Connecting through culture as we age: digital innovation for healthy ageing
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bristol
Department Name: Education
Abstract
This research project tackles the complex problem of how to increase participation in social and cultural life for all as we age which has been shown to make a vital contribution to raising quality of life. The project will address the fundamental issue that arts and cultural participation drops dramatically in older populations and that disabled, Black, Asian and minority ethnic and older people living in poverty are even less likely to participate. It will tackle inequalities related to accessibility and content of digital arts and cultural provision, enable vital R&D and establish new business models to encourage digital innovation in the arts and cultural sector to support healthy ageing. Arts and cultural organisations have been slow to adopt digital innovation, but there is huge potential in using emerging technologies to enable diversification of content and build new older audiences. The pandemic has increased the urgency to harness digital technologies to enhance the accessibility and content of cultural participation so that those who are socially isolated may be able to benefit, increasing their quality of life.
The impact of the project will be include: disabled, Black, Asian and minority ethnic and older audiences living in poverty participating in digital arts and cultural experiences that will support their social connections and contribute to improved quality of life; provision of vital R&D support for collaborations between cultural and technology sectors in designing digital innovations, helping them prosper and thus contributing to regional and national sectoral growth; supporting creative industries to build a better understanding of diverse older audiences and to robustly evaluate their offer; and new evidence based policy making that tackles inequalities in arts and cultural provision for healthy ageing outcomes.
The project will involve an interdisciplinary team working alongside the cultural sector, creative technology partners and communities of 'next generation' older people (i.e. aged 60-75 years) to understand older people's experiences of digital exclusion, and what they value culturally and socially. This knowledge will then inform the co-design of digitally driven cultural experiences that 'support social connections'. The research will involve designing a new tool to measure the impact of digital cultural experiences on social connectivity for healthy ageing. The audience research will enable new understandings of digitally experienced cultural value, that takes account of older age and inequalities. It will provide robust evidence of how the cultural products we design can potentially contribute to next generation older people enjoying at least five extra healthy, independent years of life.
The impact of the project will be include: disabled, Black, Asian and minority ethnic and older audiences living in poverty participating in digital arts and cultural experiences that will support their social connections and contribute to improved quality of life; provision of vital R&D support for collaborations between cultural and technology sectors in designing digital innovations, helping them prosper and thus contributing to regional and national sectoral growth; supporting creative industries to build a better understanding of diverse older audiences and to robustly evaluate their offer; and new evidence based policy making that tackles inequalities in arts and cultural provision for healthy ageing outcomes.
The project will involve an interdisciplinary team working alongside the cultural sector, creative technology partners and communities of 'next generation' older people (i.e. aged 60-75 years) to understand older people's experiences of digital exclusion, and what they value culturally and socially. This knowledge will then inform the co-design of digitally driven cultural experiences that 'support social connections'. The research will involve designing a new tool to measure the impact of digital cultural experiences on social connectivity for healthy ageing. The audience research will enable new understandings of digitally experienced cultural value, that takes account of older age and inequalities. It will provide robust evidence of how the cultural products we design can potentially contribute to next generation older people enjoying at least five extra healthy, independent years of life.
Organisations
- University of Bristol (Lead Research Organisation)
- BRISTOL CITY COUNCIL (Collaboration)
- Wales Centre for Public Policy (Collaboration)
- Pervasive Media Studio (Collaboration)
- 91 Ways (Collaboration)
- Black South West Network (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Stand + Stare (Collaboration)
- St Monica Trust (Collaboration)
- Utrecht University (Collaboration)
- Age UK (Collaboration)
- Knowle West Media Centre (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Alive Activities (Collaboration)
- West of England Centre for Inclusive Living (Collaboration)
- Culture Commons Ltd (Collaboration)
- Centre for Cultural Value (Collaboration)
- Alive! Activities (Project Partner)
- Knowle West Alliance (Project Partner)
- Arts and Health South West (Project Partner)
- Age of Creativity (Project Partner)
- Bristol Culture (Project Partner)
- Watershed Media Centre (Project Partner)
- Creative Ageing development Agency (Project Partner)
- WECIL Ltd (Project Partner)
- Age UK (Project Partner)
Publications
Cozza, M.
(2021)
Ageing as a Boundary Object. Thinking Differently of Ageing and Care
in Technoscienza
Soubutts E
(2021)
Aging in Place Together: The Journey Towards Adoption and Acceptance of Stairlifts in Multi-Resident Homes
in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Soubutts E
(2022)
Amazon Echo Show as a Multimodal Human-to-Human Care Support Tool within Self-Isolating Older UK Households
in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Willatt A
(2024)
An Intersectional Lifecourse Lens and Participatory Methods as the Foundations for Co-Designing with and for Minoritised Older Adults
in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Naughton-Doe R
(2022)
Ethical issues when interviewing older people about loneliness: reflections and recommendations for an effective methodological approach
in Ageing and Society
Manchester H
(2024)
Towards care-full co-design with older adults: A feminist posthuman praxis
in Journal of Aging Studies
| Title | Films of six prototype projects |
| Description | These six films each present one of the prototype projects that were supported through the Connecting through Culture as we Age project |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | The films have been viewed many times on our website and used by the prototype teams themselves to introduce their projects |
| URL | https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/prototype-teams/ |
| Title | Rebellious Voices: Mini Movies by our Elders |
| Description | Short films made by project co-researchers celebrating co-research, creativity and getting older |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The films have been used by Age of Creativity and one of the co-researchers was asked to talk about her film at an online event (national lived experience network). The films have been used at Wellspring Settlement by the Community Engagement team who screened the films as part of an International Women's Day event. |
| URL | https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/co-researcher-films/ |
| Title | UKRI Project Case Study: Connecting Through Culture As We Age |
| Description | Case study video created to raise the profile of work emerging from the Healthy Ageing Challenge |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | Helen to add |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgwfEp_tObE |
| Description | March 2025 OUr continued academic work and impact related activity have enabled us to reflect more on the co-design of digital technologies alongside older adults who are marginalised from this process and continue to have significance for other modes of co-production and co-design alongside minoritised older adults. We have published a paper outlining a 'praxis of care-full co-design' which outlines three threads that weave together in creating ways of working in this area. This centres on adapting an intersectional, lifecourse approach to co-design, exploring the lived experiences of older adults and what matters to them alongside them and being continually responsive and willing to adapt as we co-design alongside older adults. MArch 2024 Our co-produced work with the community and voluntary sector around recruitment, retention and participation of minoritized communities in co-design processes as well as significant earning around the challenges in all of these areas too. Co-design methods with older, minoritized adults Our flexible and adaptable creative methods toolkit offer important methodological resources for working with minoritized communities (especially older adults) to explore their everyday cultural and social worlds. We have reflected on wide variety of approaches to co-design and the particular approach we have taken as a team in comparison to other Healthy Ageing projects. This has led us to better understand our unique codesign approach for academic publication and sharing with practitioners. We have worked with our co-researchers and co-designers and with our data to establish and grow a set of 'inclusive design principles' that were tested and applied during our co-design workshops. These principles have since been written up in academic articles and we are looking to develop a MOOC and/or a co-design innovation process that relates to minoritized older adults, with some of our project partners. We