An overview of pitch and demos presented at the UK Immersive Pitch and Demo event at SXSW 2019 in Austin, Texas. Delegates experienced demos and watched lightning pitches from the best and the brightest UK content creators, with representatives from the UK’s commercial, cultural and academic organisations.

1. UK Immersive Pitch & Demo
March 2019

2. Immersive technologies are transforming the way we
consume creative content. There are currently over
1,000 immersive companies in the UK.
Many immersive companies in the UK are creating ground-breaking virtual,
augmented and mixed reality (VR, AR and MR) content. With over 1,000
immersive companies in the UK this should come as no surprise, as the UK’s
creative industries form the fastest growing part of the UK economy, generating
£101.5 billion in gross value added (GVA) and world-leading cutting-edge creative
tech, exporting more than £40 billion in goods and services, while simultaneously
creating jobs at double the rate of the UK’s average job growth.
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3. Today you will hear and experience demos from the best and the brightest
of these content creators, with representatives from the UK’s commercial,
cultural and academic organisations. These organisations are propelling
their innovations onto the global stage. Many are looking for collaborators,
commissioners and investors to take their content to the next level.
With thanks to British Underground, Digital Catapult and UKRI for selecting
these organisations to showcase ground-breaking projects today.
ORGANISATIONS SHOWCASE TYPE PAGE
59 Productions Pitch 4
Bournemouth University Demo 6
CreativeXR Pitch 8
ESL UK Pitch 10
Factory42 Pitch 12
FutureEverything Pitch 14
Glasgow School of Art Demo 16
Italic Pig Pitch 18
King’s Digital Lab Pitch & Demo 20
Maze Theory Pitch & Demo 22
Raskl Studio + Workshop Pitch 24
Royal Shakespeare Company Pitch 26
StoryFutures Pitch 28
University of Brighton Demo 30
University of Edinburgh Demo 32
UK IMMERSIVE PITCH & DEMO DAY ORGANISATIONS
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4. 59 Productions
London, UK
www.59productions.co.uk
@59productions
LEAD CONTACT
Lysander Ashton
Director
lysander@fiftynineproductions.co.uk
TEAM PROFILE
59 Productions has a background in
theatrical design, incorporating animation,
interactivity and projection design into
physical performance environments,
galleries and exhibition spaces. It is
particularly interested in how XR can be
integrated into theatrical performance, as
well as how traditional forms of stage-
craft can be augmented with digital
technology. The intersection between
projection mapping and augmented
reality is something which the team are
particularly focused on exploring.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
The pitch presentation will give an overview of 59 Productions experimentation
into the combination of set design, projection mapping and mixed reality (MR),
which has a specific application to a project the team are developing. More
wide reaching, this pitch will identify the commercial potential for the use of
MR in a variety of arts and commercial contexts.
COMPANY’S ASK
59 Productions is keen to expand its network of industry contacts and share
the team’s experimental practices with commercial, technological and artistic
partners. 59 Productions would also be interested in meeting potential
investors, commissioners, leaders of cultural or commercial institutions as well
as decision makers from other arts sectors, who may see an application for the
company’s experiments in their own field. It is also interested in meeting with
experts with a particular interest in arts/science crossover projects.
59 PRODUCTIONS
PITCH Combining art and technology
to tell amazing stories.
59 Productions is an award winning team of creative people making imaginative
work for audiences of all kinds. The company’s designers, writers, directors,
architects, animators, visual artists and technologists work together to produce
artistic work in a range of disciplines. From architectural projection mapping
to exhibition design; VR experiences to events; theatrical design to technical
consultancy, 59’s team combines art and technology to tell amazing stories.
fifty nine productions
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5. DEMO
Bournemouth University
Bournemouth, UK
research.bournemouth.ac.uk/project/
virtual-avebury-an-immersive-partnership
@Bournemouthuni
LEAD CONTACT
Professor Kate Welham
Professor of Archaeological Science
kwelham@bmth.ac.uk
TEAM PROFILE
For the Virtual Avebury project, the team
worked to create and then evaluate a
virtual simulation of the Avebury Stone
Circle and Henge complex (part of the
UNESCO Stonehenge, Avebury and
Associated Sites World Heritage Site)
approximately 4,300 years ago.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
Ancient monuments are remains of a distant past that can now appear out of
context, ruined, or discernible only as subtle marks in the landscape. Some
are hidden completely beneath later buildings or the reworking of the land.
