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.
 
Title Films of six prototype projects 
Description These six films each present one of the prototype projects that were supported through the Connecting through Culture as we Age project 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact The films have been viewed many times on our website and used by the prototype teams themselves to introduce their projects 
URL https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/prototype-teams/
 
Title Rebellious Voices: Mini Movies by our Elders 
Description Short films made by project co-researchers celebrating co-research, creativity and getting older 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact The films have been used by Age of Creativity and one of the co-researchers was asked to talk about her film at an online event (national lived experience network). The films have been used at Wellspring Settlement by the Community Engagement team who screened the films as part of an International Women's Day event. 
URL https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/co-researcher-films/
 
Title UKRI Project Case Study: Connecting Through Culture As We Age 
Description Case study video created to raise the profile of work emerging from the Healthy Ageing Challenge 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact Helen to add 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgwfEp_tObE
 
Description March 2024
Our co-produced work with the community and voluntary sector around recruitment, retention and participation of minoritized communities in co-design processes as well as significant earning around the challenges in all of these areas too.
Co-design methods with older, minoritized adults
Our flexible and adaptable creative methods toolkit offer important methodological resources for working with minoritized communities (especially older adults) to explore their everyday cultural and social worlds.
We have reflected on wide variety of approaches to co-design and the particular approach we have taken as a team in comparison to other Healthy Ageing projects. This has led us to better understand our unique codesign approach for academic publication and sharing with practitioners.

We have worked with our co-researchers and co-designers and with our data to establish and grow a set of 'inclusive design principles' that were tested and applied during our co-design workshops. These principles have since been written up in academic articles and we are looking to develop a MOOC and/or a co-design innovation process that relates to minoritized older adults, with some of our project partners.

We have learnt a lot about the challenges and tensions in delivering hybrid co-design workshops. We have established technological and social approaches that work well - and learnt a lot about what doesn't work well too.

Throughout ongoing academic work, including keynote presentations, the submission of papers for conferences and journal special issues we have considered existing processes and practices of innovation and their imaginaries of older adults. We have been explored emerging design approaches such as the Design Justice Movement as a way of understanding the particular approach we are taking as a project team. We have found that many aspects of our design justice approach requires a re-imagining of mainstream digital innovation spaces, processes and practices. Our design justice approach involves:
Starting at the community level - valuing knowledge of VCS and lived experiences of minoritised older adults
Centering the voices of older adults from the beginning as 'experts-by-experience'
Re-distribution of power: Relinquishing control, positioning ourselves as facilitators
Time to work slowly with recruitment and bringing older adults into the initial stages of the project with older adults
Building in time for older adults to gain design knowledge and tools (KWMC)
Working towards sustainable, community-led outcomes
Key characteristics of our approach
Creative participatory methods, play
Deepen understanding of rich & diverse lives
For building relationships and trust
Intersectional lifecourse approaches
How digital, social and cultural participation is shaped by experiences across the lifecourse and structural inequalities
Questions of care / 'care-full' co-design
Attentiveness and responsiveness to older adults involved i.e. 'little arrangements'
Reflexivity - reflection on our positionality and asymmetries in power


Writing a full ethics proposal for the project at the beginning was particularly challenging given the co-design nature of the project. Although University ethics boards are beginning to understand co-produced and co-designed research they are still keen for as much information as possible to be included up front - this reveals interesting questions about the procedural nature of ethics practices and how this can sometimes be in tension with relational ethical practices and co-design.

Community partners, recruitment and retention
There has been huge benefit in working with our community partners to design our recruitment strategy to ensure the message is suitable for their particular audience and that we recruited those who might not normally get involved in research projects. Due to significant concerns during the pandemic (which was still in full swing at the start of this grant) recruitment process took longer than we hoped. However, having community partners written in throughout the project was significant and led to greater engagement and retention of the co researchers through the whole project lifecycle. Through ongoing engagement with our partners we have understood better the diversity of methods that will be needed to engage with the co researchers and the benefits of the creative approaches we have designed.

