Welcome to The Old Times. Nick is a Digital Media Production Student at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.
He is a retired HR Practitioner (DEI and Communication Specialist) and is an Authorised Lay Minister in the Church of England (since 2009).
A copy of my personal manifesto of which I keep a copy in my diary and on the wall in my ‘Shed Office’ where I do my work outside of weekly sessions at University. This post includes information concerning the development of the class manifesto and a video of my personal manifesto process together with a detailed description of each of the streams of my personal manifesto.
Personal Use of AI Policy
I use artificial intelligence tools in my work. I say this plainly and without apology. I am always the author, AI does not direct my practice, I direct it. These tools extend my reach and open creative possibilities, but the vision, the judgement, and the final call are mine. I bring critical thinking to every output, I attribute AI’s contribution honestly, and I am developing my AI literacy as a deliberate professional and academic choice.
In this first post of the podcasting module, I take the microphone into East Road and interview a Voi Engineer and three fellow students – all from Braintree – studying Clinical Psychology, Law and Paramedical Science.
2. Podcast Module Week 1 (Proper) – Inspiration and Pilot Episode
My podcast subject was the St Neots Walk and Talk for Men’s annual virtual John O’Groats to Land’s End Challenge — 874 miles, 20 walkers, raising money for St Neots Citizen Hub. The podcast is called Grounded – The Healing Power of Shared Experiences
In this post, I posted a link to the first three episodes following up on the pilot – Episode 1: Justin, Grace and Jack, Episode 2: John and Wellness Wednesday, Episode 3: Scooby, Mack, Mark, Stewart and Claire. I posted a link to Acast where the podcast is hosted – by following the link on this post you will now find all of the podcast episodes (Pilot and 1 – 5).
Many of the St Neots Walk and Talk Group listened to the podcast episodes as they were released and asked me to create a promotional video for TikTok. This was my first attempt at video editing in this module.
In this post, I share a little about the people who took part in the ‘JOGLE’ challenge – episode 3 was published as the challenge itself came to an end and we celebrated with a meal at a local restaurant
In this final post on the Podcast module, the final episode – episode 5 – is published. In this post you will see some feedback from some of the listeners and those who took part in the podcast.
Given the radical nature of the Zine movement, I decided to base my Zine on the fact that the module began during LGBTQ+ History Month (in the UK) as I remember seeing Zines as a young(er) person when I visited the Lavender Menace Bookshop in Edinburgh during the 1980s.
In this module I began to challenge myself to use and understand new (to me) tools as a digital creator – in this case mainly Canva – as well as generating a series of images using AI image creation tools.
In this post, I give a five-minute history of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Scotland which is covered in (I hope) a more artistic way in the Zine. This was my first ever attempt at a digitally generated video.
Queer zines were vital, but peaceful, weapons in the fight for gay liberation, cheap, fearless, and impossible to silence. They turned isolated readers into collaborators, rewriting politics from the ground up and proving that desire, rage, and community could be printed, passed around, and weaponised.
This was the first week in the TV News Module and in this post, I begin to look for ideas for the project. I was initially attracted to the idea of a mockumentary but in the end it was agreed to create a hybrid news show with a documentary angle.
Week 2 of the TV News Module saw us in a practical session using lights, camera and action with all of the Digital Media Production team working together with tutor, Liam, on building skills which will reinforce the quality of our productions.
In this post, I review the project deliverables and panic over whether the project is *actually* deliverable before taking a pause and a deep breath. The team member doing the editing subsequently confirmed that the final cut will be ready in 3 days’ time. Everything crossed!
TV News Broadcast Project: How We Made a TV News Show
Image: Created by Google Gemini on the Walk and Talk for Men ‘Grounded’ podcast inspiration.
For me, this module began with a walk, so as we cross the finish line of semester 2 of the Fundamentals of Digital Media module, this final post looks back at the Podcasts, Zines, and TV News projects revealing a period of creative growth and mild technical trauma. Here is a review of how I tackled the briefs, what worked, what I learned, and where I can improve.
Podcasts: Grounded
The Brief & Delivery: I developed Grounded, a podcast focusing on men’s mental health through the St Neots Walk and Talk group’s virtual John O’Groats to Land’s End challenge. I met the brief by creating a pilot, using AI to design professional branding, and researching BBC Radio 4’s Ramblings as my industry benchmark.
What went well & What I learned: The project was a joy, and I learned how to record outdoor interviews using a Zoom H1 Essential recorder. I successfully published a pilot via Acast, which was well-received by the walking group that they asked me to produce a series of three more episodes.
What to do better: I admittedly skimped on formal audience research initially, relying mostly on my own interests and retrofitting the audience profile later. Next time, I would conduct proper demographic research before recording to better target my listeners from the outset.
Zines: Queerly BelovedThe Brief & Delivery: I created a 10-page zine for LGBTQ+ History Month 2026, combining my personal 44-year journey in the closet with the political history of Scottish decriminalisation and Section 28. I met the multimedia requirement by embedding QR codes linking to my blog and an AI-generated video. I also formulated a distribution strategy targeting independent bookshops, zine fairs, and Pride events. What went well & What I learned: Conquering my fear of digital design tools by finally learning to use Canva was a major triumph. I successfully blended analogue “cut and paste” aesthetics with AI-generated imagery, learning how to structure a narrative that was both deeply personal and politically resonant. What to do better: While the QR codes and video links worked well, next time I would love to experiment with more advanced interactive elements, such as the AR filters suggested in the module brief. As I was developing the Zine, I attended an event on Section 28 at the University and gained inspiration talking to the authors of ‘The Log Books’, the actor Michael Cashman and many inspiring people from the LGBTQ+ community who attended the event.
TV News Programme: ARU Tonight – Film Festival Fever
The Brief & Delivery: We produced a mockumentary news show incorporating three media types: traditional studio news, on-location reporting, and documentary-style interviews. We met the highly technical brief by submitting production paperwork (like shooting schedules and lighting diagrams), using proxy workflows, and documenting our understanding of audio configurations (5.1, 7.1, IAB).
What went well & What I learned: I enjoyed my role as Line Producer by driving the creative vision, drawing on satires like The Day Today and For Your Consideration, and stepping in front of the camera as the self-important talent. I gained a good understanding of industry concepts like ISDCF naming conventions, and the necessity of keeping audio peaks between -20dB and -10dB.
