Simon Miles

Simon Miles

Senior Lecturer in Journalism

Senior Lecturer

Journalism, Creative & Professional Writing

Department of Media , School of Arts and Creative Industries

Simon Miles is a senior lecturer in the School of Arts and Creative Industries, teaching at the undergraduate level in the programmes of Journalism, and Creative & Professional Writing. His research interests include new approaches to journalism and digital storytelling.

Areas Of Interest

  • Journalism
  • Creative & Professional Writing
Simon Miles

OVERVIEW

UEL

Simon's original role at UEL was to develop and run some of the key production-based modules that operate within the School of Arts and Creative Industries, but outside of the film and video programme. He is a key member of the team on the journalism programme.

 

Professional

Simon worked for several years as an NCTJ-trained journalist before helping run the country's first NUJ-backed Pathways to Journalism course at Wandsworth Prison.

Creative

Simon's broad creative experience across different forms ranges from journalism (a night on the Bosnian front line for Marie Claire; travel pieces for The Independent etc.); through short stories (published by Pulp Faction and Serpents Tail); poetry for performance; theatre (produced at the Blue Elephant and Brockley Jack fringe theatres); documentary (Anglia & Channel 4); and film (two Film Council shorts as writer/director). He also has a special interest in working with emergent artists and is a trustee of a charity working in this sector.

Academic

Originally, Simon graduated from Kent University before completing postgraduate study in the School of Education at the University of Greenwich. Upon joining UEL, he became a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority and has recently completed an MRes research project into new approaches to participatory video.

CURRENT RESEARCH

Journalism

Together with Dr Andrew Calcutt of UEL's Journalism programme, Simon has been working with new forms of journalism, including the news poem, as a way of envisioning a New College of Journalism that responds to the changes taking place in this sector. They recently presented on the subject of Creative Journalism at the Association for Journalism Education's annual conference

KinoUk

Simon's MRes dissertation proposed a new form of participatory video incorporating the use of the mobile phone, the observational long take, and online interactivity within a network of user-generated video platforms under the umbrella title of KinoUk.

 

Digital storytelling

Simon is drawing from his work on KinoUk to research new approaches to Digital Storytelling, also through his involvement in the UnTold UnConference on Digital Storytelling.

Projection

Through collaboration with Coventry University, Simon has worked with the University of Applied Science in Berlin to explore the pedagogic potential of working with students and portable projections within field research.

Papers

  • Co-authorship and interactivity in multi-cam mobile filmmaking: Mobile Creativity and Mobile Innovation Symposium (2013)

  • With Palka, A. (2006). From Trash to Totem: an odyssey of steel. Conference proceedings: Waste and its refusals, 'Waste and its refusals'. Held in 2006 in Warsaw, Poland

Scholarly activities

  • Member of: Writers in Prison Network; The National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE); Media Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA).

  • Trustee of the following charities that work with emergent artists: Not Shut Up; Art Saves Lives.

PRACTICE-BASED RESEARCH

Creative Journalism

  • Reporting Grenfell - 2017

This work is a development of the research into new forms of journalism being carried out by Simon Miles and Andrew Calcutt. The aim here is to experiment with a format suited to a mobile app. The film was presented as part of a paper entitled Creative Journalism at the 2017 annual conference of the Association for Journalism Education.

  • Two-Way Street: Migration & Terrorism in Tempestuous Times - 2017

This collaboration between Andrew Calcutt and Simon Miles explores creative approaches to journalism through an assemblage of various news poems edited together with video. The piece was shown at the UEL staff show, Tempest, and the Affect and Social Media Conference - 2017.

Film

  • Doggerland - 2016
  • Doggerland is a work-in-progress through which Simon Miles and David Chapman of the University of East London, and Adrian Palka of Coventry University are exploring ways of responding creatively to the Essex coastline, and its relationship with Europe beyond. Both the film and the performance are being developed for future exhibition.

    '
  • 'It's a Bad Boy Thing' documentary. Director - Channel 4

  • 'A Clockwork God' documentary. Director - Anglia (screened at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival).

  • 'Love Bites' short film. Director - Film Council

  • 'Missing Pens' animated film, with Stephen Mangan. Director - Film Council

  • 'To My Only Son' short film (director John Dower). Writer - Film Council

  • 'The Message' - directed by Georgina Dobson in an excerpt of 'Away With Words' (director Chris Doyle)

  • 'Oceans' - short film as part of  'The Whole World' online exhibition curated by Ian White of the Whitechapel for Tank TV.

Arts Commissions & Exhibitions

  • 'Touch' 2015; 'Dissolution' 2017: Kunst Am Spreeknie, Berlin

  • 'The Doggerland' as part of RIVER: Co-Curated by Richard Wilson RA & Pete Cobb; UWL (2016)

  • 'Sea Walk' as part of Concert to The Sea, Overstrand, Norfolk (2013)

  • 'Waiting for Elsie' - sound piece at Sheringham Station as part of Norwich Arts Festival. Writer (2002)

  • 'Trains of Thought', Norwich Playhouse, Norfolk and Norwich Festival. Writer/Artist. (2002)

Live Arts Curation

  • The Cupboard Club: London "Weird at heart," The Face (1995-1997) - Facebook page

  • 'North': Benbow House, ex-MI5 Building (1997)

  • 'Waterlow Sunset': Lauderdale House, Highgate, London (1997)

  • London Arts Board: 'London Collaborations' grants to curate two combined arts projects in London: '78', HMS President (1998)

  • 'A OM', The Poster Gallery, Charing Cross Road (1996)

Theatre

  • 'Sporadicity' by Dean Stalham. Director - The Pleasance Theatre, London.

  • 'The Sniper' Writer - The Blue Elephant Theatre, London.

  • 'Not The Hurting Kind'. Writer. Rehearsed play reading at The Brockley Jack Theatre, London

Poetry and performance

  • Various arts clubs, including the ICA, The Plunge Club, Hydra, Nux Vomica, Songbird, Klinker Club, Apples & Snakes, The Poetry Shack, and Express Excess.

  • Ian Hinchliffe, the Memorial, Beaconsfield Art Gallery, London (July 11)

  • The Feast of Nympha, Blacks Club, Soho

  • The Clear Spot, Resonance FM,

  • Art Saves Lives, Hot Tap Theatre, New Cross

  • Two tracks on the 'MISFITS' CD of unorthodox performance (Vital Records):

    • 12: The message (writer)

    • 14: A Bad Wolf's Sad Love Song (writer/performer)

  • 2001 in the Back of  a Hillman Avenger - Edinburgh Festival

PUBLICATIONS

Visit the UEL research repository to view a full list of publications.

Publications

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Full publications list

Visit the research repository to view a full list of publications

Research repository

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