Virtual simulations have the potential to illuminate what is now imperceptible
and to put back into context what is now isolated and incongruous. They can
give us a means of connecting with people and cultures from which we are
separated by thousands of years. Virtual Avebury brings together researchers
and practitioners in archaeology, heritage management, virtual reality,
soundscapes and education.
BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY
A virtual world simulation experienced as
a visual and auditory landscape on mobile
devices, or as a fully immersive visual and
auditory experience using 3D headsets and
haptic (touch) devices.
Bournemouth University has over 19,000 students and is ranked as one of
the top 200 young universities in the world. The university is at the forefront
of computer graphics and animation education and research, and home to
the National Centre for Computer Animation. The university is ambitious in
developing the application of animation, simulation and visualisation across
a wide range of disciplines including culture and heritage. Bournemouth
University benefits from a wonderful location, situated between one of the UK’s
newest national parks and the second largest natural harbour in the world.
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6. Digital Catapult and
Arts Council England
London, UK
www.digicatapult.org.uk/projects/
creative-xr
@DigiCatapult
LEAD CONTACT
Rebecca Gregory-Clarke
Head of Technology (Immersive) –
Digital Catapult
rebecca.gregory-clarke@digicatapult
.org.uk
TEAM PROFILE
Arts Council England and Digital Catapult
are working with organisations and
academia to inspire new products, services
and business models and increase the
early adoption of digital technology.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
CreativeXR gives teams the platform to focus on R&D and develop riskier,
content driven projects that contribute to developing new skills, tools, and
business opportunities. This will make it easier for the UK’s creative talent to
experiment with immersive technology and develop experiences that range
from, for instance, taking a historic walk through the streets of London,
through to becoming an integral part of solving a murder mystery.
COMPANY’S ASK
CreativeXR runs a marketplace event to connect content creators with
potential commissioners, financiers, exhibitors, and distributors who might
partner with them on the next phase. We are looking for those working in this
area who may wish to become involved as a mentor of the programme or an
attendee of this marketplace, and in doing so meet and support some of the
brightest creative talent in the UK.
CREATIVEXR
PITCH CreativeXR provides creative talent the
opportunity to experiment with
immersive technologies to develop new
experiences that inspire audiences.
Now in its second year, CreativeXR is a content acceleration programme
developed by Digital Catapult and Arts Council England. It boosts around
20 immersive content creators by providing early stage seed funding,
mentorship and workshops to build prototypes and explore new ways of
storytelling enabled by virtual, augmented and mixed reality technology.
Companies also have the opportunity to pitch for further funding through
an industry marketplace.
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7. ESL UK
London, UK
weavr.tv
@ESLUK
LEAD CONTACT
James Dean
Managing Director
j.dean@eslgaming.com
TEAM PROFILE
James Dean is the founder and Managing
Director of the ESL UK subsidiary, building
the ESL brand and community on a
regional level. James began his career
in IT writing for UK’s largest computer
magazine while studying for a degree
in computer science at Birmingham
University. After graduating James
managed the PC division of a well
known computer retailer in the UK and in
2004 launched a gaming brand of PCs
increasing average margins from 6% to
20%. In 2006, James founded a sales,
marketing and PR company specialising
in services for the IT and gaming industry,
representing brands without existing
operations in the UK. Within three years,
the agency was generating over £5m
annual revenues for various niche gaming
brands including SteelSeries, the well-
known esports peripheral brand. This
shaped the foundation of the ESL UK
franchise after the introduction to ESL
Germany in 2012, which was eventually
purchased by ESL’s global group in
2016. ESL is the world’s largest esports
company with 15 offices spanning the
globe. The UK office has maintained
over 50% year-on-year growth since its
foundation. It operates the UK’s longest
running national esports tournament,
the ESL Premiership currently spanning
four gaming titles. To this date, ESL still
holds records for the largest ever online
audience for a UK esports tournament.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
The Weavr Consortium has answered UK Research and Innovation’s call to
look at Audience of the Future, with a ground-breaking demonstrator project
exploring a cross-reality, data driven, highly personalised viewing experience
for esports. The consortium consisting of ESL, York University, dock10,
Cybula, Focal Point VR & Rewind will operate a £5.8m project over two years,
£4m of which is funded by UK Research and Innovation.
ESL UK
PITCH WEAVR: re-imagining sports broadcast.