have learnt a lot about the challenges and tensions in delivering hybrid co-design workshops. We have established technological and social approaches that work well - and learnt a lot about what doesn't work well too. Throughout ongoing academic work, including keynote presentations, the submission of papers for conferences and journal special issues we have considered existing processes and practices of innovation and their imaginaries of older adults. We have been explored emerging design approaches such as the Design Justice Movement as a way of understanding the particular approach we are taking as a project team. We have found that many aspects of our design justice approach requires a re-imagining of mainstream digital innovation spaces, processes and practices. Our design justice approach involves: Starting at the community level - valuing knowledge of VCS and lived experiences of minoritised older adults Centering the voices of older adults from the beginning as 'experts-by-experience' Re-distribution of power: Relinquishing control, positioning ourselves as facilitators Time to work slowly with recruitment and bringing older adults into the initial stages of the project with older adults Building in time for older adults to gain design knowledge and tools (KWMC) Working towards sustainable, community-led outcomes Key characteristics of our approach Creative participatory methods, play Deepen understanding of rich & diverse lives For building relationships and trust Intersectional lifecourse approaches How digital, social and cultural participation is shaped by experiences across the lifecourse and structural inequalities Questions of care / 'care-full' co-design Attentiveness and responsiveness to older adults involved i.e. 'little arrangements' Reflexivity - reflection on our positionality and asymmetries in power Writing a full ethics proposal for the project at the beginning was particularly challenging given the co-design nature of the project. Although University ethics boards are beginning to understand co-produced and co-designed research they are still keen for as much information as possible to be included up front - this reveals interesting questions about the procedural nature of ethics practices and how this can sometimes be in tension with relational ethical practices and co-design. Community partners, recruitment and retention There has been huge benefit in working with our community partners to design our recruitment strategy to ensure the message is suitable for their particular audience and that we recruited those who might not normally get involved in research projects. Due to significant concerns during the pandemic (which was still in full swing at the start of this grant) recruitment process took longer than we hoped. However, having community partners written in throughout the project was significant and led to greater engagement and retention of the co researchers through the whole project lifecycle. Through ongoing engagement with our partners we have understood better the diversity of methods that will be needed to engage with the co researchers and the benefits of the creative approaches we have designed. Key findings around recruitment are concerned with the time it takes to do this kind of work - especially when you are interested in recruiting people who are not the 'usual suspects' who will often come forward for research projects. We have found the close work with community anchors vital in ensuring this work is achievable. However, we have also noticed the difficulties in working with the community sector (even when adequate funding is provided) as often organisations are working with a small number of staff who all hold part time positions. We originally felt that our 3 communities were distinct however we are finding our co-researchers tend to position themselves intersectionally and that working with specific groups going forward might not be the best approach - we may form groups around place or other interests rather than around our initial community focus of disabled older people, racially minoritised older people and socially economically deprived older people. Creative Ageing and digital Initial interviews and conversations across the Creative Ageing Sector in the UK have revealed lasting learnings from the pandemic in relation to digital creative ageing and participation. For instance, our interview with Farrell Renowden (Age of Creativity) has revealed very useful insights on learnings related to digital cultural activities with older people during lockdowns and the turn back to face to face engagement. We have gathered significant insights into the online/digital shift that happened in the creative ageing sector during Covid and the ongoing work to ensure the sector and older adults benefit from learnings. Our joint scoping review with the Centre for Cultural Value enabled us to better understand the significant gaps in existing research i.e. majority of participants in existing studies are white, lack of analysis on cultural participation and class, race and gender. Lack of participatory/co-produced research, or consideration of ethics/reflexivity in the reviewed studies. We have produced a Values Canvas through analysing the data collected at our partner events and practitioner event. Both used creative, online methods to collect data against the key questions outlined above. Our values canvas is co-created with practitioners and partners who attended these events and includes our project mission, vision, strategy, risks and solutions and objectives, linked to activities and outcomes. It created a useful baseline for the project which we will further discuss within the project team and with partners. The findings of the scoping literature review point towards CTC being able to fill significant gaps in existing research i.e. majority of participants in existing studies are white, lack of analysis on cultural participation and class, race and gender. Lack of participatory/co-produced research, or consideration of ethics/reflexivity in the reviewed studies. Digital literacies and Ageing We have learnt a lot about digital literacies and developed approaches to working with co-researchers that start from their interests to learn digital literacies in meaningful, creative activities. Our person-centred/holistic approach to digital literacies development - taking an ethnographic approach to understanding co-researchers daily lives is key to motivating the adoption of digital technologies and advancing the desire to learn new digital skills - Despite efforts to improve the accessibility of digital interfaces, there is still an emphasis on taking a one-size fits all approach to user-interface design that is exclusionary for adults with physical challenges/disabilities and those with limited experience - Our research has shown that there are many communities where even the most basic independent access to digital services remains financially prohibitive. We conducted a rich thematic analysis of our co-researcher's relationship with technology, arts, culture, aging, creativity etc... and the interactions between them over time that constitute identity. This formed a powerful basis for developing innovation briefs that matter. From this analysis we were particularly struck by and developed our thinking around the importance of taking a 'life-course approach/lens' to understanding the data and the importance of adopting an intersectional lens when working with minoritised older adults. This allows us to explore how the markers of social difference shape the way life is encountered and lived day-to-day (creatively, digitally and socially). See Digest event_CTC findings.pptx We have developed our intersectional lifecourse approach through the use of more than human and feminist materialist theories which we have also written up into papers. We are looking at the idea of 'technological entanglements' and developing this in papers for computer science outputs as well as social science journals. We have findings related to the cultural geographies of minoritized older adutls and how to include them in digital innovation spaces. We have learnt a lot about how we create an environment for co-design and digital innovation with minoritised older adults and the organising principles, ways of working and practices (logics and institutionalisations) that might get in the way of this. March 2023 Our co-produced work with the community and voluntary sector around recruitment, retention and participation of minoritized communities which has enabled us to learn a lot about how to recruit beyond the 'usual suspects' and the time and challenges in this work. Our joint scoping review with the Centre for Cultural Value enabled us to better understand the significant gaps in existing research i.e. majority of participants in existing studies are white, lack of analysis on cultural participation and class, race and gender. Lack of participatory/co-produced research, or consideration of ethics/reflexivity in the reviewed studies. Methodological Innovation: Our flexible and adaptable creative methods toolkit designed to explore the everyday cultural and social worlds of minoritized older adults. This toolkit enabled us to conduct a rich thematic analysis of our co-researcher's relationship with technology, arts, culture, aging, creativity and the interactions between them over time. Through this we were able to identify the importance of taking an intersectional 'life-course approach/lens' to understanding the data. This allows us to explore how the markers of social difference shape the way life is encountered and lived day-to-day (creatively, digitally and socially). We have collected and analyzed in depth qualitative evidence concerning the everyday lives of minoritised older adults in relation to what culture means to them, where they access culture and the arts, why they