DTA Images of Research competition April 2026 by DTA

"Through the Multi-Fractal Looking Glass": Problematising music education to identify hidden barriers to instrumental and vocal learning in adolescents.

2026-03-31 09:44:06 UTC

This research examines barriers to accessing instrumental and vocal tuition among secondary school students, focusing on musical identity, language, and perception. Guided by ‘Friendship as Method’ (Heron, 2020) and elements of diffraction theory (Fox, 2023), it draws on Bourdieu’s concept of musical habitus to frame music as a socially situated practice shaped by background and experience. Despite young people’s strong engagement with music in their leisure time, participation in formal tuition in England is declining (ABRSM, 2021), with financial constraints and a ‘postcode lottery’ influencing access. Addressing a gap in research on non-participating students, the study employs ‘listening rooms’, capturing peer discussions to generate authentic dialogue. Findings highlight the significance of early exposure and community engagement, tensions between school and out-of-school musical cultures, peer conformity pressures, and unequal access to opportunities.

The image was created from key words and a hand-drawn image created by me and then put into Gemini AI.

Rachel Bee: rachel.bee@mail.bcu.ac.uk

Walking the Talk or Greenwashing? Evidence from Portfolio-Level Carbon Emissions in U.S. ESG ETFs Post-Climate Policy Shocks

2026-04-07 09:36:40 UTC

This study examines the exogenous shock of the 26 th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) on the carbon footprints of 28 U.S. ESG exchange-traded funds (ETFs) managed by the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) signatories. Using a difference-indifferences (DID) framework, we find that ESG ETFs experienced a significant increase in carbon footprint following COP26 compared to conventional ETFs. The increase is more pronounced among funds with smaller fund size. The increase in portfolio carbon footprints suggests that ESG ETFs may have prioritized symbolic compliance over genuine decarbonization. The preference for symbolic over substantive decarbonization reflects a behavioral agency mechanism in which loss aversion and perceived risk trade-offs shape fund managers’ ESG decisions. The evidence reveals a discrepancy between ESG labelling and actual portfolio outcomes, highlighting the potential greenwashing within passive ESG investment products.

This image was created by me using Gemini.

Zhida Gao: ZG188@pgr.aru.ac.uk

* TRIGGER WARNING: REFERENCES TO SEXUAL VIOLENCE. *

berga22 — 2026-04-09 13:30:05 UTC

Harassment on public transport is a widespread issue that many would rather look away from than address. It disproportionately affects young people, particularly girls. For instance, 16% of UK girls aged 13 to 18 have experienced unwanted touching on public transport, with the prevalence increasing to 30% among older teens (Girlguiding, 2021).

This interview study examines young people’s perceptions of, and responses to, gender-based harassment in public transport.

Despite being recognised as inappropriate and distressing, many common harassing behaviours (e.g. intense staring or unwanted proximity) in public transport are minimised and disregarded. Young people lack clarity on when and how to report harassment, and fear not being taken seriously. This may lead to harassment being endured rather than challenged.

My research aims to challenge the normalisation and minimisation of harassment, improve the accessibility of reporting pathways, and inform education around this issue to better support young people.

Creation note

The picture was created using Canva. All the quotes are taken directly (verbatim) from my interview study with young participants aged 11 to 18. The digital illustration inside the picture was created using AI. AI was used to avoid drawing or staging a sensitive scenario involving minors. However, it needs to be noted that AI holds its own biases, thus, the resulting image may not be a perfectly accurate representation of harassment in public transport, but it is the closest I could come to portraying the issue.

Angelika Berg, Coventry University, berga@uni.coventry.ac.uk

Can a community creative writing group improve your health and wellbeing?

ddelight321 — 2026-04-09 16:57:42 UTC

My research, the largest longitudinal study in this field to date (404 participants), evidences community creative writing programmes’ (CCWP) health and wellbeing benefits. The study used mixed-, multi-methods, convergent design with sequential elements including a 10-week life-writing programme, six focus groups, 22 interviews, an evaluation toolkit used by four CCWPs, and a nationwide survey. Findings showed participants’ wellbeing improved through increased quality of life, greater motivation to try new things, and enhanced writing confidence. The study implies CCWPs have lasting impact and possibly reduce loneliness, cognitive decline, anxiety and depression, whilst encouraging flow state, meaning-making, and a writer’s identity. CCWPs’ participants are more likely to be older, women, LGBTQAI+, neurodivergent, with experience of mental health issues, abuse, substance misuse, or caring responsibilities. 24 CCWP active ingredients affecting wellbeing were identified and 25 recommendations to enhance wellbeing through CCWPs are suggested.

