In the summer term, the Centre for Creative Technologies put out a call for the Creative Technologies Seedcorn Fund. This funding was designed to enable researchers in the field of creative technologies and non-academic partners to work together to address industry, civic or social challenges and grow future collaborations. We are pleased to share those who have been awarded this fund. Some of the collaborations arose from the connections made at the Alternative Technologies workshops!
We would like to congratulate:
- Dr Richard Cole (UoB), Dr Harry Wilson (UoB), Ruth Mariner (Creative Director and Pervasive Media Studio Resident) and Eirini Lampiri (Creative Director and Pervasive Media Studio Resident) for their VR, Games & Storytelling project. This project is interested in the intersection between games, immersive theatre and VR storytelling, in particular where interactivity can enhance or obstruct storytelling, what the different forms could learn from each other, and how we might define the ‘rules’ of storytelling within these mediums.
- Dr Jacqueline Ristola (UoB) and Martin O’Leary (Pervasive Media Studio) for their Platform Cultures event. Platforms have reached the point of ubiquity in our culture. Indeed our lives are increasingly platformitized, and this extends to creativity as well. The intersection between platforms and cultural production is an emerging site of interest for both investigators. The event will be a chance to explore the potentials and pitfalls of these technologies, which can be brought into productive discussion to produce new methodologies for platform research and creativity.
- Dr Hemma Philamore (UoB) for their project called Robotic Echoes: Enhancing Remote Connections through Dual-Location Mixed Reality Experiences. The aim is to deliver a functional prototype of a novel dual-location mixed reality experience using Oculus Quest 2 Virtual Reality (VR) headsets. The prototype will enable two players in different physical locations to each experience a blend of their immediate physical environment and a virtual environment, within the same headset experience. This prototype will be achieved by integrating motion-tracked 360° camera-equipped robots with a custom-built VR app, allowing simultaneous shared experiences across two separate locations.
- Dr Camilla Morelli (UoB), Sophie Marsh (MungoMarsh Production), Rous Condori (animator), Marta Lucia Triana (Director of Muestra de Cine Indigena) and Oscar Antonio Tamayo Hoyos, Director of Colegio Selvalegre for their project Animating the Future in Colombia: Promoting Creative Skills and Digital Inclusion in Amazonia through Animation Co-Production. This will be a one-week workshop on animation co-production for Indigenous students at the II Muestra de Cine Indígena (Indigenous Film Festival) in Leticia, Colombia. The workshop will teach local students how to produce animation and use it to document endangered Indigenous heritage. The aim is to promote creative skill transfer and digital inclusion amongst Indigenous youth who remain largely cut out from global uses and circuits of digital technologies.
All the projects look really exciting and we will be updating on each project via our blog