You and I Are Earth – UCL BA Media Degree Show

Rooted in a practice-as-research model, the BA Media programme blends game design, filmmaking, immersive media, and critical inquiry into a future-facing curriculum. Based at the UCL East campus and supported by the UCL School for Creative and Cultural Industries, it supports adventurous experimentation and industry-engaged collaboration.

Spanning Marshgate’s galleries and the One Pool Street Cinema, the exhibition showcases 42 capstone projects. Through speculative storytelling and inventive technology, visitors are invited to rethink how we inhabit Earth’s fragile ecosystems. Step into these collaborative visions—You & I Are Earth—and imagine symbiotic futures where both people and the planet can flourish.

Tickets are free but separate tickets are required for the opening, guided tours, and screenings.

Degree Show – Exhibition Opening Times

• Friday, 23 May: 6:00–9:00 pm (+ opening event)
• Saturday, 24 May: 12:00–6:00 pm (+ Guided Tour 5 - 6 pm)
• Sunday, 25 May: 12:00–6:00 pm (+ Guided Tours 2 - 3.30 pm & 4 - 5.30 pm)
• Monday, 26 May (Bank Holiday): 12:00–6:00 pm
• Tuesday, 27 May: Closed
• Wednesday, 28 May: 12:00–6:00 pm
• Thursday, 29 May: 12:00–6:00 pm
• Friday, 30 May: 12:00–6:00 pm
• Saturday, 31 May: 12:00–6:00 pm
• Sunday, 1 June: 12:00–6:00 pm

Degree Show – Screening Schedule

• Friday, 23 May: 5:00–6:30 pm (Curated Screening + Panel)
• Saturday, 24 May
• Screening I: 12:00–2:00 pm (Curated Screening + Panel)
• Screening II: 3:00–5:00 pm (Curated Screening + Panel)
• Sunday, 1 June: 6:00–7:00 pm (Film Screening)

Exhibition background

A Dutch tin-glazed earthenware plate from 1661, bearing the inscription You & I Are Earth, endured the Great Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666. Unearthed centuries later from a London sewer, it now sits in a museum, a fragile yet persistent reminder of our shared human history and the enduring traces we leave behind.

Its message resists easy interpretation but invites reflection. Rather than defining “Earth,” it suggests a state of being—relational, entangled, alive. In this spirit of Ubuntu, where identity emerges through others—I am because we are—the phrase speaks to collective responsibility and mutual care across time, bodies, and borders.

As the climate crisis deepens and social inequality widens in the face of rising fascist and authoritarian movements, these words take on renewed urgency. Our planet’s fragility is inseparable from the fragility of human relations, particularly those shaped by migration, gender, class and representation. The stories we tell about the world—and who gets to tell them—determine how we imagine futures of justice and belonging.

Rather than retreating into nostalgia or romanticising a lost past, this exhibition insists on transformative connection. It draws from the deep well of media archaeology, unearthing old technologies and forgotten narratives to inform bold, emergent visions. From feminist retellings to diasporic dreamscapes, the works interrogate how media forms shape power, visibility, and kinship.

This year’s exhibition, You and I Are Earth, explores these possibilities through worldbuilding.