Esports are set to redefine entertainment and sports broadcasting after the
UK government awards £4m of funding to create new AI powered, immersive
audience experiences.
Weavr will create cross-reality viewing experiences allowing fans to immerse
themselves in high fidelity statistics, visualisations and data-driven stories
that give them deep insights into the live match. This will enable them to
seamlessly move between virtual and physical viewing, as well as utilise
second screens to watch immersive esports content on the go.
The use of artificial intelligence and data learning to create highly personalised
viewing experiences will allow for fully interactive and individualised insights
for the audience. This will permit the project to demonstrate knowledge of how
audiences of the future engage in immersive experiences and the pathways to
future commercialisation.
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8. Factory 42 Ltd
London, UK
www.factory42.uk
@factoryforty2
LEAD CONTACT
John Cassy
Founder and CEO
john@factory42.uk
TEAM PROFILE
The team at Factory 42 Ltd are a group of
producers, designers, writers, directors,
engineers, artists, software developers,
architects, academics and neuroscientists
creating compelling, immersive stories
and experiences. John Cassy oversees
the strategic and creative direction
of the company as well as Executive
Producing major projects. John spent
more than a decade in senior roles at Sky
launching and running new channels and
technology, while commissioning across
genres from sports to factual to music
to arts. He is a board Governor of the
International Advanced Imaging Society
in LA, as well as a Trustee of the Almeida
Theatre, London’s 2018 Theatre of the
Year. He is an Honorary Professor of
Humanities at University of Exeter.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
Get the low down on Europe’s most ambitious location based mixed
reality experiences. John Cassy, CEO of the award winning London
based immersive content studio Factory 42 and overall producer of
the experiences explains how Magic Leap, Comcast’s Sky and award
winning London theatre, The Almeida, are combining to create two
ground breaking, narrative driven, group experiences at London’s iconic
Natural History Museum and Science Museums.
COMPANY’S ASK
Factory 42 Ltd is looking to gain partnership, distribution and
localisation opportunities.
FACTORY 42
PITCH Factory 42 is a fast growing next generation
production studio creating world class
content and experiences at the intersection
of film and games.
Recent projects from Factory42 include a ground-breaking Sir David
Attenborough interactive virtual reality (VR) project Hold The World at
the Natural History Museum, and a high profile documentary, multiple VR
experiences and a major exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. Upcoming
work includes Dinosaurs and Robots, two adventure game based mixed reality
experiences at two of London’s best known museums.
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9. FutureEverything
Manchester, UK
www.futureverything.org
@futureverything
LEAD CONTACT
Irini Papadimitriou
Creative Director
irini@futureeverything.org
TEAM PROFILE
Working alongside commissioned
Artist Naho Matsuda, at SXSW the team
includes art curators, producers and
industrial designers.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
Data surrounds us, nowhere more so than in our cities. What kind of stories
can urban data tell about a city? Harnessing public art to explore the ‘Smart
City’, Naho Matsuda’s EVERY THING EVERY TIME broadcasts poetry on
mechanical display, urging deeper reflection on the role of data in our lives.
COMPANY’S ASK
By participating in this event FutureEverything aims to develop partnerships
with cultural organisations and city leaders to tour the work, and subsequently
attract support from philanthropy and private enterprise to enable it to
continue developing EVERY THING EVERY TIME with artist Naho Matsuda.
FUTUREEVERYTHING
PITCH Established in Manchester (UK) in 1995,
FutureEverything is an award-winning
innovation lab and cultural agency that
has helped shape the emergence of digital
culture in Europe.
Taking an artist-led and human-centred approach, FutureEverything is
passionate about bringing people together to discover, share and experience
new ideas for the future, creating opportunities for people to consider,
challenge and test the use of technology in creative and unexpected ways.
