September 2026

I've been teaching now since 2022 — not that long in the grand scheme of things, but definitely long enough for me to be quite firmly back into the rhythm of the academic year (I guess I also spent most of the first 21 years of my life in the rhythm of the academic year too, so that's kind of the majority of my existence). The feeling of fading summer and looming dread... Except these days the looming dread is less of the 'don't wanna go to school' variety, and more of the 'things are about to get wildly busy after a restful summer' variety. University term doesn't typically start until towards the end of September, so usually I have a little bit more of this month to get into the motivated mindset, but this September specifically has been a bit nuts — in a fun way though.

Both me and my partner are busy busy busy, and the hoovering is a chore which often causes us to bicker (mostly because they kind of need it doing at least every other day to stay sane, whereas I am more of a 5 – 7 day frequency person). Anyway, to save our 'marriage', we invested in this large beetle (robot hoover). 

On the one hand, she has kind of revolutionised my life (I think I have manually hoovered once since we got her, rather than every 2 or 3 days). But also, she is far from perfect, and she did cost a lot of money. 

I'm sorry I have gendered the hoover she. I sort of wanted to differentiate her from my boy Henry (now languishing in the cupboard under the stairs), but now realise I have maybe fallen into problematic stereotypes about gendered labour. Oh well.

KJ initially hated her, but has since settled into a state of weary/wary acceptance, will dodge round her if they meet in the corridor rather than running away etc. KJ produces the hair, robot hoover sucks it up. The perfect friendship. (That costs us a huge amount of money on both parts, just for fun I guess)

So my friend V wrote a blog about why she has started using LLMs to code. I have been to 3 (?!?!) events/conferences this month about AI* — in academia, tech and beyond. I have been bothering old friend, esteemed colleague and critical AI-wrangler Dr. Wesley Goatley repeatedly and perhaps annoyingly for his thoughts on the matter. I have been lurking in the peripheral vision of the creator of shadowplay and pondering a lot about the potential of AI image generation to create not 'finished outcomes', but strange, exploratory provocations for human artists to build upon. I have been sob-laughing at the now almost ubiquitous AI fast food signage that proliferates across every high street in the UK. I have been grappling with how to support my students, both those who want to use AI, those who want to avoid it forever, and those who are still unsure what it means for them. I have been grappling with fairly marking AI generated works. I have been grappling with how I feel about all of it! 

But the fact is, these tools are not going away, and if I am going to continue to have a professional career in these sectors (design and education!), I can't just ignore it — I need to consider if, when, and how I might need or want to use it — ideally in as ethical and informed a way as possible. 

I am rarely one to take a hard yes/no stance on anything in life, and AI has been a particularly challengingly polarising issue for me, in that most people I know seem to have an opinion, and many of those are held very strongly! I continue to remain tentative, and have thus far not found many applications where I have much motivation to use it, but perhaps my most intriguing dabbling this month was how it finally unlocked my ability to code/build visual technologies (something which I have always wanted to do, always spent a lot of time with people who ARE doing, and suddenly potentially... can do myself?)

Unfortunately (or fortunately) I have so much other stuff going on in my life right now that my headspace to push this much further is basically zero, but deep down on the to-do list is figuring out whether I can run a local model, so that I can experiment with somewhat fewer ethical and environmental qualms.

(*Side note 'AI' is just a catch all term for a wide range of different technologies. Companies sometimes call AI things which are not, in fact, any kind of AI. What even is AI? As Wes has previously framed it, 'AI' is essentially a brand name. And we're bundling a lot of different tools, scenarios, ethical questions and ideas into one very big complicated bucket.) 

But you know, also, remember to go outside and touch grass (or, meet a fox late at night)

Or take a walk near your nearest body of water

 Or... go train spotting? Trains are nature, right

 And then... oh wait... I said I'd go to SCOTLAND tomorrow?! Damn...

