{"id":2782,"date":"2026-02-04T10:36:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T10:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/?page_id=2782"},"modified":"2026-06-11T13:37:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:37:42","slug":"synthetic-media-network","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/synthetic-media-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Synthetic Media Research Network"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=&#8221;2914&#8243; img_size=&#8221;medium&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">The Synthetic Media Research Network is a community of researchers, businesses and stakeholders committed to ethical innovation in synthetic media \u2013 all media created by or manipulated by AI systems.\u00a0 We tackle the social, legal and political challenges of Generative AI while seeking imaginative applications of the new technology.\u00a0 Our members prototype AI-generated photo-realistic synthetic media across film and screen, healthcare, and education.<\/div>\n<div data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\"><\/div>\n<div data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\"><\/div>\n<div data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">We are a centre of thought leadership, providing an independent, supportive forum for the circulation of ideas. Our discussions foreground key ethical, business, regulatory and legal issues surrounding Generative AI. At the SMRN, we are committed to developing a common set of values to secure public trust in one of the most exciting technological developments of our age.<\/div>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2>Key Staff<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reading.ac.uk\/film-theatre-television\/staff\/dr-dominic-lees\">Dr Dominic Lees<\/a> &#8211; Steering Committee Member<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reading.ac.uk\/computer-science\/staff\/dr-alan-guedes\">Dr Alan Guedes<\/a> &#8211; Researcher<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The network is made up of a variety of <a href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/synthetic-media-research-network\/about-us\/who-we-are\/\">industry professional and academic researchers<\/a>.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2>Events with the Synthetic Media Research Network<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/synthetic-media-research-network\/our-research\/roundtable-meeting-on-copyright-and-ai-training-data\/\">Roundtable meeting on Copyright and AI Training Data<\/a>, July 2024<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/synthetic-media-research-network\/digital-humanities-and-artificial-intelligence-conference-june-2024\/\">Digital Humanities and Artificial Intelligence Conference<\/a>, June 2024<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/synthetic-media-research-network\/synthetic-media-symposium\/\">Synthetic Media in the Screen Industries<\/a>, July 2023<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2>Synthetic Media includes:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Computer vision<\/li>\n<li>Machine learning<\/li>\n<li>Voice cloning<\/li>\n<li>Deep fakes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=&#8221;2910&#8243; img_size=&#8221;medium&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2>Digital Humanities<\/h2>\n<p>Dr Dominic Lees joined the IDRC DH as a co-director in 2025 and brings with him a wealth of expertise in synthetic media. His network brings to the IDRC a group of research and industry professionals who work at the cutting edge of creative media. Along with the ImmerseLab, the <a href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/synthetic-media-research-network\/\">SMRN<\/a> now provides a wider pool of researchers the change to engage with research with real-world impact.<\/p>\n<p>Interested collaborators can <a href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/synthetic-media-research-network\/\">visit the SMRN website<\/a> or <a href=\"d.lees@reading.ac.uk\">contact Dominic<\/a> directly.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=&#8221;2914&#8243; img_size=&#8221;medium&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column][vc_column_text] The Synthetic Media Research Network is a community of researchers, businesses and stakeholders committed to ethical innovation in synthetic media \u2013 all media created by or&#8230;<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"&#104;&#116;&#116;&#112;&#115;&#58;&#47;&#47;&#114;&#101;&#115;&#101;&#97;&#114;&#99;&#104;&#46;&#114;&#101;&#97;&#100;&#105;&#110;&#103;&#46;&#97;&#99;&#46;&#117;&#107;&#47;&#100;&#105;&#103;&#105;&#116;&#97;&#108;&#104;&#117;&#109;&#97;&#110;&#105;&#116;&#105;&#101;&#115;&#47;&#115;&#121;&#110;&#116;&#104;&#101;&#116;&#105;&#99;&#45;&#109;&#101;&#100;&#105;&#97;&#45;&#110;&#101;&#116;&#119;&#111;&#114;&#107;&#47;\">Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1165,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"coauthors":[151],"class_list":["post-2782","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Synthetic Media Research Network - University of Reading Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Digital Humanities<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/synthetic-media-network\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Synthetic Media Research Network - University of Reading Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Digital Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=&#8221;2914&#8243; img_size=&#8221;medium&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column][vc_column_text] The Synthetic Media Research Network is a community of researchers, businesses and stakeholders committed to ethical innovation in synthetic media \u2013 all media created by or...Read More &gt;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/synthetic-media-network\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"University of Reading Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Digital Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-11T12:37:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UniofReading\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"Abbie Tibbott\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/synthetic-media-network\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/synthetic-media-network\/\",\"name\":\"Synthetic Media Research Network - University of Reading Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Digital Humanities\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-04T10:36:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-11T12:37:42+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/synthetic-media-network\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/synthetic-media-network\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/synthetic-media-network\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Synthetic Media Research Network\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/\",\"name\":\"University of Reading Digital Humanities Hub\",\"description\":\"University of Reading Library\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"Digital Humanities Hub\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of Reading Digital Humanities Hub\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/233\/logos\/readinglogo.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/233\/logos\/readinglogo.gif\",\"width\":2386,\"height\":782,\"caption\":\"University of Reading Digital Humanities Hub\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UniofReading\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Synthetic Media Research Network - University of Reading Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Digital Humanities","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/digitalhumanities\/synthetic-media-network\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Synthetic Media Research Network - University of Reading Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Digital Humanities","og_description":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=&#8221;2914&#8243; 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