Key findings around recruitment are concerned with the time it takes to do this kind of work - especially when you are interested in recruiting people who are not the 'usual suspects' who will often come forward for research projects. We have found the close work with community anchors vital in ensuring this work is achievable. However, we have also noticed the difficulties in working with the community sector (even when adequate funding is provided) as often organisations are working with a small number of staff who all hold part time positions. We originally felt that our 3 communities were distinct however we are finding our co-researchers tend to position themselves intersectionally and that working with specific groups going forward might not be the best approach - we may form groups around place or other interests rather than around our initial community focus of disabled older people, racially minoritised older people and socially economically deprived older people.

Creative Ageing and digital
Initial interviews and conversations across the Creative Ageing Sector in the UK have revealed lasting learnings from the pandemic in relation to digital creative ageing and participation. For instance, our interview with Farrell Renowden (Age of Creativity) has revealed very useful insights on learnings related to digital cultural activities with older people during lockdowns and the turn back to face to face engagement.
We have gathered significant insights into the online/digital shift that happened in the creative ageing sector during Covid and the ongoing work to ensure the sector and older adults benefit from learnings.
Our joint scoping review with the Centre for Cultural Value enabled us to better understand the significant gaps in existing research i.e. majority of participants in existing studies are white, lack of analysis on cultural participation and class, race and gender. Lack of participatory/co-produced research, or consideration of ethics/reflexivity in the reviewed studies.
We have produced a Values Canvas through analysing the data collected at our partner events and practitioner event. Both used creative, online methods to collect data against the key questions outlined above. Our values canvas is co-created with practitioners and partners who attended these events and includes our project mission, vision, strategy, risks and solutions and objectives, linked to activities and outcomes. It created a useful baseline for the project which we will further discuss within the project team and with partners.

The findings of the scoping literature review point towards CTC being able to fill significant gaps in existing research i.e. majority of participants in existing studies are white, lack of analysis on cultural participation and class, race and gender. Lack of participatory/co-produced research, or consideration of ethics/reflexivity in the reviewed studies.

Digital literacies and Ageing
We have learnt a lot about digital literacies and developed approaches to working with co-researchers that start from their interests to learn digital literacies in meaningful, creative activities. Our person-centred/holistic approach to digital literacies development - taking an ethnographic approach to understanding co-researchers daily lives is key to motivating the adoption of digital technologies and advancing the desire to learn new digital skills - Despite efforts to improve the accessibility of digital interfaces, there is still an emphasis on taking a one-size fits all approach to user-interface design that is exclusionary for adults with physical challenges/disabilities and those with limited experience - Our research has shown that there are many communities where even the most basic independent access to digital services remains financially prohibitive.

We conducted a rich thematic analysis of our co-researcher's relationship with technology, arts, culture, aging, creativity etc... and the interactions between them over time that constitute identity. This formed a powerful basis for developing innovation briefs that matter. From this analysis we were particularly struck by and developed our thinking around the importance of taking a 'life-course approach/lens' to understanding the data and the importance of adopting an intersectional lens when working with minoritised older adults. This allows us to explore how the markers of social difference shape the way life is encountered and lived day-to-day (creatively, digitally and socially). See Digest event_CTC findings.pptx

We have developed our intersectional lifecourse approach through the use of more than human and feminist materialist theories which we have also written up into papers. We are looking at the idea of 'technological entanglements' and developing this in papers for computer science outputs as well as social science journals.

We have findings related to the cultural geographies of minoritized older adutls and how to include them in digital innovation spaces. We have learnt a lot about how we create an environment for co-design and digital innovation with minoritised older adults and the organising principles, ways of working and practices (logics and institutionalisations) that might get in the way of this.

March 2023
Our co-produced work with the community and voluntary sector around recruitment, retention and participation of minoritized communities which has enabled us to learn a lot about how to recruit beyond the 'usual suspects' and the time and challenges in this work.

Our joint scoping review with the Centre for Cultural Value enabled us to better understand the significant gaps in existing research i.e. majority of participants in existing studies are white, lack of analysis on cultural participation and class, race and gender. Lack of participatory/co-produced research, or consideration of ethics/reflexivity in the reviewed studies.