 

I went on a Lumo train for the first time! Lumo is an interesting concept to me, in that — as I understand it — most TOCs in the UK are region specific and focus on providing thorough service coverage of a particular area. Of course there are overlaps between these regions (for e.g. Southern and Thameslink trains serve my current neighbourhood), but there are few (correct me if I'm wrong?!) TOCs that a) service such a limited number of routes as Lumo, b) totally overlap with another provider's services, and c) are actually meaningfully attempting to distinguish the service they provide in some way? 

With the return to nationalised rail (good!) it will be interesting to see whether more private providers emerge alongside this (or indeed, can emerge, given how densely scheduled our networks are) to attempt to provide alternatives. Lumo's whole deal is that they're aiming to provide more affordable services between London and Scotland — presumably by running a lower density service and ensuring all trains are at capacity, plus putting hard limits on luggage like an airline. These changes are mostly subtle and didn't especially affect the journey, though I do like knowing there's a possibility I might not have to sit in a full carriage, and with Lumo you're basically always going to be on a totally packed train (BUT crucially, if it all works as planned, not with anyone standing). 

Anyway, I stayed with lovely pal Jess in Edinburgh (and had a tasty pizza dinner with her) before heading up to St Andrews the next day, where I had (somehow?!) been invited to host a guest lecture with some Human Computer Interaction students and staff at the School of Computer Science. (Basically a bunch of cool people saw my installation at EMF over the summer, and some of them were kind enough to invite me to come and do neat stuff, including lovely Thomas here at St Andrews!)

I had a very lovely time visiting St Andrews, it was extremely nice (as always) to see the sea (and from a bit of the UK coast I'd never been to before!) and while I had a bit of imposter syndrome about speaking at such a prestigious university, everyone was extremely welcoming, my talk went well, and I made some other interesting connections there, so all in all a very rewarding trip. (Also I saw a cute birds nest in a public toilet by the sea, bonus)

And then straight back down the country again (reading my poncy academic book about feminism and pedagogy while listening to rowdy dance music all the way)

 

Hey, did I mention: she's a good girl?

A lot of you ask me about KJ when I see you in person, and this is probably because I have previously bitched so much about what an asshole she is. And you know what, she still is an asshole! She still likes to snarl and lunge at other dogs every day! She still wants to fight every single motorbike! She still occasionally gets confused and barks at an old lady pushing a pram! She still shouts every time our neighbours leave the house! BUT, she's also on the good drugs which chill her out a bit, has absolutely zero separation anxiety, sleeps most of the day, is rapidly aging out of needing longer walks anyway, and lives 2 be cuddled by her trusted friends. She's doing her best and I'm glad she's around.

It was open house festival earlier this month and I had a nice day sitting in my Quaker Meeting House saying hi to visitors.

And then it really was time for those back 2 school feels

Feelings which were hilariously misplaced when, due to a slight miscommunication, basically none of our new students showed up for welcome week, and I needn't have done all that prep for them, sigh

So instead of my planned welcome week activities, I got an unexpected day off in which I hacked back brambles and went to a design festival event about train station way-finding signage (very on-brand)

 Lot of these guys around just now

 

Spent the day at one of the aforementioned AI conferences (AI, Communities and Co-ops — the Co-tech autumn gathering, which I attend as part of Cookiewolf). There was one really useful panel in which I scribbled down loads of words and phrases I needed to google later. Then I went to Vs and we played 'A Fake Artist in New York!) (This illustration was our collective rendition of 'bird')

The next night, me and my partner went down to Brighton for their friend Cecil Fenn's book launch, 'The Restorative Artist', at the very beautiful and suitably gothic St Mary's Church. (Cecil is great, and I absolutely wolfed down this book over the following few days, hard hard recommend, and not just because Cecil's our friend!)

