Connecting through culture as we age: digital innovation for healthy ageing
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bristol
Department Name: Education
Abstract
This research project tackles the complex problem of how to increase participation in social and cultural life for all as we age which has been shown to make a vital contribution to raising quality of life. The project will address the fundamental issue that arts and cultural participation drops dramatically in older populations and that disabled, Black, Asian and minority ethnic and older people living in poverty are even less likely to participate. It will tackle inequalities related to accessibility and content of digital arts and cultural provision, enable vital R&D and establish new business models to encourage digital innovation in the arts and cultural sector to support healthy ageing. Arts and cultural organisations have been slow to adopt digital innovation, but there is huge potential in using emerging technologies to enable diversification of content and build new older audiences. The pandemic has increased the urgency to harness digital technologies to enhance the accessibility and content of cultural participation so that those who are socially isolated may be able to benefit, increasing their quality of life.
The impact of the project will be include: disabled, Black, Asian and minority ethnic and older audiences living in poverty participating in digital arts and cultural experiences that will support their social connections and contribute to improved quality of life; provision of vital R&D support for collaborations between cultural and technology sectors in designing digital innovations, helping them prosper and thus contributing to regional and national sectoral growth; supporting creative industries to build a better understanding of diverse older audiences and to robustly evaluate their offer; and new evidence based policy making that tackles inequalities in arts and cultural provision for healthy ageing outcomes.
The project will involve an interdisciplinary team working alongside the cultural sector, creative technology partners and communities of 'next generation' older people (i.e. aged 60-75 years) to understand older people's experiences of digital exclusion, and what they value culturally and socially. This knowledge will then inform the co-design of digitally driven cultural experiences that 'support social connections'. The research will involve designing a new tool to measure the impact of digital cultural experiences on social connectivity for healthy ageing. The audience research will enable new understandings of digitally experienced cultural value, that takes account of older age and inequalities. It will provide robust evidence of how the cultural products we design can potentially contribute to next generation older people enjoying at least five extra healthy, independent years of life.
The impact of the project will be include: disabled, Black, Asian and minority ethnic and older audiences living in poverty participating in digital arts and cultural experiences that will support their social connections and contribute to improved quality of life; provision of vital R&D support for collaborations between cultural and technology sectors in designing digital innovations, helping them prosper and thus contributing to regional and national sectoral growth; supporting creative industries to build a better understanding of diverse older audiences and to robustly evaluate their offer; and new evidence based policy making that tackles inequalities in arts and cultural provision for healthy ageing outcomes.
The project will involve an interdisciplinary team working alongside the cultural sector, creative technology partners and communities of 'next generation' older people (i.e. aged 60-75 years) to understand older people's experiences of digital exclusion, and what they value culturally and socially. This knowledge will then inform the co-design of digitally driven cultural experiences that 'support social connections'. The research will involve designing a new tool to measure the impact of digital cultural experiences on social connectivity for healthy ageing. The audience research will enable new understandings of digitally experienced cultural value, that takes account of older age and inequalities. It will provide robust evidence of how the cultural products we design can potentially contribute to next generation older people enjoying at least five extra healthy, independent years of life.
Organisations
- University of Bristol (Lead Research Organisation)
- AGE UK (Collaboration)
- Wales Centre for Public Policy (Collaboration)
- KNOWLE WEST MEDIA CENTRE (Collaboration)
- Alive Activities (Collaboration)
- Bristol City Council (Collaboration)
- Watershed (Collaboration)
- Stand + Stare (Collaboration)
- BLACK SOUTH WEST NETWORK (Collaboration)
- Utrecht University (Collaboration)
- West of England Centre for Inclusive Living (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Culture Commons Ltd (Collaboration)
- Centre for Cultural Value (Collaboration)
- Alive! Activities (Project Partner)
- Knowle West Alliance (Project Partner)
- Black South West Network (Project Partner)
- Arts & Health South (Project Partner)
- Age of Creativity (Project Partner)
- Bristol Culture (Project Partner)
- Knowle West Media Centre (Project Partner)
- Watershed (Project Partner)
- Creative Ageing development Agency (Project Partner)
- Age UK (Project Partner)
Publications
Cozza, M.