The writing group image was created in AI and uploaded into Canva where six of the themes arising from the research were included in speech bubbles.

Dominique De-Light: dd652@pgr.aru.ac.uk

Can a theology of deep incarnation lead to an understanding of the salvation of different lifeforms, including extraterrestrial life and artificial intelligence?

srmichaelajane — 2026-04-20 13:14:27 UTC

This image examines the idea of Deep Incarnation and Deep Resurrection in relation to the salvation of lifeforms beyond humanity, including alien life and Artificial Intelligence. Deep Incarnation is understood to be within the tissue of creation itself, opening salvation to the whole of life. It develops the link to a Deep Ecology. At the centre is a radiant, Christ‑figure with arms open, light streaming from a glowing cross from his heart. The idea behind it was that this divine presence anchors the theology expressed in the dissertation. The human figure symbolises embodied vulnerability. The AI‑form, composed of circuitry and light, representing synthetic consciousness. An extraterrestrial, with vines growing from its body is a symbol of life beyond Earth. It includes vegetation which is intertwined with divine light. Animals and alien lifeforms rest and move in harmony. The cosmic backdrop of the moon and planetary horizon frame the scene. I discussed ideas and gave prompts to Microsoft Pilot to generate this image. Sr. Michaela mjt180@pgr.aru.ac.uk

2026-04-21 15:37:07 UTC

Masking is the conscious or unconscious suppression of natural behaviour to conform to societal expectations. Workplace studies show that up to 90% of neurodivergent individuals mask while they are at work. It has been found that 83% of neurodivergent children mask at school and an alarming 60% do so with their own family! Masking has been linked to poor mental health, with research showing high levels of suicide, anxiety and depression in those who do. The photo aims to show the significant emotional burden that masking has upon neurodivergent people. The hot tones of the colour palette of the composition was chosen to represent heightened senses and evoke feelings of alarm. The subject’s distressed expression contrasts with the happy one his mask displays. He holds our eye contact, unsure if he can trust us, challenging us to understand the truth of his experience. This image is a photograph. Evelyn Crosskey: E.Crosskey1@uni.bsms.ac.uk

"Gayme Boy"

2026-04-21 17:00:42 UTC

This pride-themed Nintendo Game Boy cake depicts a pride flag made from Tetris gameplay. My research explores how gender and sexuality are represented through videogame play, narrative, and aesthetics through the field of queer game studies. This cake creation aims to subvert the heteronormative understandings of much of videogame history by playfully reimagining the popular title of Tetris; a title that is so strongly associated with rules and structure rather than possibilities for representation. It celebrates the potential for videogames (and baking) to embrace diversity regardless of the boundaries around us. And it plays the Tetris theme!

This image is a photograph (of a cake based on my research, made by me!)

Lydia Cooke:

l.a.cooke@brighton.ac.uk

When Walls Speak: The Hidden Psychology of Care Spaces

2026-04-21 21:28:22 UTC

This photograph explores how patients experiences in mental facilities might be influenced by architectural design. Projected words evoke circumstances with institutional contexts, such as confinement, limited natural light, restricted movement, and the lack of nature.

Body becomes part of environment enters projections, demonstrating how architecture is never neutral but actively affects behavior, perception, and well-being. Study draws attention to control mechanisms established in design, where spatial choices may limit independence, increase loneliness, and weaken sense of self. Graphic emphasizes situations wider psychological impact abstracting them rather than showing particular institution. It is based on studies on healthcare settings and illustrates dual function of architecture: it may either promote healing and dignity or exacerbate vulnerability and distress.

In end, image provokes contemplation on power of place, which is frequently unnoticed, and how settings created for care may significantly influence human experience.

This image is a photograph.