What to do better: Because I am not tech-savvy, I relied entirely on the division of labour to survive the technical demands. When the edit’s pacing didn’t quite match the Curb Your Enthusiasm awkwardness I envisioned, it forced me out of my comfort zone and I began to engage with the professional editing software myself.
TV News Broadcast Project: How We Made a TV News Show
25th April 2026
When ‘Canvas’ told us we had to make a video news project, I’ll be honest: I panicked. I don’t feel entirely comfortable with video production and my experience of team exercises in the first semester did not fill me with confidence. With some ups and downs and several changes along the way, we have managed to meet the deadline with a video which is broadly in line with my original vision. Ironically, this post is intended to persuade those making that a student production of ARU Tonight, that this small, class room production is worthy of the the Cannes Film Festival.
The Idea
The brief gave us two options: make a news show, or make a documentary. We chose the news show route (Option 1), but we wanted to do something a bit different. After a few days of kicking ideas around, we landed on a format which broadly created a news programme and a documentary (or mockumentary) with a fictional news programme sending a reporter to cover an end-of-term student film screening where students were taking their production very seriously. Time constraints meant that we did not manage to make all of the originally intended scenes but the final version of the video **more or less** achieves the planned story. It could have been funnier, the script could have been stronger and we could have worked smarter but, in most respects we have delivered on the brief.
The principal way in which we did NOT meet the brief related to this section of the project deliverables brief: “Please provide your final video as a ProRes HQ. Also export your premiere pro project as a package.” This was because Quinn did not have enough memory space on his lap top after editing to achieve this objective. However, it was uploaded to YouTube and can be found here:
Image: YouTube video featring Tutor Liam as ‘Himself’
The working title was ARU Tonight: Film Festival Special. Four student filmmakers (played by us – though Quinn did not appear on camera) receive an email about a standard end-of-module screening and interpret it as a major international festival. They prepare acceptance speeches. They discuss their “careers.” The news show covers it all with complete, deadpan seriousness. I had hoped for a more realistic look and feel to the film but, ultimately, had to accept the editorial decisions made by the team.
Though it is not demonstrated in this module, I feel that I have learned a lot about video production between this and the Digital Content Creation module with the support of the tutors in each discipline. I was particularly appreciative that my feedback about video production and editing from Semester 1 had been reflected in the teaching of video production in this semester – in particular via the ‘Garden Shed video editing session’.
The inspiration came from real films and television shows, for example, the film For Your Consideration (a Christopher Guest mockumentary about actors convinced they are Oscar contenders), The Day Today showed us how to parody media pomposity, while The Office (UK) and Curb Your Enthusiasm gave me the feel of awkward, improvised comedy. The ‘missing scenes would I think have delivered this more effectively than demonstrated by the final edit.
The Team
We had four people and divided things up as follows:
Quinn was our Creative Director and, critically, our editor. He handled all the camera work, managed the 4K footage in Premiere Pro, built the timeline, and turned around an edit under real time pressure. The video simply would not exist without Quinn’s technical skill and patience. He also navigated the genuinely complex world of proxy workflows (more on that below) so that the editing software did not crash.
Iva played Paige Turner, Senior Anchor of ARU Tonight, and took on the role of First Assistant Director. She also designed the show’s logo (see above), though neither this nor the designs I created (with Google Gemini) appear in the final cut:
Ben was our Sound Director and played Jim Boom, co-anchor. He managed all the audio recording on set and handled the technical process of synchronising the sound to the picture in the edit.
My role was as Line Producer, came up with the original “film festival delusion” concept, mapped out the storyboards, wrote the scripts, and played Mike Holder, International Celebrity Correspondent. I also played the veteran, self-important talent in the talking-head sections. I am aware of the irony! I tried gently to encourage the team but as I am a good deal older than others in the team I am reluctant to exert too much control as I don’t want to appear as a boss – or worse, a parent – and it is perhaps a lack of a clear leader in the project which has led to my sense that we did not achieve all that could have been delivered at the outset.
What We Actually Filmed
The brief required us to include at least three different types of media in the news show. We ended up with four:
The news desk – Paige and Jim presenting in front of a branded studio backdrop, with scrolling tickers and lower-third name graphics.
Field reporting – Mike Holder live on campus, outside the venue, reporting as though covering a major cultural event.
Talking-head interviews – Cinematic, serious, close-up interviews with each of the three “filmmakers,” all of whom speak about their work with completely unjustified gravity.
The award ceremony itself – The moment of anticlimactic reality, filmed in a fluorescent-lit lecture theatre where a small certificate is handed over and a Q&A session descends into silence.
We also filmed a weather segment, presented by the fictional Raynor Schein (played brilliantly by Kennedy) in front of a weather map. I’d have preferred scenery something like the idea below as I think this would have reinforced the student ‘joke’. (I realise I am at risk of repeating the old ‘Bullseye’ catchphrase – ‘let’s have a look at what you could have won’).
The Look of the Show
The branding for ARU Tonight was designed to look like a real regional ITV news programme crossed with the Oscars. I chose navy and gold tones, clean broadcast-style typography, and graphics that referenced the ARU campus and the Cambridge skyline. Iva designed the main logo. I put together additional branding assets using Google Gemini, including the studio backdrop, the lower-third name straps, and the weather map as seen above.
On camera, Quinn shot everything on his Sony A7S II full-frame mirrorless camera in manual mode, which was a requirement of the brief. The 4K resolution meant the footage looked cinematic, which was appropriate to the ‘joke’ making fun of people who thought they were making cinema.
Lighting
We used two different lighting setups, deliberately chosen to serve the tone of each scene.
For the news desk and weather presenter scenes, we used a classic three-point lighting setup: a key light (the main source of light on the subject), a bounce light (to soften shadows), and a rim light (to separate the presenter from the background and give that polished broadcast look).
For the post-award interview section, where the characters are deflated and the mood is more real, we used just a single key light with natural window light filling in the rest. This was a deliberate choice to make those scenes feel less produced and more honest.
Sound
This was Ben’s department and he ran it well. The brief was clear that camera microphones and phone audio were not acceptable. We used a Tascam DR-70D audio recorder paired with a Rodelink radio microphone kit and a boom pole with a rifle mic. Every time we started a new take, we used a clapperboard so that Ben could match the sound file to the picture precisely in the edit, using the sharp spike of the clap on the soundwave as a sync point.
The brief also required us to write up our understanding of different audio formats:
5.1 surround sound uses six channels: left, right, centre, a low-frequency bass channel, and two surround channels at the sides/back. This is what you hear in a cinema.