(2021)
Ageing as a Boundary Object. Thinking Differently of Ageing and Care
in Technoscienza
Naughton-Doe R
(2022)
Ethical issues when interviewing older people about loneliness: reflections and recommendations for an effective methodological approach
in Ageing and Society
| Title | Rebellious Voices: Mini Movies by our Elders |
| Description | Short films made by project co-researchers celebrating co-research, creativity and getting older |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The films have been used by Age of Creativity and one of the co-researchers was asked to talk about her film at an online event (national lived experience network). The films have been used at Wellspring Settlement by the Community Engagement team who screened the films as part of an International Women's Day event. |
| URL | https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/co-researcher-films/ |
| Title | UKRI Project Case Study: Connecting Through Culture As We Age |
| Description | Case study video created to raise the profile of work emerging from the Healthy Ageing Challenge |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | Helen to add |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgwfEp_tObE |
| Description | Our co-produced work with the community and voluntary sector around recruitment, retention and participation of minoritized communities which has enabled us to learn a lot about how to recruit beyond the 'usual suspects' and the time and challenges in this work. Our joint scoping review with the Centre for Cultural Value enabled us to better understand the significant gaps in existing research i.e. majority of participants in existing studies are white, lack of analysis on cultural participation and class, race and gender. Lack of participatory/co-produced research, or consideration of ethics/reflexivity in the reviewed studies. Methodological Innovation: Our flexible and adaptable creative methods toolkit designed to explore the everyday cultural and social worlds of minoritized older adults. This toolkit enabled us to conduct a rich thematic analysis of our co-researcher's relationship with technology, arts, culture, aging, creativity and the interactions between them over time. Through this we were able to identify the importance of taking an intersectional 'life-course approach/lens' to understanding the data. This allows us to explore how the markers of social difference shape the way life is encountered and lived day-to-day (creatively, digitally and socially). We have collected and analyzed in depth qualitative evidence concerning the everyday lives of minoritised older adults in relation to what culture means to them, where they access culture and the arts, why they do so, the importance of everyday creativity and the home and their engagement, and barriers to, digital cultural participation. We have learnt a lot about digital literacies and developed a person-centred/holistic approach to digital literacies development for older, minoritised adults. Taking an ethnographic approach to understanding co-researchers daily lives is key to motivating the adoption of digital technologies and advancing the desire to learn new digital skills. Despite efforts to improve the accessibility of digital interfaces, there is still an emphasis on taking a one-size fits all approach to user-interface design that is exclusionary for adults with physical challenges/disabilities and those with limited experience. Our research has shown that there are many communities where even the most basic independent access to digital services remains financially prohibitive. We have worked with our co-researchers and co-designers and with our data to establish and grow a set of 'inclusive design principles' that are being tested and applied during the workshops. Through Learnt a lot about how we create an environment for co-design and digital innovation with minoritised older adults and the organising principles, ways of working and practices that might get in the way of this in relation to mainstream digital innovation. We have developed a design justice approach to our work with minoritised older adults - this invovles re-imagining of mainstream digital innovation spaces, processes and practices. It is characterized by: Starting at the community level - valuing knowledge of the Voluuntary and Community Sector and the lived experiences of minoritised older adults Centering the voices of older adults from the beginning as 'experts-by-experience' Re-distribution of power : Relinquishing control, positioning ourselves as facilitators Time to work slowly with recruitment and bringing older adults into the initial stages of the project with older adults Building in time for older adults to gain design knowledge and tools Working towards sustainable, community-led outcomes |
| Exploitation Route | For research funders and academics knowledge of the approaches and challenges in recruitment, retention and participation of minoritised communities in co-produced research. Our scoping review led to a public, online event attended by creative ageing and arts and cultural organisations, and policy makers interested in the findings of the scoping review and our initial findings for their own practice and for policy. Our methodological toolkit approach and our intersectional life course approach has been written up for academic audiences and also disseminated to the 'Healthy Ageing' community in a workshop format. Feedback from this event was that the methods and approach would be very useful for practitioners and others working with older adults in a variety of settings. Our in depth data concerning the everyday cultural and social lives of minoritised older adults will be useful for the community and voluntary sector, arts and cultural organisations, and policy makers at local, regional, national and international level. Our data collected around digital inclusion and digital literacies will be of use to older peoples charities and campaigning bodies such as AgeUK, to devolved regional and national governments interested in digital inclusion for older adults (e.g.Wales older persons commissioner and Greater Manchester Ageing Hub). We have also had interest in this aspect of our work from local community and voluntary sector and the creative ageing sector including the Creative Ageing Development Agency (CADA). Our design justice led approach will be useful for the digital innovation and creative industries sector in considering how innovation spaces, processes and practices might be opened up to wider audiences and made more inclusive. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Healthcare,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/ |