Okay the more of these I post the more I am realizing I really did do a lot this month, maybe it's no wonder I feel slightly brain fried. I went to the Digital Design Weekend at the V&A! Feels like kinda an obligatory thing to check out, as I always see cool stuff I later go on to reference to my students, and it helps keep me abreast of cool stuff going on it creative tech circles. As always, lots of fun projects and interesting people! And I bumped into three different lovely colleagues making their way around.

Trouble is, when you do lots of cool stuff, you've then gotta catch up on TASKS (it's okay, I like task day)

After the previous week's false start, it was finally time for NEW STUDENTS!! And yes, they actually showed up this time. We have 25 this year (we only had 15 last year which was Not Good), so this is excellent news, though also many more names for me to have to try and remember. (As of Oct 1st writing this, I THINK I've got 8/25 down, which is not bad)

I hate horror movies! BUT — I loved the Backrooms. I spent my childhood drawing infinite imaginary floorplans, spent my teens photographing creepy abandoned buildings, and have always been fascinated by weird, liminal spaces. It was just the right level of scary for me, too. Very fun, very good. 

Hilariously, the next day I ended up roaming through some IRL backrooms — I signed an NDA so I cannot tell you why!! But it was extremely fun and weird and I will be able to tell you in like a month or two. Thanks as always to V for bringing me along for a weird ride.

You know what happens EVERY DAMN YEAR in September when Emma has too much fun? Throat gives out. I'm not actually sick (have so far managed to avoid the dreaded freshers flu this year), I just have this bad throat situation which has been going on since 2021-ish, and which I have been cycling through various different NHS waiting lists for since like 2022. I am finally with the ENT team but now waiting for more support. In the meantime, steam inhaler?! It's gooooood

(The diagnosis might be 'Emma talks too much' but I will never shut up. Sorry bod.) 

Had a weirdly intense moment where I stepped off the train on my way home from work (after a very nice first actual taught session with the new students) and the air just smelled SO GOOD but in a kind of inexplicable way. Just like... 'the nicest day'. Felt overcome with the joy of being alive! 

Then I got on another cross-country train to York, to see lovely Dav! (Lovely Justin was elsewhere, rude tbh)

Thus commenced my slightly mad tour of the north. Up to York to stay over at D+J's place Friday, then on Saturday into Leeds to table at Leeds Zine Fair! It was an extremely good time, loads of great buys and trades, obviously made a massive loss because that's how zines work :) (I did sell plenty!! I just bought more!!)

Then on Sunday some quality York time with my favs. Dav took me to the beautiful park where he works as a gardener, I saw some cool weird kinda-cucumbers and autumn leaves. And then we had great momos for lunch (Justin also got back from where he had been, which was lovely, but he doesn't get a mention here because Dav did all the hard hosting work like cooking me dinner and taking me out outings ;)

And then the next day I travelled on a ridiculously early train all the way over to Lancaster (annoyingly getting from York to Lancaster takes longer than getting from London to York despite it being like half the distance). 

I feel like these visual diaries maybe seem to present this like, high-energy vision of me just DOING ALL THE THINGS, so I feel like it's also worth noting: My IBS is worse than it has ever been, my bladder continues to be tiny, hopeless and annoying, and since coming off the pill, my periods are now long and painful once again. I suffer a great deal! I have to make meticulous plans to ensure I am comfortable! I do not draw about this very often, but it is often a challenge, and a great part of why I like, mostly, to travel alone. 

Anyway, with perfect timing, those three factors came together on this day to throw me into a whole world of misery. That, paired with the 5am start meant that I was at far below my best for my appearance at this conference.

I was invited to speak at this event by Joe, another person I met at EMF. They were running the aforementioned Shadowplay installation, which I thought was super cool, and they seemed to like my weird thing as well. They're a design researcher at Lancaster Uni, and are doing a lot of work with AI (and otherwise). This was another big case of imposter syndrome for me, because what would *I* have to say at a conference about AI?! But I was excited to attend anyway, because a) I like a trip (especially one that someone else is paying for, b) I like Joe, and c) I am, as mentioned, trying to learn more about AI, and the ways that people at other universities are talking and thinking about it.