Dounia Lrhorfi - University of Brighton

D.Lrhorfi1@uni.brighton.ac.uk

Access Beyond Sight: Rethinking Inclusion in Blue Spaces

2026-04-22 09:40:11 UTC

Blue spaces are widely celebrated for their health and wellbeing benefits, yet access to them remains uneven and often exclusionary. This research foregrounds inclusive access, recognizing that current approaches frequently rely on narrow assumptions about bodies, movement, and independence. Through engagement with visually impaired experiences, it explores how access is shaped through sensory, relational, and interdependent encounters with water.

The cake design reflects both the barriers and possibilities present within these environments - signaling how access is often constrained, but also how it can be reimagined. Rather than treating access as a fixed provision, this research positions it as something continually negotiated between bodies, environments, and infrastructures.

By centering lived experience, the project calls for more inclusive, responsive, and equitable approaches to blue space design, where access is understood as collective, embodied, and shaped through care.

Image: Photograph of an original cake inspired by this research, created by Sadie Rockliffe, University of Brighton.
Contact: s.rockliffe1@uni.brighton.ac.uk

Between Air and Water: Where do you belong - above or below?

2026-04-22 09:45:21 UTC

This underwater self-portrait captures a moment suspended between air and water - between breathing and holding, control and surrender. As researchers working in and around blue spaces, we often occupy these in-between positions: observing, participating, and sensing alongside others. This image reflects that tension, where knowledge is not only produced at a distance, but through immersion, vulnerability, and embodied experience.

With eyes closed, perception shifts toward sensation; the pressure of water, the distortion of sound, the movement of breath. The photograph gestures toward ways of knowing blue spaces that are felt, relational, and contingent. It also invites reflection on who is able to inhabit these spaces with ease, and who is left negotiating their edges.

In capturing this threshold, the image represents research as a process of moving between worlds - attuning to difference, and rethinking how access, belonging, and experience are understood.

Image: Underwater self-portrait photograph created by Sadie Rockliffe, University of Brighton.
Contact: s.rockliffe1@uni.brighton.ac.uk

Choreographing Gestures in Piano Performance

2026-04-22 14:55:05 UTC

A recent study found that professional pianists recognise gesture as an integral part of performance. They emphasised that audiences form interpretations by combining visual gesture with sound, noting that “in a concert, you are not only hearing, but also seeing how a person moves.” Although these insights highlight the importance of gesture in live performance, little is known about specific strategies, such as the deliberate use of gesture as a performative and expressive tool, or its effect on musical interpretation.

This practice-led research investigates the impact of choreographing ancillary (non-sound-producing) gestures in solo piano performance, focusing on their influence on interpretation and expressivity from a single pianist’s perspective. It does not examine audience effects. The findings aim to offer practical guidance and initial reference points for performers and researchers exploring embodied, choreographic approaches to music performance.

Image was edited using Canva.

Nastasya Sumantho, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Nastasya.Sumantho@mail.bcu.ac.uk

Arboreal species pay the ultimate price for human expansion.

2026-04-23 13:34:51 UTC

Costa Rica, a country of rich biodiversity, is suffering high levels of habitat fragmentation due to the construction of roads and a sprawling web of electric powerlines that cut through once undisturbed forests.

Monkeys, who rely on forest canopies to travel and forage, are now finding alternative routes as forests are carved into fragments, their world becomes smaller and more dangerous, forcing them to use man-made infrastructure such as powerlines to cross areas now depleted of trees. However, unbeknown to them, these are a death trap, and electrocution is now one of the leading causes of monkey deaths in Costa Rica.

To combat this, we have installed rope canopy bridges over roads, linking forested areas which monkeys are able to use as a safe passage. The project is evaluating the use of these bridges and studying the surrounding habitat, to develop best practices to mitigate monkey deaths.

Image: Mantled howler monkey risking death by using a powerline over a busy road to reach tree canopy, photograph taken by Megan Layton, University of South Wales.

megan.layton@southwales.ac.uk

Fragments of Home: Reassembling Memory After Loss

liuyinuo830 — 2026-04-23 19:25:45 UTC

This image reflects a practice-led PhD exploring how personal and family heritage is reassembled through memory, loss, and distance. By fragmenting and reworking old family photographs through collage, the work disrupts the idea of a fixed past, revealing memory as partial, unstable, and continually reconstructed. Faces overlap, fade, and fracture, holding both presence and absence within the same visual field. The image creates a liminal space where those who remain and those who are no longer present are brought into quiet coexistence beyond fixed time or place. These material traces evoke reflective nostalgia, where remembering becomes an active process of reconfiguration rather than recovery. While presented as a visual work, this image explores how memory is felt, remade, and communicated across time, space, and family networks.