Methodological Innovation: Our flexible and adaptable creative methods toolkit designed to explore the everyday cultural and social worlds of minoritized older adults. This toolkit enabled us to conduct a rich thematic analysis of our co-researcher's relationship with technology, arts, culture, aging, creativity and the interactions between them over time. Through this we were able to identify the importance of taking an intersectional 'life-course approach/lens' to understanding the data. This allows us to explore how the markers of social difference shape the way life is encountered and lived day-to-day  (creatively, digitally and socially).

We have collected and analyzed in depth qualitative evidence concerning the everyday lives of minoritised older adults in relation to what culture means to them, where they access culture and the arts, why they do so, the importance of everyday creativity and the home and their engagement, and barriers to, digital cultural participation.

We have learnt a lot about digital literacies and developed a person-centred/holistic approach to digital literacies development for older, minoritised adults. Taking  an ethnographic approach to understanding co-researchers daily lives is key to motivating the adoption of digital technologies and advancing the desire to learn new digital skills. Despite efforts to improve the accessibility of digital interfaces, there is still an emphasis on taking a one-size fits all approach to user-interface design that is exclusionary for adults with physical challenges/disabilities and those with limited experience. Our research has shown that there are many communities where even the most basic independent access to digital services remains financially prohibitive.

We have worked with our co-researchers and co-designers and with our data to establish and grow a set of 'inclusive design principles' that are being tested and applied during the workshops. Through Learnt a lot about how  we create an environment for co-design and digital innovation with minoritised older adults and the organising principles, ways of working and practices that might get in the way of this in relation to mainstream digital innovation.
We have developed a design justice approach to our work with minoritised older adults - this invovles re-imagining of mainstream digital innovation spaces, processes and practices. It is characterized by:
Starting at the community level - valuing knowledge of the Voluuntary and Community Sector and the lived experiences of minoritised older adults
Centering the voices of older adults from the beginning as 'experts-by-experience'
Re-distribution of power : Relinquishing control, positioning ourselves as facilitators
Time to work slowly with recruitment and bringing older adults into the initial stages of the project with older adults
Building in time for older adults to gain design knowledge and tools 
Working towards sustainable, community-led outcomes
Exploitation Route For research funders and academics knowledge of the approaches and challenges in recruitment, retention and participation of minoritised communities in co-produced research.
Our scoping review led to a public, online event attended by creative ageing and arts and cultural organisations, and policy makers interested in the findings of the scoping review and our initial findings for their own practice and for policy.
Our methodological toolkit approach and our intersectional life course approach has been written up for academic audiences and also disseminated to the 'Healthy Ageing' community in a workshop format. Feedback from this event was that the methods and approach would be very useful for practitioners and others working with older adults in a variety of settings.
Our in depth data concerning the everyday cultural and social lives of minoritised older adults will be useful for the community and voluntary sector, arts and cultural organisations, and policy makers at local, regional, national and international level.
Our data collected around digital inclusion and digital literacies will be of use to older peoples charities and campaigning bodies such as AgeUK, to devolved regional and national governments interested in digital inclusion for older adults (e.g.Wales older persons commissioner and Greater Manchester Ageing Hub). We have also had interest in this aspect of our work from local community and voluntary sector and the creative ageing sector including the Creative Ageing Development Agency (CADA).
Our design justice led approach will be useful for the digital innovation and creative industries sector in considering how innovation spaces, processes and practices might be opened up to wider audiences and made more inclusive.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

Creative Economy

Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Education

Healthcare

Government

Democracy and Justice

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections
URL https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/
 