7.1 surround sound adds two more channels (a total of eight), with additional speakers behind the audience for more detailed spatial sound.
IAB (Immersive Audio Bitstream) is the next step beyond that: a fully flexible, object-based audio system where sounds can be placed precisely in three-dimensional space around the listener, and the mix adapts to whatever speaker setup is playing it back.
The Technical Side
As I understand it, Quinn filmed everything in 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels), which is a huge amount of data and contributed to the memory issues we experienced at the end of the project. To be able to edit without the computer grinding to a halt, he used a proxy workflow: low-resolution copies of each clip were created and used during the edit, and in the final video, the software switches back to the full-quality originals which was an effective solution to a very real problem.
As already stated, the final file was not exported as a ProRes HQ file – my knowledge of this process is limited but my understanding is that ProRes compresses far less aggressively, preserving much more of the original image quality but produces a much larger file.
Quinn named the file using the ISDCF convention (the naming system used by the professional film industry): ARUTONIGHT_SHR_25_EN-XX_200_2160p_ProRes422HQ_ARU_20260424. Each part of that name tells you something about the file: short content, 25 frames per second, English language, no subtitles, stereo audio, 4K resolution, ProRes codec, made at ARU, dated 24 April 2026. Perhaps there is added comedy about applying Hollywood-level technical standards to a video in which a certificate is given amid bored students in a class room.
The Paperwork
The brief required a full set of production documents, and these have been included in a previous post:
Equipment lists (for both of our shoot ‘days’)
Shooting schedules (23 March and 13 April 2026)
A lighting diagram covering both setups
Storyboards (which went through several versions as the script evolved)
Another honest admission: we did not use call sheets on the day. Call sheets are the documents sent to cast and crew before each shoot, listing exactly who needs to be where and when. With only four of us and all of us already on campus, verbal coordination was enough. But we do understand what they are for, and they are documented in the project files.
An Honest Reflection
The brief asked for honesty, so here it is.
I am proud of what we made given the resources, time and shared knowledge. Above all I am glad that it has been delivered within the submission window. The concept worked, the branding looked real, the performances were committed, and the edit gave the whole thing a shape and rhythm.
But I am not entirely satisfied with the final pacing. The comedy I had in my head relied on those long, lingering, uncomfortable silences that make The Office so painful to watch. In the the filming and the edit, some of that was lost. This is not a criticism, more a reflection on my own inability to communicate precisely what I wanted on the Premiere Pro timeline.
What we would do differently: more rehearsal time, more flexibility in the schedule to film the scenes we had to cut for time, and perhaps a teleprompter or better script positioning so the on-camera reads are cleaner.
Does It Meet the Brief?
Yes! The brief required a fictional branded news programme: we built ARU Tonight from scratch, with a visual identity. It required at least three types of media: we used four. It required manual camera operation, dedicated audio equipment, a proper lighting setup, production paperwork, and an honest reflection. All of that is done.
The areas where we came closest to the edge: call sheets (documented but not used in practice). The irony of the whole project is that ARU Tonight is a satire about students who treat a small campus screening like a major film festival, while the brief simultaneously requires us to meet film industry technical standards (naming conventions, codec specifications, audio sync protocols) for a student video. Art imitating life, or life imitating art. Either way, we made something we are genuinely glad exists.
A copy of my personal manifesto of which I keep a copy in my diary and on the wall in my ‘Shed Office’ where I do my work outside of weekly sessions at University. This post includes information concerning the development of the class manifesto and a video of my personal manifesto process together with a detailed description of each of the streams of my personal manifesto.
Personal Use of AI Policy
I use artificial intelligence tools in my work. I say this plainly and without apology. I am always the author, AI does not direct my practice, I direct it. These tools extend my reach and open creative possibilities, but the vision, the judgement, and the final call are mine. I bring critical thinking to every output, I attribute AI’s contribution honestly, and I am developing my AI literacy as a deliberate professional and academic choice.
I explored Victorian machines, contacted the author and podcaster Dr Anthony Delaney who pointed me towards the queer inventor Hertha Ayrton and her life-saving WWI anti-gas fan.
It struck me that while researching Victorian inventors, I found myself searching for queer lives that were rarely named as such. Not because they did not exist, but because the social and legal realities of the time made honesty dangerous.This reflection led me to think of an idea for the Digital Content Creation Module which can also be found in my blog here: https://theoldtimes.co.uk/2026/04/23/digital-media-production/
In this post, the focus shifts from Victorian hardware to the invisible logic of software: algorithms. We explored Alan Turing’s “imitation game” and interacted with the early chatbot ELIZA to question the boundaries of machine intelligence. Crucially, we engaged with Safiya Noble’s Algorithms of Oppression, debating the myth of “neutral” technology.
In this post, after reading Kenneth Goldsmith’s book, I experimented with Claude AI which wrote a summary for me. This post is, therefore, AI generated.
The most fun element of this class was posting a Fluxus experiment around the Ruskin Building corridor. As you will see in the post, I received a few replies together with an invitation to join a medical study.
All three year groups of the Digital Media Production course visited the Natual History Museum to see David Attenborough’s immersive story – Our World – and to see some of James Norton’s work in the London Museums.
I explored how home automation and streaming have evolved since ARPANET, reflected on my own memories of early mobile phones, and considered the autonomous, immersive technology ahead.
In this session, it began to dawn on me how taken in I have become by the throwaway society, I take it for granted and had never really given it a thought before.
During the Easter Holidays I worked on developing the Victorian Smart Bike idea and the posts above focus on it’s evolution and include a recorded version of the pitch (which I am afraid is longer than the one I delivered in class).
I’m amazed that we have reached the end of First Year so quickly and it was a joy to round off the year with the pitches of others in my cohort for their Victorian (or reimagined) machines.
The most immediately practical idea came from Mary who had an idea to create smart contact lenses which provide subtitles in real-time for a hearing impaired user. It struck me that this idea has the potential to be life changing for those who experience hearing loss.
Some years ago, during a particularly bad hearing infection, I lost almost all of my hearing for a few days and could only hear other by telephone. It was a frightening experience but one that has left me with great empathy for those unable to hear. In my own case, I ended up on a train that went to the wrong destination because I was unable to hear the announcement that a service change meant only certain carriages would be going to my preferred destination. Mary’s subtitles would have improved my experience of temporary deafness considerably.