| Description | In interviews with our co-researchers, social impacts are emerging. We have evidence that their involvement in the project has led to: Personal value in being exposed to and able to meet with different people and come across new ideas -Increased confidence to try new things in terms of digital Enjoyment of new creative opportunities to discover and re-discover skills and interests Quotes from co-researchers talking about their involvement in the project: 'My involvement began from a place of total ignorance and some fear as an Elderly Alice down the digital rabbit hole. This lead to my first experience of presenting digitally then as I moved further into this new world I discovered WONDERLAND. Zoom remains daunting but offers so much fun and connection. I can enjoy symphony concerts from Australia and performances by the royal Shakespeare company visit museums and galleries. I have become involved with wonderful projects including becoming a Human book with Sheffield University, developing a project to enrich the life of housebound people, being valued as contributor working on projects involving language. I am part of poetry and reading groups and Poetry workshops. Looking forward I am about to be part of a world music study with Sheffield uni in October . So becoming part of CTC has been a magic key opening a wonderful wide world just as my physical world choices narrow. I hope this opportunity can be extended to many others as it brings great joy and vitamin F (fun) the great vitamin missing from many housebound people's lives. 'I think it's changing my life in that really I feel as though just as if I'm beginning. I mean before I was just in survival mode really; going to a few groups and things, got depression and everything, but now this has really opened things up for me in lots of ways"..."it's given me structure and focus and self worth, and I don't know where its going to take me.' |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | Connecting through Culture as we Age: Policy Support Fund |
| Amount | £15,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2022 |
| End | 07/2022 |
| Description | EPSRC Impact Acceleration Award/ ESRC Impact Acceleration Award |
| Amount | £49,958 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Bristol Robotics Laboratory |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2021 |
| End | 03/2022 |
| Description | Prehension Blooms: Expanding access to creative spaces for isolated people using soft robotics |
| Amount | £6,729 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2021 |
| End | 12/2021 |
| Title | Methodological toolkit for understanding everyday lives of minoritised older adults |
| Description | This methodological toolkit was designed to enable our research team to explore and understand the everyday digital and social lives of the older adults we were working with. We designed a series of creative methods to support them to express their identities and tell their stories. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | We have presented our work at practitioner and academic conferences and received a lot of interest in the methods and tools. We have met with design researchers and others in the Healthy Ageing Challenge programme to discuss our methods with a view to them adapting them for their work. |
| Description | Age UK |
| Organisation | Age UK |
| Department | Age UK Bristol |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Named project partner on Connecting Through Culture As We Age. We are feeding in our expertise around arts and culture and digital spaces to AGe UK Bristol. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Supporting the development of the project by playing a key part in Advisory Board meetings; participating in the project co-design process; providing support for recruitment for the project evaluation stages; supporting dissemination of the research and demonstrator projects. |
| Impact | Meetings with Age UK central including the lead for digital inclusion in AgeUK and the policy lead at AgeUK to discuss the project and possible national impacts. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Alive |
| Organisation | Alive Activities |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Named project partner on Connecting Through Culture As We Age. Linking Alive with broader networks in the city and region to support their own digital design work through the project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Working with researchers and a group of ~20 older people to conduct ethnographic research regarding digital participation and social connectivity; supporting design and facilitation of workshops; feeding in expertise and ongoing findings from project work exploring issues related to older people and digital exclusion in communities and in care settings. |
| Impact | Alive worked with us to co-design of KWMC workshops to be inclusive of older people, based on their experience of working with older adults in digital spaces. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | BSWN |
| Organisation | Black South West Network |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Named project partner on Connecting Through Culture As We Age. Providing BSWN with opportunities for their network of voluntary and community sector organisations to become involved in digital co-design processes |
| Collaborator Contribution | Using trusted links with racially minoritised groups to support recruitment of co-researchers; participating in the project co-design process; |
| Impact | Recruitment of four racially minoritised co-researchers who are now involved in the project. We are collecting evidence from co-researchers about their ongoing involvement and the impact of this on their social and cultural lives Co-researchers have taken part in 8 workshops organised by KWMC (see listing for more information) Co-researchers have produced Albums reflecting on their lives and have been involved in interviews - therefore contributing to our rich data set. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Bristol Culture |
| Organisation | Bristol City Council |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Named project partner on Connecting Through Culture As We Age. We are meeting regularly to discuss arts and health policy and strategic work in the city and region and how this relates to ageing. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Providing city wide cultural and social context from a local authority perspective and an audience user perspective as a direct provider of cultural services; helping to link the project in with the cultural sector through networks from venue based cultural assets to independent practitioners working in socially engaged art practice; connecting to organisations and agendas through Arts and Heath development work. |
