Steve Thompson

Steve Thompson is a Musician, Composer, Multi Media Artist, Technologist, Educator and Academic. Through his work at Teesside University he is recognised in the UK as a leading figure in the world of community engagement through Community Media and ICT. Steve has been described by "Future Democracy" as “one of Europe's most original thinkers on community engagement using new technologies”.

Steve began his working life as a Steelworker at Consett Steel Works and then moved to the music industry.

He has written songs for many international recording artistes such as Sheena Easton, Celine Dion, Elaine Page, Sara Brightman, and Elkie Brooks. Steve has enjoyed hit status with both album tracks and singles and his hit singles include the top 20 ballad, Hurry Home (Wavelength), Acid House dance track, Chiki Chiki Ah Ah (Baby Ford), I Don't Want To Be The One (The Searchers), and Paris By Air (The Tygers Of Pan Tang). His production work was largely in the NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) era, producing bands like, The Tygers of Pan Tang, Venom, and Raven.  Your can read more about this and check out audio samples on Steve's site

Steve's music industry specific Bio can be seen here.

His recent musical exploits include two musicals in collaboration with playwright and poet Tom Kelly: Steel Town and Songs of Love Work and War. He also  collaborated with Tom and photographer Peter Dixon on a multi media touring exhibition called Voices.   Continuing his experimental work with poets there are two projects in the pipeline: Down To The River with Tom Kelly and The Works with Maureen Almond.

Steve Thompson often incorporates the Arts into his work with communities. A classic example of this is the OCTORAMA a 14 meter arts installation consisting of 8 screens driven by an 8 output sound card. Click here for content from an early iteration or here for a case study from a more recent exhibition.

In recent years, he  has managed a community radio station (Wolf FM) , taught BTEC Music Composition and BTEC Music Technology and now develops and teaches Community and Social Media for the University of Teesside.

Steve has formed a Virtual Theatre group known as the Straad Players and this has led to many transnational collaborations to create Virtual Film & Theatre also known as Machinima. One of the most notable productions has been the Skinningrove Jetty project which has created a great deal of interest as well as several conference papers. The lastest Movie from the Straad Players was produced in partnership with The Police, Community and  Schools - The Force is With You

Steve is involved in research communities such as the PRADSA group (Practical Design for Social Action) and SUS-IT which is a consortium of Universities investigating the “New Dynamics of Aging”. He is also working with several UK Universities on three AHRC funded research projects within the Connected Communities and Cultural Economy Thematic. He is a founder member of the international Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN).

Steve is currently working with diverse groups to achieve digital inclusion through community media. These groups, combining a variety of ages and ethnicities, come collectively under the title of Tees Valley Community Media – www.tvcm.co.uk. He recently delivered a UFI-funded ICT project, Social Inclusion Demonstrators (SID). The Teesside SID project was one of 20 Social Impact Demonstrators throughout England set up to explore the links between social and digital exclusion, and how ICT and the skills to use it can benefit individuals, families, communities and society itself.

He has facilitated a Big Lottery funded research project “The Digital Village Network” which which investigated a concept developed by Steve, The Digital Village

 “A Digital Village is a space where a community expresses their identity though ICT and Digital Media. This may be from an artistic, heritage, or economic perspective or a mixture of all three. This can be done through poetry, digital stories, community newspapers online, image collections (old and new), audio (Internet radio, oral history), animations, video, and text. To engage in the activities the participants need to learn new skills and so the Digital Village also becomes a learning community”

Some examples: Loftus -|- Skinningrove -|- Stockton -|- Margrove Park -|- Carlin How -|- Moorsholm -|- Saltburn

Steve also develops and designs ICT solutions for community groups wishing to engage in community media and is an advocate for the social development and sustainability that open source software affords. He has collaborated with and advised many national organisations including NIACE, BECTA and Futurelab and has given keynote addresses at the The Community Media Association, Futurelab, Nesta and Becta Annual Conferences.

He also takes on occasional consultancy roles and is  currently a consultant to engaged as a consultant to a consortium of six Universities led by the University of Loughbrough working on a research program on the New Dynamics of Ageing funded by 5 of the UK research councils. Steve is also a consultant to Eden Council on a Youth (Media) Engagement project Eden Media.

Steves research interests include open source and web 2.00 software for community and social media as well as cross platform free tools for music and audio.

• External validator for the University of Brighton’s PHD in Creative Media
• External industry professional for Cleveland College of Art and Design's Moving Image Diploma
• School Governor for Whitecliffe Primary
• Director of Tees Music Alliance (NE England)
• Director of the Community Media Association (National UK)
• Trustee of East Cleveland Community Development Group.
• Member of Middlesbrough Mela Management Committee

+44(0)7795 826953