Others in the team – Josh and Tony – had great ideas to improve the experience of those using gaming platforms. Sadly, gaming has kind of passed me by and it is not a world I understand but I am in no doubt that, in future, gamers will benefit greatly from these thoughtful ideas.
Both Tyler and Ivanusa had ideas for practical, real world items brough up to date. Tyler is a fan of physical video and audio and had come up with a design for a modernised CD player – or what those of my vintage might call, a music centre. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that if I’d met him a year earlier, I could have given him all the top of the range audio equipment he could imagine during the house clearance of a relative. At the time, I quite literally could not give it away.
Iva’s idea was a clock – designed tastefully in Victorian style with a modern twist – which supported people to manage their time effectively around life tasks. Her design had her young son in mind and I think she has created an idea which could be beneficial across the age ranges – it struck me that as well as reminding young people of when to leave for school etc., it would have a use for older people to remember to take medication of those with dementia to receive a prompt around day-to-day activites.
Katie’s Smart Fridge combined the old with the new. A particular feature from ‘back in the day’ was rotating shelves. I have never seen that in a fridge but it feels like such a good idea and is both simple and incredibly smart despite being very much an analogue improvement. I like the idea of a fridge that helps to manage the family menu – one that could discourage random picking would be welcomed here too! (Maybe an idea for the second edition!)
I enjoyed the opportunity to present my Victorian Smart Bike idea – I made the presentation quite a bit shorter than the version already up loaded to my blog and welcomed the feedback from my colleagues.
The Victorian Smart Bicycle 2085: A Final Reflection
This project started with a simple challenge: take an old piece of technology and reimagine it for the future. What followed was a full-speed descent into fun, brass-fitted madness. Taking the 1885 bicycle and pedalling it two hundred years forward into a world without cars, the idea grew through several stages, each one building on what came before and fixing what had punctured along the way.
What went well
The big idea held up – mixing Victorian style with far-future technology delivered on the bicycle’s original promise, giving ordinary people the joy of getting around freely. 2085 might finally be the moment the promise of the bicycle was finally realised.
My favourite aspect of the ‘design’ is the Homing Pigeon – in a highly digital world, that the bike’s engineering team still communicates by carrier pigeon is both paradoxical and makes the point that there will always be some interdependence between all of us who live on this planet. It will land in 2085. Pigeons are eternal.
Framing everything as a virtual user manual was also a smart gear change. It gave the project a clear shape that made every chapter and every joke feel like it belonged there.
What could have been better
Honestly, I think the project became a strong creative vision and I did not worry too much about the technical deliverability of the 2085 design – it was intended as a vision of what *might* be possible in the future. With a longer project it might be possible to make the case that the bike’s more outlandish features would actually work in 2085.
The pitching process itself taught a valuable lesson about cutting back. The second version got badly bogged down in theory and would probably have been shown the door before reaching the top of the hill. Rebuilding a leaner third version was the right call. Over-explaining what you love is a very easy chain to get stuck in.
How it felt
Building all of this with a love of cycling but no technical knowledge of bicycles was a fun experience – in this project it was my imagination that made the running and as someone who does not always ‘think out of the box’ this was a rewarding experience and felt a bit like cresting a very steep climb.
The best decision was to lean into the silliness rather than brake. Victorian stuffiness and radical futurism turn out to be a perfect tandem pair, and discovering that produced something genuinely hard to put in a box. Or a pannier. For a speculative design project, that is probably the best result of all.
And finally
Image: The late Jack Gellatly 1913 – 1991 photo taken c. 1930
Cycling has been part of my life since I was just a few years old and I have always had a bike – though I am generally a cycling for transport rider rather than a MAMIL (Middle Aged Man in Lycra). I remember listening to my Grandfather’s stories of cycling as a young man with a cycling club in Edinburgh and it was as a result of one the club outings that he met my Grandmother. Apart from a few years with a Vespa scooter, the bicycle was the only personal transport my Grandparents ever used. Perhaps they were pioneers and would look fondly on the world of 2085.
A copy of my personal manifesto of which I keep a copy in my diary and on the wall in my ‘Shed Office’ where I do my work outside of weekly sessions at University. This post includes information concerning the development of the class manifesto and a video of my personal manifesto process together with a detailed description of each of the streams of my personal manifesto.
Personal Use of AI Policy
I use artificial intelligence tools in my work. I say this plainly and without apology. I am always the author, AI does not direct my practice, I direct it. These tools extend my reach and open creative possibilities, but the vision, the judgement, and the final call are mine. I bring critical thinking to every output, I try to attribute AI’s contribution honestly, and I am developing my AI literacy as a deliberate professional and academic choice.
Week 1 of the Digital Content Creation module covers three tasks: ranking social media apps (WhatsApp tops my list), reflecting on Web 2.0’s democratising potential, and defining long/short-form content.
I created a short TikTok video about his journey to ARU. This is a new video format for me and is deliberately brief (unusually) , fun, and well-received.
In this exercise, I created “Kirk Broon and the Visitors from the Sky”, a children’s UFO bedtime story set in Edinburgh, with Midjourney illustrations, narrated PowerPoint pages and published on YouTube.
Here I explored freedom of speech, misinformation versus disinformation, and deepfakes; then created my own AI avatar using HeyGen to discuss online hoaxes, with mixed accents and (I hope) entertaining results.
In this post, I explored digital narrative themes, choosing the topic of “Unclobbering Faith” and deconstructing Bible passages misused against LGBTQ+ people with a target audience of TikTok’s progressive spirituality audience with short, accessible, myth-busting videos.
I began to look at contents which has informed and inspired me such as Rev Brandan Robertson’s multi-platform theology content, then developed my own “Clobber Passages” TikTok project, a comedy based deconstruction inspired by Munya Chawawa and This Morning!
In this post I cover my This Morning-style scripts as my project begins to emerge where ‘Richard and Judy’ warmly dismantling each of the clobber passages with humour, scholarship, and the recurring message: you are made in the image of God.
Here I show an early attempt at making the TikTok videos and my decision to restructure the project from disconnected TikTok sketches to meet the ‘three linked chapters’ objective of the project.
Having put the cart before the horse, I began to define a potential audience for my three chapter story and I started filming of my content during the ‘playtime’ week. After this session of filming, I looked again at the script and changed the focus, slightly, of the following chapters.