Digital collage created from scanned family photographs, reworked and layered in Photoshop. AI was used only to generate the textured background.

Yinuo Liu, University of Derby, y.liu59@unimail.derby.ac.uk

IoMT Network Security and Resilience

ramadhanrajab — 2026-04-24 09:34:16 UTC

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) integrates interconnected healthcare devices to enable real-time monitoring, diagnosis, and treatment. However, its distributed and resource-constrained nature introduces significant security and resilience challenges. Vulnerabilities such as weak authentication, data breaches, and susceptibility to cyberattacks—including denial-of-service and man-in-the-middle threats—can compromise patient safety and data integrity. Ensuring robust IoMT security requires lightweight encryption, secure communication protocols, and continuous anomaly detection. Resilience is enhanced through redundancy, adaptive network management, and blockchain-based integrity mechanisms. Together, these approaches strengthen trust, maintain service availability, and safeguard sensitive medical data in increasingly complex healthcare ecosystems.

Image: Doctor/Healthcare Practitioner working on her computer at the workplace (hospital) which has been compromised by malware cyberattack. Created by Ramadhan Mohamed Rajab (RAMA), University of South Wales. ramadhan.rajab@southwales.ac.uk

Sonic Sculptures - Nature Loops

2026-04-24 12:56:58 UTC

My research explores how people come together to care for community gardens and other ecological sites, and how these shared practices can be understood as commoning — ways of caring for land collectively rather than as something owned or managed by individuals.

This is an image from a 'sonic sculpture' workshop I ran in Redcar near Teesside in conjunction with Tees Valley Arts and Natural England. We were exploring the sounds of Chatham Marsh by creating our own mini sculptures that use contact mics and looping effects to 'listen' to the sound of the Marsh.

“Skating is living”: lifestyle sport in midlife – a thematic narrative analysis of skateboarders’ experiences in the UK

2026-04-24 14:05:00 UTC

Middle age bridges youth and old age, offering infinite possibilities for reshaping one's life. Lifestyle sports such as skateboarding provide an important perspective for understanding the middle-aged transition. This study explored the significance of skateboarding for middle-aged individuals. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with skateboarders aged 40 or older, and data were analysed using thematic narrative analysis. Research found that middle-aged skateboarders’ experiences reflect how individuals handle the relationship between time and existence. They engage in purposeful activities by challenging age-related stereotypes, embracing lifelong learning, and pushing their limits. Skateboarding is their way of seizing the moment and enjoying life. It shapes healthy behavioural patterns and transforms perspectives in life. Their communities foster a healthy subculture grounded in sharing, mutual support, and the affirmation of individuality. In short, skateboarding is more than riding a board – it’s a meaningful, embodied way of living and connecting.

Image: I designed and hand-drew the sketches, then used ChatGPT to generate images.

Contact: Jingfeng Li, Birmingham City University, jingfeng.li@mail.bcu.ac.uk

LAST ENTRY: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH WALES FACULTY OF COMPUTING, ENGINEERING ANDSCIENCE Forensic Science by Ashleigh-Ann Logan

UA_DTA — 2026-04-30 11:45:26 UTC

Synthetic opioids continue to represent one of the most notable public health threats worldwide, driven in part by the emergence of new psychoactive substances (NPS) that are extremely potent. These compounds have been implicated in many fatalities, with the true number likely underestimated due to analytical limitations. The escalating emergence of these illicit drugs within the United Kingdom’s underground drug market has prompted a growing focus within forensic toxicology, particularly given the limited understanding of their metabolism and physiological disposition. The newspaper-style presentation in Figure 1 highlights the roles of these drugs as undisclosed adulterants in heroin, cocaine, illicit vaping products, and counterfeit prescription medication, increasing the risk of unintentional exposure. The scenery of the image conveys the stark reality and severity of this evolving crisis which is further intensified by the limited availability of scientific literature concerning these drugs. Subsequently, there is an urgent need for comprehensive forensic toxicological investigation to elucidate the pharmacokinetics of these potent substances.