I'd only ever been to Lancaster once before, many years ago with my ex, Ava. We stayed with a friend of Ava's, Naomi, who I really liked back then, but we sort of fell out of touch after me and Ava split up and Twitter died a death (which was the main way we saw each other's lives). Anyway, enough time had passed that — while I had thought about reaching out to her — I figured she might not even remember who I was. But the universe has other plans, and I almost laughed out loud when — after taking my seat — I looked across the conference room to see she was also present.

During speed-networking, I sidled over and we laughed at the weird small world coincidence — and even more so when it turned out she's like, Joe-who-invited-me's closest colleague. Wild. 

Anyway, this was nice, because I'm always a bit worried at these events that I'm gonna be a weirdo on my own OR an annoying shadow of whoever the cool person who invited me is, but in this case I got to hang out with Naomi and Joe, and feel nicely social rather than like an awkward outsider.

Because of aforementioned body woe and exhaustion, the little mini-workshop I was running went, I think, just fine (my brain was not firing enough on all cylinders to be actively impressive) — but Joe seemed to like it well enough (which is what matters, given they invited me). I really enjoyed everyone else's contributions, and ended up meeting a few other interesting people as well, so all-in-all, a very worthwhile trip.

(The background of this one is naff conference centre carpet, which I love) 

 

The next day it was time to go home, but not without first going via Manchester — because my friends Kim and Sylvia were getting civil-partnershipped!! (I mean, could they have timed it any more conveniently?!)

I also got to meet some people IRL that I had only ever met online before, which was extremely cute. However, I was also feeling sufficiently bloated and miserable that I could not face after-party food and mingles, so I (probably somewhat abruptly, soz) excused myself for train back down to the warm and safe embrace of London, and my own bed and toilet once again. I enjoyed doing this drawing on the train back though, extremely strong wedding looks.

When I was in Lancaster, Joe mentioned that they were coming straight down for an event at the Barbican Conservatory, where they'd been asked to run their Shadowplay installation. Because I am just that kind of person, I was like 'ooh can I come?!' (I love any excuse to go to the Barbican)... They were like 'well it's kind of an invite only thing' and I immediately felt embarrassed for even asking. But then they were like 'I'll see if I can get you on the guestlist...'

It turned out that said event was being hosted by the Sustainable Fashion MA at the London College of Fashion (i.e. technically colleagues of mine, as the LCF is part of UAL), which I think helped with succesfully getting my name on the guestlist.

I freaked out a bit when I realised it was a fashion event, but hopefully managed to pull together enough of a 'look' to slide undetected between all the legitimate attendees. 

It was an utterly bizarre but also kind of wonderful night — hosted in the Barbican conservatory (one of the last events in there before they close to renovate for a few years), which is just the most beautiful space, and I'd never been there at night before, which was somehow even better. The whole thing had presumably been funded by some rich fashion company, so there were very fancy canapes and very nicely printed handouts. There were all sorts of interesting installations, projected films, activities and workshops hidden in amongst the tropical planting, while everyone mingled with their wine — all supposed to provoke reflection on sustainable futures for the fashion industries. 

I'd expected to just like, drop in, say hi, then drop right out again, but something about being in that stunning conservatory at night with all these artsy people, it was just kind of intoxicating and gorgeous and weird. Neither me nor Joe (nor his lovely creative technologist friend Chris, who was helping run their installation) had really known what the whole deal was going to be ahead of time, and I enjoyed sort of, sitting on the sidelines with them, watching it all unfold. Very fun, weird night. I should gatecrash fancy parties more often. 

But maybe not in October. Maybe in October I should like, lie down, or something?

