Advanced Projects

ADVANCED PROJECTS mentors BA (Hons) Media and Communications, BA (Hons) Film Studies, BA (Hons) Sound Design and BA (Hons) Digital Arts students through a self-directed process of study, research and practice leading to the exhibition of a creative final output and production of a project report.

During the first term the student submits a proposal for either a group or solo project. A significant feature of the course is that once the student’s proposed area of activity has been agreed, they are supervised in working towards their goal through regular focused tutorials with a staff member who has experience in that area.

This project is about how families interact with the Artificial Intelligence device Amazon Alexa. It explores important questions relating to how Amazon Alexa is regularly used by family households and the impact it has: how it makes us feel, better or worse?

Usman Ahmed

Amazon Alexa Experience usman7862000@hotmail.com

Sustainability has been a trend for the past 10 years. More and more people started recycling, changed their diet into healthier alternatives like vegetarianism or veganism, as well as using natural renewable resources (wind and sun). Researchers noticed that, in those many years of sustainability, not many considered fashion. Despite their commitment to a sustainable lifestyle, many people continue to shop at fast fashion stores. The purpose of my project is to find out how to make slow fashion more attractive and available for the consumer. In order to do that I made a magazine about slow fashion. Models in the magazine wore only reused and recycled clothes, showing that the garment does not have to be new and expensive to be attractive, as well as it makes individual more unique.

Greta Baublyte

Elderberry Magazine baublytegreta@gmail.com

In recent years cracks have begun to form, exposing the extent of doping in sport. The pandemic has acted as a catalyst in accelerating the consumption of supplements which means that it’s available to not only elite level athletes but your everyday jogger. A grey area is formed as over the counter supplements for everyday ‘essential’ use can be banned at a professional sporting level. The media for decades has unfairly characterised performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) tainting certain substances in a negative light.

The overall aim of ‘Blurred Lines’ is to educate and inform those in the dark about PEDs and supplements in sport, gathering views from sports coaches, athletes, and sports science experts to see where the future of sport is going.

Jamie Bishop & Toby Helyes

Blurred lines—Supplements and performance enhancing drugs in sport jamiebishop100@icloud.com tobyjhelyes@gmail.com

Every part of the world is somewhat different: weather, enviroment, people, culture, language and even seasons are different. Everyone experiences changing weather in various ways, depending on where they live or come from. What I feel when Autumn comes can differ to what you feel during Autumn. Therefore this project searches for other people perspectives on Autumn. The video essay presents four women describing their experience of Autumn, from a country they grew up in.

Audrone Cerniauskaite

Autumn through others' eyes audronecern@gmail.com

Can we control the multiplicity of our fragmented identities? Can we prevent any versions of ourselves from occurring by choice, or is it not up to us? My research question will involve many sub questions, created by this giant question. It will be answered through fictional scenarious and characters, represented in this short film. as well as solutions from previous academic proffessors. However, it will mostly be answered in its own way, that has not been done before.

Mo Chowdhury

Multiplicity nadim_01@icloud.com

"How not Worry" is about mindfulness and self-help and tells a message through transmedia storytelling. The project's premise is that a boring character called Z sends the message to the Universe and receives an answer. The Universe and Z have a digital conversation, where the Universe tells Z secrets of fulfilling wishes. Also, The Universe gives Z many insights into positive thinking, manifesting, mindfulness and, more importantly, tells Z how not worry. I intend to demonstrate to young adults the possible ways of living mindfully and happily, especially nowadays. Furthermore, the project contains inspiring quotes and engaging media formats like photos, videos and sounds.

Maria Drannikova

How Not Worry mari.nnikova@mail.ru

Cornrowing is a technique that not only weaves together pieces of hair but thousands of years of history also. It has transitioned from its primal use as a symbol of wealth and status to a desperate measure in times of slavery. Is this history lost in the 20th century as it stands only as a means of adornment? Or does the history live on with the technique? The project explores those questions. I aimed to find a non cultural way to transfer the skill of cornrowing and allow those interacting with my appartus and hairstyles to make their own decisions about its culture.

Grace Ennis

Row of Corn graceennis@hotmail.com

The creative output is an autoethnographic investigation into game playing. It appears that the older generation and the younger generation don't have an understanding of why young people are so obsessed with playing video games. So I embarked on a journey of playing video games and keeping a journal of my gaming experience to analyse available research results on 'Video Game Obsession' As a video game novice, I'm being instructed by my son and in-game rules, at the beginning. The aim is to find out the 'magnetic pull' that keeps young people glued to video games.