do so, the importance of everyday creativity and the home and their engagement, and barriers to, digital cultural participation. We have learnt a lot about digital literacies and developed a person-centred/holistic approach to digital literacies development for older, minoritised adults. Taking an ethnographic approach to understanding co-researchers daily lives is key to motivating the adoption of digital technologies and advancing the desire to learn new digital skills. Despite efforts to improve the accessibility of digital interfaces, there is still an emphasis on taking a one-size fits all approach to user-interface design that is exclusionary for adults with physical challenges/disabilities and those with limited experience. Our research has shown that there are many communities where even the most basic independent access to digital services remains financially prohibitive. We have worked with our co-researchers and co-designers and with our data to establish and grow a set of 'inclusive design principles' that are being tested and applied during the workshops. Through Learnt a lot about how we create an environment for co-design and digital innovation with minoritised older adults and the organising principles, ways of working and practices that might get in the way of this in relation to mainstream digital innovation. We have developed a design justice approach to our work with minoritised older adults - this invovles re-imagining of mainstream digital innovation spaces, processes and practices. It is characterized by: Starting at the community level - valuing knowledge of the Voluuntary and Community Sector and the lived experiences of minoritised older adults Centering the voices of older adults from the beginning as 'experts-by-experience' Re-distribution of power : Relinquishing control, positioning ourselves as facilitators Time to work slowly with recruitment and bringing older adults into the initial stages of the project with older adults Building in time for older adults to gain design knowledge and tools Working towards sustainable, community-led outcomes |
| Exploitation Route | For research funders and academics knowledge of the approaches and challenges in recruitment, retention and participation of minoritised communities in co-produced research. Our scoping review led to a public, online event attended by creative ageing and arts and cultural organisations, and policy makers interested in the findings of the scoping review and our initial findings for their own practice and for policy. Our methodological toolkit approach and our intersectional life course approach has been written up for academic audiences and also disseminated to the 'Healthy Ageing' community in a workshop format. Feedback from this event was that the methods and approach would be very useful for practitioners and others working with older adults in a variety of settings. Our in depth data concerning the everyday cultural and social lives of minoritised older adults will be useful for the community and voluntary sector, arts and cultural organisations, and policy makers at local, regional, national and international level. Our data collected around digital inclusion and digital literacies will be of use to older peoples charities and campaigning bodies such as AgeUK, to devolved regional and national governments interested in digital inclusion for older adults (e.g.Wales older persons commissioner and Greater Manchester Ageing Hub). We have also had interest in this aspect of our work from local community and voluntary sector and the creative ageing sector including the Creative Ageing Development Agency (CADA). Our design justice led approach will be useful for the digital innovation and creative industries sector in considering how innovation spaces, processes and practices might be opened up to wider audiences and made more inclusive. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Creative Economy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education Healthcare Government Democracy and Justice Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/ |
| Description | March 2025 Reporting Co-design and innovation Co-researchers have continued taken up other opportunities to participate in creative initiatives and teams have taken forward their prototype projects in a range of ways. Fanny Eaton-Hall is now running her own sewing and craft group weekly at a local cultural centre, taking forward ideas and approaches from Expressive Pockets. Malcolm Hamilton is working with a local councillor to set up long term cultural encounters in social housing sites across the city as a direct result of his experience working with co-researchers. Ruth Harrisson has continued to work with the interactive design company Stand + Stare to develop a toolkit for the Recycle City project. 100 Recycle City boxes have been distributed to interested groups and individuals/families across the South West, nationally and even internationally. The TableTop Travel project has continued to gain support through funding to develop as a product for market. It has been tested with over 50 older adults and is currently in process of becoming a social enterprise through AHRC Commercialisation funding. The project has recently been awarded funding to develop further through the Healthy Ageing Challenge Fund and this will support us to secure the product's success adopting a social enterprise and sponsorship model. Co-design and justice The project has been invited to present as part of innovation forums and other public facing events where there is a strong interest in our co-design methods, particularly in respect of working with older adults who are minoritized. Innovation and wellbeing evaluation Our evaluation toolkit has continued to receive funding for participatory projects with arts and cultural organisations across the city. We have worked with a music venue and a community organisation to refine and adapt the toolkit for their purposes. We now have a new evaluation tool that is ready to be rolled out to other organisations. Feedback from the music venue is included below: Benefits to the organisation (St George's): The opportunity for us to stand back from existing evaluation techniques and think more holistically about the purpose and nature of audience feedback has been great. (This has meant thinking about how we converse with audiences, how we set the tone for evaluation / gathering data etc, how we shape our data model to help us make decisions, inform funding work etc...). The initial session with we hosted with UoB and our Senior Management Team was thought provoking and provided a platform for debate. This helped to 'embed' the project within the organisation -- this is always a challenge as there is rarely time / capacity to 'stand back' in a midscale charity / arts venue like ours - rarely a chance to move away from delivery mode and think more clearly about what we're doing. The project has provided an opportunity for our large community of volunteers to input on proposed feedback methods - whilst some of the views may have been uncomfortable to hear, it was nonetheless valuable, as they would be instrumental in feedback gathering if the tools were to be deployed as planned and were uncomfortable with some of the language used and method. A good (if very candid!) test of applying academic thinking 'in the field'. We also gained some extremely rich and valuable insights into participants' experiences & what they get from visiting / experiencing culture at St George's. It was good to have a moment to listen them - an important skill for us and much richer than online questionnaires for understanding what the concert experience means, with the opportunity to reflect repeatedly, and over a longer period of time. This kind of work is something we don't do, and would find difficult to instigate independently. Benefits to participants: At the research sessions with Community Ticket Club participants, we found that people were very reflective of their experiences of coming to St George's with the CTC and that it brought out a lot of deeper insights into how attending concerts provides a sense of community and promotes an inner peace. People were telling elements of their recent history/life story through the lens of their hour-long concert sessions and it appeared cathartic for them to reflect in this way. Many of the contributions were very personal / powerful. Again, the model of repeated in-depth sessions enabled a safe space. Helen Manchester is currently the lead for the South West based 'Impact Allliance' sub group on research and evaluation. The Impact Alliance is a collaboration between over 50 diverse organisations across the South West who are working together to 'End loneliness'. The alliance will be running at least a 5 year programme of funding to explore how we might tackle loneliness in 4 places and across 2 communities of interest. Helen will be working with a team of academics and practitioners to co-produce an evaluation plan and deliver it across the sites over the period of the work. Helen Manchester has also been selected to work with Arts Council England on a newly formed 'Peer Learning' steering group for Creative Ageing. The group are charged with making decisions about how the Arts Council England will deliver against their ambition to increase participation in the arts and increase the visibility of the work in creative ageing across the country. 