August 2026

The theme of the month for August has been trying to take it easy. Not always succeeding, and in truth mostly having the worst of both worlds which is neither really resting nor making much money, but so it usually seems to go over the summer for me. As there’s no teaching and lots of colleagues take long periods of leave there’s less to do with my academic work, but there is still prep for next year, and after the success of my EMF installation I’ve had a couple of talks to write. As for freelance work, it always quietens down a great deal over July and August, but still not enough for me to entirely log off. 

For example!! Here I am trying to have a day of doing nothing. (But when is a nothing day ever actually nothing)

Goodbye to a real one. She was a sweet girl with fur like a storm cloud.

Every day I am glad I had breast reduction surgery back in 2022. In truth I find myself wanting to do visual diaries on this topic often, but there’s only so much you need to hear about my tits, right

Because it means I can wear silly dresses with no bra!! (I have been spending too much on Vinted so it’s probably for the best September needs to be a more financially lean month…)

Another thing I think about a lot is what a hottie I get to share my life/house with 

A delicious dinner at Lai Rai, where I felt like I’d inadvertently ended up eating somewhere much cooler than I deserve, like when you go out on a date with someone a bit out of your league

I went to the Escher exhibition with my friend-colleague Alex and had a lot of thoughts about it which I mostly condensed into one very-long-probably-annoying voice note to a friend. Tl;dr though is I think I kind of hate these ‘experience’ art exhibitions we seem to increasingly be going in for. Also the worst gift shop of all time which is surely a missed opportunity when Escher could have had the most bangin’ merch. Anyway I enjoyed loosely emulating his style in this drawing of a cool church, some great gnochhi, and a very good ice lolly I had (finally found a London place that does those dipped ice lollies I’ve had in Lisbon and Seville but actually vegan!)

Walked the next section of the Vanguard way with Alice (still entirely skirting making any progress whatsoever on the London loop). It was a slightly too hot day but just about tolerable, and I had a very nice time. Across the M25!! (The vanguard way runs from Croydon where Alice and I live down to Newhaven on the coast)

Went to help my partner choose some new glasses and obviously I tried on all the glasses. As they regularly like to remind me, my glasses time will soon come, but when it does you’d better believe I’m going to be a total glasses babe

Had a very very nice summer day excursion down to Brighton with my old uni friends Michael, Lyall and Lucy, and Lucy’s toddler Rowan. I’m maybe misremembering but I feel like it might be the first time we’d all gone back together since we graduated in 2010?! Surely not. Anyway it was another gorgeous day and I felt very nostalgic and happy to have kept hold of these lovely people.

We (well, mostly my partner) had grand ambitions for a meadow in our front garden, and it was going well, but the successive heatwaves have rather done a number on it.

I don’t tend to go in for ‘space stuff’ (as I dismissively refer to all galactic phenomena), so it was that I was sat on my sofa with the curtains pulled eating pizza when the eclipse was happening. But I DO go in for social phenomena, and I could hear that there were loads of people out having fun in the (slightly grotty/dodgy) park right next to my house, so I popped out and found my neighbours who lent me their home made eclipse viewer (It was a box with a hole punched in it and you wore it like a robot helmet). So I enjoyed that, and I also enjoyed the way the shadows of the trees on the front of our building formed little crescents. 

Somewhat manically wrote an over-long talk alone in the dark all day while sweating

Even though I am well aware how problematic this summer’s heat and dryness has been, physically and mentally it is mostly very good for me (35+ is pushing it though). But I do not like how gross London’s streets get, especially when I want to walk along them in sandals.