Description 2024 Feb Reporting We have themed our impact around five themes: justice, co-design, connection, innovation and wellbeing. See: https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/impact-stories/ We have recorded significant impact resulting from the co-researchers films which have been shown in many locations nationally and internationally to question ageist assumptions- for practitioners and other groups to stimulate discussion and debate. In 2023, Louis Neven saw 'Punked' at the Sociogerontechnology Network meeting in the Netherlands and wrote about it in his blog. He points out how Roland Payne and Fanny Eaton-Hall not only challenge public conceptions of ageing, but also those of the gerontological community who might, he suggests, reconsider policy, care and technology around healthy ageing. These films have gone on to be shown at the Healthy Ageing Challenge Conference 2023, three other conferences and two local community events. They have been used by Age UK to open a workshop, where Elanora also spoke, and are being used internationally to teach gerontology. A key aspect of the first stages of the project was supporting co-researchers to develop their digital skills, furthering their exploration of the digital realm. Co-researcher Jeanne Ellin said: "I gained new skills and confidence. I became brave enough to tackle Zoom, which opened up a world of wonder." She has described how she now goes to numerous classes, workshops and groups online, which she had not been able to access before CTC. Jeanne, a writer, communicated her joy at at discovering new possibilities for creativity and connection, early on in the project, creating a presentation for a Knowledge Exchange meeting called 'Alice's adventures down the digital rabbit hole' CTC researchers, Tim Senior and Karen Gray received Participatory Research Funding to work with St George's, a music venue with a varied offering, on extending their reach through developing evaluative methods that will help them better understand how and why people come to their venue and what the experience does for them. You can read more about this on our website in the impact stories section under, 'Making Evaluation Meaningful'. impact on Creative sector: Co-design has been at the heart of CTC. not least in shaping and evolving the outputs of the project. This is the case for the prototype projects - six new cultural products developed by teams of artists, technologists and co-researchers - working together as 'co-designers'. One creative practitioner, Annie Lywood, said: "I've learnt from this project how important co-design is and how to do it better, and how to be more inclusive, and how valuable it is. So, I think I'm more an advocate for it, due to the project." in addition, community practitioners have learnt about the importance of slowing down sometimes when delivering projects. seeing how transformative this process has been for participants' wellbeing, one partner has expressed how they will now approach funding bids to include enough the resources necessary for this approach. Gabrielle Lobb from Wellspring said: "We, as an organisation, are trying in different ways all the time to shift the conversation and one of the things is around funding seeing when there's space around a project, seeing how that allows people to sink into the process, allows for there to be proper reflection, definitely helps us to come more strongly to those conversations" IN addition, invovlement in the project has opened up new funding streams for charities and community organisations invovled. Georgina Densley from Alive Activities, who works with older care home residents, has spoken about the impacts of partnership, "the relationships and connections built through taking part in Connecting Through Culture has enabled Alive to further understand and articulate its potential role in cultural leadership and delivery, not just as a bridge organisation but as an inherently creative and innovative provider of co-created cultural offers. We are now developing an Arts Council England proposal grown from this work, having never previously been funded by them." CTC has taken an active role in joining up ideas and people from cultural and community organisations, tech innovation and academia. One aim of this has been to build capacity within and between partner organisations through workshops, knowledge exchange fora and simply working side by side to support older people. As one partner, Georgina Densley, said: "actually I think it will influence my practice a lot in how you can centralise those voices in a process driven approach." In 2023 Tot Foster led workshops at Wellspring Settlement for arts practitioners to develop their skills in video production. Since then, two video projects have been funded at Wellspring. Shanti Sherson says, "Wellspring Settlement have received a grant to work with over 55's, new to engage with us. The film workshops that we attended as part of 'Connecting through Culture' have been integral to our decision to include filmmaking They have given us the confidence in our own ability and the ability of older people in our community to learn filmmaking and use it to communicate." Co-researchers have taken up other opportunities to participate in creative tech initiatives: Fanny Eaton-Hall is working with an Austrian researcher, making a feature film about age and technology. Ruth Harrison has been to prototyping sessions for 'Grounding Technologies' at Watershed, and Erica Harrison has attended workshops around tech and nature. They have all been fulfilling their promise as participants who can inject a fresh approach to ageing, where it matters for the future of creative tech. 2023 Feb Reporting In interviews with our co-researchers, social impacts are emerging. We have evidence that their involvement in the project has led to: Personal value in being exposed to and able to meet with different people and come across new ideas -Increased confidence to try new things in terms of digital Enjoyment of new creative opportunities to discover and re-discover skills and interests Quotes from co-researchers talking about their involvement in the project: 'My involvement began from a place of total ignorance and some fear as an Elderly Alice down the digital rabbit hole. This lead to my first experience of presenting digitally then as I moved further into this new world I discovered WONDERLAND. Zoom remains daunting but offers so much fun and connection. I can enjoy symphony concerts from Australia and performances by the royal Shakespeare company visit museums and galleries. I have become involved with wonderful projects including becoming a Human book with Sheffield University, developing a project to enrich the life of housebound people, being valued as contributor working on projects involving language. I am part of poetry and reading groups and Poetry workshops. Looking forward I am about to be part of a world music study with Sheffield uni in October . So becoming part of CTC has been a magic key opening a wonderful wide world just as my physical world choices narrow. I hope this opportunity can be extended to many others as it brings great joy and vitamin F (fun) the great vitamin missing from many housebound people's lives. 'I think it's changing my life in that really I feel as though just as if I'm beginning. I mean before I was just in survival mode really; going to a few groups and things, got depression and everything, but now this has really opened things up for me in lots of ways"..."it's given me structure and focus and self worth, and I don't know where its going to take me.'
First Year Of Impact 2022
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

