Research and Enterprise in Arts and Creative Technologies: REACT KE Hub
Lead Research Organisation:
University of the West of England
Department Name: Fac of Arts Creative Ind and Education
Abstract
REACT: Research & Enterprise in Arts and Creative Technologies.
Knowledge Exchange gets lost in translation. Creative Economy demand and Arts and Humanities research culture too routinely fail to understand each other. They can seem to work to different rhythms and values. But they do and they must match, and they must talk, urgently. We will make that happen. REACT will engineer the radical change needed through its unique partnership with a leading Creative Economy broker, Watershed, pioneering a new model of dynamic creative interaction: Sandbox. REACT will match Creative Economy demand with Arts and Humanities excellence, creating sustainable partnerships that will provide significant economic and societal impacts, generating a transformative shift in capacity and HEI cultures at all levels. We will bring two cultures together and lead the necessary process of organisational change. Within four years we will have demonstrated the value of sustained tight integration of the CE sector and AH communities, and secured national and international recognition for our agile mechanism for dynamic knowledge exchange.
The REACT Hub is a collaboration between the University of the West of England, Watershed Arts Trust, and the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter. It reaches across two dynamic UK regions, and uniquely across three cultural areas and two languages and creative economies. It brings together Arts & Humanities research from fields as diverse as Archaeology, Architecture, Classics, History, English, Welsh, Translation Studies, Performance, Media and Cultural Studies, Design, Music, Computer Science and Digital Technologies. REACT will offer researchers the chance to work with Micro businesses and SMEs, technology partners from either the commercial sector or the partner HEIs and larger scale Cultural Economy and Cultural Industry partners who have an interest in new creative content, and assets to exploit in partnership with academics. REACT will bring together high quality academic research with creative technology partners to developing innovative ways of engaging audiences. Creative economy partners will have the opportunity to develop new delivery platforms and researchers will be able to engage with audiences in new ways.
REACT Universities have teamed up Bristol's Watershed Media Centre to adapt their ground breaking innovation development programme, Sandbox, for working with academic researchers. This programme is supported by the University of Exeter's Innovation Fitness Test offering participating Creative Economy partners the chance to strengthen their market potential. Watershed's Sandbox brings together production teams around themed cohorts to make practice based prototypes; production teams follow a common timetable of development and testing, sharing their learning with one another across the cohort. This proven method aggregates ideas, talent and resources harnessing powerful outputs from diverse cross disciplinary inputs. See http://www.theatresandbox.co.uk/2010-evaluation/ for an evaluation of the 20101 Theatre Sandbox scheme.
Knowledge Exchange gets lost in translation. Creative Economy demand and Arts and Humanities research culture too routinely fail to understand each other. They can seem to work to different rhythms and values. But they do and they must match, and they must talk, urgently. We will make that happen. REACT will engineer the radical change needed through its unique partnership with a leading Creative Economy broker, Watershed, pioneering a new model of dynamic creative interaction: Sandbox. REACT will match Creative Economy demand with Arts and Humanities excellence, creating sustainable partnerships that will provide significant economic and societal impacts, generating a transformative shift in capacity and HEI cultures at all levels. We will bring two cultures together and lead the necessary process of organisational change. Within four years we will have demonstrated the value of sustained tight integration of the CE sector and AH communities, and secured national and international recognition for our agile mechanism for dynamic knowledge exchange.
The REACT Hub is a collaboration between the University of the West of England, Watershed Arts Trust, and the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter. It reaches across two dynamic UK regions, and uniquely across three cultural areas and two languages and creative economies. It brings together Arts & Humanities research from fields as diverse as Archaeology, Architecture, Classics, History, English, Welsh, Translation Studies, Performance, Media and Cultural Studies, Design, Music, Computer Science and Digital Technologies. REACT will offer researchers the chance to work with Micro businesses and SMEs, technology partners from either the commercial sector or the partner HEIs and larger scale Cultural Economy and Cultural Industry partners who have an interest in new creative content, and assets to exploit in partnership with academics. REACT will bring together high quality academic research with creative technology partners to developing innovative ways of engaging audiences. Creative economy partners will have the opportunity to develop new delivery platforms and researchers will be able to engage with audiences in new ways.
REACT Universities have teamed up Bristol's Watershed Media Centre to adapt their ground breaking innovation development programme, Sandbox, for working with academic researchers. This programme is supported by the University of Exeter's Innovation Fitness Test offering participating Creative Economy partners the chance to strengthen their market potential. Watershed's Sandbox brings together production teams around themed cohorts to make practice based prototypes; production teams follow a common timetable of development and testing, sharing their learning with one another across the cohort. This proven method aggregates ideas, talent and resources harnessing powerful outputs from diverse cross disciplinary inputs. See http://www.theatresandbox.co.uk/2010-evaluation/ for an evaluation of the 20101 Theatre Sandbox scheme.
Planned Impact
Our key target sectors for CE impact are 1) Micro businesses and SMEs in the creative communications, design and technology sector; these inlude individual artists, start ups to medium size agencies who are likely to be the primary collaborators with many AH researchers, providing them with media, design and delivery expertise. Operations at this scale have both the agility and the motivation to experiment in the REACT process. 2) Technology partners from either the commercial sector or the partner HEIs; they offer REACT innovative platform support, e.g. sensor based delivery methods, interactive projection techniques, high definition imaging, high bandwidth computer networks, leading edge data, text and picture mining. Their motivation is access to a testbedfor new technologies on live projects. 3) Larger scale Cultural Economy and Cultural Industry partners (eg BBC, Tate St Ives, the National Trust, English Heritage) who have cultural assets to exploit in partnership with academics and an acute interest in developing innovative ways of engaging audiences. The REACT delivery plan highlights the necessity of brokerage and development - the iShed input to the hub provides us with essential experience in CE brokerage that is nationally recognised. Two phases per year will be devoted to forming partnerships and seeking opportunities to bring new partners and investment into the process. The success of this process depends on the qualities of cultural entrepreneurship we can foster in REACT - here the quality of the inputs from the Executive Producer and the Producers will be central. The support team will work closely with the Advisory Board to predict emergent market needs and formulate themes accordingly . For instance we know that IPTV will be coming on stream during the life of the Hub which will afford new opportunities for interactive programming; the 'internet of things' will move a step closer when smart phones are equipped with RFID readers affording the potential for objects to become media. We have good evidence that the method we are incorporating into REACT stimulates entrepreneurial activity. iShed's Sandbox methodology was developed in 2008 with the inaugural Media Sandbox, an annual scheme for six companies. In 2010 Theatre Sandbox was also launched (nationally). These schemes have now supported 23 companies with partners including HP Labs, Aardman, Microsoft, BBC, Ogilvy, iNets and DCMS. Sandbox projects have gone on to receive funding from Technology Strategy Board and Arts Council England as well commissions from brands and organisations including BBC, HP Labs, CITIN, UKTI, Samsung, Bluevia, Tate Modern, British Red Cross, National Trust and Soho Theatre amongst others. Examples of successes from previous Sandbox iterations point to the kinds of impact we can expect to achieve; shortly after completing Media Sandbox, Mobile game developer Mobile Pie won Channel 4's New Mobile Developer of the Year (MS08); AntiVJ have won global success and commissions using their mapping software (MS09); after building an RFID system for Proto-type Theater, Tim Kindberg secured a Technology Strategy Board grant to develop a commercial solution. He has since produced his first commercial campaign for Ford Focus live (TS10); start-up Mutant Labs have won commissions from Aardman and Mobile Pie through connections made by the Advisory Group (MS10); Nu Desine's Alphasphere musical instrument has received product design, electronics and music technology input from academics at both UWE and UoB. The project recruited 5 student interns, is currently negotiating an investment deal and has produced a fully functioning prototype; in 2011, Media Sandbox projects were showcased at SXSW in Austin, US and FutureEverything, Manchester. The Bristol REACT base will be co located with the National Centre for Public Engagement in the Watershed offering immediate expertise in introducing our work to public audiences.
Organisations
- University of the West of England (Lead Research Organisation)
- Cardiff University (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- University of Bath (Collaboration)
- University of Bristol (Collaboration)
- Watershed Media Centre (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF EXETER (Collaboration)
- University of the West of England (Collaboration)
- South West Screen (Project Partner)
- National Trust (Project Partner)
- Burrell Durrant Hifle (Project Partner)
- University of Exeter (Project Partner)
- Hewlett-Packard (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Exeter Cathedral Church of St Peter (Project Partner)
- University of Bath (Project Partner)
- Watershed (Project Partner)
- Beef Limited (Project Partner)
- Tate (Project Partner)
- Welsh National Opera (Project Partner)
- British Library (Project Partner)
- Team Rubber (Project Partner)
- Bristol City Council (Project Partner)
- Mobile Pie (Project Partner)
- PIAS Entertainment Group (Project Partner)
- Icon Films (Project Partner)
- DO (Project Partner)
- Chapter Arts Centre (Project Partner)
- Bristol Media Group CIC (Project Partner)
- University of Bristol (Project Partner)
- BBC Bristol (Project Partner)
- West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Science City Bristol Ltd (Project Partner)
- Hachette UK Ltd (Project Partner)
- Arts Council England (Project Partner)
- SlingShot (Project Partner)
- Historic Bldgs & Mnts Commis for England (Project Partner)
Publications
Moreton S
(2013)
Translation, Negotiation,Advocacy: the REACT challenge
Cole
(2013)
Crematoria, Barracks, Gateway: <em>Survivors' Return Visits to the Memory Landscapes of Auschwitz</em>
in History and Memory
Giannachi G
(2014)
Time Trails: presencing digital heritage within our everyday lives
in Revista Brasileira de Estudos da Presença
Dovey J
(2014)
CURATING CONNECTIVITY REACT WORKING PAPER 3
Senior, T
(2015)
The Arts and Humanities in the Internet of Things
Mitchell, M
(2015)
Where voice and listening meet: participation in and through interactive documentary in Peru
in Glocal Times
Mandal A
(2015)
The Gothic Compass: New Directions in Scholarship and Inquiry
Benford S
(2015)
The Ethical Implications of HCI's Turn to the Cultural
in ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
Massung E
(2015)
InTouch Tactile Tales
Watson D
(2015)
Adopted children and young people's views on their life storybooks: The role of narrative in the formation of identities
in Children and Youth Services Review
Moreton S
(2015)
Rethinking 'knowledge exchange': new approaches to collaborative work in the arts and humanities
in International Journal of Cultural Policy
Parriman C
(2016)
The Bristol and Bath by Design Report
Attlee, J
(2016)
Life Writing and Space
Dovey J
(2016)
The practice of cultural ecology: network connectivity in the creative economy
in Cultural Trends
Dovey J
(2016)
Creative Hubs : Understanding the New Economy
Buser M
(2017)
The time is out of joint: Atmosphere and hauntology at Bodiam Castle
in Emotion, Space and Society
Whitham R
(2019)
Understanding, capturing, and assessing value in collaborative design research
in CoDesign
Moreton S
(2021)
Knowledge exchange in the arts and humanities as creative economy policy assemblage
in Research for All
| Title | 'Storini' |
| Description | All over the country local newspapers are closing and communities are struggling to communicate the concerns and interests of their residents. Newstori (previously 'Storini') tackles the problem of how to create a sustainable digital model for collecting local news content. Exploring trust, reputation and motivation, creative agency Behaviour and Justin Lewis of the Cardiff School of Journalism, set out to use behavioural psychology to explore how to inspire local people to become citizen journalists. PROJECT PARTNERS Justin Lewis,School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University Emma Meese,Centre for Community Journalism, Cardiff University Paul Davies,Imagemakers Sara Moseley,School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | Launched Welsh language citizen journalism platform. £16k of REACT follow on funding bought in £28k of Welsh Government Digital Development money to develop the project further. Cardiff University now hold IP and are developing the app further |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/books-print/newstori |
| Title | 'these pages fall like ash' |
| Description | 'these pages fall like ash' by Tom Abba (UWE Bristol) and Circumstance will work together with leading authors Nick Harkaway and Neil Gaiman to invite an audience to participate in a digital-first narrative experience where they can alter a story, challenging traditional publishing norms |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | Received further investment and formed as a company, Volume of Circumstance. They are now in discussions with Penguin to finance the research and launch 4 new interactive reading experience products. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/alumni-books-print/these-pages-fall-ash |
| Title | Aartvark |
| Description | A community-driven digital platform for arts listing. Collaboration between Brian Healey of TinCan Design, Glyn Mottersheadof Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, University of Cardiff and Chapter Arts Centre. Artvaark explored if it was possible to reimagine a printed arts-listings programme as a community-driven digital platform. It combined personalised content and community participation in a way that brings arts organisations and their communities closer together. The collaboration experimented with developing a platform to incentivise user engagement digitally, and investigated the sustainability of an on-demand option for print programmes. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | Project produced a range of learning that has helped both the business and academic partners: Glynn Mottershead: New module on Digital Journalism course which focuses on user engagement and audience Credits the project with getting his promotion to being a Senior Lecturer in Digital Journalism TinCan: part of their portflio and underpinning software useful in other areas of business |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/prototype/aartvark |
| Title | BetaLoop |
| Description | Connect with musicians around the world to collaborate in real time BetaLoop is a device that enables musicians around the world to share and collaborate on their ideas in real time. It records rhythmic, dynamic note patterns and feeds them in to a live looper. The looper allows the patterns to be heard by not only the musician but, via MIDI and the internet, by anyone with another BetaLoop device anywhere in the world. Other performers can then record changes to the pattern, which are fed back, creating a musical performance evolving over time and continents. The project is a collaboration between Chris Nash, UWE Bristol, and Adam Place, nu desine. Chris Nash is a professional programmer and composer, and Senior Lecturer in Music Technology at UWE Bristol.Adam Place is founding Director of nu desine, a technology start up operating at the intersection of music technology and consumer electronics. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | A new working partnership between UWE & Nu Desine. A second product line for Nu Desine in development. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/prototype/betaloop |
| Title | Book Kernel |
| Description | Taking inspiration from the increasing value of live events and our continued love affair with the printed word, Book Kernel brings together the affordances of digital and physical to create a record of a moment in time. It incorporates selected content, social media interaction and conversation into a curated personal memento for you to take home. Creative agency Hodcha worked with Alexis Nuselovici of Cardiff University to explore how theories of translation can apply to cross-platform media. They prototyped the model through the publishing of The Dylan Thomas Book Kernel at a live poetry translation event in Swansea and have gone on to make books of conferences, festivals and concerts. Find out more about Book Kernel PROJECT PARTNERS Bambo Soyinka,Hodcha Micropublishing Alexis Nuselovici,School of Modern Languages, Cardiff University Ben Gwalchmai,Writer and maker |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | Book Kernel has developed as a business through its contracts to produce books for with the Guardian's Activate London, BBC Wales Digital Cardiff, No Boundaries Conference for the Arts Council, and Shakespeare in Shoreditch. Ben Gwalchmai (Book Kernel) and James Wheale (Jekyll 2.0) are developing Fabler, an app that delivers audio content in relation to the users' motions. The team won £3k Writers' Platform bursary to prototype app, have continued the process of Knowledge Exchange by working with Mixed Reality Lab (MRL) at the University of Nottingham to develop iterations of Fabler and exploited business opportunities by appearing at Bristol Literature Festival 2013 delivering a writing workshop. Part of £600k Paper Cities project led by Bambo about creative writing in schools. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/books-print/book-kernel |
| Title | Boron Mon Amour |
| Description | Could Boron be the most boring element in the periodic table? Boron Mon Amour creates a 'hymn to the humdrum', combining linear film with live data streams to form a major new component of the global documentary project 94 Elements. Both innovative and irreverent, the documentary uses narrative film and interactive visualisation to explore our relationship with natural resources whilst building an adaptable, scalable tool for telling data-driven stories in the future. The 94 Elements project PROJECT PARTNERS Emma Weitkamp,Science Communication, UWE Bristol John Burgan,Documentary Film Research Group, University of South Wales Mike Paterson,PFilm Marcin Ignac,Variable |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | Team continuing to develop the film which is nearly completed. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/future-documentary/boron-mon-amour |
| Title | Breathing Stone |
| Description | Around the world the numbers of people with stress and anxiety is increasing, yet the number of non-medical options to support their needs is significantly small. University of Bath's Paul Leonard and Chris Clarke, composer Joseph Hyde, and David Plans from entertainment and healthcare startup Adaptive Media, will create a hand-sized stone that senses heart rate and breath to generate music that reflects and adjusts the users physiological state. Paul Leonard,Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Bath Chris Clarke,Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Bath Joseph Hyde,Composer David Plans,Adaptive Media/Biobeats |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | Exhibited at Christies in South Kensington as part of London Design Week 2014. A new company has been established to develop Breathing Stone and is seeking investment in America and in Korea. Exploring further funding to complete testing of the object so they can take the product to market. A product specialist has estimated that sales of the complete product could reach 4 million. o Chris Clarke (Engineering, University of Bath, Breathing Stone) is now an employee of BioBeats, his creative partner on 'Breathing Stone, Clarke is their 'Embedded Systems Guru', paid by them to do on-going work for the business and has share options. He continues to research and teach at the University of the Bath, working with students who are exploring the next iteration of their product - such as adding an Oxymeter, swipe interface and new audio process - as part of their degree courses. His REACT project has led to a significant impact on teaching - from a product to use as an example, new understanding of volume manufacture, and the different technical routes that can be taken to develop solutions to problems. This has had a positive impact on recruitment, and has been used as an example at all UCAS events and departmental Open Days. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/objects/breathing-stone |
| Title | City Strata |