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10. DEMO
The Glasgow School of Art
Glasgow, UK
www.gsa.ac.uk
@GSofA
LEAD CONTACT
Professor Steve Love
Senior Researcher
s.love@gsa.ac.uk
TEAM PROFILE
Professor Steve Love’s primary research
expertise is investigating the impact
of digital applications and services on
people’s behaviour and lives. His research
has been sponsored by funders such as
the AHRC, ESRC, EPSRC, InnovateUK,
Scottish Funding Council, European
Space Agency, the European Social Fund,
BT and Sharp Laboratories Europe. He is a
Fellow of the Design Research Society.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
Working with industrial collaborators ISOdesign, the team at The School of
Simulation and Visualisation at The Glasgow School of Art created a range
of virtual and augmented reality outputs looking at the historic sculpture
within the environment of the GSA. The team adopted a user-centred design
and rapid application development (RAD) approach to develop a five minute,
linear virtual reality experience where users are taken through a series of
virtual spaces. By using object and environmental scans and digital materials
from the GSA archive, users can experience a rich, emotionally engaging
recreation of a key plaster cast sculpture, the Laocoon. They learn about the
extraordinary story of the sculpture’s mythology and history. They learn of the
damage it suffered during the 2014 fire at the School of Art, its restoration and
then of the Laocoon’s ultimate destruction in the 2018 fire.
GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART
The studio provides specialist, practice-led
learning and research and draws talented
individuals with a shared passion for visual
culture and creative production from all over
the world.
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) is one of Europe’s leading independent
university-level institutions for the visual creative disciplines. As one of the
UK’s largest and most intensive research communities for the visual creative
disciplines, GSA’s research activity (80% of staff are research active) is
clustered into the following interdisciplinary themes: architecture, urbanism
and the public sphere; contemporary art and curating; design innovation;
digital visualisation; education in art, design and architecture; health and
wellbeing; material culture; sustainability.
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11. Italic Pig
Holywood, Northern Ireland
www.italicpig.com
@italicpig
LEAD CONTACT
Kevin Beimers
Director
kevin@italicpig.com
TEAM PROFILE
From the sheer variety of projects Italic
Pig work on, the quirkiness of the team,
to the benefits that the company offers,
Italic Pig prides itself as standing out from
the crowd. You won’t find 100-hour work
weeks here, but you will find a team of
passionate game developers and artists
that are given the chance to fully thrive
in our studio. Italic Pig is based outside
of Belfast (Northern Ireland, UK) in the
seaside town of Holywood. The team’s
workspace is a rambling three story
townhouse that is having its own unique
stamp put on with graffiti art, cafe space
and a custom Schrodinger’s Cat arcade
machine. Luckily for the team, there’s
room to grow and expand as a company.
The entire team is active in the UK game
and animation industries with Kevin
Beimers being a regular speaker at events
throughout the world.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
The Infinite Hotel is an immersive VR narrative adventure game. An inter-
dimensional holiday resort constructed from impossible architecture, packed
with the strangest collection of beasts in the universe. It boasts the ability
to cater to everything and everyone, thanks to the fact that it has an infinite
number of floors, an infinite number of rooms, and an infinite star approval
rating. You’re the elevator operator. You’ve got work to do. The team will be
demoing The Infinite Hotel at two Northern Irish events: Immersed in NI, and
the Belfast City Council Boat Networking Trip.
COMPANY’S ASK
Italic Pig is looking for project investment in the form of finishing funds and
marketing/promotional support to turn the demo into a full game.
ITALIC PIG
PITCH A grand-scale adventure
in a room-scale space.
The Infinite Hotel is an unpredictable, character-driven, vertical virtual reality
(VR) adventure, combining the addictive task fulfilment mechanics of award-
winning games like Job Simulator, the inadvertent (and persistent) character
repercussions of Papers Please, the multi-threaded narrative hooks of Grim
Fandango, and a sense of boundless scale... all from inside a five foot square.
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12. PITCH & DEMO
King’s Digital Lab, King’s College London
London, UK
www.kdl.kcl.ac.uk
@kingsdigitallab
LEAD CONTACT
Elliott Hall
Senior Research Software Engineer
elliott.hall@kcl.ac.uk
TEAM PROFILE
Elliott Hall, Senior Software Engineer at
King’s Digital Lab, is a developer, writer,
and theatre practitioner. He created the
immersive augmented reality experience
The Digital Ghost Hunt and is also the
author of the Strange Trilogy published
by John Murray, as well as works in film
and theatre.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
Digital Ghost Hunt begins when a normal school assembly is interrupted by
Deputy Undersecretary Quill from the Ministry of Real Paranormal Hygiene, there
to recruit the school’s Year Five (age 10-11) class into the Department’s Ghost
Removal Section. The young ghost hunters learn how to program their own
paranormal detectors – made from two microcomputers, a Raspberry Pi and a
Micro:bit. The students then use the detectors in an immersive show to discover
ghostly traces, translate Morse code using flickering lights and find messages
left in ultraviolet ectoplasm. Together, the pupils uncover who the ghost is and
why she is haunting the building, unmask a villain, find a stolen necklace, clear
the ghost’s name, right an old wrong, and set her free.