2024 Feb Reporting We have themed our impact around five themes: justice, co-design, connection, innovation and wellbeing. See: https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/impact-stories/ We have recorded significant impact resulting from the co-researchers films which have been shown in many locations nationally and internationally to question ageist assumptions- for practitioners and other groups to stimulate discussion and debate. In 2023, Louis Neven saw 'Punked' at the Sociogerontechnology Network meeting in the Netherlands and wrote about it in his blog. He points out how Roland Payne and Fanny Eaton-Hall not only challenge public conceptions of ageing, but also those of the gerontological community who might, he suggests, reconsider policy, care and technology around healthy ageing. These films have gone on to be shown at the Healthy Ageing Challenge Conference 2023, three other conferences and two local community events. They have been used by Age UK to open a workshop, where Elanora also spoke, and are being used internationally to teach gerontology. A key aspect of the first stages of the project was supporting co-researchers to develop their digital skills, furthering their exploration of the digital realm. Co-researcher Jeanne Ellin said: "I gained new skills and confidence. I became brave enough to tackle Zoom, which opened up a world of wonder." She has described how she now goes to numerous classes, workshops and groups online, which she had not been able to access before CTC. Jeanne, a writer, communicated her joy at at discovering new possibilities for creativity and connection, early on in the project, creating a presentation for a Knowledge Exchange meeting called 'Alice's adventures down the digital rabbit hole' CTC researchers, Tim Senior and Karen Gray received Participatory Research Funding to work with St George's, a music venue with a varied offering, on extending their reach through developing evaluative methods that will help them better understand how and why people come to their venue and what the experience does for them. You can read more about this on our website in the impact stories section under, 'Making Evaluation Meaningful'. impact on Creative sector: Co-design has been at the heart of CTC. not least in shaping and evolving the outputs of the project. This is the case for the prototype projects - six new cultural products developed by teams of artists, technologists and co-researchers - working together as 'co-designers'. One creative practitioner, Annie Lywood, said: "I've learnt from this project how important co-design is and how to do it better, and how to be more inclusive, and how valuable it is. So, I think I'm more an advocate for it, due to the project." in addition, community practitioners have learnt about the importance of slowing down sometimes when delivering projects. seeing how transformative this process has been for participants' wellbeing, one partner has expressed how they will now approach funding bids to include enough the resources necessary for this approach. Gabrielle Lobb from Wellspring said: "We, as an organisation, are trying in different ways all the time to shift the conversation and one of the things is around funding seeing when there's space around a project, seeing how that allows people to sink into the process, allows for there to be proper reflection, definitely helps us to come more strongly to those conversations" IN addition, invovlement in the project has opened up new funding streams for charities and community organisations invovled. Georgina Densley from Alive Activities, who works with older care home residents, has spoken about the impacts of partnership, "the relationships and connections built through taking part in Connecting Through Culture has enabled Alive to further understand and articulate its potential role in cultural leadership and delivery, not just as a bridge organisation but as an inherently creative and innovative provider of co-created cultural offers. We are now developing an Arts Council England proposal grown from this work, having never previously been funded by them." CTC has taken an active role in joining up ideas and people from cultural and community organisations, tech innovation and academia. One aim of this has been to build capacity within and between partner organisations through workshops, knowledge exchange fora and simply working side by side to support older people. As one partner, Georgina Densley, said: "actually I think it will influence my practice a lot in how you can centralise those voices in a process driven approach." In 2023 Tot Foster led workshops at Wellspring Settlement for arts practitioners to develop their skills in video production. Since then, two video projects have been funded at Wellspring. Shanti Sherson says, "Wellspring Settlement have received a grant to work with over 55's, new to engage with us. The film workshops that we attended as part of 'Connecting through Culture' have been integral to our decision to include filmmaking They have given us the confidence in our own ability and the ability of older people in our community to learn filmmaking and use it to communicate." Co-researchers have taken up other opportunities to participate in creative tech initiatives: Fanny Eaton-Hall is working with an Austrian researcher, making a feature film about age and technology. Ruth Harrison has been to prototyping sessions for 'Grounding Technologies' at Watershed, and Erica Harrison has attended workshops around tech and nature. They have all been fulfilling their promise as participants who can inject a fresh approach to ageing, where it matters for the future of creative tech. 2023 Feb Reporting In interviews with our co-researchers, social impacts are emerging. We have evidence that their involvement in the project has led to: Personal value in being exposed to and able to meet with different people and come across new ideas -Increased confidence to try new things in terms of digital Enjoyment of new creative opportunities to discover and re-discover skills and interests Quotes from co-researchers talking about their involvement in the project: 'My involvement began from a place of total ignorance and some fear as an Elderly Alice down the digital rabbit hole. This lead to my first experience of presenting digitally then as I moved further into this new world I discovered WONDERLAND. Zoom remains daunting but offers so much fun and connection. I can enjoy symphony concerts from Australia and performances by the royal Shakespeare company visit museums and galleries. I have become involved with wonderful projects including becoming a Human book with Sheffield University, developing a project to enrich the life of housebound people, being valued as contributor working on projects involving language. I am part of poetry and reading groups and Poetry workshops. Looking forward I am about to be part of a world music study with Sheffield uni in October . So becoming part of CTC has been a magic key opening a wonderful wide world just as my physical world choices narrow. I hope this opportunity can be extended to many others as it brings great joy and vitamin F (fun) the great vitamin missing from many housebound people's lives. 'I think it's changing my life in that really I feel as though just as if I'm beginning. I mean before I was just in survival mode really; going to a few groups and things, got depression and everything, but now this has really opened things up for me in lots of ways"..."it's given me structure and focus and self worth, and I don't know where its going to take me.' |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal Economic |
| Description | Arts Council England Creative Ageing Peer learning Steering group |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | 'Evaluating Arts and Culture Experience, Together |
| Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2023 |
| End | 07/2024 |
| Description | Commercialisation of Tabletop Travels |
| Amount | £40,759 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/Z506503/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2024 |
| End | 02/2025 |
| Description | Connecting through Culture as we Age: Policy Support Fund |
| Amount | £15,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2022 |
| End | 07/2022 |
| Description | EPSRC Impact Acceleration Award/ ESRC Impact Acceleration Award |
| Amount | £49,958 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Bristol Robotics Laboratory |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2021 |
| End | 03/2022 |
| Description | Exploring and sharing the voices of older residents of Bristol through the co-production of short films |
| Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2023 |
| End | 07/2024 |
| Description | Prehension Blooms: Expanding access to creative spaces for isolated people using soft robotics |
| Amount | £6,729 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2021 |
| End | 12/2021 |
| Description | Speculative methods for imagining datafied ageing futures otherwise |
| Amount | $5,000 (CAD) |
| Organisation | University of Graz |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | Austria |
| Start | 03/2025 |
| End | 07/2025 |
| Description | Tabletop Travel |
| Amount | £51,015 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ES/Y008197/1 |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2023 |
| End | 08/2024 |
| Title | Methodological toolkit for understanding everyday lives of minoritised older adults |
| Description | This methodological toolkit was designed to enable our research team to explore and understand the everyday digital and social lives of the older adults we were working with. We designed a series of creative methods to support them to express their identities and tell their stories. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | We have presented our work at practitioner and academic conferences and received a lot of interest in the methods and tools. We have met with design researchers and others in the Healthy Ageing Challenge programme to discuss our methods with a view to them adapting them for their work. |
| Description | 91 Ways |
| Organisation | 91 Ways |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Linking them with new networks and business opportunities for co-design with older adults |