| Description | Know Your Place is a digital platform which enables users to explore different layers of Bristol's heritage developed by Bristol City Council, going back to the first maps of the city in 1750. The project protoyped the 'Cinemap' layer which provided a way of navigating the city and experiencing Bristol's cinematic heritage in the spaces where it actually happened, allowing developers to create location based experiences using user generated and uploaded content. The team produced an app called 'Lost Cinemas of Castle Park', which takes users on a site specific audio journey through the Cinemap layer. It is available for download from the iTunes store. Created by Charlotte Crofts (UWE Bristol) Calvium and Bristol City Council |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Impact | Reflecting the Past presenting to meeting of National Trust Curators. Interactive Places funded (£1K iNets) to produce a business plan and path to exploitation for 'magic' mirrors |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/heritage/city-strata |
| Title | Colourstory |
| Description | Create and share beautiful representations of your life in colour using any set of images Colourstory is an app developed from the practice of artist Arthur Buxton with print researcher Paul Laidler. It is a digital tool that extracts the main colours from an image and display them proportionally. The resulting colour charts are arranged chronologically to form a unique narrative using colour. Collaboration between Arthur Buxton, Paul Laidler Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE Bristo and Phil O'Shaughnessy Interior Design, UWE Bristol. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | A new business which is selling products and attracting investment. Colourstory is the brainchild of British artist Arthur Buxton, a free platform that lets the public create and share beautiful representations of your life with colour using any set of images. Drawing on Buxton's artistic practice of making stunning prints derived from dominant coloursets in visual collections, the company engages the everyday creativity of users with the colours around them. Buxton has created a tool that analyses and then extracts the most prominent colours from images, paintings and photographs, and gathers together the most prominent colours in beautiful infographics. He has produced a number of prints to date, ranging from visualisations of dominant colours in the paintings of master artists, through to Paris Vogue covers across the Twentieth century. Before REACT, Buxton already had the idea, he had built his own primitive version of the software and had held two one man shows in tiny local galleries. The partnership has now formed a company to launch the platform online and as an app, he has been through a kickstarter campaign, gained start up investment, benefitted from the support of the REACT Alumni programme and is now selling a range of products from the website. This journey began in 2012 with Buxton teaming up with Dr Paul Laidler, a Research Fellow working in the field of fine art digital print at the Centre for Fine Print Research (CFPR) within the University of the West of England, Bristol. As a researcher Dr Laidler's activities cover a broad spectrum of interests relating to the discipline of printmaking and the realisation of physical artefacts in the digital age. Dr Laidler had already launched a fine art print publishing practice entitled CFPR Editions as a practice led approach for exploring the evolving nature and value of the digitally mediated artefact. The inspiration for the project was to extend Buxton's artistic practice to a wider audience by transforming the process he has developed into an interactive, easy to use, fun, educational participatory activity. For Laidler this offered a practice based way to investigate his research interests. They wanted to know how users of visual sharing tools like Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest might respond to a chance to create new forms of craft from their image collections. Colourstory enables those without design skills to interpret their everyday experiences through colour, with the option of creating personalised printed artefacts that express their interests and tastes. REACT's network was a key feature of the Colourstory success story. Laidler and Buxton were familiar to each other through UWE's CFPR and heard of the REACT initiative through the University. After initial audience testing with REACT's feasability funding they were introduced to two local entrepreneurs by REACT producers: Mike Jackson invested in the project through Webstart and Pervasive Media Studio based entrepreneur Seth Jackson helped Buxton form a company and joined the board. They then found their development talent by approaching a team based at the Bristol Games Hub which grew out the Pervasive Media Studio three years ago. Working through the Alumni Scheme, Colourstory is now constituted as a company with a business plan selling the app and its products to consumers: it is actively seeking first round investment funding to expand the reach of the project. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/feasibility-alumni/colourstory |
| Title | Connected Objects |
| Description | Find new stories for historical objects Can interacting with heritage objects go beyond just looking at glass cases? Can this lead to new stories and better understanding of how these objects are placed within our culture? What do the objects want? A collaboration between Julian Sykes of Hoffi (Cardiff) and Jacqui Mulville of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University. This exploration considered how to make a new experience for heritage visitors that allows them to touch, explore and create stories around the objects they meet. The long term goal will be to scan and 3D print an object and then embed the technology that allows for recognition and connection. This will be used to engage with audiences and allow a passive experience of a heritage space to become one of true collaboration and interactivity. The team also explored other uses of an 'objects CMS' for museum curators and visitors. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | Hoffi became key members of the new Creative Cardiff network established post REACT by Cardiff University. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/feasibility/connected-objects |
| Title | Curpanion |
| Description | At the back of the museum sits the taxidermy, unanimated for many years. Curpanion guides you to where these animals sit patiently, waiting for you to bring them to life. This is an exploration into new museum experiences by University of Bristol's Merle Patchett and Andrew Flack and the multi-disciplinary, technology and creation studio, Play Nicely. A customisable, Internet of things keepsake will curate your visit, unlock augmented taxidermy exhibits and enable you to create your own online menagerie of amazing animals and beautiful beasts. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | Exhibited at Christies in South Kensington as part of London Design Week 2014. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/objects-sandbox/projects/2014/curpanion/ |
| Title | Digitising The Dollar Princess |
| Description | Digitising The Dollar Princess by Nicola Thomas (University of Exeter) and Bow Software broke new digital ground in the genre of biography to create a compelling non-linear reading experience exploring the story of Lady Curzon of Kedleston. Using the app, readers navigate a path through Mary Curzon's story by exploring the rich materials of her life. Lady Curzon's journey as the Vicereine of India was dictated by the rhythm of the Raj, recorded in intimate detail through letters, diaries, in clothing and photographs. Through the lens of this fascinating woman, Nicola Thomas of University of Exeter and Bow Software set out to break new digital ground in the genre of biography by creating an experience in which your curiosity leads your interaction with the source materials. PROJECT PARTNERS Nicola Thomas,Human Geography, University of Exeter Charlotte Quickenden,Bow Software |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | Secured £10.5k follow-on funding from the University of Exeter's HEIF fund. Submitted Nesta/ACE Digitial R&D bid with B-Side CIC. Partner company Bow Software developed 'PhysiDigi' as the product/service which is a way of using physical things (like bookmarks) with NFC tags to deliver paid digital content inside literary apps. Currently in business development with Bristol incubator Engine Shed. The Literary Platform have published an article about 'PhysiDigi Bookmarks' - the piece has a small video clip cut from the REACT project film which illustrates how the format can be used for ebooks in the form of the Bookmark. Nicola - has fundamentally changed her practice, confidence in talking to film makers etc and the approach to making and sharing work, now Director of Impact for Geography . Charlotte - REACT Sandbox and then SetSquared has learned a huge amount about business development, prototyping, IP, user testing. Now managing Exeter Fab Lab and trying to put that into practice supporting companies in Exeter and Devon (also interested in support female founders) Team working on succesful ongoing AHRC projects together |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/books-print/digitising-dollar-princess |
| Title | Doc360 |
| Description | Exploring new futures for community documentary Much has been made of the use of immersive cinema for entertainment and spectacle, but what about using it for community documentary? This collaboration between Cardiff video company On Par Productions, cultural media expert Dr Kerry Moore and the Urban Reaction Research Lab looked at how to use projection domes to house an immersive, communicative experience. Starting with a desire to tell the story of the immigrant population in the Butetown area of Cardiff, the project drew on cultural theory and media sociology to develop techniques for producing immersive cinema as well as exploring the users interaction with this content. The team examined the practicalities of using domes and 360° cinema as a long term solution for showing work. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | On Par, a documentary company from Wales founded by recent graduates in Documentary Film, developed a proposal with REACT for dome-based cinema (Doc360, Prototype Fund) and are now part of the leading team in South Wales for VR development. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/feasibility/doc360 |
| Title | Fabulous Beasts |
| Description | A game of stacking smart objects, combining the depth of digital gameplay with a physical, social experience A collaboration between Elies Dekoninck is a Programme Leader for Advanced Design and Engineering at the University of Bath and Alex Fleetwood is a freelance games designer and former director of Hide & Seek. Fabulous Beasts is a game of stacking smart objects for 2 players. Play beautiful pieces into a balancing tower. Through the unique sensing platform, it becomes the foundation of your digital ecosystem. Every piece you place on the tower will alter the world: populating and enhancing your world with wonderful creatures or limiting your opponent's success by playing natural disasters. Fabulous Beasts combines the depth of digital gameplay with a physical, social experience. Drawing on the laws of nature and the stories of myth, the game gives you powers of creation and destruction. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | A new company with a new product, £300k of investment, ready to go into manufacture. Developed as part of Play Sandbox, Fabulous Beasts is a game for one to five players. Players take turns to place uniquely shaped stackable objects on a platform. These 'artefacts' are digitally connected to a computer game, where worlds and species evolve, change, grow and battle in relation to the physical blocks. Every time you successfully stack an Artefact, you alter the connected digital world. The aim is to make the most fabulous world you can, before a tower collapses. This innovative digital/physical game was devised by Alex Fleetwood (Sensible Object) and Elies Dekoninck (University of Bath). The collaboration bought together skills in games design, storytelling, industrial design and prototyping and creative methodologies to create the game. A unique mixture of an academic understanding both the creative process at work in design and manufacture and the technical demands of prototyping, and a business understanding of games design and creative entrepreneurialism has led to an exciting new product. Alex formed a company to produce the product, which now employs 6 people and has secured £150k in private investment to take the product forward. The full product range features variants of the stackable objects, including a fully customisable 'Maker Set'. In total they have 4 discrete product variations of the game. They ran a successful Kickstarter campaign in February 2016, raising over £150k. The first products will be on the market in time for Christmas shopping season 2016. The team is approaching the production run of its first games. It has experienced partners in Hong Kong and China to handle manufacture, and are working with a Hong Kong based logistics to handle distribution to local fulfilment centres in the UK, US, Canada and Australia. Another product development step will be to establish Sensible Object as a world-first in hardware/digital gaming startups that has a complete supply chain relationship e.g. from prototype to manufacture. The ambition is to explore how to license elements of this process, or offering services based on access to this supply chain as core part of Sensible Object. The core of this collaboration has been the new and emerging enquiry, across creative design, manufacture, and gaming, into how the physical and digital interact in the contemporary world. This is a key research area for the arts and humanities, and a key place for exciting future interdisciplinary activity. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/play/fabulous-beasts |
| Title | Fans on Foot |
| Description | Did Sherlock 'die' on this street? Has the Tardis touched down here? Fans regularly travel to the places where their favourite TV and films were made but rely on forums to share location details and plans. Embracing the loyalty and collective power of fan communities, Cardiff University's Naomi Dunstan and Ross Garner and Technologist Tarim of Media Playgrounds, have developed specially designed jewellery that alerts users to nearby hot spots, guiding them to locations and creating a secret talisman only others fans will know. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | Exhibited at Christies in South Kensington as part of London Design Week 2014. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/objects/fans-foot |
| Title | Future Cemetery: |
| Description | Future Cemetery: Dr John Troyer Bath University & Arnos Vale Cemetery : combining mobile and projection technologies and theatre to think about death and dying in a digital age.The collaboration, formed at a REACT Ideas Lab, addressed these challenges. John Troyer is Deputy Director of University of Bath's Centre for Death and Society. His research in Death Studies is broad and encompasses Death and architecture, aesthetics and cultural studies of death and dying. Calling The Shots is an award-winning production company based in Bristol. Established in 1998, CTS has an ethos of community engagement in creative media and delivers broadcast, web and multiplatform projects for TV, corporate and education clients. The Future Cemetery project produced site-specific live theatre performances including a time travelling graveyard historian and a hoax tour that ends in a confrontation with a disrespectful cemetery user. There were also audio installations that spoke memories from trees and daylight projections onto cemetery surfaces that reveal how we wanted to be remembered via 'Six Word Epitaphs' generated from visitor suggestions. The project tested what was possible and proper for a working cemetery to offer its audience. The team The Future Cemetery Project offers cemetery visitors an immersive experience that challenges them to think about death and dying. The cemetery's lease has been renewed for another 125 years, and exploring what the cemetery of the future will be like has become a major part of the Trust's activities. Further business development funding has been awarded for Calling the Shots to develop an Augmented Reality app into a robust product to take to market and to explore the application possibilities for use of Near-Field technology in the museum. John Troyer has given TEDex Bristol talks and will be presenting as part of a REACT panel at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas, one of the leading forums in the world for showcasing, discussing and exploring the future of digital technology. Bath University & Arnos Vale are in talks to establish a Heritage Cemetery Research Centre on the site. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Impact | Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust improved their understanding of audience composition directly impacting their widening participating events, evidenced in the new audiences attending Future Cemetery events.The cemetery's lease has been renewed for another 125 years, and exploring what the cemetery of the future will be like has become a major part of the Trust's activities. Further business development funding has been awarded for Calling the Shots to develop an Augmented Reality app into a robust product to take to market and to explore the application possibilities for use of Near-Field technology in the museum. John Troyer has given TEDex Bristol talks and will be presenting as part of a REACT panel at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas, one of the leading forums in the world for showcasing, discussing and exploring the future of digital technology. Bath University & Arnos Vale are in talks to establish a Heritage Cemetery Research Centre on the site. Deeper relationship between Centre for Death and Society and Arnos Vale, has fed into teaching and research - greater understanding of design processes and a focus on users. Visiting PhD student on the project (have submitted an abstract for a special issue of a journal). o John Troyer (Sociology, University of Bath, Future Cemetery) originally an ECR in his first lectureship post, has seen significant opportunities for development emerge from REACT. He now has established a deeper relationship between the Centre for Death and Society, the Research Centre he directs, and Arnos Vale Cemetery. This has fed into teaching and research, providing a greater understanding of design processes and a focus on users and audiences. He worked with a visiting international PhD student on the project with whom he has generated new research material. He feels his REACT project has played a part in securing a permanent contract at Bath, and providing him with many international requests for appearances and collaboration. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/heritage/future-cemetery |
| Title | Ghosts in the Garden |
| Description | Sydney Gardens in Bath were developed as a Georgian pleasure garden, but today the swingboats, labyrinth and elaborate 'Cosmorama' are all gone. Ghosts in the Garden takes audiences on a journey to rediscover the physical space of the modern park with its own past as a pleasure garden. Present-day visitors meet and interact with real characters from the Gardens' heyday, in a game where history, stories and imagination meet. Splash and Ripple are 'Architects of Extraordinary Adventures.' Their mission is to make beautiful, genuinely moving experiences that put the participants at the centre of the action. These experiences are intensified through being set in the real world where normality is suspended. Their two major projects - Ghosts in the Garden and A Knight's Peril - offer heritage sites a radical new approach to interpretation using new technology and game design. The collaboration will evaluate the impact, on both the 'public' and the industry, of co-designed, non-linear, playful, affective and experiential group learning. This will be translated into insight for the delivery of historical interpretation at British sites of heritage |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Impact | Ghosts in the Garden: received £10K to install game in Holburne Museum in Spring to research how best to take product to market.A strong intervention has been made in the creative economy with this project. REACT was directly involved in the formation of Splash and Ripple as a company. Furthermore, the business model of Splash and Ripple previously had engaged only in site-specific performance events. With Ghosts in the Garden, the company has now diversified to have a reproducible product 'kit' that can be installed in a number of different sites. This creates a new potential revenue stream for the company. The commission also generated work in the creative economy for Amalgam objects, Fires Springs Storytellers, scriptwriters, actors, and Holburne Museum Artist in Residence Karen Wallis. Steve Poole is now Associate Historian at Splash and Ripple ensuring further opportunities for dissemination of HEI knowledge into the creative sector. Splash & Ripple subsequently received £100k investment from the National Trust to redesign the Ghosts in the Garden prototype for Bodiam Castle in Kent. Rosie Poebright of Splash & Ripple (Ghosts in the Garden, Heritage Sandbox) came to REACT as a freelancer, and now has major heritage project development and leadership experience; a brand, 'Adventure Heritage' with a usp of prop based navigation and a fully functioning small business. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/heritage-alumni/ghosts-garden |
| Title | I am Orion |
| Description | ORION is a documentary by Jeanie Finlay which tells the story of Jimmy Ellis, an unknown singer thrust into the spotlight with a fictional identity and a mask, as part of a crazy scheme to masquerade him as Elvis back from the grave. I AM ORION is a wrap around project which harnesses web technologies to explore mystery, tribute, identity and fandom. Developing new forms of audience and fan engagement, I AM ORION gathered memories and encouraged participation in the telling and sharing of this rich and fascinating story. Orion: the movie PROJECT PARTNERS Jeanie Finlay,Artist and Filmmaker and founder of Glimmer Films Judith Aston,Digital Cultures Research Centre, UWE Bristol Tom Martin,383 Project |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | Succesful Indiegogo campaign raised $33k to develop film. Creative England has invested £70k on back of REACT project and crowd funding success. They were also able to announce the exciting news that BBC Storyville (the flagship BBC Documentary Strand), Creative England and Ffilm Cymru Wales have come on board to support the project. The film has been launched. It was shown at Tribeca and Sundance, and has won a number of awards, including The Discovery award at the British Independent Film Awards. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/future-documentary/i-am-orion |
