Creative Media Practice Research Insights

Dr Roy Hanney

Welcome to Creative Media Practice Research Insights, a podcast exploring the intersections where art, research, and media-making meet. Drawing inspiration from seminar-based conversations, each episode delves into themes central to practice-led research in creative media, investigating what it means to make, reflect, and theorise in the contemporary media arts landscape. We’ll be exploring topics such as: How early‑career researchers articulate their creative practice as part of academic work (process, reflection, theorisation) Relationships between practical media work (audio, video, installation, performance) and critical theory Innovation in media techniques, technologies, and modes of production The social, cultural and ethical dimensions of creative media (inclusion, equity, environment, community) Interdisciplinary and experimental approaches: crossing boundaries, embracing uncertainty, embodiment, collaborative methods Each episode aims to offer insight both for those already embedded in creative media practice research, and for practitioners curious about how theory and practice can inform one another.

Episodes

  1. Prof. Craig Batty on Building a Creative Practice Research Culture

    MAR 13

    Prof. Craig Batty on Building a Creative Practice Research Culture

    In this episode of the Creative Practice Research Insights Podcast, Roy Hanney speaks with Professor Craig Batty about how universities can develop a sustainable culture of creative practice research. Moving beyond individual projects, the conversation explores the institutional conditions needed to support creative practice research at scale. Topics include leadership, infrastructure, shared language, doctoral supervision, peer review, and the challenges universities face when recognising creative work as research. Craig reflects on the evolution of creative practice research over the past two decades and argues that creative practitioner-researchers play a crucial role within contemporary universities—bringing new methodologies, ways of thinking, and opportunities for collaboration across disciplines. Prof. Bio: Professor Craig Batty is Pro Vice-Chancellor for the College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities at Adelaide University. His research focuses on creative practice research, screenwriting, creative writing, and doctoral education in the creative arts. Over the past fifteen years he has contributed significantly to the development of creative practice research as a recognised field within universities, publishing widely on creative research methodologies, creative PhDs, and supervision in the creative arts. His recent work examines the broader infrastructure, policy, and institutional systems that support creative research cultures. Craig has supervised and examined numerous creative practice doctorates and has been closely involved in international conversations about how universities can better support practice-based research and creative scholarship.

    37 min
  2. The Development Room: How Ideas Evolve, Survive and Sometimes Get Made (with Emma Millions & Paul Jackson)

    12/02/2025

    The Development Room: How Ideas Evolve, Survive and Sometimes Get Made (with Emma Millions & Paul Jackson)

    Creative Media Practice Research Insights – Podcast Episode 8 What really happens to creative ideas once they leave the spark stage? How do they change, strengthen, stall, or — occasionally — make it onto a screen? In this episode, we enter the development room with two guests whose careers span the full lifecycle of ideas in the screen industries: Emma Millions is a development producer, screenwriter and tutor whose portfolio career includes shaping hundreds of pitch decks and developing projects across scripted and unscripted television. She has worked with a wide range of formats, coached emerging writers, and specialises in identifying potential in early-stage ideas. Paul Jackson is one of the UK’s most influential television producers and executives. His career includes major BBC and ITV leadership roles, producing iconic comedy and entertainment series such as The Young Ones, Red Dwarf, The Two Ronnies, and later commissioning large-scale entertainment formats including Britain’s Got Talent. His experience spans the UK, USA and Australia, giving him a unique global view of how ideas survive industry systems. Together, Emma and Paul offer a rare, candid conversation about how ideas actually move through development: how practitioners pitch and refine them, how producers assess their potential, and why decision-making processes so often feel opaque. We explore “development hell,” creative resilience, collaboration, and the structural conditions that influence whether an idea thrives. For researchers, practitioners and anyone interested in the hidden labour of idea development, this episode sheds light on a crucial but often under-discussed dimension of creative media practice. If you’re exploring creativity, pitching, production development, or the dynamics of the screen industries, this conversation will be especially valuable.

    46 min

About

Welcome to Creative Media Practice Research Insights, a podcast exploring the intersections where art, research, and media-making meet. Drawing inspiration from seminar-based conversations, each episode delves into themes central to practice-led research in creative media, investigating what it means to make, reflect, and theorise in the contemporary media arts landscape. We’ll be exploring topics such as: How early‑career researchers articulate their creative practice as part of academic work (process, reflection, theorisation) Relationships between practical media work (audio, video, installation, performance) and critical theory Innovation in media techniques, technologies, and modes of production The social, cultural and ethical dimensions of creative media (inclusion, equity, environment, community) Interdisciplinary and experimental approaches: crossing boundaries, embracing uncertainty, embodiment, collaborative methods Each episode aims to offer insight both for those already embedded in creative media practice research, and for practitioners curious about how theory and practice can inform one another.

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