Following a chat with Tutors, I returned to the TikTok strand, replacing Richard and Judy with queer-coded Biblical characters Ruth and Jonathan, writing three brief scripts and using them as prompts for AI generated videos produced using Dreamina Seedance 2.0.
In the end I recorded four videos, a personal coming-out introduction plus three chapters, filmed on location in the grounds of St Neots Parish Church and in Rus 141 at ARU, with full scripts, closing with a pastoral sermon affirming queer Christians unconditionally.
What began as a series of quick TikTok comedy videos gradually transformed into something more honest and more personal. When the jokes felt too thin for the subject, I changed course, moving to a three-part YouTube documentary with a personal introduction, filmed partly on location at St Neots Parish Church and partly at ARU using green screen.
The production was technically challenging. Learning CapCut Pro and beginning Adobe Premiere Pro pushed me well outside my comfort zone, but the results were better for it.
The audience question came late, because the content for this project was driven first by conviction: that if we are all made in the image of God, there is no theological justification for excluding people on the grounds of sexuality or gender identity. Opening with my own coming-out story, as my tutor Loren suggested, set the right tone. I also repurposed my initial scripts for Ruth and Jonathan to demonstrate my journey and ended with a TED Talk inspired ‘SHED Talk’ to embrace the whole project.
Presenting to classmates felt unexpectedly vulnerable, I’m comfortable on stage but not under scrutiny! This project became an act of removing my mask: exposing my sexuality, theology and shame. Feedback from Loren, Nur and colleagues shaped the work meaningfully. I started with Richard and Judy; I ended with Ruth and Jonathan. The voice was always there, I just needed the discomfort of being truly seen to finally use it.
Image: Created for me by CapCut using the text below as a prompt and asking for a six-panel cartoon in the style of The Beano.
Presenting this project to my classmates and tutors yesterday was an experience which exposed my internal feelings of vulnerability despite the fact that I have spent a good deal of my life in the spotlight. I am comfortable on stage, at a lectern, in front of a congregation. Centre stage, oddly, has felt like a place of control, a place where I hold the narrative. What I am less comfortable with is scrutiny. Being seen, really seen, by people whose opinions matter to me, is a different thing entirely and it surprised me a little that I felt uncomfortable in this exposed position.
Throughout this module and creative process, I have quoted and referred to Rev Brandan Robertson several times. He has written about the cost of wearing what he calls the “social masks” we are conditioned to perform, and the liberation that comes from putting them down. This project has, in its own small way, been an act of removing my own mask. Presenting it to the room meant being open not just about a creative idea, but about my sexuality, my theology, my shame, and my long history of not feeling good enough. After decades of carefully managing what people knew about me, that exposure did not come easily.
I find praise difficult, too. I received it here and felt the familiar discomfort of not quite knowing what to do with it. I genuinely welcomed the balance of feedback through the weeks of this module: Loren’s suggestion to begin with an introductory video; Nur’s instinct that accessibility mattered which led me to the shorter TikTok style videos and the TED-style ‘SHED Talk’. The nudges from my colleagues around subtitles, on-screen text, and the experiment with text on a ladder doubling as a pulpit. Not all of it worked. The animated text in Episode 3 did not land as I hoped. My work is long, possibly too long. There is, I suspect, something in that. When you have spent years silenced, finding your voice can come with an anxiety to use it as fully as possible, as quickly as possible. This is not the first time I have been too long-winded so clearly the message has yet to sink in.
This project has shown me, and I hope this is reflected in the work you see, is a willingness to try things, to listen, to fail productively, and to begin again. I started with a Richard and Judy sketch. I ended with Ruth and Jonathan, queer biblical characters hosting a camp theology show. That journey is the project.
I came to this course hoping to find my creative voice. I leave this module having discovered that the voice was always there. I just needed the trauma of being seen to give me the confidence to use it.
We’ve finally reached the last week of the module and of the current project and this morning, we received details of the final deliverables for the project:
I’ll be honest, some of it, I don’t understand – for example I don’t know what ProRes HQ is and I’m not really sure about LOG or RAW either.
The Idea
Following the first session of the module, we set up a WhatsApp group where we looked at options and discussed a possible subject for the video project. We decided to do a hybrid project based on Option 1 which is a news programme – ARU Today Film Festival Special – which comprised 4 elements with a documentary flavour. The story we agreed upon was a student film festival where the characters who appear in the film are excited (perhaps over excited) about winning an award at a film festival which is, in fact, just a classroom showing of student work.
Our ARU Tonight mockumentary successfully meets the module requirement to film at least three different media types. We have structured our news show to include several distinct formats:
First, we feature traditional studio media with our anchors at the newsdesk under studio lighting, delivering headlines and introducing the main story.
Second, we incorporate on-location field reporting, where our correspondent broadcasts “live” from the university corridor, reporting outside the highly anticipated film festival.
Third, our pre-recorded package utilizes a documentary-style “studio” setting for talking-head interviews. These are deliberately shot with cinematic, moody lighting to capture the filmmakers’ overly serious delusions about their work.
Fourth, we include the award ceremony footage as the actual “breaking news” content being reported. This media contrasts the cinematic hype by capturing the harsh, fluorescent reality of a mostly empty lecture theatre, an awkward Q&A session, and the anticlimactic certificate presentation.
Finally, to fully align with the brief, we are integrating social media reaction media to show how the news of our festival buzz is reflected online via platforms like TikTok.
I have had to use Google to work out these answers:
5.1: This is a surround sound configuration consisting of six channels: Left (L), Right (R), Center (C), Low-Frequency Effects (LFE), Left Surround (LS), and Right Surround (RS).
7.1: This is a more expansive surround sound configuration consisting of eight channels: Left (L), Right (R), Center (C), Low-Frequency Effects (LFE), Left Side Surround (Lss), Right Side Surround (Rss), Left Rear Surround (Lrs), and Right Rear Surround (Rrs).
IAB: This stands for Immersive Audio Bitstream.
When thinking about the storyboard and flow/script/improvisation for this film, I used experience of TV shows and films that I have enjoyed for reference, and which I have explored elsewhere on my blog – https://theoldtimes.co.uk/2026/03/03/fundamentals-of-digital-media-5/ these include blog:
For Your Consideration (2006): This film by Christopher Guest’s is on a similar theme – particularly relating to the self-delusion that the film screening is part of a prestigious festival.
The Day Today: This programme satirises media pomposity, and was a good example, I think of a show that demonstrated the tension between highly professional cinematic lighting and the absurd, low-stakes reality of the ARU screening.