| Collaborator Contribution | Working with one of the demonstrator project teams 'Table Top Travels', contributing their expertise in working with diverse communities and the food industry. |
| Impact | To be reported in future Researchfish submissions |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Age UK |
| Organisation | Age UK |
| Department | Age UK Bristol |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Named project partner on Connecting Through Culture As We Age. We are feeding in our expertise around arts and culture and digital spaces to AGe UK Bristol. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Supporting the development of the project by playing a key part in Advisory Board meetings; participating in the project co-design process; providing support for recruitment for the project evaluation stages; supporting dissemination of the research and demonstrator projects. |
| Impact | Meetings with Age UK central including the lead for digital inclusion in AgeUK and the policy lead at AgeUK to discuss the project and possible national impacts. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Age of Creativity |
| Organisation | Age UK |
| Department | Age UK Oxfordshire |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Named partner on Connecting through Culture as we Age; linking them to broader networks and sharing our research findings. Links through our evaluation research to innovate their programmes and approaches. Use of our co-researcher films as stimulus for creativity |
| Collaborator Contribution | Representation on CTC Knowledge Exchange Panel; contributed to 'Experts Workshop' as a speaker (see engagement activities section). |
| Impact | Outcomes/outputs expected over the next 12 months |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Alive |
| Organisation | Alive Activities |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Named project partner on Connecting Through Culture As We Age. Linking Alive with broader networks in the city and region to support their own digital design work through the project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Working with researchers and a group of ~20 older people to conduct ethnographic research regarding digital participation and social connectivity; supporting design and facilitation of workshops; feeding in expertise and ongoing findings from project work exploring issues related to older people and digital exclusion in communities and in care settings. |
| Impact | Alive worked with us to co-design of KWMC workshops to be inclusive of older people, based on their experience of working with older adults in digital spaces. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | BSWN |
| Organisation | Black South West Network |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Named project partner on Connecting Through Culture As We Age. Providing BSWN with opportunities for their network of voluntary and community sector organisations to become involved in digital co-design processes |
| Collaborator Contribution | Using trusted links with racially minoritised groups to support recruitment of co-researchers; participating in the project co-design process; |
| Impact | Recruitment of four racially minoritised co-researchers who are now involved in the project. We are collecting evidence from co-researchers about their ongoing involvement and the impact of this on their social and cultural lives Co-researchers have taken part in 8 workshops organised by KWMC (see listing for more information) Co-researchers have produced Albums reflecting on their lives and have been involved in interviews - therefore contributing to our rich data set. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Bristol Culture |
| Organisation | Bristol City Council |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Named project partner on Connecting Through Culture As We Age. We are meeting regularly to discuss arts and health policy and strategic work in the city and region and how this relates to ageing. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Providing city wide cultural and social context from a local authority perspective and an audience user perspective as a direct provider of cultural services; helping to link the project in with the cultural sector through networks from venue based cultural assets to independent practitioners working in socially engaged art practice; connecting to organisations and agendas through Arts and Heath development work. |
| Impact | Meeting with key representatives from local and regional organisations working in the arts and health space. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Centre for Cultural Value |
| Organisation | Centre for Cultural Value |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | We worked with the Centre for Cultural Value to collaboratively produce a scoping review of the research around Older People, Culture and Community. We co-produced an event to publicise the scoping review (which was written up as a research digest) and produced a film to help disseminate it. Our contributions enabled the centre to explore a wider range of literature related to the topic. |
| Collaborator Contribution | the director of the Centre for Cultural Value sits on our knowledge exchange panel and offers advice around links to cultural and arts organisations and research. The CCV communications team supported us to disseminate the Research Digest more widely and to have conversations with practitioners and policy makers. |
| Impact | Research digest : Older People, Culture and Community Film about the Research Digest: |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Culture Commons |
| Organisation | Culture Commons Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Named partners on funded policy support work on Connecting through Culture as we Age |
| Collaborator Contribution | Working collaboratively to enhance policy influence. Advising on stakeholder mapping, communicating project policy outputs with policy makers, advising on the planning of policy events. |
| Impact | Member of our Knowledge Exchange Panel |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Impact Alliance |
| Organisation | ST Monica Trust |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | I am leading on the evaluation and research sub group formed as part of an alliance of 50 organisations working to tackle loneliness across the South West of the UK. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The co-production of a new funding body - the Impact Alliance- has involved all partners meeting regularly to co-design an approach to funding which is place based, about learning and developing a cross sectoral approach to tackling loneliness- for all in society. The focus is on 4 designated places across the South WEst and two communiities of interest- disabled young people and global majority older adults. |
| Impact | The collaboration is resulting in a new piece of longtidinal research around loneliness in the South West. It will involve collaboration across the alliance and with enabling and delivery organisations across the southwest to test and learn new approaches to tackling loneliness. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | KWMC |
| Organisation | Knowle West Media Centre |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Named partner on Connecting Through Culture As We Age project; helping to widen the range and diversity of people accessing their spaces and events through our work with older adults from minoritised groups. Access to the demonstrator workshops and teams of artists and designers in WP3 Co-designing Demonstrators |
| Collaborator Contribution | Designing and running workshops; providing use of its building and digital technology resources for meetings involving artists and researchers, support from technicians and other staff support and expertise. Team member joined one of the demonstrator teams |
| Impact | 8 workshops introducing co-researchers to design and creative process. The workshops also supported them to bring their lived experience into co-design processes and introduced them to cutting edge digital technologies. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | PM Studio |
| Organisation | Pervasive Media Studio |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Named project partners on Connecting Through Culture As We Age. Working with them to consider how older adults can be involved in digital co-design processes. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Producing inclusive design principles; developing and disseminating a competitive open call for participation in workshops; designing and facilitating practitioner workshops as part of our co-design process, providing business support and creative producer time. |
| Impact | Will be developed over the next 6 months |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Socio-gerontechnology network |
| Organisation | Utrecht University |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I am a founding member and on the executive committee of a newly established international network exploring Ageing and Technology - called the socio-gerontechnology network. The network is international and includes members from across the globe and includes prominent figures in the field of ageing and technology from across Europe and North America. The network is beginning to have an influence on the field of technology design for older people through challenging accepted discourses around what technology designs might be appropriate. We published an edited book which sets the scene for ageing and technology research in the next decade. The network is also working on briefing papers and I am events co-ordiantor- having un a series of online events for the network in 2021-2022 entitled 'International conversations in ageing and technology'. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Collaborative research awards Seminars for practitioners and academics - A co-edited book and several journal special issues. Tracks and symposia at academic conferences |
