immerse myself in the popular culture that he experienced during that time. Sometimes television is also a part of this process (Fawlty Towers, Derek and Clive for instance). All of my information in this respect is drawn from an ongoing study of Bowie biographies and existing literature, and I am constantly reading and taking notes on books about Bowie's life and career.On a physical level, I change my appearance with each period of Bowie's life, in terms of hair, make-up, wardrobe and to some extent, physical build, diet and lifestyle, and reflect upon how this changes my experiences and relationship with myself, with the world and with other people.In terms of experiential geography, I visit as many key locations as I can from each period -- where Bowie lived, recorded and worked -- in order to gain some sense of the space, surroundings and environment.On a performative level, I try to connect with, recreate and celebrate key events and 'happenings' in Bowie's life, such as his own immersion in occult and Nazi texts in the mid-70s, his video shoot on Hastings Beach for 'Ashes to Ashes', his press appearance at Claridges in London, his hotel and bar haunts in Berlin, his car journeys in California, his performance as Andy Warhol, and of course his creative work in painting, video and music, both live and recorded.Throughout my research, I have been keeping a master document of notes, made up of uncensored observations -- very rough, very loose -- which is building into what I think of as a record of my conscious and unconscious findings from the process. It is inevitably a relatively unstructured document, though it is evolving over time. I think it will provide me with a useful body of thoughts that I would not otherwise have had: it even includes dreams.My goal with the more performative and immersive aspect of the research was simply to see if it gave me another dimension of understanding. There is another level of entirely traditional research accompanying it; I am doing what I would normally do when writing a book, plus this more unusual approach. If it results in nothing useful, I still have the solid basis of traditional research. But I think it will offer something unique and useful.[caption id="attachment_251" align="aligncenter" width="500"] "Can you imagine having a lecturer that styles himself as Bowie?" (@DoubleJRadio about @willbrooker / Twitter)[/caption]Building on that, how has the immersion method come along so far in terms of pertinence or applicability? Has it added elements that other research methods stood short of? It is hard to say for sure at this stage, when I haven't yet begun writing the book or composing my research into a more structured form. But I think it has given me further insights into, for instance, the reasons behind Bowie's creative and geographical shifts during the 1970s, and his creative drift or decline during the 1980s. Although my project revisits his life and experience on a small and condensed scale, it has also often been intense, and I think I've gained some perspective into what it would feel like to be at particular points of his career, and why he might have responded in the way he did. Adopting a persona for a long term project like this certainly helps you to understand how and why Bowie might have done so, and how it shapes your interactions with the world.In your opinion, how would David Bowie react in finding out more about your study and immersion method? (Or maybe he already has?)I imagine he is probably aware of it on some level, since it became international news. I wouldn't think it is more than a curious blip on his cultural radar -- a project that might provoke some mild amusement, interest or annoyance for him.Do you get any (unusual) comments when you go outside dressed as David Bowie? I am quite frequently recognised as the person doing a project on David Bowie -- or more generically, people assume I am a Bowie impersonator, or tribute.  So people sometimes approach me about my research and the media interest, or simply address me as 'Bowie'. It is very friendly and never hostile. I think there is a great deal of love for Bowie in the world and people enjoy my embodiment of his styles.Speaking of tributes... Can we say that your research is, in some ways, a tribute to David Bowie? Yes, I think it is certainly a tribute. A critical tribute, but not in the everyday sense of criticism (meaning negative) -- a tribute based on close study and consideration. It is a celebration of Bowie through scholarship, in some ways.Has this experiment taught you something on a more personal level, besides the study itself? Yes, I think it has taught me a great deal. Sometimes I wonder if I am learning as much about myself as I am about David Bowie. Sometimes I wonder if there is a difference. 'Bowie' sometimes seems like a construct, a frame through which we can learn about ourselves and the world -- a way of seeing, a means to understanding, a method.I wouldn't want to interrupt the process by asking too deeply what I have learned about myself, as that would seem like stepping out of it. But I am going to engage in various forms of therapy halfway through and record the results.What other ongoing or future projects could you somewhat tell us about? It is hard to see a future project when you are in the middle of such an all-encompassing one. I am still working on Cinema Journal, which I edit; My So-Called Secret Identity, the comic I write and produce; my teaching and PhD supervision, and various other lectures and media work. I've recently had an article on Alice in Wonderland accepted for publication, which to me is a closure to my Alice/Carroll research, and I am still asked regularly about Star Wars in the context of the new sequel trilogy.But the main focus is of course, my Bowie project. I have some plans for subsequent projects, but they are very different.Image source: http://www.kingston.ac.uk/news/findanexpert/profile/48/will-brooker/ 