About

Seems redundant and a fair bit narcissistic to feel the need for an about page on a site that is essentially one large about page, but here goes a nice third-person autobiography. Before we proceed, if you just need my CV, here you go. I’ll add links later.

Colin Helb is Assistant Professor of Communications at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. He teaches is the subjects of introductory media production, new media production, audio production, and critical studies. He joined the faculty in the Department of Communications in 2009. Previously he taught at Bowling Green State University with the Telecommunications Department and American Culture Studies Program while completing his doctoral dissertation.

Colin’s PhD is in American Culture Studies with concentrations in Film, Popular Culture, and Media Studies. His dissertation is titled “Use and Influence of the Amateur Musician Narrative in Film, 1981-2001.” It is an analytical survey of four fictional amateur musician narratives created in films; the actual influences and longevity of which have far outlasted the created narratives.

Colin Helb has played music for several years in various bands including a bunch of “just rock” bands, some hard core, some punk, some jam bands, a bit of jazz, a bit of bluegrass, a lot of minimalist recording projects, and others I’m sure. As of recently, Colin’s musical projects have veered further and further away from acceptation reliance upon repudiative meter, tonality, and musicality. Concentrating on experimental sound, noise, and music, Colin creates a variety of prepared strings, electronics, and nontraditional instrumentation. He is a part-time member of the KBD Sonic Collaborative.

Colin Helb founded Cornslaw Industries in the Fall of 2004 after his short-lived production company, I.F.N.O.R., folded in part because of a precise lack of purpose. Cornslaw Industries went through several half-assed incarnations before settling in some time after as a net.label and media collective. The now-successful and established net.label virtually releases albums and media collections by bands and artists both as digital archive re-releases or as material created specifically for Cornslaw. The label boast tens of thousands of downloads and over sixty individual releases.

Colin was born in New Jersey in 1976 and grew up with his mother in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He attended Pennsbury High School, left New York University after one semester, and moved to Morgantown, WV in 1995 to attend West Virginia University. He moved to Philadelphia in 2001. Colin and Carolyn were married in 2009 and currently live in Philadelphia with their two cats.