the distributed university

In this two-minute film, I envision a future where it is no longer necessary to move into the city to study at university.

 
 

festival of innovation - the challenge

This competition was part of the Scottish Institute for Enterprise Festival of Innovation.
The challenge was to create a two-minute envisioning the future of learning in five years time and exploring a student’s journey through the day. The five winning entries had a cash prize of £200 and would serve to inform the topics discussed at the conference Shaping the Future.

the research

This concept is very much inspired by Professor Irene McAra-McWilliam's concept of the Distributed City (1), which we used to discuss during class in my Masters back in 2010. That future feels now much closer. The idea of having international student meet-ups is inspired by the fantastic Distanced Gatherings of the Service Design community in Scotland (2), which have been a great way to feel connected to peers during the quarantine. I had to do some research into robotics (3) to see where technology is at. But I think that we can expect some big leaps in the field in the next few years. After the pandemic, I would expect an increase in investment for research and innovation around automatised and remote working technologies.

(1) the distributed city: https://gsadesigninnovation.com/resea...​
(2)Service Design Scotland (& beyond) #SDSgather​ https://www.openchange.co.uk/sdsgather/​
(3) Some cool robots https://youtu.be/L1UgdoP2aeg​ https://youtu.be/chukkEeGrLM​ https://youtu.be/8vIT2da6N_o​

the making

I work very organically, developing script and illustrations simultaneously.
Then, I move into editing a first draft of the film.
Through the editing, I refine the script and add illustrations and camera movements to improve the flow.


This took about 35h of work compressed in a long weekend, except for the music. I had made that song long before. Anecdotally, this lullaby, full of nostalgic childhood memories, speaks about waking up to the silence of a snowy day and knowing that the school is closed. It was very fitting for the themes of the video. Although it was much shorter and I had to do a rough cut and paste to adjust the length. Can you notice the glitch?

awards