MonthNote #8: May 2025

Disclaimer: This is my personal journal and includes rough notes from my PhD journey. Some thoughts may be incomplete or not thoroughly researched. Please do not consider any content in my monthly notes to be definitive or final. If you have insights on any subjects I discuss or would like to start a conversation on a topic, please get in touch!

Writing these notes has been challenging. I’ve struggled to concentrate, and it’s been a difficult month both personally and professionally. Balancing a PhD with full-time work is demanding. For the past three years, I’ve been working around 70 hours a week. While I’ve made steady progress in my research, the intensity of this schedule has taken its toll. I feel tired most of the time, which affects both critical and creative thinking.

In the middle of a planned road trip to Venice, we received the sad news that Nick’s grandfather had passed away. We changed our route and drove to Poland for the funeral. Soon after, physical and mental exhaustion caught up with me and I became unwell, forcing me to take two weeks off to recover.

As a result, these notes are being published much later than intended. I’m writing this midway through June, and since I haven’t kept detailed records over the past few weeks, I may have missed some events. Still, there are several updates worth sharing.

PhD Update

I’ve finished the first stage of interviews, conducting a further six in May. Due to some scheduling issues with two participants, I’ve postponed those to the next stage.

In total, I’ve conducted 17 interviews, each around 90 minutes long. I now have ample data to begin analysis and writing. I also started to sense data saturation, which occurs when responses become repetitive and new insights no longer emerge.

The analysis I plan to conduct over the summer will confirm whether saturation has indeed been reached and whether any further interviews are required. My initial sense is that I won’t need to conduct more and can proceed to stage two, which will likely be a survey sent to a broader audience. This will help evaluate and triangulate insights from both the interviews and the literature review.

Fuzzy Studio Workshop

One of my supervisors invited me to take part in a workshop they and some colleagues have been developing. The focus is on creating a digital space where students can learn the more implicit aspects of design through real-time interactions and peer critique.

Currently, they have a tool, but students don’t feel comfortable using it. During the workshop, six teams, each including a student, an academic, and an industry practitioner, collaborated to explore how to design a space that mirrors real-world studio dynamics while leveraging the advantages of online interaction. These include improving accessibility for people who may not be able to attend in person due to disability, anxiety, or other barriers.

It was a productive day of idea-sharing, meeting new people, and seeing familiar faces in 3D.

Reading Group: Resisting AI

I recently took part in another session of A reading group for hopeful technologists. This time, we were joined by the author of the book under discussion, Resisting AI. He provided background to the book, shared some updates, and answered audience questions.

The session, led by Dan McQuillan, centred on how AI is manifesting in everyday life. We discussed concerns raised in his book, including the misuse of AI in persuasive experiments on social platforms, users unknowingly exposing their data, and the hidden risks of tools like live captions.

These points prompted broader conversations on how AI is becoming normalised, similar to how the car was once introduced as a convenience but brought long-term costs. The group noted how dominant narratives present AI as inevitable, particularly in local government and economic planning, limiting space to imagine alternatives.

Dan and others encouraged resisting this inevitability by drawing from feminist, anti-colonial, and queer theory perspectives. We discussed who benefits from AI and at what cost. There was also an emphasis on involving young people in shaping the future of AI and building networks of care and solidarity that challenge top-down technological solutions.

Poland

My sister recently adopted a new member of the family: Leah. A mix of sweetness and chaos that’s impossible to resist. I confess that meeting her was the main reason for my trip to Poland.

A friend also took me to the new Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Many locals are unhappy with the building’s design and placement. I can understand why; it feels like a concrete cube dropped into the centre of the city. The surrounding architecture is already quite inconsistent, with a blend of communist-era structures and modern glass buildings. Over time, as trees grow around it, the museum may blend in better.

The exhibition was excellent, offering strong representation of Polish modern art. Compared to last month’s visit to the MoMo Museum in London, which displays global modern art, the Polish collection felt markedly darker, something I believe reflects Poland’s history and character.

We also visited a restaurant called Madonna. Despite the name, it was not particularly Christian in theme. It had distinctive decor and served some of the best food I’ve had in Warsaw. Italian, not Polish, but very good.

Museum of the Moon

A few days after returning from Poland, we visited Harwell Campus, just down the road from us, to see a 1:500,000 scale sculpture of the Moon made from NASA imagery. I’ve wanted to visit Museum of the Moon ever since it was shown at Southwark Cathedral in London a few years ago, but for reasons I no longer recall, I didn’t make it then.

I was glad it came so close to home. The space was filled with families; children were lying on bean bags, asking questions about craters. I overheard someone highlighting different moon landing sites.

I am aware of other works by Luke Jerram, such as The Sun, currently on display in Cork, which are being exhibited around the UK. These are now on our to-do list.

Road Trip (and a blog post to come)

At the end of June, we set off on a road trip that was meant to be a circular drive to Venice and back, giving us a good look at northern Italy. However, our plans had to change. I’ll share the details in a separate blog post a few days after this one.

Update on goals:

• Ran/walked: 98 km (=410.5 km of the 1000km I want to do this year)

• wrote at least 100 words a day: 12/31 days

• Read at least 20 pages a day: 13/31 days

• Healthy eating and drinking: 12/31 days

• Didn’t buy anything: 6/31 days