| Impact | Meeting with key representatives from local and regional organisations working in the arts and health space. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Centre for Cultural Value |
| Organisation | Centre for Cultural Value |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | We worked with the Centre for Cultural Value to collaboratively produce a scoping review of the research around Older People, Culture and Community. We co-produced an event to publicise the scoping review (which was written up as a research digest) and produced a film to help disseminate it. Our contributions enabled the centre to explore a wider range of literature related to the topic. |
| Collaborator Contribution | the director of the Centre for Cultural Value sits on our knowledge exchange panel and offers advice around links to cultural and arts organisations and research. The CCV communications team supported us to disseminate the Research Digest more widely and to have conversations with practitioners and policy makers. |
| Impact | Research digest : Older People, Culture and Community Film about the Research Digest: |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Culture Commons |
| Organisation | Culture Commons Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Named partners on funded policy support work on Connecting through Culture as we Age |
| Collaborator Contribution | Working collaboratively to enhance policy influence. Advising on stakeholder mapping, communicating project policy outputs with policy makers, advising on the planning of policy events. |
| Impact | Member of our Knowledge Exchange Panel |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | KWMC |
| Organisation | Knowle West Media Centre |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Named partner on Connecting Through Culture As We Age project; helping to widen the range and diversity of people accessing their spaces and events through our work with older adults from minoritised groups. Access to the demonstrator workshops and teams of artists and designers in WP3 Co-designing Demonstrators |
| Collaborator Contribution | Designing and running workshops; providing use of its building and digital technology resources for meetings involving artists and researchers, support from technicians and other staff support and expertise. Team member joined one of the demonstrator teams |
| Impact | 8 workshops introducing co-researchers to design and creative process. The workshops also supported them to bring their lived experience into co-design processes and introduced them to cutting edge digital technologies. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | PM Studio |
| Organisation | Pervasive Media Studio |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Named project partners on Connecting Through Culture As We Age. Working with them to consider how older adults can be involved in digital co-design processes. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Producing inclusive design principles; developing and disseminating a competitive open call for participation in workshops; designing and facilitating practitioner workshops as part of our co-design process, providing business support and creative producer time. |
| Impact | Will be developed over the next 6 months |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Socio-gerontechnology network |
| Organisation | Utrecht University |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I am a founding member and on the executive committee of a newly established international network exploring Ageing and Technology - called the socio-gerontechnology network. The network is international and includes members from across the globe and includes prominent figures in the field of ageing and technology from across Europe and North America. The network is beginning to have an influence on the field of technology design for older people through challenging accepted discourses around what technology designs might be appropriate. We published an edited book which sets the scene for ageing and technology research in the next decade. The network is also working on briefing papers and I am events co-ordiantor- having un a series of online events for the network in 2021-2022 entitled 'International conversations in ageing and technology'. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Collaborative research awards Seminars for practitioners and academics - A co-edited book and several journal special issues. Tracks and symposia at academic conferences |
| Impact | Seminar series - INternational Conversations in Ageing and technology Co-edited book This is multidisciplinary collaboration between design researchers, HCI researchers, social scientists, anthropologists and arts and humanities scholars |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Stand + Stare |
| Organisation | Stand + Stare |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Working alongside Stand + Stare who are interactive designers to develop their creative ideas as they work with co-design methods. Providing guidance on co-design and ethical practice in relation to life story research. In the Tangible Memories: Parlours of Wonder project Stand + Stare worked with us to: co-design an engaging community focused space in 3 different settings where older people and others can interact with evocative objects, sparking questions and new interests and use our StoryCreator app together to record and share their ideas, memories and stories. They also worked with us to co-design a DIY blueprint for any care settings to design their own 'Parlours of Wonder' and to use the StoryCreator app within them. [To include ideas for engaging older people in co-designing the rooms and interactive case studies with evaluations of the approaches taken across the 3 sites.] In addition as part of this project they further tested and developed the iPad StoryCreator app and create a brand new Android version, enabling us to reach new audiences. Both versions of the app will then be made freely available on the relevant app stores. They also took a lead in co-curating two exhibitions in London (at the Digital Design weekend at the V and A) and in Bristol at City Hall to officially launch the Parlour idea and the app with Alive! and care settings. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Working alongside older residents in care home to co-design a process of life history work that enables them to create their own interactive book. Stand + stare worked alongside ourselves on the Parlours of wonder project to: to: co-design an engaging community focused space in 3 different settings where older people and others can interact with evocative objects, sparking questions and new interests and use our StoryCreator app together to record and share their ideas, memories and stories. They also worked with us to co-design a DIY blueprint for any care settings to design their own 'Parlours of Wonder' and to use the StoryCreator app within them. [To include ideas for engaging older people in co-designing the rooms and interactive case studies with evaluations of the approaches taken across the 3 sites.] In addition as part of this project they further tested and developed the iPad StoryCreator app and create a brand new Android version, enabling us to reach new audiences. Both versions of the app will then be made freely available on the relevant app stores. STAND + STARE also worked with us on the Productive MArgins project to co-design a space for our community actors to perform their monologues and play about loneliness, based on their data collection. |
| Impact | Multidisciplinary involves working between educational researchers, folklorists, historians and computer scientists with this artist group. Outcomes include interactive books and audio of life history interviews.The StoryCreator app is now linked to a pay on demand service which is intended as a source of revenue for Stand + Stare as they take the app on as part of their business. The ALONELY shed has been used for a wide range of performances in a variety of locations. |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | Stand and Stare |
| Organisation | Stand + Stare |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Linking them with new networks and business opportunities for co-design with older adults |
| Collaborator Contribution | Working with three of the project demonstrator teams to support the teams to integrate to create digital designs |
| Impact | To be reported in future Researchfish submissions |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | WECIL |
| Organisation | West of England Centre for Inclusive Living |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Project partner. Feeding in our findings in relation to the lived experience of 60-75 year old disabled older adults to improve their practice in relation to older people. Linking WECIL with other project partners working in the digital space to support their work with clients. |
| Collaborator Contribution | WECIL's broad experience and knowledge of working with disabled people; recruitment of co-researchers; working alongside the project team and the co-researchers to design a programme of activities and workshops. They have provided support concerning accessibility for disabled older adults throughout the programme, They are working as critical friends to advise our demonstrator teams on questions related to accessibility and inclusion. |
| Impact | Recruitment of 6 co-researchers who are now actively involved on the project and who are gaining culturally and socially from their involvement. We are collecting evidence from co-researchers about their ongoing involvement and the impact of this on their social and cultural lives Co-researchers have taken part in 8 workshops organised by KWMC (see listing for more information) Co-researchers have produced Albums reflecting on their lives and have been involved in interviews - therefore contributing to our rich data set. Our website was designed with WECIL guidance in related to accessibility requirements. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Wales Centre for Public Policy |
| Organisation | Wales Centre for Public Policy |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Sharing and discussing project findings to contribute to the evidence base informing/influencing policy decisions. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Representative (Hannah Durrant) on project Knowledge Exchange Panel; contributing to policy support work through advising on stakeholder mapping, communicating project policy outputs with policy makers, advising on the planning of policy events. |
| Impact | Outputs/outcomes expected over the next 12 months |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Arts and health meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | The meeting brought together representatives from third sector organisations and practitioners in Bristol and the South West region who are leading work in the area of arts and health. The purpose of the meeting was to map activity already happening in the region and to explore opportunities to collaborate to build a stronger evidence base for the work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Bealtaine Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Perspectives on digital access run by Age & Opportunity Irelend. Online event as part of the Bealtaine Festival organised by Gwanwyn (Wales, Age of Creativity and Laminate (Scotland) organisations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Co-design workshops x 4 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Co-design workshop 1 - Age unusual. Age extraordinary. Age rebellious: Bridge to learn about digital design and make further social and creative connections Co-design workshop 2 - Expanding worlds: Co-design workshop 3 - Creative bodies |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Co-researcher workshop series |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Workshop series to bring co-researchers together, build relationships further and develop skills through activities based on specific interests/activities. Workshops included: 'Enjoy poetry'; 'Shooting a tabletop film'; 'Oral Histories - the power of personal stories'; 'Foliage and Fish - fabric collage'; 'Spiced tea making'; 'Introduction to digital security and privacy'; 'Photographing hidden corners for small scale journaling'; 'Make the most of Zoom and other communications'; 'Connecting through everyday photography'; 'Routes to sharing'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Experts Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Speakers from an eclectic range of backgrounds and organisations offered insights from their work with older adults to deliver cultural activities during the pandemic. This involved describing their experiences in developing and applying creative and inclusive methods with older people; delivering cultural activities; and describing the landscape of digital inclusion and cultural participation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/event-highlights-part-one-older-people-and-cultural-par... |