COMPANY’S ASK
The team at King’s Digital Lab will be pitching and demoing at the showcase
event with the goal of opening up new partnership and distribution opportunities.
KING’S DIGITAL LAB
Digital Ghost Hunt combines coding
education, augmented reality and
live performance into an immersive
storytelling experience.
King’s Digital Lab believes the project has potential both as an educational
tool to get students, particularly girls, interested in coding as a tool of
imagination, and building experiences that tell great stories using unique places
such as museums and historical sites. The team is interested in exploring these
ideas with new partners and collaborators as the project enters a new phase
of development.
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13. PITCH & DEMO
Maze Theory
Nottingham, UK
www.maze-theory.com
@ianhambleton
LEAD CONTACT
Ian Hambleton
CEO
ian@maze-theory.com
TEAM PROFILE
Digital Entertainment studio Maze
Theory works at the boundaries of virtual
imagination. In 2019 the studios R&D
programme will bring artificial intelligence
characters into all of its games. Through
narrative characters that respond to
gestures, voice and body language,
we’ll create personal interactions that
feel more human, creating new levels of
immersion, unique to VR.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
An early test demo, focusing on one of the early David Tennant Doctor Who
episodes and fans’ favourite “Blink”. The tenth episode of the third series of the
British science fiction television series Doctor Who, “Blink” was first broadcast
on 9 June 2007 on BBC One. It received widespread critical acclaim, and is
widely considered to be one of the best episodes of the show. Writer Steven
Moffat won the BAFTA Craft and BAFTA Cymru awards for Best Writer, and
the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. In 2009 the
episode was voted the second best Doctor Who story ever by readers of
Doctor Who Magazine.
MAZE THEORY
Creating new depths and levels of immersion
through artificial intelligence.
A restless team of digital creatives on a mission to conquer the world of
virtual reality. Maze Theory believes in pushing and redrawing the boundaries
of the imagination and bringing to life virtual entertainment experiences that
will engage and blow the senses. Drawing on the team’s vast experience in
animation, games development, film production and storytelling to produce
the best in virtual reality (VR), the team work tirelessly seeking out new ideas
that will push the very latest in VR capabilities. But ground-breaking tech is not
the end goal – the focus is on redrawing the lines of storytelling and creating
truly awesome immersive adventures.
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14. Raskl
Newcastle, UK
www.raskl.co.uk
@RasklDesign
LEAD CONTACT
Dan Rose
Designer and Director
dan@raskl.co.uk
TEAM PROFILE
David Angus and Dan Rose have been
collaborating on projects for over
15 years, David from an engineering
background and Dan from music and
arts. The team’s journey has taken them
from tinkering in a garage, incorporating
in 2005 and growing to a workforce of
eight in a comprehensively equipped
CNC workshop. While offering a serious
industrial service the company is proud of
its friendly and approachable way of doing
business; ever expanding its network of
friends, clients and collaborators.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
Two projects at either end of the scale that Raskl produce: A 9m tall Camera
Obscura in abstract low-poly parrot form [www.raskl.co.uk/Polly] and the
piece being exhibited at SXSW - a split-flap display which interacts with
Smart-City Data.
COMPANY’S ASK
Raskl is pitching during the showcase with the aim of developing business
and opportunities to collaborate globally. Raskl believes it has a unique
skill set: bringing design, engineering, hi-tech, low-tech, architecture, local
authority negotiation, main contractor liaison etc. together all under one roof.
Raskl is frequently invited as preferred contractors in the UK and would like
to expand on this.
RASKL STUDIO + WORKSHOP
PITCH Creative thinking for art and architecture –
design, tech and fabrication.
Having initially worked on furniture and architectural design solutions, Raskl
now focuses almost exclusively on art production projects. This is where the
team’s passion truly lies and is a field which arguably makes the best use of
their extremely diverse experience and skills. The real value the team brings
to a project is in bridging the gap between artists, architects, engineers and
planners. By developing concepts from the ground up, and by keeping all of
the fabrication in house, Raskl is able to advise reliably on feasibility and costs,
without losing the spirit of a project or engineering the fun out of it.
