[Commlist] CFP:Special Issue of Interactions Journal: ‘Dream Factories: Prince, Sign O’ The Times, Box Sets & Cultural Artefacts.’

Call For Paper: Special Issue of the Intellect Journal Interactions: 
Studies in Communication and Culture: ‘Dream Factories: Prince, Sign O’ 
The Times, Box Sets & Cultural Artefacts.’

Deadline for abstracts: Friday 28 May 2021. Deadline for final 
submission: Friday 8 October, 2021.

The guest editors – Dr Kirsty Fairclough (Manchester Metropolitan 
University) and Prof. Mike Alleyne (Middle Tennessee State University) – 
are seeking abstracts for papers that examine the expansive super deluxe 
Sign O’ The Times 2020 box set.

The essays will explore its multiple levels of musical and cultural 
significance, while critiquing the value of its presence as a commercial 
artefact and a signifier of Prince’s creative legacy in the context of 
previous posthumous deluxe edition reissues. Following Prince’s death in 
2016, his estate embarked on a series of reissued albums and new 
compilations, inclusive of previously unreleased material. In its 
original form in 1987, Sign O’ The Times became one of Prince’s most 
critically acclaimed records while also being his second double album 
and a major commercial success. In this special journal issue, the 2020 
box set with eight discs of music and a live DVD provides multiple 
opportunities for critical reassessment of both the album and its 
posthumous inclusion of rare and/or previously unreleased items.

This issue will explore the ways in which the box set has become part of 
a parallel Prince career which allows fans and critics to reassess his 
output and provides a new lens through which to understand the album as 
cultural artefact. With this central focus, the specific analytical 
angles will be left to the individual contributors, defining what they 
perceive as the key characteristics of this deluxe edition compilation 
and its comparative relationships to earlier catalogue reissues.

Such discussion will primarily incorporate the following:

• The extent to which the 2020 deluxe Sign O’ The Times box expands 
and/or enhances our understanding of Prince’s creative process and 
compositional evolution.

• The relationship of the release to the estate’s ongoing reissue series.

• The resonance of the album’s musical, cultural and other artistic 
statements several decades later.

• The explicitly commercial transaction integrated into the sale and 
marketing of previously released or unreleased material.

While authors may theorise across the range of the full range of 
official posthumous Prince album releases since 2016, each essay must 
provide comparison and contrast with the Sign O’ The Times album 
collection as the analytical axis of the project.

The scope of these releases facilitates discussion of compilations, live 
performances, demos, and customised recordings not originally intended 
for general commercial issue. To varying degrees, the deluxe Sign O’ The 
Times boxed set also contains all of these elements and serves as an 
ideal fulcrum for critical evaluation of the overall existing body of 
Prince reissues.

Contributor analysis may also consider the status of Prince albums not 
yet included in the reissue series, contemplating artistic, cultural and 
commercial matters potentially surrounding their absence to date.

We welcome contributions from academics, practitioners and 
practice-based researchers. Joint proposals and proposals from emerging 
scholars are encouraged. The maximum article length is 6,000 words.

This journal edition is scheduled for publication in late February 2022.

In the first instance, abstracts of 250 words with a 100-word biography 
should be sent to Dr Kirsty Fairclough at Manchester Metropolitan 
University, (K.Fairclough /at/ mmu.ac.uk) and Prof. Mike Alleyne at Middle 
Tennessee State University, (mike.alleyne /at/ mtsu.edu) no later than Friday 
28 May 2021.
Potential contributors will be contacted by Friday 18 June 2021 and are 
required to submit the first version of their completed contributions, 
in full, by Friday 8 October, 2021.

The guest editors of the special issue may be contacted for further 
information as follows: Dr Kirsty Fairclough: (K.Fairclough /at/ mmu.ac.uk) 
Prof. Mike Alleyne: (mike.alleyne /at/ mtsu.edu)

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