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Star-studded event welcomes Newsnight negotiator Sam McAlister, writer Armando Iannucci, dancer-turned-techie Prentice Whitlow, choirmaster Gareth Malone and playwright Bonnie Greer.

By Eve Lacroix (Senior Communications Officer), Published (Updated )

In an era of AI, are the human traits of communication and creativity more important than ever?

School launch celebration

Hundreds of students, staff, and alumni attended a City, University of London celebration event for the School of Communication & Creativity (SCC), which saw a star-studded panel of speakers (Sam McAlister, Gareth Malone, Armando Iannucci, Bonnie Greer and Prentice Whitlow) and performances by City students and Creatives in Residence.

The following day, SCC hosted an Open House for the local community. Students gave tours of the facilities, including a visit to the podcasting, radio and TV broadcast studios and the Indonesian gamelan room.

Visitors also enjoyed performances in the Pool, including a DJ set and performances from City’s Creatives in Residence, with Chloe Carterr delivering a spoken word performance and singer-songwriter Joseph Bell performing an unreleased original song. Downstairs in the performance space, community members heard an immersive soundscape.

Left, Joseph Bell stands holding his guitar, next to a resident DJ and Jo Payton, Employability Lead. Behind them are amps and rows of books
Creatives in Residence perform at the Pool

SCC is bucking higher education sector trends by supporting and investing into the arts, having most recently launched the first-ever MA in Podcasting and creating the Artists in Residence scheme. Its motto is “Create. Communicate. Tell stories.”

Established in 2022, the School combines the renowned Department of Journalism; the Department of Media, Culture and Creative Industries (which is the fastest growing of its kind in the UK); and the Department of Performing Arts, which incorporates the recently acquired Urdang Academy, one of the UK’s finest performing arts colleges, specialising in musical theatre and dance.

Professor Anna Whitelock, Dean of SCC, said:

SCC is coming of age and beginning to come together as a School, a community and a place for creatives, practitioners and industry professionals to come together with our students to learn, share, practice and perform.

The feedback from this week’s events from panellists and audience members has been fantastic and with it requests to partner with us on projects, to come and teach our students or to use SCC as a base to host initiatives and events.

This week’s events mark the beginning of a yearly festival of Communication & Creativity and I couldn’t be prouder of staff in the School for making this happen.

SCC beginning to stand out in the sector and get noticed and that’s very much the plan!

Creativity and AI

Discussing creativity, AI and their careers were panellists:

  • Sam McAlister (former BBC 2 producer, the negotiator for the infamous Prince Andrews Newsnight interview)
  • Gareth Malone (choirmaster and broadcaster, presenter of BBC’s The Choir)
  • Armando Iannucci (created In the Loop, The Thick of It and Veep, co-writer of the Alan Partridge character)
  • Bonnie Greer (playwright, critic, author of the memoir Parallel Life, board of arts organisations)
    Prentice Whitlow (award-winning dancer, choreographer, game developer).
Left, Sam McAlister stands and speaks. Behind her, a red screen with an image of Buckingham Palace. Sitting on chairs next to her are fellow speakers
Left to right: Sam McAlister, Gareth Malone, Bonnie Greer, Armando Iannucci, Prentice Whitlow

Writer and broadcaster Armando Iannucci said:

What you think you know is more valid than fact. Those of us who are storytellers need to explore truth and fact even more.

60 per cent of the UK’s economy is in the creative industries. Politicians have an issue with the arts and see it as a cause that is a bit lovey. In lockdown, we saw how reliant we are on the arts.

A different attitude from politicians and tax incentives supporting the arts would make a big difference.

Gareth Malone, who first appeared on TV in the three-part BAFTA award-winning series The Choir for BBC, said:

If music can be faked by AI— was it interesting in the first place?

When our sense of reality and truth has been so rocked, us musicians will hold onto live performance and participation, which is the one thing you can’t fake.

Music doesn’t exist in the air, or in an instrument; it exists in the brain of the person who is experiencing it.

We can never really understand creativity; it is the last bit of magic in world.

Even if a robot is brilliant at dancing, I still don’t give a toot.

Prentice Whitlow, choreographer and digital producer working at the intersection of dance and interactive media, who made a switch from dance to tech, reminded the audience that they did not need to abandon their creative dreams to go into a technical journey. He said:

Here are my three lessons from transitioning from dance to tech:

1. Pick a direction and go boldly forward. Get your feet wet; the path will become clearer as you go along.

2. The barrier to entry not as high as you think. I doubted I could learn to code and I let that doubt stop me. The human brain loves to keep you safe, even if it means keeping you small.

3. Being an outsider is a superpower. Lean into your differences and interests.

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