BA MEDIA LAUNCH

UCL’s new BA Media, created by DARE members in the media team in collaboration with colleagues in other faculties, was launched on the 9th September 2021 in a high-level debate with a distinguished panel of guests from the world of media.

The screen grab from the Zoom session shows the panel:

Top row: Sarah Ellis, Director of Digital Development at the Royal Shakespeare Company; Prof Andrew Burn, UCL; Prof Michael Stewart, UCL;

Middle row: Walter Murch, Oscar-nominated director and editor (Apocalypse Now; Touch of Evil; The Godfather); Dr Sara Hawley, UCL; Dr Katharine Vincent, Principal, Mulberry UTC;

Bottom row: Paul Ashton, Head of Film and TV at Creative England; Binki Taylor, the Brixton Project.

The event debated the question of how universities can contribute to the creative industries. One theme was the question of education, and how it can foster the multi-disciplinary skills required for purposeful media production, the phenomenon Walter Murch depicted as an octopus. Another theme was diversity and inclusivity, with panellists agreeing that a successful industry depended now more than ever on fostering talent in all communities, among all ethnic groups, resisting the forms of elitism which have dogged both industry and higher education. A third theme was the explosion of cultural and educational enterprise in East London, where the new BA Media will eventually be housed in UCL’s new campus on the Olympic Park. Finally, panellists demonstrated the value of the history of media technologies: the need to learn both from the traditional craft of film-making and the new arts of game design and motion capture.

We hope soon to publish videos of the segments of the conversation with the individual panellists, with their consent. Watch this space.

The BA Media begins work with students in October 2021. The talented new team includes specialists in cinematography, computer art, game design, media histories, media semiotics, and digital ethnography, led by Dr Brigitta Zics of the IOE and ReMAP. It will be housed in the brand-new Emerald Street Studio at the UCL Knowledge Lab.