The Office (UK) and Curb Your Enthusiasm: Though we have not quite achieved the level of comedy in these shows, they were the inspiration for the initial cinematographic and comedic choices. While we did not have time to film each of the originally planned scenes, there was an intention to use lingering shots, awkward silences, and a static camera to capture the painful realism of the anticlimactic certificate presentation, mirroring the silent judgment of the camera in The Office.
Production Paperwork
Call sheets
We did not use call sheets in this project because there were only four of us in the team and we were all present on campus for the filming times. However, we do understand the principle which is a daily production document sent to cast and crew before a shoot. It lists who needs to be where, and when, including call times, locations, scenes being filmed, and key contacts. It keeps everyone coordinated and is the backbone of a smooth shoot day.
Equipment lists
DJI Ronin-S Gimbal
Feelworld small DSLR monitor kit
General use boom pole for use with rifle mic
Medium portable LED 3 light kit
Rodelink radio mic kit (general use)
Sony A7S II full-frame mirrorless camera kit
Super lightweight video tripod
Tascam DR-70D Audio recorder kit
Shooting Schedule
23/03/2026
TIME
SCENE/ACTIVITY
LOCATION
10:30
Team Arrival+ setup
ARU 137
11:30
Scene 5,6,7 (talking heads)
Aru 137
13:00
Lunch break
14:00-15:00
Scene 19 (weather)
Aru photo studio
15:30
Wrap-up
13/04/2026
TIME
SCENE/ACTIVITY
LOCATION
10:30 -11:20
Editing foundations
ARU 137
11:30
Collect equipment+ setup
Aru media services
11:50- 13:00
Scene 14
ARU 137
13:00-13:30
Wrap-up
Aru 137
Lighting Diagram
We used a simple three-point lighting setup, with a key light as the main source, a bounce light to reduce shadows, and a rim light to separate the subject from the background.
However, for scene 14 (post-award interview), we used only key light, supported by natural light coming from the windows, which created a softer and more realistic look.
Storyboard
The storyboard underwent several iterations during the project but ultimately, the following was used. However, due to time constraints, it was decided not to film many of the sections which did not require ‘actors’ and our focus turned to the ‘action’ scenes.
Scene
Title
Status
Notes
1
Opening titles and headlines
Filmed
News style title card; anchor introduces show
2
Anchor introduces main story
Filmed
Serious anchor sets up ARU Film Festival story
3
Field intro
Filmed
“Live” on campus, red carpet treatment
4
Epic opening of campus
To film (20 mins)
5–6 shots: feet, door handle, sign, corridor, arrival
5
“This is our Cannes”
Filmed
Talking head; anchors the delusion
6
“I paid for childcare for this”
Filmed
Warm background; humour and emotional stakes
7
“My comeback”
Filmed
Dramatic talking head; Nick as auteur
8
Corridor walk and door reveal
To film (5 mins)
Slow walk to door; wide shot + close-ups on faces
9
Festival email misinterpretation
Filmed
Plain email text on screen vs exaggerated readings
Trophy, flat announcement, eruption, acceptance speech cut short
15
Painful non Q&A
To film (10 secs)
“Any questions?” Silence. Cut.
16
Post-event spin interviews
Filmed
Spinning the award as career-changing
17
Field sign-off
Dropped
Edit flows better without it
18
Anchor button
Filmed
Deadpan summary; segue to weather
19
Spoof weather
Filmed
Deadlines, stress, printer failures forecast
20
Final wide shot with cleaner
To film (10 mins)
Walk away with trophy; bin crosses behind; music swells
The Technical Bit
The technical details of this brief are WAY over my head and I guess this positions me as a “would-be performer” who is not tech-savvy and in this project my focus has been on the script and creative elements rather than the technical details of how the film has been created.
In fairness, that reflects other aspects of my life – I like to think I have a creative mind but struggle with the technicalities of brining the ideas to life. For example, I am good at coming up with ideas for decoration at home – though I can’t pretend it counts as ‘interior design’ but can’t hang wall paper or ‘cut in’ emulsion, I love cycling but can’t repair more than a simple puncture and interventions under the bonnet of my car are often an immediate precursor to a main dealer visit.
As a result, I am not going to pretend that I understand these requirements of the brief, but I believe that I have made a significant contribution to delivering the outcome. That said, I wish I could do the technical stuff – and to some extent have proved that I can do so using work arounds in the other modules of this semester – but that, quite simply, others in the team can do these things better.
The Talent v The Techs In this project, division of labour has been the lifesaver – though I would have hoped for stronger engagement across the team, we are – as the saying has it – where we are. My given role in the team was as Line Producer but I also took on the role of coming up with the idea for the project, preparing storyboard and script ideas as well as acting in the production. In some respects the key joke which comes across in the production is that of my ‘come back’ and ‘second chance’ which in a sense reflects the reason I am on this course in the first place. Meanwhile, I’m leaving the terrifying concepts of “Sequence Settings” and “3840 x 2160 frame sizes” to others in the team who are cooler and younger than me and who actually understand cameras.
Translating the Jargon (Incorrectly): The video hasn’t quite ended up as I had hoped and I would be lying if I said I was satisfied with the ‘final’ product. As a result, I am going to edit it in a way I understand using CapCut Pro. But as part of the process, I have attempted to understand the jargon:
Proxy Workflow: “Proxy Workflow” sounds like delegating work to someone else but I do understand that in reality, it means making low-resolution copies so the editing software doesn’t have a total meltdown while handling massive files.
Delivery Codecs: “ProRes 422HQ” and “H264” sound to me like a pair of droids from Star Wars (which I have never seen). My understanding is that the question to be answered here is do we want it to look incredibly pretty with “lossless 10-bit color,” or do we want it to actually fit on our hard drive? Quinn set the objective of creating a ‘cinematic’ look and feel and while I don’t understand precisely what that means, I have left that to him.
Audio Synchronization: Quite honestly, I don’t understand how to do this but I realise that it is a tool designed to match “audio spikes” in the soundwaves, and I think Ben (our Sound Director) managed this aspect of the project well.
The File Name The ISDCF naming convention seems sensible to me – particularly if the film is to be released into cinemas and this will be reflected in the final exported file name of this film: (e.g. MovieTitle_SHR-25_EN-XX_UK_20_2160p_ProResHQ_ARU_20260411) even if it is longer than the film itself. https://registry-page.isdcf.com/
Art Imitating Life Our film satirises students who treat a humble university screening like it’s the Cannes Film Festival. There is something of an irony that while we are attempting to make fun of film industry delusions, the project brief is genuinely forcing us to meet Hollywood-level technical standards (like Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum naming conventions and specific stereo channel syncing) for a student video.