| Description | FUTURES 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We set up a pop-up exhibition at FUTURES 2022 at the S.S. Great Britain in September 2022, a free festival of discovery for all ages to celebrate research and innovation taking place across the South West. Visitors to the stand were able to use VR headsets to access a range of content including the newly released Virtual Reality Oracle. It was a great opportunity to talk to the general public about immersive technologies including ethical considerations and future applications of Virtual and Augmented Reality. Many interesting conversations took place. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Film screening of co-researcher mini movies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Film screening of co-produced films made by co-researchers to celebrate creativity and to challenge stereotypes around ageing |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/co-researcher-films/ |
| Description | Healthy Ageing Conference workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The workshop provided a hands-on introduction to participatory methods that aim to put the lifeworlds and lived experiences of older adults at the heart of a co-design process, drawing on methods that have been developed over the past two years working with older adults from minority communities on the Connecting Through Culture as We Age project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.healthyageinguk.co.uk/2022/agenda/?VID=381&EVID=5898 |
| Description | KWMC workshops |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Workshop series designed with our project partners (Knowle West Media Centre) to support our co-researchers to learn about digital design and make further social and creative connections. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Knowledge Exchange Panel meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Knowledge Exchange Panel members (academics, stakeholders, users, co-researchers, practitioners, industry and policy actor) were brought together for discussion and interactive work to identify relevant networks relating to policy, industry, sector specific or funding networks in the areas of arts and culture, social connectivity, co-design and co-production, digital inclusion and digital innovation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Project partners event 1 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | This event brought together our project partners to discuss motivations, values, outputs, impacts and some of the key questions of the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Project partners event 2 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | The event brought together our project partners for the project team to present initial findings and emerging themes from our research. Questions, comments, and insights from the partners were generated in the discussion that followed and a high level of engagement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Project partners event 3 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | This meeting brought together our Bristol based project partners (in-person) to share our findings on the co-design process and to engage in activities and discussion around evaluation, it's challenges and how we can develop more effective and meaningful evaluation tools for arts and creative programmes or other cultural activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | ScienceUp Consortium 2030 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Sharing of good practice from the UK with a consortium of 3 Chilean universities to help promote and support innovation, entrepreneurship, industry collaboration and female leadership. As an international advisor to three Chilean universities KC shared her experiences in these areas including the VRO project. International but predominately Chilean, included government ministers |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.noticias.ucn.cl/destacado/consorcio-science-up-realizo-exitoso-encuentro-anual-en-valpar... |
| Description | Speaker at UKRI HEalthy Ageing community of practice event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | UKRI Healthy Ageing Community of practice is run by the Centre for Ageing Better. I was asked to present my understanding of digital inclusion and older adults at the event. Over 50 people attended who are involved in or want to be part of the community of practice- this involved practitioners, policy makers, designers and business and industry leads |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://ageing-better.org.uk/digital-inclusion |
| Description | Talk by Michael Pitts "In at the deep end: capturing drama and detail underwater" Dec 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Organised jointly by MyWorld and Bristol Vision Institute, this very popular and well received talk by double EMMY award winning cinematographer took place in person and online in December 2022. "In at the deep end: capturing drama and detail underwater" was a fascinating talk which took attendees through rain forests, across deserts and into the depths of the world's oceans and gave an insight into how sequences are structured. Over 150 people signed up to attend in person and online and attendees were enchanted by what they experienced, with one saying "The visuals were stunning, but equally impressive was the combination of technical brilliance and artistry in getting that perfect shot. " Another said, "Listening to Michael talk with such passion about his life and career as a film maker was a true privilege. I could have listened to him talk all evening. More than this, I learned a great deal about the technicalities of filming the natural world - how to play with proximity, light, different equipment, and music to tell stories. It was a masterclass." The recording of the talk is available to watch on Youtube. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.myworld-creates.com/myworld-sponsors-michael-pitts-seminar/ |
| Description | Temple Quarter Research & Innovation Board presentation at University of Bristol |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to Temple Quarter Board comprised senior management and representatives from industry, including details of Connecting through culture project |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |