Birdhouse - Reuel Catchpole, Joseph Snell, Ronan Bradley, Terése Winter and Abi Cookman

Consisting of Reuel Catchpole (Drums), Joseph Snell (Guitar), Ronan Bradley (Bass), Terése Winter (Vocals) and Abi Cookman (Vocals), Birdhouse was formed as part of the popular performance module on the music course. Their original songs blend elements from styles such as jazz, funk, pop and rock, and have been well received when played in venues like Mountford Hall and The Cavern Pub. Despite recently finishing their degrees, the band are keen to continue making music and performing in and around Liverpool, with the hope of releasing their first single later in the year.

Follow their socials: @birdhousetheband

Caitlin Nash

Caitlin Nash is a 23 year old indie rock/pop singer songwriter from Derry. Beginning performing at 15, Caitlin has played all over Northern Ireland and England both solo and as front woman for several bands. From Stendhal Festival in Limavady, to The Cavern Club in Liverpool. Taking inspirations from the likes of Dolly Parton, CMAT, and Mazzy Star.

Charlene Soo

A singer-songwriter, music producer, composer and aspiring pasta addict, Charlene is a Singaporean musician looking to establish her career in the creative industries. With musical roots stemming from classical piano at the age of 7, she has since explored other genres of music and branched out to performing and writing Pop, Alternative and EDM tracks. Additionally, her higher education - which includes undergraduate studies at both the University of Liverpool and The University of Western Australia has led to her further honing her craft in sound design and synthesis, plug-in design, creating interactive music systems and composition for film and games.

Daniel Aston-Clarke, Molly Fitzpatrick, Philippa Mack, Ka Ho Tang

She was Just Walking Home was overseen by the Urban form and Social Space research group. The cohort investigates the production and transformation of urban form, as well as the social and political dynamics of public space.

On the 3rd of March 2021 Sarah Everard was kidnapped, raped and murdered by Metropolitan police officer Wayne Couzens, actions of violence which dominated media headlines. The attack sparked vigils and protests, signalling the pressing issue that is safety for women in public space. In light of renewed attention garnered towards issues of safety, we argue, as a certified profession, architects have a responsibility to challenge existing practices of design. The United Kingdom has a myriad of design documents which fall under the National Planning Policy Framework, from which our hypothesis is critical, asking whether these official guidelines are inadequate. Furthermore, we believe these, and similar, documents standardise and homogenise a protagonist, which excludes those who personally identify with “non-normative” characteristics (race, sexuality, gender and age). Through objective data gathering, on-site primary research and drawing upon lived experience, we analysed what the guidelines determined as adequate and second, challenged these norms. By doing so we came to understand how the design of our built environment is failing women.

Dr Diana Powell

Originally from the US, Dianna spent 4 years in Bangkok teaching at an international school before coming to Liverpool for her MA and PhD. In 2019, Diana began volunteering in her local area, which led to the creation of Wirral Unplugged. As a former teacher, Senior Fellow of the HEA, manager and mentor, Diana feels passionately about helping students and gain meaningful experience. She values the enthusiasm, expertise and skills students bring to support families with children 3-10 and the exciting, creative solutions that come from this collaboration.

Fraser Cattini

Still only 19 years old, Fraser Cattini has garnered respect amongst peers twice his age on the London folk scene. His well-crafted and lyrically sharp songs have led Loud and Quiet magazine to describe him as having ‘the urgency of Dylan and the melancholy of Elliott Smith’. at just the age of 16, his songs grabbed the attention of BBC Introducing during an open mic competition - leading to a performance on the BBC Introducing stage at Latitude festival. Cattini now studies his two passions at the University of Liverpool - Music and English - where his songs are already capturing attention in this different city.

George Groucott

George is a third year Communication and Media Student, a course has enabled him to understand the world around him and given him the opportunity to express his views and perspective. George belives that similarly to philosophy, the media interprets our world, its values and ideas to us. Like science, the media explain to us how things work. And like psychology, the media helps us understand ourselves and others. 

However, a reason for why George formulated this video is because he also sees how the media can also make people misunderstand and wrongly influence themselves, especially regarding to mental health issues, consequently forming dangerous stigmas. These stigmas and forms of discrimination can contribute worsening symptoms and reducing the likelihood of somebody getting treatment. By destigmatizing mental health and improving our mental health care system overall, George is certain that everyone can be closer to being happy. George doesn’t want this video to be a sob story, but an example of the power of communication.

Haiyun Zheng

A narrow lane, with pavements on the either side like teeth of a zip; walking in between is unzipping – slowly revealing, at night, the concealed ‘inside’ of a city. 

It seems appropriate to take a dive – Into, the city skin. 

To pierce the ambiguity of an all-too-familiar city, the film takes a fresh perspective and rediscovers the cityscape at night. It was scripted, shot and edited by myself in Jingzhou, China, in February 2021, supported by our student magazine GRID. Haiyun is a second year Architecture student and this is the first time that he has tried to practice and combine film and poetry, which he found a difficult yet thrilling journey.

