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itinerant space: a journal of art, design and communication research practices, is an experimental online platform for doctoral researchers at RCA.

Editor-in-chief: Professor Teal Triggs
Founding editors: Nick Bell, Karen Bosy, Kirsty Smith
Editors, Issue 3: Nick Bell, Kam Rehal, Yunqi Peng

Contact: itinerant.space@rca.ac.uk
itinerant space, School of Communication, Royal College of Art, Garden House, Dorando Close, London W12 7FN

Peer review panel, Issue 3:
Nick Bell, Kam Rehal, Yunqi Peng (School of Communication)

Website design: Regular Practice.
Site development: Mads Kullberg

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Contributor Biographies

Issue 3 is anticipatory.
The theme for Issue 3 is anticipatory practice and suggests that research is never static nor fixed. It operates in motion, is expectant, if not enthusiastic. For example, anticipatory research necessitates foresight and an understanding of consequences. The work contained within this Issue 3 is research-in-progress, which anticipates for example, the multifarious ways in which the work might be developed, resolved, or might play in opening new lines of inquiry.

As a process, anticipatory practice fosters approaches that instil ‘an openness to be imagined’. This is not about speculation, rather anticipatory research is future-facing and holds the potential for revealing ways of how we navigate an increasingly complex set of contexts, challenges, and interactions.

‘In conversation. We posit – what it could be.’ – Teal Triggs

‘Anticipatory practice is imagining the future. It also means responding to the contradictions that emerge when imagination meets reality in practice. Every unexpected outcome that accompanies anticipatory practice is an opportunity for both surprise and reflection, as it hints at a thoughtful yet entirely new direction.’ – Yunqi Peng

‘Through the doing of research, we anticipate how our contributions might be understood / challenged / further expanded by the work of others.’ – Kam Rehal

‘Inclusive cross-community communication is an anticipatory practice in which social infrastructure emerges – a web of connections and relationships between neighbours, community gatekeepers, organisations and institutions – through which the challenges, opportunities and conditions of future change can be better anticipated.’ – Nick Bell

The Editorial Team would like to thank the eight contributors whose research extracts feature in this issue. The breadth of their subject matter, with the diversity of approaches to project work, predicts the exciting potential for research conversations in the making.

Internet Folklore: Sociocultural Implications of Folkloric Narratives and Characters in Contemporary Online Communities
Ellen Walker

Project overview —

This thesis explores how traditional folkloric practices and activities such as narrative dissemination, ritual behaviours, and symbolic appropriation have shaped and adapted to the sociocultural dynamics of digital media. Drawing from folklore studies, digital humanism, and media anthropology, this thesis introduces the Seismic Cultural Event (SCE) model, a theoretical framework for analysing how folkloric activity during significant cultural events is shaped by media innovations of the time. It also analyses specific phenomena in meme culture and contemporary online communities in regard to how they are informed by folkloric tradition. This will demonstrate how folklore, as mediated through contemporary online communities, reflects and informs upon sociocultural change. Methodologically, this thesis employs an interdisciplinary, multi-modal approach in the form of an “illustrated thesis” format that uses comics to both present and steer academic analysis, a method supported by previous studies which have highlighted the format as valuable for engaging in pedagogical and academic contexts.

Biography

Ellen is an award-winning illustrator, comic artist and writer based in the UK. She is currently studying for a PhD in Communications at the Royal College of Art in London, where she also received her MA in Visual Communication in 2021. Her debut graphic novel UNREAL is scheduled to be published by Little, Brown Ink in 2026. She has written for multiple publications including WIRED magazine, History Today and JSTOR Daily.

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Issue 3: Anticipatory

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Internet Folklore: Sociocultural Implications of Folkloric Narratives and Characters in Contemporary Online Communities
Ellen Walker

Project overview —

This thesis explores how traditional folkloric practices and activities such as narrative dissemination, ritual behaviours, and symbolic appropriation have shaped and adapted to the sociocultural dynamics of digital media. Drawing from folklore studies, digital humanism, and media anthropology, this thesis introduces the Seismic Cultural Event (SCE) model, a theoretical framework for analysing how folkloric activity during significant cultural events is shaped by media innovations of the time. It also analyses specific phenomena in meme culture and contemporary online communities in regard to how they are informed by folkloric tradition. This will demonstrate how folklore, as mediated through contemporary online communities, reflects and informs upon sociocultural change. Methodologically, this thesis employs an interdisciplinary, multi-modal approach in the form of an “illustrated thesis” format that uses comics to both present and steer academic analysis, a method supported by previous studies which have highlighted the format as valuable for engaging in pedagogical and academic contexts.

Biography

Ellen is an award-winning illustrator, comic artist and writer based in the UK. She is currently studying for a PhD in Communications at the Royal College of Art in London, where she also received her MA in Visual Communication in 2021. Her debut graphic novel UNREAL is scheduled to be published by Little, Brown Ink in 2026. She has written for multiple publications including WIRED magazine, History Today and JSTOR Daily.

This comic prefaces the third chapter, entitled “The Folkloric Human Object.” It examines the phenomenon of contemporary online communities projecting the traditional folkloric archetypes of “hero” and “villain” upon real figures, effectively turning them into folkloric human objects.

This comic illustrates the viral Handforth Parish Council Zoom call, exploring how it runs parallel to the conventions of the dragon-slaying hero in British folktales.

This comic illustrates the online treatment of Captain Tom, who was venerated as a hero for fostering the virtues of hope and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic, but mired in controversy due to growing public disillusionment towards institutional responses to the pandemic, and allegations directed at Moore’s charitable foundation.

This comic depicts the interactive, participatory storytelling activities that turned Luigi Mangione into an intensely politicised folkloric human object, crafted as a catch-all symbol of grievances against an exploitative healthcare system.