| Title | In Touch |
| Description | Victoria Bates is Lecturer in Modern History at University of Bristol, with research interests in the Medical Humanities, wellbeing, and health Ki Cater is Lecturer in Computer Science at University of Bristol Kinneir Dufort are an integrated product design and development company with over thirty years' experience. In this fast paced digital world we often feel isolated distant from the people we love. The smartphone may allow us to connect almost anywhere at any time, but although we are always connected, are we really InTouch? The research and design project InTouch hopes to make that moment of connection bring us closer together. Using haptic technology, InTouch are exploring new ways to allow us all to reach out and touch those who mean the most to us at that very moment in time when we need each other the most. Initially aimed to enable families separated by long distance to engage through storytelling at bedtime, our explorations have led us deeper, to the bigger question: What is 'real' connection, and more importantly how can we get back what we all need, to feel next to those people we love? |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | Exhibited at Christies in South Kensington as part of London Design Week 2014. This project led to a number of impacts. It enabled KD to explore the emerging 'internet of things' market away from the immediate commercial constraints of a client contract. In new sectors, where the demand is not yet proven and the technology relatively untested, it can be difficult for companies to invest in their team's own skills and experience. Second, the collaboration with Bristol's Medical Humanities and Computer Science departments contributed directly into the product development but also engendered a depth and rigour which ensured that the outcomes are able to feed into the company's wider portfolio. Finally, the Sandbox experience directly led to the establishment of an internal rapid prototyping system at KD. This has allowed them to continue to explore and innovate effectively, by being able to demonstrate proof of concept and develop ideas with clients more rapidly than they have other done before. This has contributed to new business. 'The REACT Objects Sandbox provided us with an opportunity to prototype new ways of working on technology projects, which we deployed directly on a subsequent commercial project for the Huggies brand in Korea. The result, a wearable camera for Mums and babies, designed and prototyped within 4 months, was viewed by two and a half million people in a campaign with Huggies consumers in Korea at the end of 2014.' - Kinneir Dufort |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/objects/touch |
| Title | In the Shadow of Things |
| Description | An interactive archive documenting one woman's experience of obsessive-compulsive disorder. A collaboration between Victoria Forrest - Design by Victoria and Peter Meterlekamp, School of Arts, University of Bristol. In the Shadow of Things is a beautiful app that allows you to explore the sounds, pictures and moving images of an archive in non-linear ways, opening up new possibilities for curation of digital archives. The team worked with the intensely personal work produced by photographer Léonie Hampton in her project In the Shadow of Things. This project, for which Leonie was nominated for the Deutsche Boerse Prize 2012, documents Leonie's mother's obsessive-compulsive disorder. The archive includes photographs, films, animations, objects from the home, hand-written lists, maps, archive family videos, and recordings of family conversations. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | A new kind of photo book design for tablet which is the first original IP for the now renamed VIKA Books. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/prototype/shadow-things |
| Title | Intimate Objects |
| Description | Intimate Objects. A digital co-creation service and platform enabling aduls to re-imagine, design and create intimate objects. A collaboration between designer, Cassie Robinson and Mwenza Blell, School of Arts, University of Bristol. Intimate Objects is a digital co-creation service and platform (supported and informed by in-person Intimacy Labs) that provides an intimate, virtual space for connection and creativity. It enables adult users to re-imagine, design and create intimate objects for communication, discovery and expression of their sexual desires, and more broadly, all aspects of their intimate lives. The project is fundamentally informed by an anthropological perspective on intimacy, sexuality and the generative capacity of everyday actions. Research has highlighted diversity in sexual practices and identities and the role of context in shaping these. The focus on the creation of the intimate online space recognises that actions create their own kinds of time and space and enables the objects to emerge from a relational context. Intimate Objects developed two previous projects: Intimacy Lab, held at the Barbican in August 2013 and the Royal Festival Hall in March 2014, which explored the design experience and an intimacy workshop at A-Camp, an Autostraddle weekend with queer-identified women in October 2013, which explored the potential market. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | Intimate Objects developed two projects: Intimacy Lab, held at the Barbican in August 2013 and the Royal Festival Hall in March 2014, which explored the design experience and an intimacy workshop at A-Camp, an Autostraddle weekend with queer-identified women in October 2013, which explored the potential mark |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/prototype/intimate-objects |
| Title | Ivory Bangle Lady |
| Description | The Ivory Bangle Lady: Professor Christopher Knussel Exeter University & Imagination: using Twitter and SMS technologies to reveal the mysteries of a young woman, buried in unusual circumstances in Roman York. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Impact | Ivory Bangle Lady increased public engagement with research relating to forensic archaeology. Challenged public to explore intersections between historical and scientific data. The Ivory Bangle Lady team developed 'I Tweet Dead People', a Twitter and SMS-activated video and audio trail across the museum. The museum visitor responds to clues and information found in the exhibition space by connecting with the Ivory Bangle Lady on Twitter and SMS. The result is an entertaining, informative treasure hunt in which visitors interact, turn around, engage, break tracks and break ranks to explore the Ivory Bangle Lady's past. Connections between objects and places in the museum are forged, riddles are solved, answers tweeted and video projections spring to life. The Ivory Bangle Lady has now been laid out with her burial goods for the first time in over 100 years, according to the ethical standards upheld by the project team. The team explored how to tell the story of the Ivory Bangle Lady, and to promote the science behind research that uses human remains. The strongly shared ethos of the project team, the innovative repurposing of contemporary social media and a deep understanding of the subject matter came together to make 'I Tweet Dead People' an innovative and compelling means of interacting with the past. This project has also left a lasting impact on the Yorkshire Museum: "The legacy of the project is that it has given us the impetus to re-think how we engage with the public, and in what ways. We are now committed to incorporating a digital component into each new project to diversify our interpretation and appeal to wider audiences. We now have a digital engagement team on staff" Natalie McCaul, Yorkshire Museum The Trust is now seeking funds to make the installation permanent |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/heritage/ivory-bangle-lady |
| Title | JTR125 |
| Description | Patrick Crogan (UWE Bristol) Janet Jones (Middlesex University now London, South Bank University) and Auroch Games. November 8th 2013 was the 125th anniversary of the murder of Mary Jane Kelly by an unknown assailant known as 'Jack the Ripper'. This project uses original photography and 3D game elements to experiment with making a 'playable documentary'. Exploring notions of crime, news reporting and ethics, players will interact with characters, discover clues and piece together the story, drawing parallels between contemporary society and this infamous crime. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | JTR 125 Has made a significant impact on Auroch Digital in developing a new product line for which they are currently planning a crowdfunding campaign having secured a distribution agreement with Steam. Auroch's involvement in REACT led to a number of impacts. Working together the team not only produced this highly original piece of work, but they also adapted existing paradigms of 'entertainment' and 'news' to a gaming model, innovating the production processes. As part of the project, for example, they instituted the first ever ethics peer-review panel, to our knowledge, for a videogame as part of its production. Auroch received considerable press coverage and critical interest in the work and have become internationally recognized as pioneers in their field. They have used the game prototype to develop pioneering Virtual Reality prototypes, which have won them a series of further investments and commissions from the BBC and elsewhere. They are also continuing to explore collaborations with the academic team and hope to continue their work together, developing ethical games journalism. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/future-documentary/jtr125 |
| Title | Jekyll 2.0 |
| Description | What makes us human? Do our minds control our bodies or are we compelled by urges, compulsions and appetites? When gothic novels were first written, their pace and content were designed to raise heart beats and send shivers down the spine. Using participants' bio-data to shape the experience, Hyde is a pervasive media adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde. Part game, part theatrical production, it is an embodied novel that reclaims the transgressive power of Robert Louis Stevenson's writing. Once equipped the player can interact with the maze by blowing open doors, holding one's breath to solve puzzles or raising one's heartbeat for hints. Inside the maze is Hyde, who is hunting you down. Slingshot make and stage games; from mass participation spectaculars to mobile phone adventures. Hyde will be a visitor attraction, a permanent installation that visitors will purchase tickets to visit and play in. Imagine the London Dungeon meets the video game Portal, with a Jekyll and Hyde theme. This project will seek to deliver a full-scale prototype of the bio-activated horror maze. Anthony Mandal will work with SlingShot on game design (e.g. mechanics, imagery, themes, adaptation of the literary elements) and preparing necessary content, and will undertake additional research on Stevenson, which will feed back into the project. PROJECT PARTNERS Anthony Mandal,English Literature, Cardiff University Simon Evans,SlingShot |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | Jekyll 2.0 is now being redeveloped as a major new product line by Slingshot seeking crowdfunding for an Autumn 2015 launch as a commercial proposition, (now renamed Hyde). Part of REACT's Alumni scheme. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/alumni-books-print/hyde |
| Title | Light Bug |
| Description | Exploring the playground of the future with a digitally enhanced set of swings . A collaboration between Seth Giddings of UWE Bristol and Tine Bech, Artist, Light Bug created a digitally enhanced set of swings, exploring how imaginary and physical play meet in the digital playground of the future. Working with light, rhythm and sound they created an intuitive space where children can battle one another, perform and participate, playing together in both new and familiar ways. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | Tine Bech (Light Bug, Play Sandbox) came to REACT as a recent PhD graduate and arts practitioner and has now launched Tine Bech Studio as a company, and is currently an entrepreneur in residence at the Cass Business school. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/play/light-bug |
| Title | Magic Lantern |
| Description | Many UK museums and archives possess fragile and bulky glass lantern slides from the 1860s-1930s. How can they be brought in to the digital age while maintaining their distinctive quality as material artifacts? A collaboration between James Ryan Human Geography, University of Exeter and Matt Wade and Luke Thompson of Kin Design. This project experimented with an exciting and innovative way for lantern slides to be handled, viewed and connected as 'image-objects', enhancing audience experiences and showcasing the value of lantern slides within larger collections. The team investigated the design of a viewing, handling and projecting device, or 'assemblage' of objects and appliances, that will enable users to engage with extensive but largely unexplored collections of magic lantern slides and better appreciate lantern slides as unique forms of visual culture. James Ryan |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | Ongoing experimental work. Awarded Exeter HEIF money £4k. Team are applying to AHRC for £400k project together, with the Royal Geographical Society. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/feasibility/magic-lantern |
| Title | Mayfly |
| Description | Listening to life. A Collaboration between Lucy and Barney Heywood of Stand + Stare and Professor Tim Cole Department of History, University of Bristol. Mayfly Sound Journal is a travel journal with an accompanying iPhone app that allows you to make sound recordings and embed them in a specially designed travel journal. Each page has a pocket designed to hold tickets, scraps and small souvenirs that you collect on your trip, along with space for you to sketch and make notes. This unique book has an accompanying iPhone app that allows you to make sound recordings. The Mayfly illustrations printed on the pockets of each page act as image markers, which the app recognizes, linking your journal to your digital recordings. Back at home, look through your journal and re-live your travels by holding the app over the pages to trigger the sounds of your trip. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | From Art to Artisan product: Mayfly, Stand + Stare and University of Bristol Stand + Stare started out creating interactive exhibitions and installations for museums, theatres, libraries and festivals. Through involvement with REACT they have forged a new collaboration, developed an innovative new product called 'Mayfly' and are on their way to taking it to market. They are an example of what happens when brilliant creatives are supported to collaborate, helped to innovate and inspired to grow their business in new directions "REACT has had (and is still having) a huge impact on our work and our future. Support through pump priming, feasibility and now the alumni scheme has helped us to develop our project Mayfly, which will soon be a new company. REACT brought us and Professor Tim Cole together, which has led to us setting up a business together as joint directors, and also working together on another project through the University of Bristol. We are learning a host of new skills, from app and book design to entrepreneurship and understanding retail. We all feel like we are embarking on a new journey and incredibly lucky to have REACT there supporting us and guiding us as we take flight!" - Lucy and Barney Heywood, Stand + Stare Stand + Stare's co-directors, Barney Heywood and Lucy Heywood, have been residents at Watershed's Pervasive Media Studio since 2011, where a small grant had allowed them to produce Theatre Jukebox, an interactive installation that uses real objects to trigger audio and video archive material. Their journey with REACT began with a pump-priming grant in 2013, where they worked with Tim Cole, Professor of History at the University of Bristol to develop Turning the Page, an installation in Bristol Central Library for theatre festival Mayfest. Turning the Page used image recognition to trigger audio recordings within a guidebook to China. This project drew on Stand + Stare's approach to installation which combines documentary or archival material with a narrative emphasis, and digital technology to allow people encountering their work to interact in new ways. The team felt Turning the Page was successful on its own terms, but had limitations regarding portability and scalability. It was then the collaboration came up with the idea for Mayfly. Mayfly Sound Journal is a travel journal with an accompanying iPhone app that allows you to make sound recordings and embed them in your travel journal. The idea employs the same technology as Turning the Page, but within an app to make the installation a scalable, sharable product. This reflects Tim Cole's research interest in travel and tourism and new narrative forms, based on his existing research at the University of Bristol. They were awarded REACT Feasibility funding to develop Mayfly Sound Journal. The funding allowed them to test using the first demo app with prototype books handmade by Stand + Stare, and the team have now won support from REACT's Alumni Scheme working with business accelerator Upstarter. The team credits REACT for giving them space and time to explore and grow the ideas coming from their collaboration. As Lucy says, "we had no idea this is what we were working towards" but "getting to think in a way we didn't know we could think" has enabled the team to develop a core business in a wholly new way. Barney describes how collaborating with Tim "injected new energy" and new sets of skills into their work, and Tim describes the experience as a "true collaboration". It has certainly proved durable with the team establishing Mayfly as a business in which Stand + Stare and Tim Cole will become equal partners and Co-Directors. The Mayfly example demonstrates how small artistic companies within a network can be supported to diversify their practices and develop new products that are not reducible to standard distinctions between 'commercial' or 'cultural' products. For the team, this is about empowering creativity around memory and stories in other people. Cole says, "for all of us it is a shift [from being storytellers] to a canvas for others to tell their stories". For Stand + Stare, this enables the company to become known as one with a distinct and recognizable style that can be applied across multiple platforms, which explores the interface between contemporary commercial and artistic work. Moreover, Mayfly offers the chance to bring elements of Barney and Lucy's artistic practice, their freelance commercial design experience, and community building learned in theatre, together in a robust business proposition. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/alumni/mayfly |
| Title | Mecha Monsters |
| Description | The world's first gaming robots, Mecha Monsters is a collaboration between Silas Adekunle of Reach Robotics and Esther MacCallum-Stewart and Seth Giddings of the Digital Cultures Research Centre, UWE Bristol. Reach Robotics are creating Mecha Monsters, robots controlled via mobile phones that battle with one another at the player's feet and have teamed up with experts in gaming cultures from the University of West of England to explore how players interact with the robots. They found gamers create vibrant cultures which include fan practices, discussions and transmedia products such as Let's Play videos, reviews and playtests. The ambition is to create a robotic gaming world that inspires people to have fun and learn more about robotics, technology and engineering. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | Reach Robotics: the journey of a robotics entrepreneur - £1.1m investment. Reach Robotics was founded by Silas Adekunle while still an undergraduate at UWE Bristol. As a graduate robotics engineer, lifelong hobby robot enthusiast, gamer and STEM advocate for the Prince's trust, Silas has gone on to position Reach Robotics at the intersection between gaming, technology and education. Reach Robotics aim to make a lasting impression on people (particularly the young) by using robotics and games to engage people in the world of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). Silas was awarded Prototype Funding in 2013, and Play Sandbox in 2014 to develop two Reach Robotics products, MechaMonsters and Mighty Minis. MechaMonsters are the world's first customisable, battling robots, controlled by the users' smartphones. Mighty Minis are a series of toys that use collectible objects which respond to a user's physical activity and translate them to the growth of a dynamic online character. Reach employed two people at the time they first engaged with REACT. Silas' REACT collaborations have created connections, generated insights into his audience and helped inform robust prototypes in the field of robotics gaming. Silas collaborated with Dr Seth Giddings, a lecturer and researcher into theories of play, and Dr Esther MacCallum-Stewart, a Research Fellow at the Digital Cultures Research Centre, UWE across his REACT projects. Much of this work has involved working with the researchers on understanding how gamers, and specifically children, engage with toys, create story-worlds and interact with technology. This has entailed working with a group of Young Coaches on Mighty Minis to establish the story world and background to the Mighty Minis, as well as providing them with an imaginative tool that they want to engage with. This is one of the core areas identified by Reach Robotics as requiring more investigation, and also at the heart of Dr MacCallum-Stewart's work, which examines the ways that players understand games and subsequently engage with them. Silas believes that having user engagement in product design is incredibly important in his sector, but notes it rarely happens. Esther's involvement has been essential in helping the team to "decipher the users" of the products. Reach became one of 8 companies chosen to be part of our Alumnni Scheme, and the legal and business support offered here, along with the insights he generated working with researchers on his Prototype and Play Sandbox work, equipped him to take he company to the next level. He also credits REACT with strong connections he's made to take the company forward. His work has received Press coverage in Sky News, Bloomberg and other outlets. Reach Robotics was accepted onto the prestigious Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator, powered by Techstars in San Diego. The company were also part of REACT's Alumni Scheme, working with REACT and Station 12 to develop their company, project and continues to work with Esther on their research collaboration. Reach Robotics now have 6 employees, thanks to being part of the accelerator and subsequent investments. They are now at a stage where they are about to close a £1.1m seed investment round and will be hiring an additional 4 to 5 employees. The product is also now at a stage where they are finalizing a manufacturing contract with their chosen ! contract manufacturer. Their plan for 2016 is to launch a presales campaign in Q3 of 2016 and ship the product by Xmas. This will be the trigger event for the next raise of the company as they prepare to scale. 2017 will be a focus on scaling and setting up their distribution and plan to secure a major licensing deal in 2016 or 2017. "Product development has a life cycle of prototyping, testing, manufacture but Play Sandbox had a built in feedback loop which was really important. Being able to have an opinion at every stage and not second guessing, I think every company should be doing it" - Silas Adekunle |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/prototype-alumni/mecha-monsters |
