--- title: Professor Dresses and Acts Like David Bowie for a Yearlong Study description: He’s even going so far as to mimic Bowie’s diet, which at one point solely consisted of red peppers and milk canonical: https://time.com/4003522/kingston-university-will-brooker-david-bowie/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-19T18:10:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:23:38.161Z og:title: This Professor Is Dressing and Acting Like David Bowie for a Yearlong Study og:description: He’s even going so far as to mimic Bowie’s diet, which at one point solely consisted of red peppers and milk og:url: https://time.com/4003522/kingston-university-will-brooker-david-bowie/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8e583121f6ebcc3/69886010e20a878604a8cd75/david-bowie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1974 og:image:height: 1110 og:image:alt: File photo of David Bowie dated June 13, 2004. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Professor Is Dressing and Acting Like David Bowie for a Yearlong Study twitter:description: He’s even going so far as to mimic Bowie’s diet, which at one point solely consisted of red peppers and milk twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8e583121f6ebcc3/69886010e20a878604a8cd75/david-bowie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Professor Will Live as David Bowie for a Yearlong Study > Sponsored content. 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Yui Mok—PA Wire/AP by [Will Robinson / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Will Robinson / Entertainment Weekly Aug 19, 2015 6:10 PM UTC There’s a fine line between flattery and academia, and Will Brooker is straddling it. The Kingston University professor of film and cultural studies has embarked on a yearlong study of legendary musician David Bowie to try to understand the mind frame Bowie was in during his formative music years. “The idea is to inhabit Bowie’s head space at points in his life and career to understand his work from an original angle,” Brooker says, [via Kingston’s website](http://www.kingston.ac.uk/news/article/1540/05-aug-2015-kingston-university-professor-will-brooker-transforms-himself-into-pop-icon-david-bowie-for-yearlong-study/), “while retaining a critical and objective perspective at the same time — a kind of split persona perhaps.” His dedication is impressive: Brooker consumes only the books and films Bowie would have during particular periods leading up albums. He’s even going so far as to mimic Bowie’s diet, which at one point solely consisted of red peppers and milk. > [](https://twitter.com/willbrooker/status/621212235021488128) “If you’re reading some science fiction and books about magic, you can kind of get into Bowie’s head,” Brooker says. “You can see it’s sometimes quite a strange place, a dangerous place, a place you wouldn’t want to live too long.” The only more ambitious thing the professor could have undertaken would be to extend the length of his research to five years for a timely tie-in to [Bowie’s forthcoming reissued discography](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/06/23/david-bowie-five-years-1969-1973-box-set). Learn more about the Brooker’s study at [Kingston’s website](http://www.kingston.ac.uk/news/article/1540/05-aug-2015-kingston-university-professor-will-brooker-transforms-himself-into-pop-icon-david-bowie-for-yearlong-study/), and watch a brief interview with the professor on Australia’s ABC Radio about the endeavor. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/18/david-bowie-kingston-university-professor) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4003522/kingston-university-will-brooker-david-bowie/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4003522/kingston-university-will-brooker-david-bowie/"},"headline":"This Professor Will Live as David Bowie for a Yearlong Study","datePublished":"2015-08-19T18:10:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:23:38.161Z","description":"He’s even going so far as to mimic Bowie’s diet, which at one point solely consisted of red peppers and milk","url":"https://time.com/4003522/kingston-university-will-brooker-david-bowie/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Australia","Music","World","David Bowie"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8e583121f6ebcc3/69886010e20a878604a8cd75/david-bowie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Will Robinson / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8e583121f6ebcc3/69886010e20a878604a8cd75/david-bowie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"File photo of David Bowie dated June 13, 2004.","caption":"File photo of David Bowie dated June 13, 2004.","creditText":"Yui Mok—PA Wire/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4003522/kingston-university-will-brooker-david-bowie/","name":"This Professor Will Live as David Bowie for a Yearlong Study"}}]}] ```