Hannah Merchant

Hannah is a third year English Literature Student, who describes herself as a go getter, proving those who told her university was unattainable wrong. She felt "empowered and motived" upon recieving her place at the University of Liverpool. During her time at university she has rediscovered her love of writing, and recently found a new love in writing poetry. Hannah will be reading a selection of her poetry which focuses on her political activism and British Pakistani heritage. She has complimented her studies becoming a Student Ambassador, completing a work placement which involved teaching poetry and becoming Social Secretary of the Liverpool Guild Student Media Society.

Jack Symes

Jack Symes is a public philosopher and writer. He is a graduate of the University of Liverpool and now known as the producer of The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast. The podcast, in which Jack discusses philosophy with the world’s leading thinkers, has over 75,000 regular listeners. He is also the editor of Talking about Philosophy, a series of introductory philosophy books aimed at the general public.

Jack is also an experienced public speaker who is keen to collaborate with public-facing organisations in philosophy – most recently, he has been producing content alongside the Institute of Art and Ideas, the John Templeton Foundation, and the New College of the Humanities.

Jessica Goh

Jessica has just finished the final year of her Philosophy and Politics degree. Jessica came to The University of Liverpool three years after finishing her A-Levels. During her three gap years Jessica qualified as a personal trainer and signed with her first modelling agency. Her experiences in various industries fostered her interest in how the world works and how people think, which inspired the choice of a Philosophy and Politics degree. This presentation is a condensed version of the original that was given for the module ‘Mind, Brain, and Consciousness’.  Jessica hopes that you find this presentation thought provoking… and maybe a little unnerving!

Louise Ellinson

Louise is a conductor, singer and violinist, with over twenty years’ performance experience as a soloist and choral singer. She her gained initial conducting experience from her decade as a teacher, before completing the Sing For Pleasure Conductor Training Programme. 

She is fast developing an excellent reputation for her conducting, and currently directs four choirs: alongside the Staff and Chamber Choirs at the University, Louise is part of the Halle's Workplace Choir conducting team, and is Musical Director of the Weaver Valley WI Group Choir, an 80-strong ladies’ choir. As a soloist Louise regularly sings for choral societies and orchestras and in recitals across the North West

Lucy McQuillan

Lucy is 18 years old and currently studying Music and Technology at the University of Liverpool. She has been interested in composition since a very early age and has composed a variety works ranging from a flute concerto she performed with Warrington Youth Orchestra, to computer based works in the style of EDM. Her ambitions after University are to become a producer as well as a composer for film, games and TV.

Min Eung Kim

Min is a dedicated second year PPE student who picked up K-pop dancing after huge demands from Malaysian elementary students that he visited during field trips. Min has been teaching himself to learn with his mother ever since and although it has been one of the most tiresome things he has ever challenged himself to, he has loved it. It was enough to give his mother migraines and was stressful enough that he would spend a lot of time doing nothing until he got the heart for it again. A great hobby if Min says so himself.

Mubarak Dawodu

Mubarak Dawodu is a second year Architecture student from Lagos, Nigeria. He appreciates all forms of artistic expression and creativity but has a bias towards visual arts as he believes it is what he does best.

For as long as he can remember Mubarak has enjoyed drawing and painting; be it buildings or abstracted figures, when he was younger. Mubarak's works are the end result of a combination of many factors- God, talent, a keen eye for detail, his surroundings and lived experiences. Outside architecture and the arts Mubarak enjoys playing and watching football, F1 and cooking.

Professor Kenneth Smith

Kenneth Forkert-Smith is a professor in Music, and is passionate about music, art, and philosophy. He considers it a privilege to have been asked to compere this evening to share in this showcase of talent from across the school. His velvet suit was purchased in 2005 for £5 from Oxfam but has not yet been worn in public.

Viral Video - Emilli Thornton, Anni Wang, Lily Dobing, Tianna Zhang, Wenxuan Pan and Abigail Lemmon

What does it take to make a video go viral? The Viral Video collection comprises the work of six final year Communication and Media students - Emilli Thornton and Anni Wang (BA Communication and Media), Lily Dobing (BA Communication & Media with a Year in Industry), Tianna Zhang (BA Sociology and Communication and Media), Wenxuan Pan (BA Communication Studies) and Abigail Lemmon (BA Film Studies with Communication and Media). The collection demonstrates students’ understanding of the theory and practice of viral media production, and the use of video as communicative tool across social, educational and commercial contexts, experimenting with digital activism, e-learning and travel marketing genres to create videos with contagious characteristics that encourage organic sharing.

Acknowledgements

Student Technicians

Charlene Soo
Elizabeth Wilson-Wood
Lucy McQuillan
Teja Saladi

Student Producers

Hannah Mitchell
Heather Mackelden
Kayane Thomas
Liam Lowe
Oliver Carter
Yen Truong

Marketing 

Belinda Kletz

Programme Director

Holly Tessler

Producer

Kerry Traynor

With special thanks to

School of the Arts Student Experience & Employability Teams

FilmBuddy Media Industries Training

Tung Auditorium