Societal

Economic
 
Description 'Evaluating Arts and Culture Experience, Together
Amount £10,000 (GBP)
Organisation University of Bristol 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2023 
End 07/2024
 
Description Connecting through Culture as we Age: Policy Support Fund
Amount £15,000 (GBP)
Organisation University of Bristol 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2022 
End 07/2022
 
Description EPSRC Impact Acceleration Award/ ESRC Impact Acceleration Award
Amount £49,958 (GBP)
Organisation Bristol Robotics Laboratory 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2021 
End 03/2022
 
Description Exploring and sharing the voices of older residents of Bristol through the co-production of short films
Amount £10,000 (GBP)
Organisation University of Bristol 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2023 
End 07/2024
 
Description Prehension Blooms: Expanding access to creative spaces for isolated people using soft robotics
Amount £6,729 (GBP)
Organisation University of Bristol 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2021 
End 12/2021
 
Description Tabletop Travel
Amount £51,015 (GBP)
Funding ID ES/Y008197/1 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2023 
End 08/2024
 
Title Methodological toolkit for understanding everyday lives of minoritised older adults 
Description This methodological toolkit was designed to enable our research team to explore and understand the everyday digital and social lives of the older adults we were working with. We designed a series of creative methods to support them to express their identities and tell their stories. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact We have presented our work at practitioner and academic conferences and received a lot of interest in the methods and tools. We have met with design researchers and others in the Healthy Ageing Challenge programme to discuss our methods with a view to them adapting them for their work. 
 
Description 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
 
Title TableTop Travel 
Description This is a device to be used in people's homes to enable them to travel when they can't leave their house. It is a box and audio device that plays stories of a place and food as bowls are placed onto it. 
Type Of Technology Physical Model/Kit 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact TableTop travel has received Healthy Ageing funding to develop the product further as a spin out company 
URL https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/prototype-teams/
 
Description Arts and health meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact The meeting brought together representatives from third sector organisations and practitioners in Bristol and the South West region who are leading work in the area of arts and health. The purpose of the meeting was to map activity already happening in the region and to explore opportunities to collaborate to build a stronger evidence base for the work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Bealtaine Festival 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Perspectives on digital access run by Age & Opportunity Irelend. Online event as part of the Bealtaine Festival organised by Gwanwyn (Wales, Age of Creativity and Laminate (Scotland) organisations.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Co-design workshops x 4 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Co-design workshop 1 - Age unusual. Age extraordinary. Age rebellious: Bridge to learn about digital design and make further social and creative connections
Co-design workshop 2 - Expanding worlds:
Co-design workshop 3 - Creative bodies
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Co-researcher workshop series 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact Workshop series to bring co-researchers together, build relationships further and develop skills through activities based on specific interests/activities. Workshops included: 'Enjoy poetry'; 'Shooting a tabletop film'; 'Oral Histories - the power of personal stories'; 'Foliage and Fish - fabric collage'; 'Spiced tea making'; 'Introduction to digital security and privacy'; 'Photographing hidden corners for small scale journaling'; 'Make the most of Zoom and other communications'; 'Connecting through everyday photography'; 'Routes to sharing'.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Collaboration, Communication and Impact Training Session July 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Developed and delivered a day long Collaboration, Communication and Impact Training Session for the MyWorld PDRAs and PhDs across the Programme which was well attended, and feedback was very positive. One attendee stated, "This session will impact in many regards. The information and tips shared in the course will certainly help me to establish relations of collaboration, share my research and impact outside academia."
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Connecting Through Culture project showcase 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact To showcase the project as a whole and to highlight our creative outputs including the six prototypes.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/ctc-project-showcase/
 
