Late Bowie: Legacy, Mortality and the Archival Impulse
- 5 November 2026 - 6 November 2026
Join us for this two-day conference examining David Bowie’s late work, legacy, and continuing cultural impact.
About the conference
David Bowie’s late period is one of the most compelling and enigmatic phases of a career defined by sustained artistic reinvention. In his final years Bowie made a body of work that revisited and reconfigured his earlier personas while offering a carefully managed meditation on legacy, authorship, and mortality. Ten years after his death, and with the David Bowie Centre newly opened at V&A East Storehouse, this two-day conference brings together scholars, archivists, and creative practitioners to examine Bowie’s late work and its afterlives: the music, the self-curation of persona and image, his collaborations, his death, and the posthumous reshaping of his legacy in contemporary culture.
The conference is hosted by the Visconti Studio, Kingston University’s recording studio co-founded with Bowie’s long-time producer Tony Visconti, which marks its tenth anniversary in 2026. Keynotes come from Harriet Reed, Project Lead for the David Bowie Archive, V&A East Storehouse, and Jonathan Barnbrook, the graphic designer behind the artwork for Bowie’s final albums. The programme also includes a V&A Bowie archive workshop, a screening of Mark Jenkin’s film David Bowie Is Dead (2018), and a reading and discussion with Peter Carpenter, author of Bowieland and film and television producer, Kevin Loader.
We welcome researchers, students, and creative practitioners working across music, film, literature, design, cultural studies, and archive studies, as well as members of the public with an interest in Bowie’s later work and his continuing legacy.
Keynote speakers
- Harriet Reed, Project Lead, David Bowie Archive, V&A Storehouse East (Thursday 5 November)
- Clare Watt, Bowie Fellow, V&A (Thursday 5 November)
- Peter Carpenter, Author (Friday 6 November)
- Kevin Loader, Film and Television Producer (Friday 6 November)
- Jonathan Barnbrook, Graphic Designer (Friday 6 November)
Programme
Post-conference walking tour
On Saturday 7 November 2026 conference attendees are invited to a free walking tour of Bowie’s London, led by the conference organisers.
Meeting at Leicester Square tube station (exit 4) at 11am, the route takes in Soho, Regent Street, and Carnaby Street, ending at a Bowie-themed bar on Heddon Street, the site of the Ziggy Stardust album cover. There is also an optional afternoon continuation to the Bowie mural in Brixton and his birthplace in Stockwell. Please note that places are limited.
