Dr Danny Cookney, SFHEA - School of Digital Arts (SODA) – Manchester Metropolitan University

I’m a Senior Lecturer in Creative Digital Design and Assessment Quality Lead for SODA. I’m additionally a Senior Fellow of the HEA.

My own transdisciplinary research output has predominantly been organised around the intersections of sound and image including visual identity as it relates to and is applied to music outputs. This interest has prompted critical engagement with record cover design, music video and portrait photography (mainly for musicians/producers involved in areas of electronic music/dance music) and has, at times, been linked to my practice work as a graphic designer.

Prior to joining SODA/Manchester Met, my experience included delivering international partnership programmes and I have taught at universities in both Malaysia and China. Meanwhile, as an External Examiner, I have also been involved in overseeing standards for courses in Singapore and Egypt. As a writer, I’ve additionally contributed to a range of print and online platforms and co-edited the 2017 book Music/Video: Histories, Aesthetics, Media (Bloomsbury).

Research

Books

Conference, U.O.S.C.O.A.A.S.S.P.R., Taylor, E., 2012. 'Extremity and Excess Proceedings of the 2011 University of Salford College of Arts and Social Sciences Postgraduate Research Conference'.

Book Chapters

Cookney, D., 2017. 'Vimeo Killed the Video Star: Burial and the User-Generated Video'. In Music/Video Histories, Aesthetics, Media, Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

Cookney, D., 2012. 'Post-human pop: from simulation to assimilation'. In Extremity and Excess Proceedings of the 2011 University of Salford College of Arts and Social Sciences Postgraduate Research Conference.

Cookney, D., 2012. 'Sshhh'. In Reverberations The Philosophy, Aesthetics and Politics of Noise, A&C Black.

Journal Articles

Cookney, D., 2024. 'As Night Turns to Mourning: YouTube's Ahistoric Rave Archive', Imaginaires, 26, pp. 115-131.

Cookney, D., 2019. 'The Architecture of Underground Dance Music: The Work of Shaun Bloodworth', Architecture and Culture, 7 (2), pp. 235-247.

Arnold, G., Cookney, D., Fairclough, K., Goddard, M., 2017. 'Introduction: The Persistence of the Music Video Form from MTV to Twenty-First-Century Social Media', Music Video Histories Aesthetics Media, pp. 1-13.

Conference Papers

Cookney, D., 2025. 'A City != A Scene: Observing The Limitations Of San Francisco'S Significance As Music Signifier', Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, 15/7/2024 - 17/7/2024, in AMPS Proceedings Series, 40 (3), pp. 266-273.