Digital Direction (MA)

There has always been a need for inclusive, engaged and relevant storytelling, for acting against discrimination, for confronting pervasive, systemic inequalities that permeate lives, and for developing new ways of sharing critical perspectives on the urgent challenges we face.

Our graduates have approached these imperatives collectively, assembling critical narratives that support individuals, communities and environments. Their work asks us to consider how digital storytelling can reveal the impact of our behaviours, the effects of the relationships we create, and to think differently about contemporary ideologies and technologies.

Earlier this year, our graduates presented their final work in an exhibition named ‘Gravitational Wave Memory’ after a theory that examines how everything in the universe that moves emits, and is affected by, gravitational waves. It is theoretically possible to see the ‘memory’ of distant events in the ways that objects move as gravitational waves pass over them. The exhibition presented work that intersects bodies, objects, imaginations, knowledges and communities through storytelling that speaks directly to the major issues and paradoxes of our time.

Works were positioned around three interrelated themes: ‘constructed worlds’ - stories of built environments and social imaginaries, physicality and space; ‘communal history’ - familial narratives, customs and the effects that communities can have on individuals; and ‘presence’ - modes of existence framed by the intersections of physical bodies and identities. Some of our graduates are presenting their final projects again for RCA2021, celebrating their practices alongside those of their peers. We welcome you to explore their work.

Instagram: @rca_digitaldirection

Gravitational Wave Memory: https://rcamadd.com