| Title | Memory of Theatre |
| Description | The Memory of Theatre explored the relationship between archives and memories, the way performance events live on through the stories told by audience members and the relationship between heritage buildings, especially theatres, and remembering. Together the project team gathered an archive of memories from Bristol Old Vic audiences and used groundbreaking technology to conceal the memories within the fabric of the building itself, ready to be unearthed and overlaid by generations of theatre-goers to come, creating a living archaeology of theatrical history from the audience's point of view. The outcome of the project was a working prototype for a commercially viable, user-friendly and sustainable system for indoor positioning, a transferable solution for delivering location-triggered experiences in heritage buildings. PROJECT PARTNERS Paul Clarke,Drama, University of Bristol. Tom Morris,Bristol Old Vic Theatre Cliff Randell,Pyxis Design Matthew Austin,MAYK |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Impact | Memory of Theatre: installation of interior location-based audio memories in Bristol's Old Vic Theatre. £1.5k investment from iNets to develop a replicable business model for this service. Project reinstalled in new form and Rooms Festival. Tom (BOV) has written the project into a large HLF bid. The same team are working on a Historic Royal Palaces project worth over £250k. Team have also gone on to work together on Mayfest and Sanctum |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/heritage/memory-theatre |
| Title | Mighty Minis |
| Description | Mighty Minis Encouraging children's outdoor play with toys that respond to their physical activity. A Collaboration between Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Digital Cultures Research Centre, UWE Bristol and Silas Adenkule of Reach Robotics. Mighty Minis are a series of toys that combine a collectible intelligent object with a dynamic online character in a uniquely interactive way. The emphasis is on getting children away from the screen and focusing on physical activity and play in the real world. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | Mighty Minis is the next product range for the Reach Robotics team. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/play/mighty-minis |
| Title | Millie Moreorless |
| Description | Accessible games to help children with Down's Syndrome understand numbers. A Collaboration between Jill Porter, Department for Education, University of Bath, Cara and Will Jessop of Enabling Play and James Huggins of Made in Me. The Amazing Adventures of Millie Moreorless is an accessible iPad game designed to help children with Down's Syndrome to improve their number sense. The game is based on pioneering research in the developmental field of magnitude awareness, and will be fun, challenging and beneficial for players of all abilities. You play Millie Moreorless, a space adventurer on a mission to map the strange and beautiful undiscovered planets at the very edge of the universe.. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | A new company. Cara and Will Jessop arrived at REACT as documentary makers, and have now established Enabling Play, a new company specialising in interactive iPad apps and games for communities with special educational needs. Received £80k from Nominet trust to continue app development |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/play/millie-moreorless |
| Title | Nth Screen |
| Description | An app to simultaneously shoot multi-viewpoint videos for synchronized playback Nth Screen is a new app for mobiles and tablets, enabling groups to simultaneously shoot multi-viewpoint videos for synchronized playback. A collaboration between Tim Kindberg of Matter2Media and Mandy Rose, Digital Cultures Research Centre, UWE Bristol and Charlotte Crofts Film, UWE Bristoland Hazel Grian Knowle West Media Centre. When one person presses a Record button on their phone, all the group's phones start filming simultaneously. The group can then play back the synchronised footage locally across all their screens, and upload it for sharing on mobile devices elsewhere, or viewed through a web browser. The project investigated target demographics, what type of activity and story-telling benefit from this style of filming, how to brand and market the business going forward, and implications for shooting/editing facilities and platform functionality. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | Further project commissions for Matter 2 Media to develop (Nth Screen), Time for Rights commision £20k, BBC iWonder commission £20k |
| URL | http://nthscreen.tv/ |
| Title | Page to Stage |
| Description | Professor Kenneth Hamilton Cardiff University and Amanda Bayley is Professor of Music at Bath Spa University with Sheila Hayman is a BAFTA winning documentary filmmaker. Breaking down the fourth wall of classical music, this app enables audiences to explore the invisible history, context and meaning of a piece of music, as played by the world-leading Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Following the musicians from first rehearsal to finished performance, the app blends carefully-shot video with timed metadata tags, exploring how to create a textured, fluid experience that actively engages more people in classical music by adding layers of understanding without distracting from the beauty of the performance itself. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | Sheila Hayman has received follow on investment of £2500.00 from iNets to create a business plan for this product. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/future-documentary/page-stage |
| Title | Quipu:The Living Documentary |
| Description | Inspired by the Quipu, the knotted thread communication system of the Inca Empire, this project captures the stories of people affected by Peru's unconsented sterilization policy, which targeted over 300,000 indigenous women in the 1990s. Providing an important voice for Peru's hard to reach communities this project aims for maximum possible participation. By combining low and high-tech technologies, Quipu records and distributes personal oral histories, alongside an audio-based interactive platform connecting this living documentary to the rest of the world. Chaka Studio is a media production company specialising in documentary and interactive narrative. Their goal is to become industry leaders in this space by placing collaboration and co-creation at the heart of their practice. The Quipu Project is an interactive documentary about the men and women who were sterilised in Peru in the mid 1990s without consent and who are still seeking justice. At its core it is a unique method for online participation and civic engagement - an interactive phone line directly linked to a live website. This partnership will allow the team to explore the potential of this method and learn how to abstract the key principles into the fields of civic engagement, academia, social activism and third sector activity. Matthew Brown,School of Modern Languages, University of Bristol Karen Tucker,School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bris Chaka Studio, Ewan Cass-Kavanagh,Technologist and filmmaker |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | The Quipu Project (Future Documentary Sandbox) generated an interactive phoneline, online archive and web portal to capture and share the story of the thousands of men and women forcibly sterilised in Peru in the 1990s. The project won awards from Tribeca film Festival's New Media Award (worth $50k USD) and Hot Docs Festival in Canada. The team have secured $10,0000 investment from Ramillas Interative Fund at Sheffield DOCFest after a REACT-brokered introduction,and won a special mention at Sunnyside of the Doc Festival in France. They have received international press coverage and launched the interactive web platform in Dec 2015 |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/future-documentary-alumni/quipu-project |
| Title | Reflecting the Past: |
| Description | Professor Tim Cole (Bristol University) with Interactive Places. Showing how specially engineered augmented reality 'mirrors' can create an interactive engagement with the past. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Impact | Company Director employed by National Trust. Academic Partner Tim Cole enabled to design successful Digital Transformations 'Tangible Memories' Bid ca. £600k |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/heritage/reflecting-past |
| Title | Reflector |
| Description | Reflector augments lessons, using a tactile, movement activated internet-connected object to reveal stories behind rare artefacts. Photos, images and fragments of text emerge from the device at intervals, emulating the sense of discovering accompanying an archaeological dig. It's a non-screen activity that students can use to create their own opinions or conclusions about the histories behind objects. The project considers how connected devices might open up new ways to contemplate and share the stories embodied in a collection of rare archaeological objects associated with the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and is a collaboration between University of Bristol archaeologists Mark Horton and Alex Bentley, and Design Week top 100 agency, Uniform. PROJECT PARTNERS Alex Bentley,Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol Mark Horton,Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol Martin Skelly,Uniform |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | Exhibited at Christie's as part of the London Design Week September 2014. Professor Mark Horton (Reflector, Objects Sandbox) setting up a business for archaeological travel expeditions with private investment, and platform for local communities to create 'pop-up museums' to showcase material excavated from local digs. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/objects/reflector |
| Title | Sex and History |
| Description | Rethinking sex education through ancient objects This project brings together experts in the history of sex and sexual knowledge with game makers to change the face of sex education. They will investigate new methods of using erotic objects from distant times and cultures to stimulate embarrassment-free discussion about sex in schools and youth groups. It's proved hugely effective, particularly with disadvantaged youth. Collaboration between Kate Fisher History, University of Exeter, Rebecca Langlands Classics and Ancient History, University of Exeter and designer Sophie Sampson. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | The cross disciplinary collaborations on this project created new network opportunities in Exeter University. Sex and History featured an archaeology, a classicist and a games designer, developing educational tools to explore sex education methods for children and young people, rooted in historical objects. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/feasibility/sex-and-history |
| Title | Tact.to |
| Description | A museum display case for the 21st century Tact.co is a display case that uses the glass as a projection screen and that contains the latest tracking technology to ensure content is tailored for each visitor. The case will project content such as facts, video, imagery and sound to entice users to participate. The system monitors and learns from user interactions by capturing usage patterns, interactions, users' commentary and pathways. The gathered data will provide invaluable information to curators; enabling a quantifiable picture of what sparks curiosity, learning and engagement when examining an object and exploring the facts, stories and contextual information associated with it. The project is a collaboration between digital agency Aerian and the team at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | Aerian Studios are an established design and UX company, whose involvement in REACT has enabled them to experiment with new forms of touch-activated technology and products. They credit the expertise developed working on REACT projects with generating at least £350k in further work for their business. Aerian continuing to develop interactive heritage display case, already generating further business from project and impact on University of Bristol Theatre Collection to rethink how their role and processes in display and archiving |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/prototype-alumni/tactto |
| Title | Testimony |
| Description | Reliving the experiences of WW1 boy soliders through a documentary game Using a rarely seen collection of footage and archive documents about boy soldiers from World War One, the team researched how to combine a game with documentary elements to make a compelling proposition for 11 - 14 year olds. They explored the challenge of creating a game that allows the story and fight for survival of these young soldiers to be understood by today's younger generation, but doesn't glorify war in the way that many first person shooters can do. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | This project was shortlisted for BBC WW1 investment but in the end did not succeed. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/feasibility/testimony |
| Title | The God Article |
| Description | The Turkish Ney is steeped in cultural significance. A traditional wind instrument, it was first played around 4500 years ago but its breath control is difficult and few around the world can teach it. Ethnomusicologist John O'Connell, Sonic Art Scholar Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulos and User Experience Designer Anthony Mace experimented with Ney replicas, and breath and touch sensors to develop software to aid in learning the varied techniques required to play the Ney. With potential for breath sensing and notation in entertainment and healthcare, this unusual project fused one of the world's oldest instruments with cutting-edge technology to break new musical ground. PROJECT PARTNERS John O'Connell,School of Music, Cardiff University Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulos,Cardiff School of Art and Design Anthony Mace,Experience Designer |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | The team created a set of software and hardware to help measure breathing and fingering techniques for the Ney. Ran test sessions with players, leading to new hardware and software being created. The team have made a new instrument and have explored new ways to apply their learning to other markets, e.g. sport, and are experimenting in this field. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/objects/god-article |
| Title | The Next Timeline |
| Description | Timelines offer readers a way to explore historical, biographical and contextual information about an author or book, but at present the timelines used in literary apps offer little more than their paper counterpart. Using data visualization and the affordance of the touch screen, Amblr, a devloper, producer and publisher of location based experiences and Bradley Stephens of Bristol University experimented with Wordsworth's The Prelude to produce a system for exploring text thematically and chronologically. PROJECT PARTNERS Bradley Stephens ,Modern Languages, University of Bristol Alex Butterworth,Amblr |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | The ultimate aim of The Next Time[line]is to define a universal form for the exploration of time and its consequences, in narrative terms, that is appropriate to touch screen tablets: to make plastic and manipulable certain cognitive functions for the improvement and entertainment of users. Its practical focus is on the processes of original creation and secondary adaptation that lie behind three classic literary texts, in their original incarnations and as we now know them. Fertile ground, for reasons that will have to await further explanation. The first layers of code to achieve these aims were built for the prototype but the extent of on screen data made impossible processing demands. Bradley - new understanding about the use of digital technology as a research tool, as discourse, for sharing knowledge etc. More confidence in contributing to that debate. He has been appointed Impact Director for Modern Languages off the back of REACT. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/books-print/next-timeline |
| Title | The Risk Takers' Survival Guide |
| Description | James Lyons is a Senior Lecturer in Film in the Department of English at the University of Exeter. James is currently working on a manuscript on risk and performance in non-fiction film. Matt Golding is Film writer, director & digital Creative Director at Team Rubber. Working in comedy, drama, transmedia and social media. From 9/11 to horse meat scares, scenarios of risk surround our lives. But how good are we calculating risk? 'The Risk Taker's Survival Guide' is a short interactive documentary that takes you on a journey to explore your engagement with day-to-day risk. This short film peels back the data and assimilates the stats, to uncover a precarious world, where you'll need to make quick and decisive choices, equipping you with a mental toolkit to help you stay calm in a complex world. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | Risk Taker's Survival Guide: invited to take part in Ramillas Interactive Fund Pitch at Sheffield Doc Fest in July 2014. Won €3,0000 investment to develop project. Also awarded £2k from Creative iNets for iteration and pitch development. Made lots of connections (VICE, BBC, Welcome Trust) at Sheffield Doc Fest and Power to the Pixel after REACT brokered visits - big companies who wanted to commission a broadcast TV series but they decided that they didn't want to do that (are discussions with them about other things). May work with them on the VR version. VR will allow the audience to feel like they are taking a risk, which was a big part of the audience feedback. Rubber keen to work with James again on the next stage, think that the nuanced, thoughtful approach will be what distinguishes them from the explosion of VR content that there is going to be. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/future-documentary/risk-takers-survival-guide |
| Title | The Secret Lives of Books |
| Description | The Secret Lives of Books by Guerilla Dance Project and Tom Mitchell (UWE Bristol) will transform a quiet workspace at the new Library of Birmingham into a beautiful interactive platform that visualizes the unexploited data sets of our public libraries. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | Installed into the new Birmingham Library. Underlying search software in further development Guerilla Dance Company. Project enabled the collaboration to explore interactivity, motion and technologies that could be used to navigate data. Helped in terms of skills to produce this work, working with sensors and developing approaches and ideas around the types of project they could do. Connections with academics: Laura now estimates she is working with around 8 or 9 academics concurrently. Experience with Library of Birmingham has enabled Laura to identify and manage difficult relationships with commissioning organisations, particularly those in a state of change. SLOB was part of an MA dissertation. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/books-print/secret-lives-books |
| Title | Theatre Book - Macbeth |
| Description | A book that comes alive in your hands Theatre Book - Macbeth is a battery powered cinematic pop-up book. The book includes 6 pop-up pages designed like sets on a stage with actors projected onto the paper scenery. All technical equipment such as a pico projector and micro computer, batteries, loudspeakers and mirroring devices are integrated into the cover of the book in order to create a stand alone story telling devise mixing the formats of books and theatre stages. The story is driven by the owner of the book who turns the pages and thus triggers video and sound to play out the scenes. A collaboration between Artists,Davy & Kristin McGuire, Matt Hayler at the University of Exeter and Sarah Ellis Royal Shakespeare Company. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | This successful prototype is being explored as display installation for the RSC. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/prototype/theatre-book-macbeth |
| Title | With New Eyes I see |
