
Associate Professor Dan Golding
PhD (Screen Studies), The University of Melbourne, Australia; Bachelor of Arts (Hons), The University of Melbourne, Australia
- School of Social Sciences, Media, Film and Education
- Centre for Transformative Media Technologies
- Department of Media and Communication
- AS419 Hawthorn campus
- ORCID profile
Biography
I am Associate Professor and Deputy Chair of the Department of Media and Communications at Swinburne University of Technology. As a researcher and teacher, I am interested in the intersection of technology and media, including history, cinema, videogames, and digital music. Here at Swinburne I teach third year Cinema and Screen units, and previously spent many years running our first year Introduction to Media Studies unit. I am the author of Star Wars After Lucas (2019), a monograph published by the University of Minnesota Press, which traces the development of the Star Wars franchise under Disney.
I have also won awards for both my journalism and my composing, and I created the soundtrack for the BAFTA, DICE, and GDCA winning Untitled Goose Game (2019). The soundtrack album, the first ever from a videogame to be nominated for an ARIA award, is out on Decca Records and on vinyl through iam8bit. I created Swinburne's next_gen now audio brand which you'll hear in all video advertising, and in 2022, I composed the theme music for the ABC's flagship podcast, ABC News Daily.
I have a special interest in film music, and I am the host of ABC Classic's weekly 'Screen Sounds' program, which is broadcast nationally on FM and digital radio. I have also hosted a number of events for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, including one of their 2022 Sidney Myer Music Bowl concerts. I also co-host a podcast about film music called Art of the Score. I make popular video essays about film and music - my YouTube channel has achieved more than one million views, and in 2018, I co-presented the 15-part miniseries What Is Music for ABC iView and Triple J with Linda Marigliano.
As a journalist, I have had over 200 publications in a wide range of venues, from ABC Arts, The Guardian, The Australian, Meanjin, The Walkley Magazine, Screen Education, Buzzfeed, Kill Your Darlings, to Metro Magazine (where I'm currently a contributing editor). My journalism for Crikey saw me awarded the 'Best Games Journalist' award at the 11th Annual Australian IT Journalism 'Lizzie' awards. I also wrote, presented, and edited the audio documentary series 'A Short History of Video Games' which was broadcast on ABC Radio National. I was also the Director of the Freeplay Independent Games Festival, Australia's longest-running independent games festival, from 2014-2017, and I'm now on the organisation's board.
In 2016 I co-authored my first book, Game Changers: From Minecraft to Misogyny, the Fight for the Future of Videogames for Affirm Press with Leena van Deventer. I have published academic work on special effects, VR, videogames, and blockbuster cinema in journals like Convergence, TEXT, Senses of Cinema, and Continuum.
You can find further information and links to my broadcasting, video essays, podcasts, soundtracks, and books, at dangolding.com
Research interests
Arts and Culture; Media; Video Games
PhD candidate and honours supervision
Higher degrees by research
Accredited to supervise Masters & Doctoral students as Principal Supervisor.
Honours
Available to supervise honours students.
Fields of Research
- Computer Gaming And Animation - 360502
- Cinema Studies - 360501
- Media Studies - 470107
Teaching areas
Communication, Journalism and Media Studies;Cultural Studies and Literature;Digital Media, Film and Television;Games
Awards
- 2020, International, Excellence in Audio - Nominated - Untitled Goose Game, Independent Games Festival (IGF)
- 2020, National, Best Original Soundtrack or Musical Theatre Cast Album (Nominee), ARIA Awards
- 2020, International, Best Audio - Nominated - Untitled Goose Game, Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA)
- 2020, International, Audio Achievement - Nominated - Untitled Goose Game, BAFTA
- 2019, National, Best Videogame Soundtrack, APRA AMCOS
- 2013, Other, Excellence in Sessional Teaching, School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne
- 2013, National, Best Games Journalist, 11th Annual Australian IT Awards ('Lizzies')
Publications
Also published as: Golding, Dan; Golding, D.; Golding, Daniel
This publication listing is provided by Swinburne Research Bank. If you are the owner of this profile, you can update your publications using our online form.
Recent research grants awarded
- 2020: Improve Your Play *; Office of the eSafety Commissioner
* Chief Investigator
Recent media
- 2022-02-09: John Williams's most famous movie themes explained - ABC Classic
- 2022-02-08: What's your fave John Williams piece? - Double J (Arvos)
- 2022-02-04: Legendary composer John Williams turns 90 - Radio National (Breakfast)
- 2021-05-10: Why does ‘Duel of the Fates’ from Star Wars Episode I hit so hard? - Triple J
- 2021-02-27: Dan Golding - The Saturday Paper
- 2020-12-21: Game Changer - Limelight Magazine
- 2019-06-11: Video games and architecture: The surprising connection between the two - Domain
- 2018-08-30: What makes a great film score? - Radio National
- 2017-06-15: The modern faces of gaming on Life Matters - Radio National
- 2017-05-04: Remembering Star Wars - ACMI
- 2017-04-10: Game Changers: From Minecraft to Misogyny - Right Now: Human Rights in Australia
- 2017-02-02: How Hans Zimmer changed film music forever - ACMI
- 2017-02-01: Goodbye 'Good Game:' the Only Video Game Show Ever Worth Watching - VICE Australia
- 2016-12-05: Why we should no longer consider Last Tango in Paris ‘a classic - The Conversation
- 2016-10-30: What was your favourite electronic game? - ABC - Rhianna Patrick
- 2016-10-26: Red Dead Redemption 2 Needs Kick-Ass Women To Be A True Western - Kotaku AU
- 2016-10-25: Are film scores the symphonic masterpieces of our time? - ABC Radio National (Drive)
- 2016-09-19: Dan Golding's brilliant response to the Marvel soundtrack originality debate - Boing Boing
- 2016-09-17: Why Is the Music in Marvel Movies So Forgettable? - Mental Floss
- 2016-09-16: A Theory of Film Music - Kotaku