Description Early Career Researcher training session on interdisciplinary collaboration within the creative industries delivered March 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Prof Kirsten Cater gave a training session about building interdisciplinary collaborations with creative industries on 15th March 2023 to 20 early career academics from the University of Bristol.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Experts Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Speakers from an eclectic range of backgrounds and organisations offered insights from their work with older adults to deliver cultural activities during the pandemic. This involved describing their experiences in developing and applying creative and inclusive methods with older people; delivering cultural activities; and describing the landscape of digital inclusion and cultural participation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/event-highlights-part-one-older-people-and-cultural-par...
 
Description Expressive Pockets Workshop series: Sharing Life Stories Through Making 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Expressive Pockets was one of the prototype projects developed through Connecting Through Culture As We Age. This workshop series delivered accessible, creative, hands on sessions to encourage conversation and to help the research team understand and evaluate the impact on participants.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description FUTURES 2022 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact We set up a pop-up exhibition at FUTURES 2022 at the S.S. Great Britain in September 2022, a free festival of discovery for all ages to celebrate research and innovation taking place across the South West. Visitors to the stand were able to use VR headsets to access a range of content including the newly released Virtual Reality Oracle. It was a great opportunity to talk to the general public about immersive technologies including ethical considerations and future applications of Virtual and Augmented Reality. Many interesting conversations took place.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Film screening of co-researcher mini movies 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact Film screening of co-produced films made by co-researchers to celebrate creativity and to challenge stereotypes around ageing
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://connectingthroughcultureasweage.info/co-researcher-films/
 
Description Healthy Ageing Challenge Conference 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Conference to share the impact innovation, major research programme insights, and collaboration/networking activities.

Helen Manchester, Alice Willatt and Georgina Densley presented on co-design
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.healthyageinguk.org/2023/
 
Description Healthy Ageing Conference workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The workshop provided a hands-on introduction to participatory methods that aim to put the lifeworlds and lived experiences of older adults at the heart of a co-design process, drawing on methods that have been developed over the past two years working with older adults from minority communities on the Connecting Through Culture as We Age project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.healthyageinguk.co.uk/2022/agenda/?VID=381&EVID=5898
 
Description Interactive stand at FUTURES Night, Festival of Discovery 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Researchers from MyWorld, Bristol Vision Institute and Centre for Sociological Futures teamed up to deliver a fantastic interactive stand at Up Late @ S.S. Great Britain, Futures, one of the events held as part of FUTURES organised by the University of Bristol Public Engagement Team. Coordinated by the MyWorld Skills and Training team we had a whole host of engaging activities for the 367 attendees to interact with which were all really well received.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.myworld-creates.com/news/futures-up-late-at-ss-great-britain/
 
Description KWMC workshops 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact Workshop series designed with our project partners (Knowle West Media Centre) to support our co-researchers to learn about digital design and make further social and creative connections.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Knowledge Exchange Panel meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Knowledge Exchange Panel members (academics, stakeholders, users, co-researchers, practitioners, industry and policy actor) were brought together for discussion and interactive work to identify relevant networks relating to policy, industry, sector specific or funding networks in the areas of arts and culture, social connectivity, co-design and co-production, digital inclusion and digital innovation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Poverty and Social Justice in a Digital Future 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Gave a presentation on Connecting Through Culture as part of an event bringing together a range of experts exploring topics around social justice, digital/tech developments, and poverty.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.bristol.ac.uk/poverty-institute/events/2023/poverty--social-justice-in-a-digital-future....
 