Brand Identity
When developing my ‘vision’ for the show, I had in mind a local news programme similar to BBC Look East or ITV Anglia News and developed these designs with Google Gemini: .
In addition, Iva designed this logo for the show:
Social Media Reaction:
This project made much slower progress than I had hoped and as a consequence – as I write this post – I have no idea whether the final movie will be created in time to meet the submission deadline or not. That means I haven’t seen the completed film, I know it lacks some of the hoped for content and, as a result, it is therefore difficult to prepare a marketing campaign. Should the video be available, I will revisit this matter but in the meantime, I have created some social media posts via AI Image Generation so that there is something to show here:
Reflection
As we reach – or at least approach – the end of the the Fundamentals of Digital Media video project, I find myself looking back at our ARU Tonight mockumentary with a mixture of and technical trauma. From the very beginning of this module, I admitted to feeling entirely out of my comfort zone.
Nothing highlights this gap quite like the final submission instructions received this morning. The brief demanded that we provide our final video as a ProRes HQ file and export our Premiere Pro project as a package. I will Google instructions but I’m not entirely sure I can *actually* do this in real life.
To date, this project survived on the division of labour – and may yet fail because of it too. I took on the role of Line Producer, but my real contribution was driving the creative vision: coming up with the “film festival delusion” concept, mapping the storyboards to our real-world comedy references (like the film For Your Consideration and tv show The Day Today), and, of course, stepping in front of the camera to play the veteran, self-important talent.
I am incredibly grateful for my tech-savvy teammates and this meant that while I concerntrated on the story, Ben (our Sound Director) was making sure our Tascam audio spikes were perfectly matched with the clapperboard, and Quinn was handling the terrifying realities of 3840 x 2160 sequence settings and proxy workflows.
The brief demands an honest reflection, so I will be entirely truthful: I am not completely satisfied with our (current, perhaps) final cut. While Quinn did a miraculous job turning the footage around so quickly, the final pacing didn’t quite capture the Curb Your Enthusiasm-style lingering awkwardness I had pictured in my head. It was difficult to find a sense of energy in the team and I think this is reflected in the pace of much of the footage.
Because I don’t have the skills to edit and produce the video myself, I emailed the team to help to focus our minds but there has been little progress (so far):
Ultimately, there is something ironic about this project. Our mockumentary news programme intends to satirise a group of students treating a humble classroom screening as if it were a Hollywood premiere. Meanwhile, the actual project brief forced us to meet Hollywood-level technical standards, navigate codecs, decibel thresholds, and ISDCF naming conventions, just to pass a 5-minute university assignment. Art truly does imitate life. It was a massive challenge, but an incredibly rewarding – if frustrating – one.
Since last September and the start of the first year of the Digital Media Production course, I have loved every part of it. That does not mean that some of it doesn’t fill me with some trepidation – film is one of the aspects which has worried me but I’m starting to get a handle on this thanks to the things we have produced along the way and the help of Tutors and fellow-students alike. I’m grateful too to the other members of the ‘class’ who kindly took part in the video including, Kennedy who took the role of Raynor Shine the weather presenter and all of the others who kindly looked suitably unimpressed as the audience for our award ceremony scenes.
I began this module with a quiet … I was going to say confidence … but it wasn’t quite that, maybe a quiet determination, a quiet belief may be a better way of putting it that everything would be, as it were, alright on the night.
And so it is proving … but the second fear was that of team working. I’m not dure who coined the phrase ‘herding cats’ but getting a few people together is tricky at the best of times and doing so among a fascinating and diverse group of students is especially so. That said, I am proud of the work that this little team consisting of Ben, Iva, Quinn and myself has done. I’ve appreciated the support we’ve had from out Tutor, Liam, and the way in which he help us with the filming – both with ideas AND as a cast member. That does not mean that it has all been plain sailing. When I popped into Costa for a coffee and a bit of time to reflect this morning. The words of the inventor and designer of the original Mini motorcar popped into my mind: “A camel is a horse designed by a committee”.
Image: A cartoon I asked Google Gemini to design based on my coffee based thinking. I used the prompt: Please make a joke meme of my little graphic quoting Sir Alec Issigonis – original designer of the Mini/Austin Seven motorcar. The quote is “A camel is a horse designed by a committee”. It should take the form of a cartoon strip. A group at a meeting to design a horse, all adding their thoughts and feelings, views and opinions on what should be included and excluded. It should end with the horse looking remarkably like a camel. The setting should be an ARU classroom with the ephemera of digital media and photography around and with an older student looking concerned. It must be fun in the style of The Beano or The Dandy.
I used the same prompt for the new (to me at least) CapCut image generation which gave me this:
Quinn has done a great job of creating the first edit of the video. Time was catching up with us and in the end we decided to film just 14 of the 20 scenes from the original script (much of the dialogue was designed to be improvised – in the style of shows like ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and we have – largely I think – captured the bulk of the intended storyline.
What’s Next
Having reviewed the first edit, my plan is to make the following creative suggestions to the team:
What’s working well: I think the scenes work well – Liam is brilliant as the deadpan lecturer and the audience bits look great. The inflatable trophy is perfect and earns every second of screen time. The weather segment – Kennedy in front of the weather map is a highlight and feels like the most polished performance.
What could be stronger: The anchor desk section (Paige and Jim on the sofa) doesn’t look like a news studio so needs a background I think – perhaps based on the designs I created on Google Gemini – or something else:
The email misinterpretation scene would benefit from the actual email text on screen.
Opening Titles:
ARU Tonight – Film Festival Special
Consider a “BREAKING NEWS” ticker across the bottom of studio/presenter shots
Lower-Thirds/Captions (In Scene Order)
Anchor Desk Opening
When Paige appears:
PAIGE TURNER Senior Anchor, ARU Tonight
When Jim appears:
JIM BOOM Anchor, ARU Tonight
Mike Holder Field Intro
MIKE HOLDER International Celebrity Correspondent, Live on Campus
Add location tag: 🔴 LIVE | ARU CAMBRIDGE CAMPUS
“This is our Cannes”
This is a talking head so the lower-third appears briefly at the start then fades:
BEN Filmmaker. Visionary. Patient Man.
