Dr Danny Cookney, SFHEA Programme Leader: SODA Degree Apprenticeships cluster

I’m a Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for SODA’s Degree Apprenticeship programmes: Digital User Experience and Creative Digital Design. My own transdisciplinary research output has predominantly been organised around the intersections of sound and image including visual identity as it relates to and is applied to music outputs. I’m additionally a member of the Research Leadership Group at the School of Digital Arts and a Senior Fellow of the HEA.

This interest has prompted critical engagement with record cover design, music video and portrait photography (mainly for musicians/producers involved in areas of electronic music/dance music) and has, at times, been linked to my practice work as a graphic designer.

An additional area of my exploration has been around visual communication and politics: from investigating right-wing propaganda through to examining protest aesthetics. So far this has culminated in various published articles and the curation of an exhibition at the People’s History Museum marking 200 years since the Peterloo Massacre.

Prior to joining SODA/Manchester Met, my experience included delivering international partnership programmes and I have taught at universities in both Malaysia and China. Meanwhile, as an External Examiner, I have also been involved in overseeing standards for courses in Singapore and Egypt. As a writer, I’ve additionally contributed to a range of print and online platforms and co-edited the 2017 book Music/Video: Histories, Aesthetics, Media (Bloomsbury).