Description Project partners event 1 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact This event brought together our project partners to discuss motivations, values, outputs, impacts and some of the key questions of the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Project partners event 2 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact The event brought together our project partners for the project team to present initial findings and emerging themes from our research. Questions, comments, and insights from the partners were generated in the discussion that followed and a high level of engagement.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Project partners event 3 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact This meeting brought together our Bristol based project partners (in-person) to share our findings on the co-design process and to engage in activities and discussion around evaluation, it's challenges and how we can develop more effective and meaningful evaluation tools for arts and creative programmes or other cultural activities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Project partners event 4 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact To bring together our Bristol based project partners to reflect on their involvement with the project and identify future directions for working with them.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description ScienceUp Consortium 2030 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Sharing of good practice from the UK with a consortium of 3 Chilean universities to help promote and support innovation, entrepreneurship, industry collaboration and female leadership. As an international advisor to three Chilean universities KC shared her experiences in these areas including the VRO project. International but predominately Chilean, included government ministers
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.noticias.ucn.cl/destacado/consorcio-science-up-realizo-exitoso-encuentro-anual-en-valpar...
 
Description Speaker at UKRI HEalthy Ageing community of practice event 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact UKRI Healthy Ageing Community of practice is run by the Centre for Ageing Better. I was asked to present my understanding of digital inclusion and older adults at the event. Over 50 people attended who are involved in or want to be part of the community of practice- this involved practitioners, policy makers, designers and business and industry leads
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://ageing-better.org.uk/digital-inclusion
 
Description Sutton Trust Summer School session delivered August 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact The Sutton Trust summer school is a targeted programme for students meeting eligibility criteria as per https://summerschools.suttontrust.com/eligibility/. During the two-hour session, students took part in three different activities. Students rotated through these in small groups, giving all of them the chance to engage in a more enriching way. Activities included a workshop discussion on the ethics surrounding emerging technology in this field, virtual reality experiences and a hands-on tutorial with 360-degree cameras and immersive audio recorders. The session was very well received by the students in attendance who engaged enthusiastically throughout.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.myworld-creates.com/blogs/sutton-trust-summer-school/
 
Description Talk by Michael Pitts "In at the deep end: capturing drama and detail underwater" Dec 2022 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Organised jointly by MyWorld and Bristol Vision Institute, this very popular and well received talk by double EMMY award winning cinematographer took place in person and online in December 2022. "In at the deep end: capturing drama and detail underwater" was a fascinating talk which took attendees through rain forests, across deserts and into the depths of the world's oceans and gave an insight into how sequences are structured. Over 150 people signed up to attend in person and online and attendees were enchanted by what they experienced, with one saying "The visuals were stunning, but equally impressive was the combination of technical brilliance and artistry in getting that perfect shot. " Another said, "Listening to Michael talk with such passion about his life and career as a film maker was a true privilege. I could have listened to him talk all evening. More than this, I learned a great deal about the technicalities of filming the natural world - how to play with proximity, light, different equipment, and music to tell stories. It was a masterclass." The recording of the talk is available to watch on Youtube.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.myworld-creates.com/news/michael-pitts-seminar/
 
Description Temple Quarter Research & Innovation Board presentation at University of Bristol 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Presentation to Temple Quarter Board comprised senior management and representatives from industry, including details of Connecting through culture project
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Washhouse launch event 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Anyone Remember The Washhouse was one of the prototype projects developed through Connecting Through Culture As We Age. This was a showcase event to launch and share their creative output and process.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.anyonerememberthewashhouse.org/anyone-remember-the-washhouse-mshed-showcase-event/
 
Description Work experience session for Y10 students Aug 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Work experience sessions on Immersive Technologies were delivered to students as part of a Y10 Work Experience week. The students experienced the immersive world via virtual reality headsets and engaged enthusiastically in workshop activities which explored the ethical considerations of future immersive technologies.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.myworld-creates.com/blogs/imagining-our-digital-futures/