“I paid for childcare for this”
IVANUSA Has Come A Long Way For This
“My Comeback”
NICK Award-Nominated Old Guy
Email Misinterpretation
Shot of the actual email from ‘Tom Pedallo-Tripp from ARU’
Scenes 12/13/14 – The Awards Climax
When Liam steps forward to present:
LIAM CONROY Lecturer and All-round Good Guy
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO MEDIA NIGHT ARU Film Festival
Acceptance Video
Possibly skate over ‘BEN DOVER’ just Nick will do here!
Anchor/ Studio Reaction
PAIGE TURNER Processing What She Has Just Witnessed
I have 100s – or at least 10s – of books and magazines about cycling lying around at home. Not to mention the “N+1” ideal quantity of bicycles themselves. Indeed, this project, has even encouraged me to invest in my first ever e-bike which is winging its way through the Straits of Hormuz as we speak (or not as the case may be). My research comes from all of this and from my mind as well as Google and – as mentioned in my last post Notebook LM which I prefer to think of as Augmented Intelligence (AI) rather than Artificial Intelligence (AI). I have also used Claude AI and Adobe Firefly for this project to create images for this presentation, improve my visuals and CapCut Video Studio for the videos included with this presentation.
Apologies because at 17 minutes this presentation is still longer than might have been perfect but I have got to the stage where I can’t think what else to cut out to ensure that the story of this speculative design is told in a way which means it can be understood by someone who is only seeing the presentation without any of the background information.
I did not proceed to develop the website as I think I may already have exceeded the desired scope of the project but the intention was to develop this (quite how, I am not entirely certain!) into the user guide for the 2085 person who would be riding the bike. It can be found here:
Here is a list of the sources, influences, and creative credits that shaped the speculative design of ‘THE VICTORIAN’ Smart Bike project, drawing directly from the provided materials.
Historical & Cultural Sources
Victorian Cycling History:Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom by Sue Macy, and articles like “The Woman and the Bicycle” from Munsey’s Magazine (1896), which highlight the bicycle’s role in women’s liberation.
Victorian Manuals & Records:The Cyclist’s Companion: A Victorian Guide to the Velocipede, alongside original UK Victorian Patent Office Records and documentation from the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Historical Figures:Annie Londonderry, the first woman to cycle around the world, used as an icon for feminist cycling heritage.
The Victoria and Albert Museum
The Science Museum
Cycling Culture & Contemporary Contexts
Tadej Pogačar: The professional cyclist and multiple Tour de France winner serves as a massive inspiration and is playfully integrated as a “holographic companion” and virtual tactical advisor.
Cycling Literature & Tropes:The Cyclist Who Went Out in the Cold by Tim Moore, and Bike Snob by BikeSnobNYC. The project also plays on contemporary cycling tropes like MAMILs (Middle-Aged Men In Lycra), Strava social media culture, and cargo-bike parenting.
Advocacy & Urban Planning: Concepts from 15-minute city designs, the League of American Bicyclists, and the European Cyclists’ Federation.
Design, Aesthetics & Speculative Precedents
Speculative Design & Fiction:“Speculative Everything” and “The Manual” by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby heavily influenced the “design fiction” approach of the project. Additional influences include Superflux Design Studio and ScanLab Projects.
Aesthetic Movements: The visual language pulls from Steampunk/Victorian Futurism, Art Nouveau (1890s-1910s), and Victorian scientific illustrations (like those of Ernst Haeckel).
Philosophical & Cultural Theory
Critiques of Tech & Capitalism:Shoshana Zuboff’s critique of Surveillance Capitalism and David Graeber’sThe Utopia of Rules inspired the satirical “moral measurement” and bureaucratic elements.
Social Life & Ecology:The Social Life of Information by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid, and Ivan Illich’s Energy and Equity (1974), which critiques automobility. Pine & Gilmore’s Experience Economy influenced the “inhabitation” social network features.
Climate Futures: The Solarpunk movement, “Degrowth Theory,” and ecosystem restoration models inspired the optimistic 2085 post-car setting.
Literary Influences
Victorian & Sci-Fi:H.G. Wells (The Time Machine) and Jules Verne heavily influenced the temporal elements. Time-layering was also inspired by Kurt Vonnegut’sSlaughterhouse-Five.
Aesthetics & Absurdity:Oscar Wilde’s aesthetic philosophy (“One should always be a little improbable”) serves as the basis for the “Wilde Approval” AI feature. Absurdist and imaginative world-building was drawn from Italo Calvino (Invisible Cities), Jorge Luis Borges (The Library of Babel), Douglas Adams, and Terry Pratchett.
Television programmes: Doctor Who, Buck Rodgers in the 21st Century
Technology & Materials Science
Emerging Technologies: Quantum computing, transparent solar cells, piezoelectric kinetic energy harvesting, and holographic projection.
Material Innovation: Real-world research from the MIT Self-Assembly Lab (programmable materials), biomimicry, smart pressure-sensing fabrics, and mycelium-based (mushroom) leather directly inspired the bike’s “impossible” materials.
Inclusive Design: Universal Design Principles and Assistive Technology Research inspired the bike’s “Family Constellation Module” and adaptive capabilities.
Digital Tools & Creation Credits
To bring this speculative manual and pitch to life, the following digital media and AI tools were utilized:
AI Image Generation:Adobe Firefly (primary tool for product concept art), Canva AI, Google Gemini, and Ideogram.
AI Video Generation:CapCut, Runway Gen-4, Luma Dream Machine, Pika 2.2, and Pollo.ai.
Infographics & Layout:Canva and Adobe Express.
Audio & Voiceover:ElevenLabs (used to synthesize the Victorian Butler AI voice), Audacity, and Acast.
Web Hosting & Archives: The manual website was hosted via Netlify (and explored through GitHub). Archival imagery was sourced from Wikimedia Commons and the Library of Congress.
Academic Course References
The project directly responds to teachings from the Thinking Digital (MOD007295) module, led by Emily Godden, referencing course discussions on:
Meme Culture (relying on texts like the Critical Meme Reader).
Hauntology & Residual Media (referencing Mark Fisher’s Ghosts of My Life and Charles R. Acland’s Residual Media).
Algorithmic Bias & Oppression (drawing heavily from Safiya Umoja Noble’s Algorithms of Oppression).
Internet Sociology (incorporating Kenneth Goldsmith’s Wasting Time on the Internet).