| Impact | Seminar series - INternational Conversations in Ageing and technology Co-edited book This is multidisciplinary collaboration between design researchers, HCI researchers, social scientists, anthropologists and arts and humanities scholars |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | St Monicas Trust Innovation |
| Organisation | ST Monica Trust |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Regular meetings with the new innovation team at St Monicas Trust- a large trust who both fund innovation for older adults and also run care homes. We have been working with them to understand some of the challenges and problems the newly formed innovation team might pursue and feeding in knowledge from our research findings in relation to this. We have presented at an Innovation Event and attended other workshops to feed in our findings and ways of working |
| Collaborator Contribution | They provide financial support for us to invite older adult co-researchers to events. They create events and invite us to attend and talk about our research. They have brilliant networks across sectors interested in older adults across the South West |
| Impact | Innovation Forum event -raising questions about what it means to age well and how to co-design with older adults |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Stand + Stare |
| Organisation | Stand + Stare |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Working alongside Stand + Stare who are interactive designers to develop their creative ideas as they work with co-design methods. Providing guidance on co-design and ethical practice in relation to life story research. In the Tangible Memories: Parlours of Wonder project Stand + Stare worked with us to: co-design an engaging community focused space in 3 different settings where older people and others can interact with evocative objects, sparking questions and new interests and use our StoryCreator app together to record and share their ideas, memories and stories. They also worked with us to co-design a DIY blueprint for any care settings to design their own 'Parlours of Wonder' and to use the StoryCreator app within them. [To include ideas for engaging older people in co-designing the rooms and interactive case studies with evaluations of the approaches taken across the 3 sites.] In addition as part of this project they further tested and developed the iPad StoryCreator app and create a brand new Android version, enabling us to reach new audiences. Both versions of the app will then be made freely available on the relevant app stores. They also took a lead in co-curating two exhibitions in London (at the Digital Design weekend at the V and A) and in Bristol at City Hall to officially launch the Parlour idea and the app with Alive! and care settings. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Working alongside older residents in care home to co-design a process of life history work that enables them to create their own interactive book. Stand + stare worked alongside ourselves on the Parlours of wonder project to: to: co-design an engaging community focused space in 3 different settings where older people and others can interact with evocative objects, sparking questions and new interests and use our StoryCreator app together to record and share their ideas, memories and stories. They also worked with us to co-design a DIY blueprint for any care settings to design their own 'Parlours of Wonder' and to use the StoryCreator app within them. [To include ideas for engaging older people in co-designing the rooms and interactive case studies with evaluations of the approaches taken across the 3 sites.] In addition as part of this project they further tested and developed the iPad StoryCreator app and create a brand new Android version, enabling us to reach new audiences. Both versions of the app will then be made freely available on the relevant app stores. STAND + STARE also worked with us on the Productive MArgins project to co-design a space for our community actors to perform their monologues and play about loneliness, based on their data collection. |
| Impact | Multidisciplinary involves working between educational researchers, folklorists, historians and computer scientists with this artist group. Outcomes include interactive books and audio of life history interviews.The StoryCreator app is now linked to a pay on demand service which is intended as a source of revenue for Stand + Stare as they take the app on as part of their business. The ALONELY shed has been used for a wide range of performances in a variety of locations. |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | Stand and Stare |
| Organisation | Stand + Stare |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Linking them with new networks and business opportunities for co-design with older adults. In 2025 we began to work with Stand + Stare again - commissioning them to work with us to continue to develop the Recycle City ideas in a project exploring alternative futures with two community organisations in Stroud. This is part of the work with Locality and funded by the Centre for Sociodigital Futures. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Working with three of the project demonstrator teams to support the teams to integrate to create digital designs Running workshops in two sites over 3 sessions. |
| Impact | Several exhibitions of the work have taken place over the years. Including the final showcase event for Connecting through Culture as we age. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | WECIL |
| Organisation | West of England Centre for Inclusive Living |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Project partner. Feeding in our findings in relation to the lived experience of 60-75 year old disabled older adults to improve their practice in relation to older people. Linking WECIL with other project partners working in the digital space to support their work with clients. |
| Collaborator Contribution | WECIL's broad experience and knowledge of working with disabled people; recruitment of co-researchers; working alongside the project team and the co-researchers to design a programme of activities and workshops. They have provided support concerning accessibility for disabled older adults throughout the programme, They are working as critical friends to advise our demonstrator teams on questions related to accessibility and inclusion. |
| Impact | Recruitment of 6 co-researchers who are now actively involved on the project and who are gaining culturally and socially from their involvement. We are collecting evidence from co-researchers about their ongoing involvement and the impact of this on their social and cultural lives Co-researchers have taken part in 8 workshops organised by KWMC (see listing for more information) Co-researchers have produced Albums reflecting on their lives and have been involved in interviews - therefore contributing to our rich data set. Our website was designed with WECIL guidance in related to accessibility requirements. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Wales Centre for Public Policy |
| Organisation | Wales Centre for Public Policy |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Sharing and discussing project findings to contribute to the evidence base informing/influencing policy decisions. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Representative (Hannah Durrant) on project Knowledge Exchange Panel; contributing to policy support work through advising on stakeholder mapping, communicating project policy outputs with policy makers, advising on the planning of policy events. |
| Impact | Outputs/outcomes expected over the next 12 months |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Title | TableTop Travel |
| Description | This is a device to be used in people's homes to enable them to travel when they can't leave their house. It is a box and audio device that plays stories of a place and food as bowls are placed onto it. |
| Type Of Technology | Physical Model/Kit |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | TableTop travel has received Healthy Ageing funding to develop the product further as a spin out company |
| URL | https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/prototype-teams/ |
| Description | Arts and health meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | The meeting brought together representatives from third sector organisations and practitioners in Bristol and the South West region who are leading work in the area of arts and health. The purpose of the meeting was to map activity already happening in the region and to explore opportunities to collaborate to build a stronger evidence base for the work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Bealtaine Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Perspectives on digital access run by Age & Opportunity Irelend. Online event as part of the Bealtaine Festival organised by Gwanwyn (Wales, Age of Creativity and Laminate (Scotland) organisations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Co-design workshops x 4 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Co-design workshop 1 - Age unusual. Age extraordinary. Age rebellious: Bridge to learn about digital design and make further social and creative connections Co-design workshop 2 - Expanding worlds: Co-design workshop 3 - Creative bodies |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Co-researcher workshop series |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Workshop series to bring co-researchers together, build relationships further and develop skills through activities based on specific interests/activities. Workshops included: 'Enjoy poetry'; 'Shooting a tabletop film'; 'Oral Histories - the power of personal stories'; 'Foliage and Fish - fabric collage'; 'Spiced tea making'; 'Introduction to digital security and privacy'; 'Photographing hidden corners for small scale journaling'; 'Make the most of Zoom and other communications'; 'Connecting through everyday photography'; 'Routes to sharing'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Collaboration, Communication and Impact Training Session July 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Developed and delivered a day long Collaboration, Communication and Impact Training Session for the MyWorld PDRAs and PhDs across the Programme which was well attended, and feedback was very positive. One attendee stated, "This session will impact in many regards. The information and tips shared in the course will certainly help me to establish relations of collaboration, share my research and impact outside academia." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Connecting Through Culture project showcase |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | To showcase the project as a whole and to highlight our creative outputs including the six prototypes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/ctc-project-showcase/ |