| Description | A site specific documentary unlocking Cardiff's WW1 past With New Eyes... explored whether documentary can become an experience or a journey beyond the screen. The partnership between Cardiff-based academic Jenny Kidd and creative marketing agency yello brick, researched a site specific documentary using torches, projection and RFID to trigger content as participants walk around Cathays Park in Cardiff.The team tested how users engaged with a prototype locative, pervasive and social documentary experience. A collaboration between Jenny Kidd Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University and Alison John of design group yello brick. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | Kidd and yello brick are now part of the Creative Cardiff network. New set of relationships with National Museum and others. Deepened by making tangible work together. Two other projects with museum (Voices of War and Peace, joint conference) which have been anhanced by this relationship) and now a formal MOA between the University and Museum. Impact on teaching, gives legitimacy to what she says, knowledge of creative industries, prototyping, user testing, imagineering. Yellobrick have come in to work with students, students been involved with user testing. Network developing around Creative Cardiff was useful - Sara Pepper came and talked to students, working with Anthony Mandal and Jacqui Mulville (informal connection but starting to do some joint work on a Digital Humanities network). |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/feasibility/new-eyes-i-see |
| Title | Writer on The Train |
| Description | Can we create stories that shrink and stretch to match a journey? Taking train travel as a starting point the Writer on the Train team travelled the fixed, linear space of the Bristol to London mainline, using smart phones and GPS to deliver a new literary form. Their prototype app offered regular passengers new work by author James Attlee, written about and for the particular geography of their commute with attention to the train's location, time of day and speed. PROJECT PARTNERS Fabrizio Nevola,Architecture, University of Bath Dave Addey,Agant James Attlee,Author |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | Software Development company Ambler reassigned IP after Agant were wound up. Amblr were able to develop new core business as a consequence of working with REACT. James Attlee has written a monograph about this work called Station to Station: Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Guardian Books; Main edition (14 May 2015) Language: English ISBN-10: 0852655673 ISBN-13: 978-0852655672 |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/books-print/writer-train |
| Title | e-tabla |
| Description | The tabla reimagined. This project investigated questions about performance and culture, and how Indian music could be 'demystified' through the teaching and playing of Indian tabla drums. Kuljit Bhamra, a renowned tabla player and composer, and Jerri Daboo (University of Exeter) collaborated with industrial designers Rogue Product, to create the e-tabla, a prototype electronic instrument. The team worked with tabla players and Western orchestral percussionists to explore some of the performance and cultural issues involved with the project, and to rethink how we listen, learn, and compose for the tabla. The team hope to take the new instrument to market in the near future. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | A new product is in development for market. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/prototype/e-tabla |
| Title | trove |
| Description | Using objects to support children's identity through times of change and uncertainty Trove will enable children to record a story to a precious object and then trigger the story when the object is played with. With support from leading adoption agency, Coram, this product aims to help children, especially those that have been adopted or are in care, understand who they are and to support them through times of change and uncertainty. trove is a collaboration between Chloe Meineck, Designer and Debbie Watson, Policy Studies, University of Bristol. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | Debbie Watson (University of Bristol, trove) has repositioned her academic work in Childhood Studies, working with looked after and adopted children. She has developed and solidified a set of consultancy relationships with adoption agency Coram and several Local Authorities that Debbie had worked with in the past. She feels this has grown her professional and academic reputation and has led to being part of the Productive Margins project at the University of Bristol, working on Child Friendly Cities project through a connection she made at REACT. Chloe Meineck has now established her business as a new design studio. |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/play/trove |
| Description | SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND OUTPUTS • Funded 53 collaborative projects featuring 57 creative companies and 73 academics, demonstrating that a partnership between Universities and non-HEI delivery partners can be a genuine research and innovation collaboration • Created a range of fascinating and intriguing products and prototypes at the physical / digital interface: battling robots, light-up swings, collaborative games, augmented books, new literary experiences, interactive documentaries and more (see Appendix 2 for details of all projects). • Stimulated £5,353,569 in further investment in projects - from private investment, new research funds, product sales and commissions - against REACT investment of £2.5 million directly in projects • Saw the creation of 10 new companies and 30 jobs in the sector to take these products to market or develop ideas further. • £2.23m investment leveraged by partners, from internal and external sources, to contribute to on-going legacy activities • Embedded partnerships between University researchers and businesses from our network that continue after the end of REACT • Established Creative Economy as an industrial domain for research engagement and impact for University partners, galvanising the SW creative economy by creating connections and new opportunities • Mobilised 25 research disciplines including 63 sub-disciplines from Arts & Humanities • Demonstrated that University impact in the SME sector is best developed through supporting the development of networks with their own emergent properties. Our network exceeds 500 businesses and 300 academics. • Demonstrated the key role of the Creative Producer in sustaining collaborative networks • Maintained our mission for culture change over four years leading to a range of changes at partner HEIs including new teaching, new infrastructure and new research practices • Organised a free, two and a half day public showcase called 'The Rooms', that demonstrated a new way to meet the massive interest in both innovative tech and the Arts and Humanities, to a mixed audience of over 6,000 people, including academics, businesses, policymakers, stakeholders, and vitally the public. • Demonstrated that University knowledge exchange schemes can be agile, by running five separate development themes, three funding programmes, and an Alumni scheme in four years with a core team of only 6 fte NEW METHODOLOGIES FOR KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE We facilitate innovative interaction by insisting that the collaboration is led by and grounded in the practice of production. Having forged these collaborations we have facilitated their interaction by managing a methodology with five key characteristics 1. Previously formed identities of the partners are supported in changing as they are called upon to work in new ways. One measure of success is that when our teams present projects at the end of the process audiences ask 'who was the academic and who was the business partner?' Knowledge is not 'transferred' but the partners jointly explore their topic bringing different approaches, skills and dispositions to the task. 2. The collaborative space is held so that people can take risks. The role of the Watershed in maintaining the third space of collaboration is key to this aspect of the REACT. The producers encourage and support participants to have new kinds of ideas, to move out of their comfort zones, to imagine the unlikely or downright impossible in order to jump start a process. The creative collaborative space is generous, encourages sharing and is safe. 3. Recognition that the collaboration is a journey likely to go awry, become confused and iterate several versions of the outcome before settling in the final design phase. The Sandbox method has a tight timeline with its own arc that although challenging for first-time participants, is conducted by producers who support partners through their crises and ensure that by the end there is always something to show. This shows that innovation is both the journey of an idea and of people: caring for both is vital. 4. Talent development: creativity and innovation do not reside in a job description or a professional identity. Creativity can come from many directions. We have been able to mobilise a wide origin of our academic participants, from 25 disciplines in Arts & Humantities, however it is clear that successful collaborations depend not on disciplinary depth or research ranking but on the ability of both sides of the partnership to be open, imaginative, and generous. The kinds of value exchanges that constitute this zone of collaboration then extend out to a whole new network of university and creative sector collaboration across the region. REACT has built new bridges between the five universities and Watershed, new bridges between creative businesses themselves, as well with Universities and new connections between individual creatives and researchers. The Steering Board and the Operations group are particularly symbolic of this bridge building process; teams that were at first tentative and more than a little suspicious have become new sites for new collaborations and future initiatives. |
| Exploitation Route | • The REACT collaboration demonstrates how different kinds of Universities, cultural partners and creative businesses can together co-create an effective regional intervention. It has articulated cultural ecology as a practice. • REACT demonstrates how Universities can successfully engage with creative economy micro businesses by co designing networks that aggregate their impact and value. • REACT's success argues for the importance of working with 'third space' partners who are neither University nor Industry, creating an environment for risk and innovation. • The genuinely cross disciplinary success of REACT demonstrates the potential for 'STEAM' led cross research council support for creative economy impact. • The commercial and social enterprise mobilised by REACT demonstrates the need for research council investment to be matched with innovation investment to support impact and implementation. • The success of The Rooms demonstrates that there is a public appetite for understanding creative innovation. In order for this kind of work to be carried out, and these successes realised, there are number of challenges facing the sector that need to be met: • It is challenging for HEI systems to deal with the smaller businesses that constitute the bulk of the Creative Economy sector. We have been challenged by University contracting processes which are frequently very slow moving and we have been challenged by HEI partners payments systems which are too slow for business partners. Our delivery team became progress chasers and we worked with all of our University partners to recruit the relevant teams to the mission. This however is only a short-term solution. We recommend a standard simple, plain English template for all contracts with external creative business partners. • The dynamism, instability and vulnerability of the creative micro business world make it a challenging space for Universities; success and stability are hard-won and long term processes. Hub impacts are likely to build through continuing long term relationships rather than through the short term 'acceleration' models. • We have been challenged by the University default assumptions on holding IP in co created projects. We believe IP should be kept at the margins at the start of a creative innovation process. IP negotiations before IP exists are a destructive waste of time. Our contracts make new foreground IP the property of the company with the potential for a revision of the share down the line. We have received feedback from businesses that this is an important principle. We recommend minimising the barriers to IP exploitation and ensuring that money stays at the margins of the creative and collaborative process. • The accounting systems in place to support research activity are not 'impact positive'. We have been challenged by the opacity of FEC, subsidy and the contracting of academic research time to external partners. Transparency on where money goes and how it is spent by all partners is key to building trust in collaborations. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Electronics,Environment,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Transport |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/ |
| Description | Substantially informed AHRC policy report on Creative Economy Hubs http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/ahrc-publishes-ke-hub-report/. Products produced in the REACT Hub were available through retail outlets in 2019 see Beasts of Balance from Sensible Object (https://beastsofbalance.com/en/) and Reach Robotics' MekaMon (https://reachrobotics.com/). Subsequently, in 2019, Sensible Object were bought out by Niantic the US Company that developed and supports 'Pokemon Go'. The core team responsible for the design and delivery of the REACT project have also gone on to win the award for the AHRC CICP Bristol + Bath Creative R+D project. The core team from REACT also used the cultural ecologies method to win the HEFCE CCF Industrial Challenge Fund Strategy £4.5 m Funded South West Creative Technology Network (SWCTN). To date this network has funded 76 fellows, in collaboration with the Co-Is, creative producers, and university knowledge exchange managers co-designed and published three briefs focussed on the R&D challenges and possibilities for the themes: Immersion,Automation and Data. Contributing fellows represented the following sectors: Arts, Education, Health, Information & Communications, Manufacturing, Professional, scientific and technical services. The network has invested in the production of 24 prototypes taking a creative technology approach to Immersion, Automation and Data. The SWCTN network has a membership of over 600 innovators from both universities and enterprises across the South West. The SWCTN is taking the knowledge and approach from the REACT programme and applying it across the South West with partners in Plymouth, Bath, Exeter and Falmouth. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Healthcare,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Citation in Dowling Review |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| Description | Presentation of Findings to European Commission, European Observator and Lisbon Council (Hub-relevant insights/work form aspect of a multi-strand relationship which also includes IP/innovation) |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Presentation to BIS Oct 2013 |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Presentation to Hera/Norface - EU & N.American University Research Managers |
| Geographic Reach | North America |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Presentation to RCUK on Creative Economy Universities and Innovation |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | AHRC Creative Economy Follow On Fund |
| Amount | £161,560 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/P013252/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2017 |
| End | 10/2018 |
| Description | AHRC Creative Economy Follow On Fund |
| Amount | £158,963 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/P013333/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2017 |
| End | 07/2018 |
| Description | AHRC Follow On for Creative Economy |
| Amount | £161,238 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/P013163/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2017 |
| End | 01/2018 |
| Description | AHRC Standard Grant |
| Amount | £630,327 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/N003683/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2016 |
| End | 01/2018 |
| Description | Cardiff University QR ( not my funding but attributed to the success of REACT) |
| Amount | £1,500,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Cardiff University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2015 |
| End | 09/2018 |
| Description | Creative Industries Clusters Programme |
| Amount | £5,638,697 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/S002936/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2018 |
| End | 03/2023 |
| Description | Creative Local Growth Fund |
| Amount | £1,000,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Arts Council England |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2017 |
| End | 06/2019 |
| Description | ESRC Standard grant |
| Amount | £1,051,606 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/P025595/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2017 |
| End | 12/2019 |
| Description | Exeter University Arts Faculty ( this is funding attributable to the REACT consortium but not managed by myself as PI) |
| Amount | £30,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Exeter |
| Department | Exeter University Arts Faculty |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2016 |
| End | 01/2017 |
| Description | HEFCE Connecting Capabilities Fund |
| Amount | £4,585,416 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Higher Education Funding Council for England |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2018 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | University of Bristol QR ( Funding not received by me but by REACT partner attributed to REACT research project) |
| Amount | £200,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2016 |
| End | 09/2019 |
| Title | Watershed Sandbox |
| Description | This is a method for creating innovative prototypes for the Creative Economy in an intensive three month programme. This method was developed by Watershed in Bristol and then supported by the REACT project as a method for pairing Creative Economy companies with academic researchers. This method has now been made available as open source from the URL below - |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | We are actively pursuing the adoption of the method by other partnerships - |
| URL | http://www.watershed.co.uk/sites/default/files/publications/2016-09-22/watershedsandbox_ahowtoguide.... |
| Description | REACT Creative Economy Hub (AHRC J005185/1) |
| Organisation | Cardiff University |
| Department | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Each University partner bought its network of academic researchers to work with creative businesses. Watershed bought the core methodology of the REACT Sandbox to the collaboration. THE REACT SANDBOX Our primary mechanism for enacting these values has been the REACT Sandbox, adapted from Watershed's existing Sandbox methodology and delivered by a team of Watershed Creative Producers, dedicated to REACT projects. We have run five Sandboxes each with their own theme. These have explored Heritage, Books and Print, Future Documentary, Internet-connect Objects and Play. Each of these themes was generated in consultation with creative economy advisors. They appeal to those sectors most in need of research and development to respond to the disruptions of technological innovation. The starting point of the Sandbox is an Ideas Labs, an event where potential applicants from academia and creative industry meet to develop ideas. Across the programme, we have hosted 12 Ideas Labs across Cardiff, Exeter and Bristol, attracting 672 attendees. After Ideas Labs, collaborative teams are supported by REACT Producers to develop bids. Teams apply through a light-touch application form that asks them to propose their activity and ideas, and provide a budget. Projects are selected for interview by a mixed panel of industry and academic advisors. Final projects are selected for a Sandbox on the basis of the quality of the relationship in the partnership. The are five broad criteria for selection: • What's the quality of the idea? Does it feel relevant and exciting and new? • does the bid have potential to be a mutual collaboration? • does the project have potential for post-award development? • do the partners understand where their users might be and how they can reach them? • how will the partners in the project fit into the cohort as a whole? A cohort of between six and eight projects is chosen that represents a diverse range of skills, approaches and knowledges. Some projects may be relatively straightforward, while others more risky. Curating a 'slate' of projects is a core component of the method, where innovation is stimulated through a mixture of project types, ambitions and talents. The Sandbox production period runs for three to four months during which time every project is required to produce a working prototype that can be tested with audiences. Successful project teams are awarded up to £50k per project to carry out this work. £10k goes towards the company's investment in the project (most often their time) and the remaining £40k spent on academic time, HEI costs, travel, materials and other project resources such as prototyping, manufacture and testing, or subcontracting additional expertise. During the Sandbox period, teams are required to meet for day long sessions at least once a month, to share progress and get specialist appropriate input from their relevant sector or market organisations. The whole process is coordinated by a Creative Producer with a supporting team of industry advisors, a specialist business mentor, PR and legal coaching. Projects are also supported in applying to next stage funding and investment by the producer team. Each project participates in a public showcase within two months of the end of the programme and each project gets its own five minute film as a promotional tool. The Sandbox is distinct from other KE or business development processes partly because of its insistence on cohort based learning and the necessary generosity that underpins it and partly by its use of iteration with audiences and users to allow projects to change and develop. The net effect is of a process that fosters the kind of hyper-connectivity between people, disciplines and technologies that creates a great deal 'more then the sum of its parts'. Modelled on principles of Open Innovation, it also places care for its participants, and generosity of ideas and skills as central to its operation. THE PRACTICE OF CULTURAL ECOLOGY Our main achievement has been developing a system that builds 'bridge capital' between different sectors for the co- creation of value in the creative economy. We recognised at the outset of the hub that our main challenge was to break down the real and perceived barriers between universities and creative businesses. This mission is vertical as well as horizontal, in that barriers exist within individual HEIs, between different HEIs, as well as between HEIs and creative businesses, and in between and inside businesses themselves. These 'silos' are frequently an impediment to innovation in fast moving creative economy that depends on interdisciplinary co-operation. REACT has facilitated new and innovative interactions by building a network that is, at its heart, a new kind of collaborative domain. Our collaborations are based on participants exchanging all kinds of value with one another, much of which is common to the development of successful businesses and academic practices: skills, knowledge, approach, support, inspiration, respect. This 'space' is neither industry nor university but an intermediate zone designed with and maintained by Watershed in the form of the Pervasive Media Studio. Here people and businesses can meet outside of their usual structures and pressures, immersing themselves in a creative process that changes them, creates new products, new services, new businesses, jobs and, most important of all, builds new kinds of connectivity. This is the practice of cultural ecology. The REACT network, like an ecosystem, has its own emergent properties. This system is designed to particularly serve the needs of microbusinesses and SMEs who constitute the overwhelming mass of the Creative Economy (see section 3). Isolated, they are often vulnerable to a changeable marketplace and a reliance on client work, while connected they develop resilience and sustainability through connection with peers and development of ideas. By bringing together diverse talents and disciplines working on projects that have an inbuilt need to grow and develop the innovation process is set in motion but not controlled. REACT allowed projects to jointly explore themes and offer support that is right for their practice, where this was to create commercial products, scale their creative or business activity, or encourage exploration of their own practice. Taken together our projects make a statement about the future of practices that exist at the boundary between creative practice and digital technologies, and built up the confidence for other creative talents to explore new technologies within this framework. REACT takes an editorial role in this narrative, broadly influencing the development of these new creative processes, and addresses new themes and with an emphasis on academic collaboration, working with our partners to mobilise world-leading research and creative talent. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The REACT Hub's organisation is comparatively straightforward consisting in the delivery team, the Operations Group and the Steering Board; we have also convened an Advisory Group around particular issues or themes. Together these organisational Units constitute, convene and address the different scales of the REACT network. Each team here is constituted as a partnership of equals where researchers, businesses, Deputy Vice Chancellors, and advisors can all be heard. Delivery Team: Exec Producer (0.5fte) Watershed, 2 x Producers Watershed, Director (0.5fte) UWE, Research Fellow UWE & Research Manager UWE. Some additional resource for project development and post award management was also released through REACT funding in Cardiff & Exeter Universities from their research development and management teams. Core delivery meets fortnightly to share progress and feedback. Operations Group (OG) 0.2fte Professorial level appointments from each of the partner Universities including the Director, the Executive Producer from Watershed, and the Research Fellow and Research Manager for observation purposes. The role of Director and Executive Producer were key, equal, leadership roles. The external partner organisation (Watershed) was understood from the start as an equal partner in the project rather than an external 'delivery partner' working to the Universities' remit. The OG met monthly and was the leadership team for the project where policy, themes, and funding decisions are agreed. Each of our six funding calls plus all of our feasibility and prototype funding decisions have been made by the OG. This decision making rhythm has in effect become the dominant spine of the OG process. Each bid was reviewed by an OG or other academic representative together with an industry partner. Reviews came back to OG, were ranked and discussed at a cohort level before shortlisting. Shortlisted projects were invited to pitch to a sub panel of OG with additional industry representation. Recommendations for funding then returned to OG for discussion and implementation. The Steering Board (SB): met termly and consisted in Deputy Vice Chancellor level representation from each University, AHRC representation together with five industry partners from the regional network. Chaired by Miles Bullough (Aardman Animations) till 2014 and thereafter by Phil George of Green Bay in Cardiff and Seth Honnor of Kaleider in Exeter. SB took progress reports against the agreed KPIs, risks and challenges. SB also approved any change of use in original budget headings or project intention (eg change from Sandbox 6 to Alumni scheme.) The Steering Board collaboration at a senior academic and business level has been a significant team for creating the superstructure of our collaboration. Having face to face sessions where Deputy Vice Chancellors work alongside creative business partners as well as having this team experiencing the impact of the work first hand has been a really significant but often invisible asset for the REACT collaboration. |
| Impact | Please see Key Findings and Narrative Impacts for full reports. |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | REACT Creative Economy Hub (AHRC J005185/1) |
| Organisation | University of Bath |
| Department | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Each University partner bought its network of academic researchers to work with creative businesses. Watershed bought the core methodology of the REACT Sandbox to the collaboration. THE REACT SANDBOX Our primary mechanism for enacting these values has been the REACT Sandbox, adapted from Watershed's existing Sandbox methodology and delivered by a team of Watershed Creative Producers, dedicated to REACT projects. We have run five Sandboxes each with their own theme. These have explored Heritage, Books and Print, Future Documentary, Internet-connect Objects and Play. Each of these themes was generated in consultation with creative economy advisors. They appeal to those sectors most in need of research and development to respond to the disruptions of technological innovation. The starting point of the Sandbox is an Ideas Labs, an event where potential applicants from academia and creative industry meet to develop ideas. Across the programme, we have hosted 12 Ideas Labs across Cardiff, Exeter and Bristol, attracting 672 attendees. After Ideas Labs, collaborative teams are supported by REACT Producers to develop bids. Teams apply through a light-touch application form that asks them to propose their activity and ideas, and provide a budget. Projects are selected for interview by a mixed panel of industry and academic advisors. Final projects are selected for a Sandbox on the basis of the quality of the relationship in the partnership. The are five broad criteria for selection: • What's the quality of the idea? Does it feel relevant and exciting and new? • does the bid have potential to be a mutual collaboration? • does the project have potential for post-award development? • do the partners understand where their users might be and how they can reach them? • how will the partners in the project fit into the cohort as a whole? A cohort of between six and eight projects is chosen that represents a diverse range of skills, approaches and knowledges. Some projects may be relatively straightforward, while others more risky. Curating a 'slate' of projects is a core component of the method, where innovation is stimulated through a mixture of project types, ambitions and talents. The Sandbox production period runs for three to four months during which time every project is required to produce a working prototype that can be tested with audiences. Successful project teams are awarded up to £50k per project to carry out this work. £10k goes towards the company's investment in the project (most often their time) and the remaining £40k spent on academic time, HEI costs, travel, materials and other project resources such as prototyping, manufacture and testing, or subcontracting additional expertise. During the Sandbox period, teams are required to meet for day long sessions at least once a month, to share progress and get specialist appropriate input from their relevant sector or market organisations. The whole process is coordinated by a Creative Producer with a supporting team of industry advisors, a specialist business mentor, PR and legal coaching. Projects are also supported in applying to next stage funding and investment by the producer team. Each project participates in a public showcase within two months of the end of the programme and each project gets its own five minute film as a promotional tool. The Sandbox is distinct from other KE or business development processes partly because of its insistence on cohort based learning and the necessary generosity that underpins it and partly by its use of iteration with audiences and users to allow projects to change and develop. The net effect is of a process that fosters the kind of hyper-connectivity between people, disciplines and technologies that creates a great deal 'more then the sum of its parts'. Modelled on principles of Open Innovation, it also places care for its participants, and generosity of ideas and skills as central to its operation. THE PRACTICE OF CULTURAL ECOLOGY Our main achievement has been developing a system that builds 'bridge capital' between different sectors for the co- creation of value in the creative economy. We recognised at the outset of the hub that our main challenge was to break down the real and perceived barriers between universities and creative businesses. This mission is vertical as well as horizontal, in that barriers exist within individual HEIs, between different HEIs, as well as between HEIs and creative businesses, and in between and inside businesses themselves. These 'silos' are frequently an impediment to innovation in fast moving creative economy that depends on interdisciplinary co-operation. REACT has facilitated new and innovative interactions by building a network that is, at its heart, a new kind of collaborative domain. Our collaborations are based on participants exchanging all kinds of value with one another, much of which is common to the development of successful businesses and academic practices: skills, knowledge, approach, support, inspiration, respect. This 'space' is neither industry nor university but an intermediate zone designed with and maintained by Watershed in the form of the Pervasive Media Studio. Here people and businesses can meet outside of their usual structures and pressures, immersing themselves in a creative process that changes them, creates new products, new services, new businesses, jobs and, most important of all, builds new kinds of connectivity. This is the practice of cultural ecology. The REACT network, like an ecosystem, has its own emergent properties. This system is designed to particularly serve the needs of microbusinesses and SMEs who constitute the overwhelming mass of the Creative Economy (see section 3). Isolated, they are often vulnerable to a changeable marketplace and a reliance on client work, while connected they develop resilience and sustainability through connection with peers and development of ideas. By bringing together diverse talents and disciplines working on projects that have an inbuilt need to grow and develop the innovation process is set in motion but not controlled. REACT allowed projects to jointly explore themes and offer support that is right for their practice, where this was to create commercial products, scale their creative or business activity, or encourage exploration of their own practice. Taken together our projects make a statement about the future of practices that exist at the boundary between creative practice and digital technologies, and built up the confidence for other creative talents to explore new technologies within this framework. REACT takes an editorial role in this narrative, broadly influencing the development of these new creative processes, and addresses new themes and with an emphasis on academic collaboration, working with our partners to mobilise world-leading research and creative talent. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The REACT Hub's organisation is comparatively straightforward consisting in the delivery team, the Operations Group and the Steering Board; we have also convened an Advisory Group around particular issues or themes. Together these organisational Units constitute, convene and address the different scales of the REACT network. Each team here is constituted as a partnership of equals where researchers, businesses, Deputy Vice Chancellors, and advisors can all be heard. Delivery Team: Exec Producer (0.5fte) Watershed, 2 x Producers Watershed, Director (0.5fte) UWE, Research Fellow UWE & Research Manager UWE. Some additional resource for project development and post award management was also released through REACT funding in Cardiff & Exeter Universities from their research development and management teams. Core delivery meets fortnightly to share progress and feedback. Operations Group (OG) 0.2fte Professorial level appointments from each of the partner Universities including the Director, the Executive Producer from Watershed, and the Research Fellow and Research Manager for observation purposes. The role of Director and Executive Producer were key, equal, leadership roles. The external partner organisation (Watershed) was understood from the start as an equal partner in the project rather than an external 'delivery partner' working to the Universities' remit. The OG met monthly and was the leadership team for the project where policy, themes, and funding decisions are agreed. Each of our six funding calls plus all of our feasibility and prototype funding decisions have been made by the OG. This decision making rhythm has in effect become the dominant spine of the OG process. Each bid was reviewed by an OG or other academic representative together with an industry partner. Reviews came back to OG, were ranked and discussed at a cohort level before shortlisting. Shortlisted projects were invited to pitch to a sub panel of OG with additional industry representation. Recommendations for funding then returned to OG for discussion and implementation. The Steering Board (SB): met termly and consisted in Deputy Vice Chancellor level representation from each University, AHRC representation together with five industry partners from the regional network. Chaired by Miles Bullough (Aardman Animations) till 2014 and thereafter by Phil George of Green Bay in Cardiff and Seth Honnor of Kaleider in Exeter. SB took progress reports against the agreed KPIs, risks and challenges. SB also approved any change of use in original budget headings or project intention (eg change from Sandbox 6 to Alumni scheme.) The Steering Board collaboration at a senior academic and business level has been a significant team for creating the superstructure of our collaboration. Having face to face sessions where Deputy Vice Chancellors work alongside creative business partners as well as having this team experiencing the impact of the work first hand has been a really significant but often invisible asset for the REACT collaboration. |
| Impact | Please see Key Findings and Narrative Impacts for full reports. |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | REACT Creative Economy Hub (AHRC J005185/1) |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Each University partner bought its network of academic researchers to work with creative businesses. Watershed bought the core methodology of the REACT Sandbox to the collaboration. THE REACT SANDBOX Our primary mechanism for enacting these values has been the REACT Sandbox, adapted from Watershed's existing Sandbox methodology and delivered by a team of Watershed Creative Producers, dedicated to REACT projects. We have run five Sandboxes each with their own theme. These have explored Heritage, Books and Print, Future Documentary, Internet-connect Objects and Play. Each of these themes was generated in consultation with creative economy advisors. They appeal to those sectors most in need of research and development to respond to the disruptions of technological innovation. The starting point of the Sandbox is an Ideas Labs, an event where potential applicants from academia and creative industry meet to develop ideas. Across the programme, we have hosted 12 Ideas Labs across Cardiff, Exeter and Bristol, attracting 672 attendees. After Ideas Labs, collaborative teams are supported by REACT Producers to develop bids. Teams apply through a light-touch application form that asks them to propose their activity and ideas, and provide a budget. Projects are selected for interview by a mixed panel of industry and academic advisors. Final projects are selected for a Sandbox on the basis of the quality of the relationship in the partnership. The are five broad criteria for selection: • What's the quality of the idea? Does it feel relevant and exciting and new? • does the bid have potential to be a mutual collaboration? • does the project have potential for post-award development? • do the partners understand where their users might be and how they can reach them? • how will the partners in the project fit into the cohort as a whole? A cohort of between six and eight projects is chosen that represents a diverse range of skills, approaches and knowledges. Some projects may be relatively straightforward, while others more risky. Curating a 'slate' of projects is a core component of the method, where innovation is stimulated through a mixture of project types, ambitions and talents. The Sandbox production period runs for three to four months during which time every project is required to produce a working prototype that can be tested with audiences. Successful project teams are awarded up to £50k per project to carry out this work. £10k goes towards the company's investment in the project (most often their time) and the remaining £40k spent on academic time, HEI costs, travel, materials and other project resources such as prototyping, manufacture and testing, or subcontracting additional expertise. During the Sandbox period, teams are required to meet for day long sessions at least once a month, to share progress and get specialist appropriate input from their relevant sector or market organisations. The whole process is coordinated by a Creative Producer with a supporting team of industry advisors, a specialist business mentor, PR and legal coaching. Projects are also supported in applying to next stage funding and investment by the producer team. Each project participates in a public showcase within two months of the end of the programme and each project gets its own five minute film as a promotional tool. The Sandbox is distinct from other KE or business development processes partly because of its insistence on cohort based learning and the necessary generosity that underpins it and partly by its use of iteration with audiences and users to allow projects to change and develop. The net effect is of a process that fosters the kind of hyper-connectivity between people, disciplines and technologies that creates a great deal 'more then the sum of its parts'. Modelled on principles of Open Innovation, it also places care for its participants, and generosity of ideas and skills as central to its operation. THE PRACTICE OF CULTURAL ECOLOGY Our main achievement has been developing a system that builds 'bridge capital' between different sectors for the co- creation of value in the creative economy. We recognised at the outset of the hub that our main challenge was to break down the real and perceived barriers between universities and creative businesses. This mission is vertical as well as horizontal, in that barriers exist within individual HEIs, between different HEIs, as well as between HEIs and creative businesses, and in between and inside businesses themselves. These 'silos' are frequently an impediment to innovation in fast moving creative economy that depends on interdisciplinary co-operation. REACT has facilitated new and innovative interactions by building a network that is, at its heart, a new kind of collaborative domain. Our collaborations are based on participants exchanging all kinds of value with one another, much of which is common to the development of successful businesses and academic practices: skills, knowledge, approach, support, inspiration, respect. This 'space' is neither industry nor university but an intermediate zone designed with and maintained by Watershed in the form of the Pervasive Media Studio. Here people and businesses can meet outside of their usual structures and pressures, immersing themselves in a creative process that changes them, creates new products, new services, new businesses, jobs and, most important of all, builds new kinds of connectivity. This is the practice of cultural ecology. The REACT network, like an ecosystem, has its own emergent properties. This system is designed to particularly serve the needs of microbusinesses and SMEs who constitute the overwhelming mass of the Creative Economy (see section 3). Isolated, they are often vulnerable to a changeable marketplace and a reliance on client work, while connected they develop resilience and sustainability through connection with peers and development of ideas. By bringing together diverse talents and disciplines working on projects that have an inbuilt need to grow and develop the innovation process is set in motion but not controlled. REACT allowed projects to jointly explore themes and offer support that is right for their practice, where this was to create commercial products, scale their creative or business activity, or encourage exploration of their own practice. Taken together our projects make a statement about the future of practices that exist at the boundary between creative practice and digital technologies, and built up the confidence for other creative talents to explore new technologies within this framework. REACT takes an editorial role in this narrative, broadly influencing the development of these new creative processes, and addresses new themes and with an emphasis on academic collaboration, working with our partners to mobilise world-leading research and creative talent. