I am a film critic and culture writer focusing on contemporary cinema, video games, internet culture,and cultural representations of irony and sincerity. I write regularly for various publications and speak regularly at conferences and other events. As a film critic, I have reviewed films from a range of film festivals including BFI London Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival, Fantasia International Film Festival, and BFI Flare LGBTIQ+ Film Festival. I have also appeared as a contributing film critic on the film review podcast and radio show, Cinetopia.
I have a Master’s degree in Cultural and Critical Studies from Birkbeck, University of London and wrote my dissertation on New Sincerity in contemporary indie video games with reference to David Lynch’s work in film and TV and Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg.
I am also a podcaster and collect photos of street art, graffiti, and outdoor sculpture.
writing
A full list of my cultural studies writing can be found on Zotero. My film reviews can be found on TAKE ONE‘s website. Older reviews and other writings on culture are available on Medium.
My fiction has been published in various literary publications and in New Scientist as the winner of their 2009 flash fiction competition.
If you’d like to discuss a commission, please get in touch.
books
Bowie, S., 2021, The Fire in Which We Burn: Time and Trauma in Contemporary Television, Beir Bua Press: County Tipperary, 2021 <https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/simon-bowie-and-michelle-moloney-king-and-beir-bua-press/the-fire-in-which-we-burn-time-and-trauma-in-contemporary-television/paperback/product-vn6q6n.html>
essays and articles
Bowie, S., 2021. ‘Posthumanism in Outer Wilds‘, Press Start, 7 (1), pp. 45–65, doi:10.17613/d4rs-rx03 <https://press-start.gla.ac.uk/index.php/press-start/article/view/203>
Bowie, S., 2021, ‘Hitman & Murder Mysteries’, JumpCut PLAY, 20 January 2021 <https://play.jumpcutonline.co.uk/2021/01/20/hitman-murder-mysteries/>
Bowie, S., 2020, New Sincerity, the Weird, and the post-ironic turn in contemporary indie video games. MA dissertation. Birkbeck, University of London. doi:10.17613/5SJE-W447 <https://doi.org/10.17613/5SJE-W447>
Bowie, S., 2020, ‘Grey Matters: Black and White Re-releases’, TAKE ONE, 31 July 2020 <http://takeonecinema.net/2020/grey-matters-black-and-white-re-releases/>
Bowie, S., 2020, ‘Black trauma and the representation of time in Watchmen‘, Medium, 22 June 2020 <https://medium.com/@SimonXIX/assessed-essay-black-trauma-and-the-representation-of-time-in-watchmen-306aa6e373fa>
Bowie, S., 2019, ‘representing trauma in magical realist cinema’, Medium, 30 May 2019 <https://medium.com/@SimonXIX/magical-realism-essay-954e1cf7c205>
Bowie, S., 2019, ‘Rancière, critique, and irony’, Medium, 1 March 2019 <https://medium.com/@SimonXIX/assessed-essay-ranci%C3%A8re-critique-and-irony-7e85ebf7fa9b>
Bowie, S., 2019, ‘the misattribution of David Lynch and the categorisation of the weird’, Medium, 18 January 2019 <https://medium.com/@SimonXIX/the-misattribution-of-david-lynch-and-the-categorisation-of-the-weird-a13f0149bdda>
Barron, S., 2011, ‘The Man Who Described the Universe’, The British Wittgenstein Society.