Me and my partner went out for vegan fish and chips in Peckham and it was GOOD!!! (I normally only let myself have chips when I’m at some off-season coastal town looking at a pier, so a nice treat to just do it like, here)

I finished Disco Elysium!! Everyone is right!! It’s a masterpiece!! I will never stop thinking about it!! (Look, I’m just sad I didn’t get to romance Kim okay)

Went to see V do visuals at Algolush, an ambient version of the usual Algoraves. Everyone got to sit down!! Very good

V has this automated blind which opens at a set time, and I am really into it because the whirring sound and daylight always wakes me up nicely — more gently than an alarm. Anyway, opened my eyes that morning to GREY SKY for what felt like the first time in forever (I’d like to say I was pleased but I’m sorry, blue sky makes me happy, even as we all go down in flames)

 The life of a freelance designer (perpetually pulling this face alone in your house 😑)

Went to V’s monthly boardgame night with her, George, Ada and Kitty and played… Magic Maze? It’s that what it’s called? Anyway it was good and we all managed to team work well and not fall out over it like I could quite easily foresee happening (this picture of a mall is from the Whitgift Centre in Croydon)

The perils of not doing much

Okay look maybe the other reason I’m broke this month is I went out for TOO MANY DINNER DATES (But I love dinner dates) (and I had to try the Purezza Summer lemon special pizza!! It was so good!!)

Okay in news which will surprise absolutely no one, after finishing Disco Elysium I returned to the yakuza franchise (which, despite writing a zine and over 200k words of fanfic about, I have only actually played two of the games). Time for Yakuza Kiwami! Which I will try not to throw over 100 hours at like I did the others 😬

 
Okay enough drawing fictional Japanese gangsters, it’s time to draw an actual real naked human! (Went life drawing to a new place with Ellis and enjoyed trying out black brush pen and white chalk on blue paper)

Got a chest tattoo! (Not over this whole area, but this is indicative). It was actually surprisingly one of the more chill tattoos I’ve ever got? Even ‘red’ areas were like, entirely tolerable for reasonably prolonged periods, and during yellow and green I even felt kind of sleepy and chilled. I think all of the leg ones have been much more painful! Anyway it was a very nice experience and I love it so much I think I’m going to ask the artist to extend it up over the shoulder next time they’re in the country.

Some nights it do be like that (aside, if you know what I’m referring to here, good god I have takes and nowhere to take them, so ask me if you want an extended voice note on the subject 😓)

Over the last couple months this weird little guy has become a local celebrity. He’s got a disabled back leg and loves to scream, which has led many well meaning people to respectively call his owner/take him to the vets/abduct him and attempt to claim him for their own — to the point where he now wears several explanatory collars and there is a neighbourhood campaign of posters about how he is ABSOLUTELY FINE. Also he loves to break into people’s cars/houses etc (with absolutely no regard for the possibility of them containing, for example, an angry German shepherd), so he is surely not long for this world. But in the meantime I think he might be my favourite cat I’ve ever met and I can totally see why several people have tried to steal him, because he really is anyone’s

Beth and Angus came over for boardgames and dinner, and we played this specific genre of game

Since coming off the pill a couple of years ago, I now endure approximately 1-5h per month of excruciating pain, which can be mostly avoided if I get in fast enough with painkillers (but I failed to do that yesterday because I wasn’t paying enough attention). 

Still, in the spirit of trying to not do too much, I lay very still and actually watched a movie which is extremely out of character for me (notoriously movie indifferent person) 

(I actually also watched Project Hail Mary earlier this month as well as Knives Out and both were so good I was even able to forgive the moderate to severe emetophobia triggers in both)

One of my 2026 goals was to table at at least one zine fair, and I finally managed it! As always, the RTS gang showed me a lovely time down in Newhaven, and I made a great new tabling buddy! (Also saw lots of good dogs, clearly)

Mum dropped in to say hi for the bank holiday and we went to see the newly (well, -ish) repainted Crystal Palace Park dinosaurs. They have done a lovely job!

I am now braced for September where everything starts happening again. Lots of people have been saying they are ready for it to be autumn, and I've gotta admit I am NOT, but so it goes. I don't mind the weather getting cooler and I also don't mind the nights getting darker, but both at once is TOO MUCH. 

Anyway, off we go regardless, see you next month I hope!