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The REACT Hub's organisation is comparatively straightforward consisting in the delivery team, the Operations Group and the Steering Board; we have also convened an Advisory Group around particular issues or themes. Together these organisational Units constitute, convene and address the different scales of the REACT network. Each team here is constituted as a partnership of equals where researchers, businesses, Deputy Vice Chancellors, and advisors can all be heard. Delivery Team: Exec Producer (0.5fte) Watershed, 2 x Producers Watershed, Director (0.5fte) UWE, Research Fellow UWE & Research Manager UWE. Some additional resource for project development and post award management was also released through REACT funding in Cardiff & Exeter Universities from their research development and management teams. Core delivery meets fortnightly to share progress and feedback. Operations Group (OG) 0.2fte Professorial level appointments from each of the partner Universities including the Director, the Executive Producer from Watershed, and the Research Fellow and Research Manager for observation purposes. The role of Director and Executive Producer were key, equal, leadership roles. The external partner organisation (Watershed) was understood from the start as an equal partner in the project rather than an external 'delivery partner' working to the Universities' remit. The OG met monthly and was the leadership team for the project where policy, themes, and funding decisions are agreed. Each of our six funding calls plus all of our feasibility and prototype funding decisions have been made by the OG. This decision making rhythm has in effect become the dominant spine of the OG process. Each bid was reviewed by an OG or other academic representative together with an industry partner. Reviews came back to OG, were ranked and discussed at a cohort level before shortlisting. Shortlisted projects were invited to pitch to a sub panel of OG with additional industry representation. Recommendations for funding then returned to OG for discussion and implementation. The Steering Board (SB): met termly and consisted in Deputy Vice Chancellor level representation from each University, AHRC representation together with five industry partners from the regional network. Chaired by Miles Bullough (Aardman Animations) till 2014 and thereafter by Phil George of Green Bay in Cardiff and Seth Honnor of Kaleider in Exeter. SB took progress reports against the agreed KPIs, risks and challenges. SB also approved any change of use in original budget headings or project intention (eg change from Sandbox 6 to Alumni scheme.) The Steering Board collaboration at a senior academic and business level has been a significant team for creating the superstructure of our collaboration. Having face to face sessions where Deputy Vice Chancellors work alongside creative business partners as well as having this team experiencing the impact of the work first hand has been a really significant but often invisible asset for the REACT collaboration. |
| Impact | Please see Key Findings and Narrative Impacts for full reports. |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | REACT Creative Economy Hub (AHRC J005185/1) |
| Organisation | University of Exeter |
| Department | College of Humanities |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Each University partner bought its network of academic researchers to work with creative businesses. Watershed bought the core methodology of the REACT Sandbox to the collaboration. THE REACT SANDBOX Our primary mechanism for enacting these values has been the REACT Sandbox, adapted from Watershed's existing Sandbox methodology and delivered by a team of Watershed Creative Producers, dedicated to REACT projects. We have run five Sandboxes each with their own theme. These have explored Heritage, Books and Print, Future Documentary, Internet-connect Objects and Play. Each of these themes was generated in consultation with creative economy advisors. They appeal to those sectors most in need of research and development to respond to the disruptions of technological innovation. The starting point of the Sandbox is an Ideas Labs, an event where potential applicants from academia and creative industry meet to develop ideas. Across the programme, we have hosted 12 Ideas Labs across Cardiff, Exeter and Bristol, attracting 672 attendees. After Ideas Labs, collaborative teams are supported by REACT Producers to develop bids. Teams apply through a light-touch application form that asks them to propose their activity and ideas, and provide a budget. Projects are selected for interview by a mixed panel of industry and academic advisors. Final projects are selected for a Sandbox on the basis of the quality of the relationship in the partnership. The are five broad criteria for selection: • What's the quality of the idea? Does it feel relevant and exciting and new? • does the bid have potential to be a mutual collaboration? • does the project have potential for post-award development? • do the partners understand where their users might be and how they can reach them? • how will the partners in the project fit into the cohort as a whole? A cohort of between six and eight projects is chosen that represents a diverse range of skills, approaches and knowledges. Some projects may be relatively straightforward, while others more risky. Curating a 'slate' of projects is a core component of the method, where innovation is stimulated through a mixture of project types, ambitions and talents. The Sandbox production period runs for three to four months during which time every project is required to produce a working prototype that can be tested with audiences. Successful project teams are awarded up to £50k per project to carry out this work. £10k goes towards the company's investment in the project (most often their time) and the remaining £40k spent on academic time, HEI costs, travel, materials and other project resources such as prototyping, manufacture and testing, or subcontracting additional expertise. During the Sandbox period, teams are required to meet for day long sessions at least once a month, to share progress and get specialist appropriate input from their relevant sector or market organisations. The whole process is coordinated by a Creative Producer with a supporting team of industry advisors, a specialist business mentor, PR and legal coaching. Projects are also supported in applying to next stage funding and investment by the producer team. Each project participates in a public showcase within two months of the end of the programme and each project gets its own five minute film as a promotional tool. The Sandbox is distinct from other KE or business development processes partly because of its insistence on cohort based learning and the necessary generosity that underpins it and partly by its use of iteration with audiences and users to allow projects to change and develop. The net effect is of a process that fosters the kind of hyper-connectivity between people, disciplines and technologies that creates a great deal 'more then the sum of its parts'. Modelled on principles of Open Innovation, it also places care for its participants, and generosity of ideas and skills as central to its operation. THE PRACTICE OF CULTURAL ECOLOGY Our main achievement has been developing a system that builds 'bridge capital' between different sectors for the co- creation of value in the creative economy. We recognised at the outset of the hub that our main challenge was to break down the real and perceived barriers between universities and creative businesses. This mission is vertical as well as horizontal, in that barriers exist within individual HEIs, between different HEIs, as well as between HEIs and creative businesses, and in between and inside businesses themselves. These 'silos' are frequently an impediment to innovation in fast moving creative economy that depends on interdisciplinary co-operation. REACT has facilitated new and innovative interactions by building a network that is, at its heart, a new kind of collaborative domain. Our collaborations are based on participants exchanging all kinds of value with one another, much of which is common to the development of successful businesses and academic practices: skills, knowledge, approach, support, inspiration, respect. This 'space' is neither industry nor university but an intermediate zone designed with and maintained by Watershed in the form of the Pervasive Media Studio. Here people and businesses can meet outside of their usual structures and pressures, immersing themselves in a creative process that changes them, creates new products, new services, new businesses, jobs and, most important of all, builds new kinds of connectivity. This is the practice of cultural ecology. The REACT network, like an ecosystem, has its own emergent properties. This system is designed to particularly serve the needs of microbusinesses and SMEs who constitute the overwhelming mass of the Creative Economy (see section 3). Isolated, they are often vulnerable to a changeable marketplace and a reliance on client work, while connected they develop resilience and sustainability through connection with peers and development of ideas. By bringing together diverse talents and disciplines working on projects that have an inbuilt need to grow and develop the innovation process is set in motion but not controlled. REACT allowed projects to jointly explore themes and offer support that is right for their practice, where this was to create commercial products, scale their creative or business activity, or encourage exploration of their own practice. Taken together our projects make a statement about the future of practices that exist at the boundary between creative practice and digital technologies, and built up the confidence for other creative talents to explore new technologies within this framework. REACT takes an editorial role in this narrative, broadly influencing the development of these new creative processes, and addresses new themes and with an emphasis on academic collaboration, working with our partners to mobilise world-leading research and creative talent. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The REACT Hub's organisation is comparatively straightforward consisting in the delivery team, the Operations Group and the Steering Board; we have also convened an Advisory Group around particular issues or themes. Together these organisational Units constitute, convene and address the different scales of the REACT network. Each team here is constituted as a partnership of equals where researchers, businesses, Deputy Vice Chancellors, and advisors can all be heard. Delivery Team: Exec Producer (0.5fte) Watershed, 2 x Producers Watershed, Director (0.5fte) UWE, Research Fellow UWE & Research Manager UWE. Some additional resource for project development and post award management was also released through REACT funding in Cardiff & Exeter Universities from their research development and management teams. Core delivery meets fortnightly to share progress and feedback. Operations Group (OG) 0.2fte Professorial level appointments from each of the partner Universities including the Director, the Executive Producer from Watershed, and the Research Fellow and Research Manager for observation purposes. The role of Director and Executive Producer were key, equal, leadership roles. The external partner organisation (Watershed) was understood from the start as an equal partner in the project rather than an external 'delivery partner' working to the Universities' remit. The OG met monthly and was the leadership team for the project where policy, themes, and funding decisions are agreed. Each of our six funding calls plus all of our feasibility and prototype funding decisions have been made by the OG. This decision making rhythm has in effect become the dominant spine of the OG process. Each bid was reviewed by an OG or other academic representative together with an industry partner. Reviews came back to OG, were ranked and discussed at a cohort level before shortlisting. Shortlisted projects were invited to pitch to a sub panel of OG with additional industry representation. Recommendations for funding then returned to OG for discussion and implementation. The Steering Board (SB): met termly and consisted in Deputy Vice Chancellor level representation from each University, AHRC representation together with five industry partners from the regional network. Chaired by Miles Bullough (Aardman Animations) till 2014 and thereafter by Phil George of Green Bay in Cardiff and Seth Honnor of Kaleider in Exeter. SB took progress reports against the agreed KPIs, risks and challenges. SB also approved any change of use in original budget headings or project intention (eg change from Sandbox 6 to Alumni scheme.) The Steering Board collaboration at a senior academic and business level has been a significant team for creating the superstructure of our collaboration. Having face to face sessions where Deputy Vice Chancellors work alongside creative business partners as well as having this team experiencing the impact of the work first hand has been a really significant but often invisible asset for the REACT collaboration. |
| Impact | Please see Key Findings and Narrative Impacts for full reports. |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | REACT Creative Economy Hub (AHRC J005185/1) |
| Organisation | University of the West of England |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Each University partner bought its network of academic researchers to work with creative businesses. Watershed bought the core methodology of the REACT Sandbox to the collaboration. THE REACT SANDBOX Our primary mechanism for enacting these values has been the REACT Sandbox, adapted from Watershed's existing Sandbox methodology and delivered by a team of Watershed Creative Producers, dedicated to REACT projects. We have run five Sandboxes each with their own theme. These have explored Heritage, Books and Print, Future Documentary, Internet-connect Objects and Play. Each of these themes was generated in consultation with creative economy advisors. They appeal to those sectors most in need of research and development to respond to the disruptions of technological innovation. The starting point of the Sandbox is an Ideas Labs, an event where potential applicants from academia and creative industry meet to develop ideas. Across the programme, we have hosted 12 Ideas Labs across Cardiff, Exeter and Bristol, attracting 672 attendees. After Ideas Labs, collaborative teams are supported by REACT Producers to develop bids. Teams apply through a light-touch application form that asks them to propose their activity and ideas, and provide a budget. Projects are selected for interview by a mixed panel of industry and academic advisors. Final projects are selected for a Sandbox on the basis of the quality of the relationship in the partnership. The are five broad criteria for selection: • What's the quality of the idea? Does it feel relevant and exciting and new? • does the bid have potential to be a mutual collaboration? • does the project have potential for post-award development? • do the partners understand where their users might be and how they can reach them? • how will the partners in the project fit into the cohort as a whole? A cohort of between six and eight projects is chosen that represents a diverse range of skills, approaches and knowledges. Some projects may be relatively straightforward, while others more risky. Curating a 'slate' of projects is a core component of the method, where innovation is stimulated through a mixture of project types, ambitions and talents. The Sandbox production period runs for three to four months during which time every project is required to produce a working prototype that can be tested with audiences. Successful project teams are awarded up to £50k per project to carry out this work. £10k goes towards the company's investment in the project (most often their time) and the remaining £40k spent on academic time, HEI costs, travel, materials and other project resources such as prototyping, manufacture and testing, or subcontracting additional expertise. During the Sandbox period, teams are required to meet for day long sessions at least once a month, to share progress and get specialist appropriate input from their relevant sector or market organisations. The whole process is coordinated by a Creative Producer with a supporting team of industry advisors, a specialist business mentor, PR and legal coaching. Projects are also supported in applying to next stage funding and investment by the producer team. Each project participates in a public showcase within two months of the end of the programme and each project gets its own five minute film as a promotional tool. The Sandbox is distinct from other KE or business development processes partly because of its insistence on cohort based learning and the necessary generosity that underpins it and partly by its use of iteration with audiences and users to allow projects to change and develop. The net effect is of a process that fosters the kind of hyper-connectivity between people, disciplines and technologies that creates a great deal 'more then the sum of its parts'. Modelled on principles of Open Innovation, it also places care for its participants, and generosity of ideas and skills as central to its operation. THE PRACTICE OF CULTURAL ECOLOGY Our main achievement has been developing a system that builds 'bridge capital' between different sectors for the co- creation of value in the creative economy. We recognised at the outset of the hub that our main challenge was to break down the real and perceived barriers between universities and creative businesses. This mission is vertical as well as horizontal, in that barriers exist within individual HEIs, between different HEIs, as well as between HEIs and creative businesses, and in between and inside businesses themselves. These 'silos' are frequently an impediment to innovation in fast moving creative economy that depends on interdisciplinary co-operation. REACT has facilitated new and innovative interactions by building a network that is, at its heart, a new kind of collaborative domain. Our collaborations are based on participants exchanging all kinds of value with one another, much of which is common to the development of successful businesses and academic practices: skills, knowledge, approach, support, inspiration, respect. This 'space' is neither industry nor university but an intermediate zone designed with and maintained by Watershed in the form of the Pervasive Media Studio. Here people and businesses can meet outside of their usual structures and pressures, immersing themselves in a creative process that changes them, creates new products, new services, new businesses, jobs and, most important of all, builds new kinds of connectivity. This is the practice of cultural ecology. The REACT network, like an ecosystem, has its own emergent properties. This system is designed to particularly serve the needs of microbusinesses and SMEs who constitute the overwhelming mass of the Creative Economy (see section 3). Isolated, they are often vulnerable to a changeable marketplace and a reliance on client work, while connected they develop resilience and sustainability through connection with peers and development of ideas. By bringing together diverse talents and disciplines working on projects that have an inbuilt need to grow and develop the innovation process is set in motion but not controlled. REACT allowed projects to jointly explore themes and offer support that is right for their practice, where this was to create commercial products, scale their creative or business activity, or encourage exploration of their own practice. Taken together our projects make a statement about the future of practices that exist at the boundary between creative practice and digital technologies, and built up the confidence for other creative talents to explore new technologies within this framework. REACT takes an editorial role in this narrative, broadly influencing the development of these new creative processes, and addresses new themes and with an emphasis on academic collaboration, working with our partners to mobilise world-leading research and creative talent. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The REACT Hub's organisation is comparatively straightforward consisting in the delivery team, the Operations Group and the Steering Board; we have also convened an Advisory Group around particular issues or themes. Together these organisational Units constitute, convene and address the different scales of the REACT network. Each team here is constituted as a partnership of equals where researchers, businesses, Deputy Vice Chancellors, and advisors can all be heard. Delivery Team: Exec Producer (0.5fte) Watershed, 2 x Producers Watershed, Director (0.5fte) UWE, Research Fellow UWE & Research Manager UWE. Some additional resource for project development and post award management was also released through REACT funding in Cardiff & Exeter Universities from their research development and management teams. Core delivery meets fortnightly to share progress and feedback. Operations Group (OG) 0.2fte Professorial level appointments from each of the partner Universities including the Director, the Executive Producer from Watershed, and the Research Fellow and Research Manager for observation purposes. The role of Director and Executive Producer were key, equal, leadership roles. The external partner organisation (Watershed) was understood from the start as an equal partner in the project rather than an external 'delivery partner' working to the Universities' remit. The OG met monthly and was the leadership team for the project where policy, themes, and funding decisions are agreed. Each of our six funding calls plus all of our feasibility and prototype funding decisions have been made by the OG. This decision making rhythm has in effect become the dominant spine of the OG process. Each bid was reviewed by an OG or other academic representative together with an industry partner. Reviews came back to OG, were ranked and discussed at a cohort level before shortlisting. Shortlisted projects were invited to pitch to a sub panel of OG with additional industry representation. Recommendations for funding then returned to OG for discussion and implementation. The Steering Board (SB): met termly and consisted in Deputy Vice Chancellor level representation from each University, AHRC representation together with five industry partners from the regional network. Chaired by Miles Bullough (Aardman Animations) till 2014 and thereafter by Phil George of Green Bay in Cardiff and Seth Honnor of Kaleider in Exeter. SB took progress reports against the agreed KPIs, risks and challenges. SB also approved any change of use in original budget headings or project intention (eg change from Sandbox 6 to Alumni scheme.) The Steering Board collaboration at a senior academic and business level has been a significant team for creating the superstructure of our collaboration. Having face to face sessions where Deputy Vice Chancellors work alongside creative business partners as well as having this team experiencing the impact of the work first hand has been a really significant but often invisible asset for the REACT collaboration. |