Veronica Olabisi Falodun

Measuring ‘Use Overtime’ (UOT) of a Game Player, to Analyse the Possibilities of Game Obsession for Young Video Game Players tncwitholabisi@yahoo.co.uk

Data sonification is the use of sound and music to present data. Presenting data in this method is not as popular as other data presenting methods but there are some benefits to data sonification. Sonification is all around us; from the audible alert from mobile phones to the beeps of supermarket checkouts. Sound is a great and unique storytelling tool. This project seeks to research different methods of data sonification, utilising different parameters on each composition, to develop alternate sonifications of a singular dataset. The result is the portrayal of different approaches to turning data into sound and how the different approaches reflect in the final compositions.

Mishael Holdbrook

Climate Change Sonification mishaelaudio@gmail.com

Many people have probably heard something about mythology. Some can maybe name every god and goddess and tell every story. How many people know how big an influence mythology actually has on our society? Would anyone think that popular sports brand Nike is named after Greek goddess of victory? Or a popular saying 'wrong end of the stick' comes from Greek stories?

To narrow area of my research I decided to look at my main subject of interest—films. It is very interesting how many films refer to mythology in so many different ways. Some films are based directly on specific stories or character and some films are using just one element of myth; and this is exactly what my project is about! About how filmmakers use mythology for their films and why do they love to use it so much.

Barbara Jarczynska

Mythology in Films basia.jarczynska@interia.pl

This project follows the on-going farmers' protests that have been occurring in India over the past few years, which began when the Indian government introduced new laws undermining the farmers' control over the selling price of their own crops. Indian farmers were afraid of the impact this would have on their livelihoods, so they gathered as one from around the country and took their protest to the capital city, New Delhi.

Through interviews with family members of farmers who have participated in the protest, the project aims to help us to understand their point of view and their thoughts about the protest, while at the same time understanding what impact the protest had on family life. The aim for this project is also to raise awareness of the protesting farmers and their families.

Gurpreet Kaur

The impact of Indian farmers' protests on the farmers and their families gurpreetkaurchandi1@gmail.com

Nowadays food and its advertisement, as well as the presentation, are crucial for businesses in attracting new customers or even keeping the regulars around. But not many people know the reality and the importance of food presentation, as well as the advertisement directed towards it. We live in a world where everything has to be Instagrammable and visually aesthetic because we do eat with our eyes first after all. But big food franchises trick their customers into believing that what they see is exactly what they are going to get, which most of the time ends up being a lie.

My project is focused on picking out those food tricks used by the franchises and taking them out into the daylight, revealing the patience and detail it takes to present the dish in the right way and how unrealistic such things are for a regular home cook. As a chef myself, I do believe that the detail is crucial to unraveling the true potential of the dish. So I compare my home cooking to the picture of an actual recipe to reveal the tricks used by commercial food photographers as well as the complexity behind it.

Kotryna Kondrotaite

The importance of food presentation in the present world kotryna.kondrotaite@gmail.com

I have grown up in up in such a beauty- obsessed world. A world that didn't represent anything that influenced body positivity. Social media and influencers led many women to build up a negative relationship with the way they looked and felt about their bodies. I aim to subvert these ideologies and be a voice to the voiceless of many young women, and help them build up a healthy relationship, where young women will feel good about themselves.

What could social media look like if it stopped the over glamorisation of the thin, wealthy, and white stereotype that has been represented over the past years. This aim is to empower young women when they go on social media and embrace their body image. Through my research I explore how I can subvert these stereotypes and can be a voice to the voiceless of many young women and embrace their lived body. #EmbodyYourSize

Zoe McCarthy

Embody your size zmccarthy123@outlook.com

The years of the 1990s were an emotional time for my family when they had to flee Kosovo to migrate to the UK. This occurrence became meaningful because of the dramatic cultural changes and the sudden need to adapt to a foreign country. This research project presents my family’s background of immigration to the UK and their feelings and emotions as refugees. It documents the different objects that my family members have kept from their homeland and that remain meaningful to them These feature in a documentary video alongside interviews with my family members, found footage from the period of the Kosovan War, archival images, and recent footage showing family and everyday life in London. This idea was inspired by my family background and the challenges they faced as refugees and starting a new life. Therefore, the project allows the audience to listen to a refugee’s story and be in touch with their culture.