Barron, S., 2010, ‘The magic of fantasy: the traditional, the original and the wonderful’, Mallorn: The Journal of the Tolkien Society, 50 (Autumn 2010), pp. 31–34 <https://www.jstor.org/stable/48614719>
selected film reviews
Bowie, S., 2022, ‘Hommage’, TAKE ONE, 12th March 2022 <https://takeonecinema.net/2022/hommage/>
Bowie, S., 2022, ‘Vortex’, TAKE ONE, 7th March 2022 <https://takeonecinema.net/2022/vortex/>
Bowie, S., 2022, ‘A Banquet’, TAKE ONE, 7th March 2022 <https://takeonecinema.net/2022/a-banquet/>
Bowie, S., 2021, ‘Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched’, TAKE ONE, 7th September 2021 <https://takeonecinema.net/2021/woodlands-dark-and-days-bewitched/>
Bowie, S., 2021, ‘Alien on Stage’, TAKE ONE, 7th September 2021 <https://takeonecinema.net/2021/alien-on-stage/>
Bowie, S., 2020, ‘Possessor’, TAKE ONE, 24th October 2020 <http://takeonecinema.net/2020/possessor/>
Bowie, S., 2020, ‘Relic’, TAKE ONE, 9th October 2020 <http://takeonecinema.net/2020/relic/>
Bowie, S., 2020, ‘What Did Jack Do?’, TAKE ONE, 23rd January 2020 <http://takeonecinema.net/2020/what-did-jack-do/>
Bowie, S., 2019, ‘Monos’, TAKE ONE, 11th October 2019 <http://takeonecinema.net/2019/monos/>
Bowie, S., 2019, ‘The Farewell’, TAKE ONE, 4th October 2019 <http://takeonecinema.net/2019/the-farewell/>
Bowie, S., 2019, ‘Bait (2019)’, Medium, 10th September 2019 <https://medium.com/@SimonXIX/bait-2019-2cbf72857ee3>
poetry
Bowie, S., 2022, ‘auto-invitation’, the6ress, issue 3 <https://the6ress.com/invitation/>
fiction
‘Foreword to Volume 421’ in Perigee: Publication for the Arts, no. 28.
‘Eduard Aster and the Möbius Play’ in blankpages, no. 21.
‘Last Orders’ in First Edition Magazine, no. 10.
‘Body Search’ in New Scientist 2739 – winner of the New Scientist flash fiction competition judged by Stephen Baxter.
speaking
I speak regularly at conferences and academic events about film, video games, internet culture, and Twin Peaks. If you’d like to request a speaking engagement, please get in touch.
presentations
Bowie, S., 2022, ‘Only Time: time and trauma in Yellowjackets‘, paper presented at No Return: A Yellowjackets Symposium organised by British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) Horror Studies SIG, 18 June 2022, <https://youtu.be/jYMqUWA61Ms?t=855>
Bowie, S., 2021, ‘Under the sycamore trees’: irony and sincerity in Twin Peaks Episode 29′, paper presented to Beyond Life and Death: Twin Peaks at Thirty conference, 31 July 2021.
Bowie, S., 2021, ‘time and the nuclear in Twin Peaks: The Return‘, paper presented to ‘It Is In Our House Now!’: Twin Peaks: The Return First Online Conference, 19–20 June 2021, <https://youtu.be/L_Cqo0JHiYc?t=5160>
Bowie, S., 2019, ‘a brief examination of Bowsette: memes and fandom under late capitalism’, paper presented to Fantastic! Conference 2019, Sheffield, UK, 25–26 April 2019, <https://medium.com/@SimonXIX/bowsette-anti-capitalist-icon-1c988a5c51ed>
podcasting
I have appeared as a contributing film critic on the film review podcast and radio show, Cinetopia. The Cinetopia podcast reviews the latest UK cinema releases (slanted towards arthouse cinema), and interviews with film professionals. Cinetopia is a organisation aiming to make film and filmmaking more approachable and diverse within Edinburgh and beyond.
With my partner, Helen Sulis Bowie, I co-hosted the popular comedy podcast, You Are Being Unreasonable, in which we examined the strange culture of Mumsnet’s Am I Being Unreasonable forum. The archive of You Are Being Unreasonable is available on a wide variety of podcast platforms including Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. In 2018, the Anchor team named us one of their favourite podcasts of the year.
For a taste of the podcast, please enjoy our sampler episode on our YouTube channel:
performance art
I was a producer for Helen Sulis Bowie‘s interactive solo show, Smashing It! Smashing It! was an interactive gameshow about navigating life under capitalist patriarchy and was performed at Word of Warning’s Emergency 2019 festival in Manchester, the Clapham Fringe in London, and at the Vagina Museum in London.
photography
I regularly take photos of street art, graffiti, and outdoor sculpture from around the world. These photographs are available (licensed as CC-BY) at https://www.flickr.com/photos/simonxix/sets/72157696729508951