| Impact | Please see Key Findings and Narrative Impacts for full reports. |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | REACT Creative Economy Hub (AHRC J005185/1) |
| Organisation | Watershed Media Centre |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Each University partner bought its network of academic researchers to work with creative businesses. Watershed bought the core methodology of the REACT Sandbox to the collaboration. THE REACT SANDBOX Our primary mechanism for enacting these values has been the REACT Sandbox, adapted from Watershed's existing Sandbox methodology and delivered by a team of Watershed Creative Producers, dedicated to REACT projects. We have run five Sandboxes each with their own theme. These have explored Heritage, Books and Print, Future Documentary, Internet-connect Objects and Play. Each of these themes was generated in consultation with creative economy advisors. They appeal to those sectors most in need of research and development to respond to the disruptions of technological innovation. The starting point of the Sandbox is an Ideas Labs, an event where potential applicants from academia and creative industry meet to develop ideas. Across the programme, we have hosted 12 Ideas Labs across Cardiff, Exeter and Bristol, attracting 672 attendees. After Ideas Labs, collaborative teams are supported by REACT Producers to develop bids. Teams apply through a light-touch application form that asks them to propose their activity and ideas, and provide a budget. Projects are selected for interview by a mixed panel of industry and academic advisors. Final projects are selected for a Sandbox on the basis of the quality of the relationship in the partnership. The are five broad criteria for selection: • What's the quality of the idea? Does it feel relevant and exciting and new? • does the bid have potential to be a mutual collaboration? • does the project have potential for post-award development? • do the partners understand where their users might be and how they can reach them? • how will the partners in the project fit into the cohort as a whole? A cohort of between six and eight projects is chosen that represents a diverse range of skills, approaches and knowledges. Some projects may be relatively straightforward, while others more risky. Curating a 'slate' of projects is a core component of the method, where innovation is stimulated through a mixture of project types, ambitions and talents. The Sandbox production period runs for three to four months during which time every project is required to produce a working prototype that can be tested with audiences. Successful project teams are awarded up to £50k per project to carry out this work. £10k goes towards the company's investment in the project (most often their time) and the remaining £40k spent on academic time, HEI costs, travel, materials and other project resources such as prototyping, manufacture and testing, or subcontracting additional expertise. During the Sandbox period, teams are required to meet for day long sessions at least once a month, to share progress and get specialist appropriate input from their relevant sector or market organisations. The whole process is coordinated by a Creative Producer with a supporting team of industry advisors, a specialist business mentor, PR and legal coaching. Projects are also supported in applying to next stage funding and investment by the producer team. Each project participates in a public showcase within two months of the end of the programme and each project gets its own five minute film as a promotional tool. The Sandbox is distinct from other KE or business development processes partly because of its insistence on cohort based learning and the necessary generosity that underpins it and partly by its use of iteration with audiences and users to allow projects to change and develop. The net effect is of a process that fosters the kind of hyper-connectivity between people, disciplines and technologies that creates a great deal 'more then the sum of its parts'. Modelled on principles of Open Innovation, it also places care for its participants, and generosity of ideas and skills as central to its operation. THE PRACTICE OF CULTURAL ECOLOGY Our main achievement has been developing a system that builds 'bridge capital' between different sectors for the co- creation of value in the creative economy. We recognised at the outset of the hub that our main challenge was to break down the real and perceived barriers between universities and creative businesses. This mission is vertical as well as horizontal, in that barriers exist within individual HEIs, between different HEIs, as well as between HEIs and creative businesses, and in between and inside businesses themselves. These 'silos' are frequently an impediment to innovation in fast moving creative economy that depends on interdisciplinary co-operation. REACT has facilitated new and innovative interactions by building a network that is, at its heart, a new kind of collaborative domain. Our collaborations are based on participants exchanging all kinds of value with one another, much of which is common to the development of successful businesses and academic practices: skills, knowledge, approach, support, inspiration, respect. This 'space' is neither industry nor university but an intermediate zone designed with and maintained by Watershed in the form of the Pervasive Media Studio. Here people and businesses can meet outside of their usual structures and pressures, immersing themselves in a creative process that changes them, creates new products, new services, new businesses, jobs and, most important of all, builds new kinds of connectivity. This is the practice of cultural ecology. The REACT network, like an ecosystem, has its own emergent properties. This system is designed to particularly serve the needs of microbusinesses and SMEs who constitute the overwhelming mass of the Creative Economy (see section 3). Isolated, they are often vulnerable to a changeable marketplace and a reliance on client work, while connected they develop resilience and sustainability through connection with peers and development of ideas. By bringing together diverse talents and disciplines working on projects that have an inbuilt need to grow and develop the innovation process is set in motion but not controlled. REACT allowed projects to jointly explore themes and offer support that is right for their practice, where this was to create commercial products, scale their creative or business activity, or encourage exploration of their own practice. Taken together our projects make a statement about the future of practices that exist at the boundary between creative practice and digital technologies, and built up the confidence for other creative talents to explore new technologies within this framework. REACT takes an editorial role in this narrative, broadly influencing the development of these new creative processes, and addresses new themes and with an emphasis on academic collaboration, working with our partners to mobilise world-leading research and creative talent. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The REACT Hub's organisation is comparatively straightforward consisting in the delivery team, the Operations Group and the Steering Board; we have also convened an Advisory Group around particular issues or themes. Together these organisational Units constitute, convene and address the different scales of the REACT network. Each team here is constituted as a partnership of equals where researchers, businesses, Deputy Vice Chancellors, and advisors can all be heard. Delivery Team: Exec Producer (0.5fte) Watershed, 2 x Producers Watershed, Director (0.5fte) UWE, Research Fellow UWE & Research Manager UWE. Some additional resource for project development and post award management was also released through REACT funding in Cardiff & Exeter Universities from their research development and management teams. Core delivery meets fortnightly to share progress and feedback. Operations Group (OG) 0.2fte Professorial level appointments from each of the partner Universities including the Director, the Executive Producer from Watershed, and the Research Fellow and Research Manager for observation purposes. The role of Director and Executive Producer were key, equal, leadership roles. The external partner organisation (Watershed) was understood from the start as an equal partner in the project rather than an external 'delivery partner' working to the Universities' remit. The OG met monthly and was the leadership team for the project where policy, themes, and funding decisions are agreed. Each of our six funding calls plus all of our feasibility and prototype funding decisions have been made by the OG. This decision making rhythm has in effect become the dominant spine of the OG process. Each bid was reviewed by an OG or other academic representative together with an industry partner. Reviews came back to OG, were ranked and discussed at a cohort level before shortlisting. Shortlisted projects were invited to pitch to a sub panel of OG with additional industry representation. Recommendations for funding then returned to OG for discussion and implementation. The Steering Board (SB): met termly and consisted in Deputy Vice Chancellor level representation from each University, AHRC representation together with five industry partners from the regional network. Chaired by Miles Bullough (Aardman Animations) till 2014 and thereafter by Phil George of Green Bay in Cardiff and Seth Honnor of Kaleider in Exeter. SB took progress reports against the agreed KPIs, risks and challenges. SB also approved any change of use in original budget headings or project intention (eg change from Sandbox 6 to Alumni scheme.) The Steering Board collaboration at a senior academic and business level has been a significant team for creating the superstructure of our collaboration. Having face to face sessions where Deputy Vice Chancellors work alongside creative business partners as well as having this team experiencing the impact of the work first hand has been a really significant but often invisible asset for the REACT collaboration. |
| Impact | Please see Key Findings and Narrative Impacts for full reports. |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Company Name | Colourstory |
| Description | App and platform for user-based artists products. Established to develop an app and print services based on prototypes developed as part of REACT funding. |
| Year Established | 2014 |
| Impact | N/A |
| Company Name | Circumstance Ltd |
| Description | Artists products and publisher. Established to develop new publishing models and artistic products as a result of REACT funding and business development support |
| Year Established | 2014 |
| Impact | N/A |
| Company Name | Nth Screen |
| Description | Established to continue development of prototype film-making and video app, originally created with REACT funding. |
| Year Established | 2014 |
| Impact | N/A |
| Company Name | Sensible Object |
| Description | Formed to develop and commercialise Beasts of Balance (formerly Fabulous Beasts) a table top game which was prototyped with REACT funding |
| Year Established | 2014 |
| Impact | NA |
| Company Name | Enabling Play |
| Description | Games and digital products aimed at education and special needs sector. Established to continue development of education iPad game, after a prototype was developed with REACT funding. |
| Year Established | 2015 |
| Impact | N/A |
| Company Name | Splash and Ripple |
| Description | Live game and heritage interpretation specialists. Incorporated as a company to take part in REACT Heritage Sandbox and provided with business development support by REACT to exploit services and products developed with REACT funding. |
| Year Established | 2012 |
| Impact | N/A |
| Company Name | Success Takes Courage |
| Description | Production company established after success of Orion documentary (made by Glimmer Films). REACT supported the prototyping of a digital fan-engagement and marketing platform for the documentary. |
| Year Established | 2014 |
| Impact | N/A |
| Company Name | Mayfly Sound |
| Description | Products and app to link audio to possessions, eg. books and stickers. Established to commercialise a new range of print and audio products which had been prototyped with REACT funding |
| Year Established | 2015 |
| Impact | N/A |
| Company Name | DigWorld Travel |
| Description | Travel and archaeology company established by recipient of REACT funding, as a result of his experience learning about entrepreneurial projects through his REACT project. |
| Year Established | 2015 |
| Impact | N/A |
| Description | 209 talks at non-academic events PR activity has to promoted REACT projects to key industry publications, e.g. Guardian Professional Network, Wired, Times Higher Education, New Statesman etc. We have a strong track record of gaining positive press coverage with substantial reach, with Play Sandbox of 6 projects reaching an audience of 1,466,536 across print and online over a 4 month period (figures reported as part of our media monitoring service Precise / Yellow News). |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | PR activity has promoted REACT projects to key industry publications, e.g. Guardian Professional Network, Wired, Times Higher Education, New Statesman etc. We have a strong track record of gaining positive press coverage with substantial reach, with Play Sandbox of 6 projects reaching an audience of 1,466,536 across print and online over a 4 month period (figures reported as part of our media monitoring service Precise / Yellow News). Including 158 (press reports, non-academic articles, commentary, from projects and REACT Team) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012,2013,2014,2015,2016 |
| Description | Cardiff, Creative Capital: sector-wide conference aimed at creative economy participants and their local authority counterparts |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Cardiff, Creative Capital was a major event, hosted at Cardiff University, with the support of the British Council. It brought together thought leaders whose work connects with the creative citizenship/creative economy theme, with a keynote from Dr Hasan Bakhshi of Nesta. The event ran in parallel to an adjacent event of the UK local authorities group which focuses upon cultural policy, with opportunities for significant communication between the two streams of work. At this event, Creative Cardiff also launched its report: Mapping Cardiff's Creative Economy. The event also provided a platform for presentation of the end of project report of the REACT creative economy knowledge exchange hub partnership. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://creativecardiff.org.uk |
| Description | Creative Cardiff: a creative economy network for the Cardiff City Region |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Creative Cardiff is a network, launched formally in 2015, designed to connect the many and diverse communities of creative practitioners in the Cardiff region (www.creativecardiff.org.uk). Its initiation was closely informed by the experience of two AHRC-funded projects: Media, Community and the Creative Citizen and REACT. By connecting and, consequentially, intensify and amplifying the interactions between creatives in areas as different as film-making and design or video-effects and fashion, we aimed to enable our regional business and cultural organisations to tap into Cardiff University's developing innovation system. Funding for this work came from Cardiff University, supported by BBC Wales, the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff City Council and Arts Council Wales. The breadth of this coalition enabled us to connect creative practitioners with completely new communities of shared interest and, at the time of writing, to commence a more ambitious second phase of partnership intended to establish a consortium connecting creative practitioners and local authorities, as Cardiff moves towards a £1.3bn City Deal expansion. We seek partnership with any organisation which shares our goals. By February 2016, Creative Cardiff had over 900 registered members and a Twitter following of almost 8,000. We have organised numerous events, including Cardiff Creative Capital, Mapping Cardiff's Creative Economy, in December 2015. This event brought together representatives from local authorities across the UK and pivotal dialogue between creative economy practitioners from other universities, such as Sheffield. At the event, Creative Cardiff's detailed map of its regional creative economy was presented. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017 |
| URL | http://www.creativecardiff.org.uk |
| Description | Partnership work with Nesta and the Welsh Government |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Arloesiadur is a partnership between NESTA and the Welsh Government. Ian Hargreaves is a member of the steering group for this project, which is part of a rich set of relationships now connecting Nesta and Cardiff University, not least through the latter's Y-Lab, social innovation initiative. Arloesiadur aims specifically at developing innovative data-management and data analysis tools of interest to government. As such, it is a specialist activity, informed to some degree by the work of the Creative Citizens project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.nesta.org.u |
| Description | Political/community engagement at The Senedd, home of the National Assembly of Wales, Cardiff |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This event was organised by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), led by Andy Green, a Wales-based academic and consultant, who is leading a project funded by the RSA on new definitions and ideas for social capital. Andy put together a panel of four speakers at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay and produced an excellent discussion for an audience of about 80 people. Andy had previously interacted with the Creative Citizens project in a number of ways, including attending the project's book launch in Cardiff at the pop-up 'vertical studio' established in the main entrance hall of Cardiff University. We aim for the partnership between Creative Citizens, Creative Cardiff and Andy's social capital work, centred in Barry, will be mutually supportive over an indefinite period. This event was sponsored and introduced by Jane Hutt, a senior Assembly Member. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2016 |
| URL | http://www.barryideasbank.crowdcity.com |
| Description | The Rooms Festival: demonstrating the value of collaboration to a public audience |
| 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 | Between 5th and 7th of November, 2016,REACT opened doors to The Rooms, a three day festival of talks, installations, films and performances designed to showcase the 53 new products and prototypes developed by our project teams. The festival, hosted at Bridewell Island in central Bristol, bought together the creative networks from the South West to make this happen. It engaged with Creative Youth Network, an organisation supporting young people in Bristol, artist studio and infrastructure providers The Island, venue café The Kitchen and a private airsoft business in The Old Magistrate's Courts for the first time. The production and organisation brought together staff from around the region; Watershed, National Theatre Wales, Wildworks, The Invisible Circus, The Island, The Station and Shangri-la (Glastonbury) all providing team members to ensure that the best quality experience could be realised for our visitors. The teams collaborated to create an immersive, expansive audience experience that showcased the breadth and depth of collaboration, of academic research and of technological innovation. Across the space we created 23 installations that ranged from a bedroom where you could explore the future of sex and intimacy, to a library that considered how books and print could be reimagined for the future. The event attracted over 6,000 people across the weekend. At times there were queues stretching around the block. It demonstrated a strong demand for more experiences that explored the intersection between creative technology, experience and research - from death to future books, social activism to sex toys, giant sculptures, bio-activated mazes, and interactive light swings. Core to our aims of exploring and connecting thought leadership in new themes, we delivered a one-day conference exploring the role of creative microbusiness in the creative sector, and the role of HEIs in collaborating with the sector. This featured engagements from academia and business, including representatives from the other hubs. We ran a programme of workshops for members of the public including intimacy labs for couples, den building for children and adults, and toy hacking. REACT successfully secured a £50k grant from the Arts Council England for The Rooms, to match its own substantial investment to produce the festival. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/rooms |