Vesa Morina

Memories in Exile—Leaving Kosovo and Objects of Home vesa2009@live.co.uk

Media is an ever-evolving landscape but has always been a means to provide information to the masses. With the power that all forms of media uphold, it can become an incredibly dangerous device concerning what information is told and how it is articulated. Due to the technological revolution information is now more accessible than ever; both the production and consumeristic nature of media is easier to obtain. Whilst this can bring great benefit to a society and culture it can also be used as a tool (intentionally and inadvertently) to create false narratives. This can be particularly dangerous concerning nonfictional forms of media, such as news and certain aspects of social media. With the use of transmedia, the spiral of information that can be depicted from a single story is vast and often unconcerned with truth. Therefore, the project is a representation of how media can create false narratives. This will be portrayed through one holistic story being told within different forms of media such as: A short film, two newspaper articles (both of differing political ideologies), a news broadcast as well as an online reaction video.

Jack Morgan

Puzzling jack.amorgan@yahoo.com

Have you ever felt that you are everywhere and at the same time nowhere?

We are living in an interconnected world in which cultural identity is intertwined and expanding in so many different ways. A sense of belonging is what we all strive for in this world. The feeling of displacement is inevitable throughout the journey of life. The answer lies in the memory that we choose to hold dearly in our hearts. This short documentary explores the story of a girl finding that sense of belonging through her journey from childhood to adolescence and adulthood. She travels far only to realize home is always in front of her. The journey starts from the far Eastern part of the world and ends in the West. And like Greenwich where the dividing line between eastern and western time zones is set to serve as the center of navigation worldwide, the fine line where she finds her home acts as the definitive line between two parts of the world that are so significant to her life.

Anh Thuc Nguyen

East Meets West: sense of belonging thucanh264@gmail.com

Over the years I found that while I was looking at online articles about makeup for people of colour, and watching makeup tutorials, I became quite interested in the names of these products. The more I saw the more I felt that some of the product names could be seen as offensive and do not represent people of colour. Most of the product names are based on desserts, drinks or are a simple standard name for darker colours. This can cause issues around reducing a whole race to inappropriate names, sexualisation of women and colourist ideas.

Shaniqua Pinnock

How do cosmetic brands use language to describe make-up shades for darker skin tone? shaniquapinnock01@outlook.com

Being "Green" today raises the perceived value of a brand. And rightly so, because the historical moment we are in requires sustainable work. The consumer is rapidly evolving: he is more informed, connected, aware, and seeks meaning in his choices. It is critical for corporations to be able to establish trusting connections with consumers, for the benefit of both industry and community. Despite this, the phenomenon of greenwashing, which is a façade ecology that leads to the assumption of having acquired something entirely green when, in reality, the product is not at all—or almost—sustainable, occurs regularly. A sustainable brand identity lasts because it conveys credibility in line with the brand's stance, as well as the most common values connected with it, such as its vision, objectives, and values. Kiddykin is a research project that tries to define the terms "green" and "greenwashing" in the toy industry, as well as to criticise those who use the latter through satire in an adverse commercial.

Salvatore Alessandro Rimpici

Kiddykin: a tough green to follow totyrimpici@gmail.com

The creative decision making process is often an intuitive one, especially in the case of a sound designer working with moving image. Progression is made through experimentation, identifying the elements of their work which best suit the narrative of the image, then taking those ideas forward. However, a key challenge faced by those working in this field is difficult deadlines; short and demanding timescales often result in a lack of time for the sound designer to do the neccesary experimentation to reach the desired outcome.

Therefore, this project aimed to investigate if a more systematic approach could be taken when making creative decisions. A short film soundtrack was produced, using practical examples of sound design theory which were researched earlier in the project. Instead of relying solely on experimentation and intuition, the process had a theoretical and informed basis from its inception.

Morgan Smith

The Audio-Visual Experience: Articulating Creativity morgansmithaudio@gmail.com

Social media sets unrealistic standards and expectations of how one’s body should look. That can lead to disordered eating behaviours, negative thoughts or even plastic surgeries. Trying out new filters on Instagram made users feel better about themselves, and with the development of this application and new filters coming out people stopped looking like themselves anymore.

I’ve decided to do a research about how social media has influenced women’s perception of their body image. The consumption of image online has grown a lot in this generation, so I’ve decided to reach my audience through film. Whether we’d like to admit it or not, social media has changed the beauty standards.

Gabriela Zukowska

Body Image gabriela97421@gmail.com