| Description | Creative Health Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The event celebrated, showcased, discussed and explored the impact creativity has on health. Designed for policy makers in Public Health, ICB, Arts and Culture, as well as practitioners, professionals and participants, this free event was an opportunity to: Celebrate creative health projects and initiatives in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Understand and explore what is happening in our region, meet others and hear stories from people who are living proof that creative health works Ask questions, galvanize and commit to actions around creative health, so that we can sustain creative health ecosystems for all in the city and region |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://bristolbeacon.org/whats-on/creative-health-in-action/ |
| Description | Early Career Researcher training session on interdisciplinary collaboration within the creative industries delivered March 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Prof Kirsten Cater gave a training session about building interdisciplinary collaborations with creative industries on 15th March 2023 to 20 early career academics from the University of Bristol. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Evaluation tool development |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | University of Bristol Participatory Research Funding (2023-24) allowed us to build on the work achieved during Connecting Through Culture As We Age and to further develop the Wellbeing Reflection Tool. This is a tool that is designed to support participants to identify and articulate the wellbeing impacts of any cultural experience. Their reflection is structured around five wellbeing themes: Enjoyment, Connection, Growth, Purpose and Direction. Each theme is associated with five different potential impacts. Participants choose the theme they feel best captures the most important wellbeing story they want to share. They then select the most significant impact within that theme (or suggest a new one) before giving a more detailed description of their wellbeing experience. This can be shared in writing (on a simple and thoughtfully designed paper 'booklet') or through conversation with a facilitator. A final activity invites participants to consider future possibilities and to discuss any next steps they plan to take. During the PRF project we tested the prototype in collaborative workshops with staff and with participants involved in the Community Ticket Scheme programme at St George's Bristol and a participant-led Arts for Health and Wellbeing programme at Wellspring Settlement during 2023-24. Insights from these activities, and application of an adapted prototype in a spin-off heritage engagement project with Age UK Oxfordshire, alongside our work with a user experience design expert have informed a second iteration of the tool and processes for its application. We see this as a tool that can be used on its own to understand the wellbeing impact of an individual programme of activity, or applied as part of a Wellbeing Framework by an organisation wishing to understand people's individual experiences and how it can develop its programmes to better support their needs. Our next steps are to seek further funding (likely Impact Accelerator Account) so that we can spend some time formalising the processes for applying the tool, in discussion with organisational partners, including St George's and Wellspring Settlement, developing a 'home' from which the tool can be shared, and a set of training activities and assets to accompany it. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024,2025 |
| Description | Experts Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Speakers from an eclectic range of backgrounds and organisations offered insights from their work with older adults to deliver cultural activities during the pandemic. This involved describing their experiences in developing and applying creative and inclusive methods with older people; delivering cultural activities; and describing the landscape of digital inclusion and cultural participation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/event-highlights-part-one-older-people-and-cultural-par... |
| Description | Expressive Pockets Workshop series: Sharing Life Stories Through Making |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Expressive Pockets was one of the prototype projects developed through Connecting Through Culture As We Age. This workshop series delivered accessible, creative, hands on sessions to encourage conversation and to help the research team understand and evaluate the impact on participants. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | FUTURES 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We set up a pop-up exhibition at FUTURES 2022 at the S.S. Great Britain in September 2022, a free festival of discovery for all ages to celebrate research and innovation taking place across the South West. Visitors to the stand were able to use VR headsets to access a range of content including the newly released Virtual Reality Oracle. It was a great opportunity to talk to the general public about immersive technologies including ethical considerations and future applications of Virtual and Augmented Reality. Many interesting conversations took place. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Film screening of co-researcher mini movies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Film screening of co-produced films made by co-researchers to celebrate creativity and to challenge stereotypes around ageing |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/co-researcher-films/ |
| Description | Healthy Ageing Challenge Conference 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Conference to share the impact innovation, major research programme insights, and collaboration/networking activities. Helen Manchester, Alice Willatt and Georgina Densley presented on co-design |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.healthyageinguk.org/2023/ |
| Description | Healthy Ageing Conference workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The workshop provided a hands-on introduction to participatory methods that aim to put the lifeworlds and lived experiences of older adults at the heart of a co-design process, drawing on methods that have been developed over the past two years working with older adults from minority communities on the Connecting Through Culture as We Age project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.healthyageinguk.co.uk/2022/agenda/?VID=381&EVID=5898 |
| Description | Interactive stand at FUTURES Night, Festival of Discovery 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Researchers from MyWorld, Bristol Vision Institute and Centre for Sociological Futures teamed up to deliver a fantastic interactive stand at Up Late @ S.S. Great Britain, Futures, one of the events held as part of FUTURES organised by the University of Bristol Public Engagement Team. Coordinated by the MyWorld Skills and Training team we had a whole host of engaging activities for the 367 attendees to interact with which were all really well received. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.myworld-creates.com/news/futures-up-late-at-ss-great-britain/ |
