This film’s journey started when I saw an Instagram post by Abi/Noodlez. The post was for an event called ‘All Ways Apples Festival 2025’, which took place on the 29th of October 2025 at the Market Hall in Devonport, Plymouth. Noodlez was MCing the event.
This event happened the day after I wrote my ‘Myth-Making’ article; therefore, the idea of ‘capturing other people doing cool things’ was on my mind.
Also, I have been keen to make more ‘simple’ projects around prompts. Something like ‘Eggistential’ where the idea, filming, editing, and posting all happened within a day. The work I had done recently on ‘Pills’, as well as my analysis of PhD workshop data, was also on my mind. Simple prompts and seeing where it takes you in terms of thinking. Since the whole event was themed around one thing — apples — I thought it was perfect.
My wife and I had a fun day at ‘All Ways Apples Festival’, and to be honest it was an interesting event. While I did have the intention of making an ‘Apple’ piece before leaving the house that morning, attending the event gave me the reason to complete it. I will often film bits and bobs that never amount to anything (heck, pieces like After Images 3 have been attempted several times)…
(I have been thinking more and more about articles as a method of commemoration. The idea that an article is the reason to write in and of itself, and that it existing gives you the opportunity to look back. By making an article, you canonise an event; alternatively, it makes the event referenceable — ‘this is within the scope of possible analysis.’)
It was crazy how many thoughts came about when attending this festival. Something so ‘simple’ being a gateway into larger conversations. It makes me wish there was a Mango Festival, or a Chair Festival, or a Crow Festival. Anything and everything.
Okay, so what do I mean? A lot of the apples present at the event were not pretty. They were bumpy, with some covered in dirt, and a few with nibbles here and there taken out by some bug or worm. They were not, in my mind, what comes up when I think of ‘Apple’ — some platonic ideal of red, ‘perfectly’ formed, waxed. Seeing these uncommercialised apples made me think about how a lot of our schemas of ‘the way things are’, are artificially chosen by capitalism. The ‘picture-perfect’ apples do not exist in nature really. They exist in marketing, and films, and in children’s cartoons. The idea of ‘the real-world’ vs. ‘what people think the real-world is.’
How much of our world is polished that we do not stop to consider? Are our Platonic ideals just commercial ideals? Do we have the responsibility to ensure that later generations do not think of the processed world as the default? Especially since there is a lot to enjoy about the grotty versions of what is around us, which do not get the moniker of legitimacy.
The food and drink we got from these apples were so delicious. Better than anything I have had from a supermarket. Especially the apple juice! Holy shit!
Circling back to an earlier point, it really is interesting how much ‘Apple Day’ resembled my research ethos and findings. By hyper focusing on a singular topic, all of these off shoots emerge. ‘Making a whole thing’ out of something ‘Mundane’. Apple as a juice. Apple as a scent. Cultural connections to apples. Apples and their relationships with birds. Apples and compost. Apples and their impacts on stories. There were so many threads, and so many people happy to help you guide your way through them.
Some completely unrelated connections happened too. I had a nice conversation with a neighbour who I did not know would be there. I got to explore different areas of the Market Hall. I was able to participate in a Halloween T3AM dome experience.
Via my Experience Design MA at the University of Plymouth, I was able to attend ‘iDat XXX’, the 30-year anniversary of the ‘Institute of Data and Technology’, where I originally met members of T3AM. Here is my iDAT page — it is worth having a look around the website. Lots of interesting stuff.
It is so clever for T3AM to have made a seasonal experience for the dome — there is a Halloween one, Christmas one, Easter one, etc. etc. This is something which the Market Hall use every year — never becoming irrelevant. T3AM can also, each year, add more. I always worry about large spaces like the dome, with their niche creator pools, being abandoned or underutilised. With this, there is now always something. I am still salty that the PlayStation Vita did not get enough love. It was such a cool piece of kit, but too niche for people to make games for it. Cute, small games too. Any ways….
Of course I had to add a Cuatro face to the dome.
When it came to the audio used in the piece, I wanted to use the word ‘Apple’ and see what I got on Freesound. Another form of prompting.
I found a song called ‘Max Hiding Apple Loops mix’ by Antwash. It is not normally what I would go for, but I decided to try it out. I was not thinking of ‘Apple’ as a tech company before this. If I weren’t working under a time constraint for this, it may have been nice to try and edit this on a Mac.
I also found a lot of other apple sounds by the users sifujordan, Greencouch, margo_heston (seems like English pronunciation audio), AlienXXX (their daughter biting an apple), Koops, RoofDog (them flicking an apple stem), Legand569, and the_Carlos. It makes sense that so many people would have recorded sounds of apples. I tried to use these all in the sound mix at some point.
Honestly, I was not a massive fan of what I compiled together in terms of the audio being pleasant, but it was interesting and fun to try. Saying that however, my wife and I do sing the song now with the word “apple” being thrown in every few lines.
A lot of the Apple Day felt like ‘let nothing go to waste’. ‘Ugly apples’ for juice, the skin used for something, discussions around mulch and compost. It made me think about all of the photos I took in the day that were going to be unrelated to the film, and that they should be used for the film too. No waste.
When editing, there was a dead air segment at the end bit that made me experiment more. I did an ‘apple in apple’ chromakey effect, which I think turned out interesting. With so much green being there, I thought it would be fun.
Again, all the apples together look just like all the pills together… Realised when I was about to upload. Why does this keep happening! Everything is just nodes.
So yeah! A smaller piece. I hope to make more of these. I can feel myself moving more so recently to ‘researcher who happens to use film’ as opposed to someone that makes ‘pretty or enjoyable pieces for galleries or exhibitions.’ I don’t really think there is any reason for labelling it though. I’m just doing what I am doing.
Ciao.
Brandon John Barnard 
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