| Description | KWMC workshops |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Workshop series designed with our project partners (Knowle West Media Centre) to support our co-researchers to learn about digital design and make further social and creative connections. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Knowledge Exchange Panel meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Knowledge Exchange Panel members (academics, stakeholders, users, co-researchers, practitioners, industry and policy actor) were brought together for discussion and interactive work to identify relevant networks relating to policy, industry, sector specific or funding networks in the areas of arts and culture, social connectivity, co-design and co-production, digital inclusion and digital innovation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | NAtional Centre for academic and cultural exchange: online event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The purpose of this NCACE policy workshop is to discuss and showcase the impacts and potentials of collaborations and transdisciplinary research projects between HEIs and the arts that generate social and cultural good, through the use of both existing and emerging technologies. With the intense proliferation of interest in uses of, and concerns about technologies such as AI, this timely workshop seeks to highlight partnerships, projects and opportunities that bring research and the arts together to create positive social benefits through engaging and exploiting diverse technologies. It will also provide space to reflect on the potentialities, challenges and ethics associated with enacting and enabling better futures through collaborative endeavours. We are also seeking to highlight the roles that policy, funding bodies initiatives and other actors are playing, or could play in supporting social good now and into the near future. Through Culture and Collaborations on Technology for Social Good we aim to: - showcase innovative initiatives being co-developed by partners across Higher Education, the arts and cultural sector, technology, local authorities, and wider communities that demonstrate the diversity of creative technology collaborations for wider social good. - encourage dialogue and discussion on the notion of the social good and how we might better imagine, understand, design and creatively deploy technology to support people, place and planet. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/culture-collaboration-and-knowledge-exchange-technology-for-social-go... |
| Description | Poverty and Social Justice in a Digital Future |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Gave a presentation on Connecting Through Culture as part of an event bringing together a range of experts exploring topics around social justice, digital/tech developments, and poverty. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.bristol.ac.uk/poverty-institute/events/2023/poverty--social-justice-in-a-digital-future.... |
| Description | Prof Kirsten Cater Enterprise session with Michele Barbour - Youtube video |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor Michele Barbour sat down with Professor Kirsten Cater, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bristol, to discuss the pressing issue of the UK's technology skills gap. During the session, Prof. Cater highlighted the role of MyWorld in tackling this challenge, showcasing how the programme is equipping individuals with the skills needed for a rapidly evolving technological landscape. The discussion generated significant interest, with requests for further information following the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgA8KX4iaFY |
| Description | Prof Kirsten Cater Nonesuch article "Tech for Good" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor Kirsten Cater was interviewed for Nonesuch, the University of Bristol's alumni magazine, in a feature titled Tech for Good. Available both online and in print, the magazine reaches approximately 100,000 contactable alumni. In the interview, Prof. Cater shares her insights on our digital future, drawing from her extensive experience in innovative, immersive, and sociodigital projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.bristol.ac.uk/alumni/stories/magazine-summer-2024/tech-for-good/ |
| Description | Prof Kirsten Cater presents at Bristol Senior Leaders course |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On June 6th, 2024, Prof Kirsten Cater delivered an insightful talk on leadership and the importance of building interdisciplinary collaborations. Drawing on her extensive experience collaborating with the creative industries, she shared valuable examples and strategies with 25 senior leaders from across the University of Bristol. The session provided attendees with practical insights into fostering successful partnerships and driving innovation through cross-disciplinary teamwork. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Project partners event 1 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | This event brought together our project partners to discuss motivations, values, outputs, impacts and some of the key questions of the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Project partners event 2 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | The event brought together our project partners for the project team to present initial findings and emerging themes from our research. Questions, comments, and insights from the partners were generated in the discussion that followed and a high level of engagement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Project partners event 3 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | This meeting brought together our Bristol based project partners (in-person) to share our findings on the co-design process and to engage in activities and discussion around evaluation, it's challenges and how we can develop more effective and meaningful evaluation tools for arts and creative programmes or other cultural activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Project partners event 4 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | To bring together our Bristol based project partners to reflect on their involvement with the project and identify future directions for working with them. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | ScienceUp Consortium 2030 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Sharing of good practice from the UK with a consortium of 3 Chilean universities to help promote and support innovation, entrepreneurship, industry collaboration and female leadership. As an international advisor to three Chilean universities KC shared her experiences in these areas including the VRO project. International but predominately Chilean, included government ministers |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.noticias.ucn.cl/destacado/consorcio-science-up-realizo-exitoso-encuentro-anual-en-valpar... |
| Description | Speaker at UKRI HEalthy Ageing community of practice event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | UKRI Healthy Ageing Community of practice is run by the Centre for Ageing Better. I was asked to present my understanding of digital inclusion and older adults at the event. Over 50 people attended who are involved in or want to be part of the community of practice- this involved practitioners, policy makers, designers and business and industry leads |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://ageing-better.org.uk/digital-inclusion |
| Description | Sutton Trust Summer School session delivered August 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | The Sutton Trust summer school is a targeted programme for students meeting eligibility criteria as per https://summerschools.suttontrust.com/eligibility/. During the two-hour session, students took part in three different activities. Students rotated through these in small groups, giving all of them the chance to engage in a more enriching way. Activities included a workshop discussion on the ethics surrounding emerging technology in this field, virtual reality experiences and a hands-on tutorial with 360-degree cameras and immersive audio recorders. The session was very well received by the students in attendance who engaged enthusiastically throughout. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.myworld-creates.com/blogs/sutton-trust-summer-school/ |
| Description | Talk by Michael Pitts "In at the deep end: capturing drama and detail underwater" Dec 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Organised jointly by MyWorld and Bristol Vision Institute, this very popular and well received talk by double EMMY award winning cinematographer took place in person and online in December 2022. "In at the deep end: capturing drama and detail underwater" was a fascinating talk which took attendees through rain forests, across deserts and into the depths of the world's oceans and gave an insight into how sequences are structured. Over 150 people signed up to attend in person and online and attendees were enchanted by what they experienced, with one saying "The visuals were stunning, but equally impressive was the combination of technical brilliance and artistry in getting that perfect shot. " Another said, "Listening to Michael talk with such passion about his life and career as a film maker was a true privilege. I could have listened to him talk all evening. More than this, I learned a great deal about the technicalities of filming the natural world - how to play with proximity, light, different equipment, and music to tell stories. It was a masterclass." The recording of the talk is available to watch on Youtube. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.myworld-creates.com/news/michael-pitts-seminar/ |
| Description | Temple Quarter Research & Innovation Board presentation at University of Bristol |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to Temple Quarter Board comprised senior management and representatives from industry, including details of Connecting through culture project |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Washhouse launch event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Anyone Remember The Washhouse was one of the prototype projects developed through Connecting Through Culture As We Age. This was a showcase event to launch and share their creative output and process. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.anyonerememberthewashhouse.org/anyone-remember-the-washhouse-mshed-showcase-event/ |
| Description | Work experience session for Y10 students Aug 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Work experience sessions on Immersive Technologies were delivered to students as part of a Y10 Work Experience week. The students experienced the immersive world via virtual reality headsets and engaged enthusiastically in workshop activities which explored the ethical considerations of future immersive technologies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.myworld-creates.com/blogs/imagining-our-digital-futures/ |