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15. Royal Shakespeare Company
Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
www.rsc.org.uk
@TheRSC
LEAD CONTACT
Sarah Ellis
Director of Digital Development
sarah.ellis@rsc.org.uk
TEAM PROFILE
Everyone at the Royal Shakespeare
Company plays a part in creating work
and sharing it with audiences. The
company employs a huge range of
people, including directors, writers, actors
as well as other creative, technical and
administrative staff.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
Seven Ages of Man by William Shakespeare is a collaboration between the
Royal Shakespeare Company and Magic Leap. You can see the experience
at the British Music Embassy on Sunday 10 March. Collaborations to date
with Intel and Magic Leap have lead to a large-scale collaboration for live
performance as part of the Audience of the Future demonstrator project.
Royal Shakespeare Company is looking for partners to join it and create a
performance in 2020.
COMPANY’S ASK
The team is looking for partners to join collaborations and create a
performance in 2020: funders, collaborators, investment, connections.
ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY
PITCH The Royal Shakespeare Company and Magic
Leap create a mixed reality experience
using cutting-edge volumetric capture with
Shakespearean actor Robert Gilbert and an
original musical score by award-winning
composer Jessica Curry performing the
famous Seven Ages speech from As You Like It.
The Royal Shakespeare Company explores the future of theatre with Magic
Leap in this sublime production of the Seven Ages of Man speech from
Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Here the company presents a mixed reality
experience using cutting-edge volumetric capture with Shakespearean actor
Robert Gilbert and an original musical score by award-winning composer
Jessica Curry. The line “all the world’s a stage” turns literal as users experience
the play in multiple and simultaneous places.
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16. StoryFutures Academy
(Royal Holloway University of London)
London, UK
www.storyfutures.com/academy
@StoryFutures
LEAD CONTACT
Amanda Murphy
Executive Producer
amanda.murphy@rhul.ac.uk
TEAM PROFILE
Amanda Murphy is an established
Executive Producer with a track record
in producing large scale television
productions for multiple markets, and
in establishing first series and formats
such as the UK’s first Big Brother and
Supernanny which sold to 47 countries.
She has worked in academic research
for the last five years, most recently
as producer of the Adapt TV hands
on history project, creating a new film
archive of veterans reunited with kit
they used to work with, reusing it. She is
presently EP of StoryFutures Academy
and also a Senior Teaching Fellow in
Media Arts at RHUL.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
Exploring the range of opportunities to collaborate with the UK’s new National
Centre for Immersive Storytelling. StoryFutures Academy is an unique
partnership between the UK’s leading screen industries’ training provider, the
National Film and Television School, and one of the UK’s leading research
institutions, the Royal Holloway University of London. The team is bringing
together some of the world’s leading screen industry talent, with cutting edge
training and research to exploit this new medium.
COMPANY’S ASK
Collaborators to pioneer immersive experiences across the creative industries
and develop cutting-edge creative training and research programmes in
immersive storytelling.
STORYFUTURES ACADEMY
PITCH Promoting innovation in story form
with proven talent.
There are a wealth of opportunities from sharing expertise, showcasing
new work, co-curating labs to collaborating on new exciting cutting edge
immersive productions.
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17. DEMO
University of Brighton
Brighton, UK
www.brighton.ac.uk
LEAD CONTACT
Donna Close
Senior Research Fellow/Creative Producer
d.close2@brighton.ac.uk
TEAM PROFILE
Donna Close is a creative producer,
cultural strategist and research fellow
specialising in projects, partnerships
and research that investigates the role
that creativity and cultural production
processes have in cultural, social and
economic impact and in amplifying
value. Over 25 years, she has developed
award winning festivals built around new
commissions and new ways of working
focused on immersive and inclusive
audience experiences.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
The project asks what could happen if specialists in haptic, interactive, and
immersive technologies came together with circus artists, artists who are
used to taking creative and physical risks. What innovations in creative
content, and what new types of audience experiences might be possible if
collaboration and experimentation were enabled? Diversity and inclusivity
also occupied a central role. The project considered how to improve access
to these art forms. By providing new pathways to access circus and street
theatre, they can be opened up for those who may conventionally struggle to
participate.
XR: CIRCUS / EXTRAORDINARY
CIRCUS
XR Circus is centred on a creative collision
between leading immersive technologists
and circus artists in order to imagine a circus
befitting of the 21st century.
The University of Brighton is a practice based research and education
organisation based in Brighton: one of the UK’s most important creative
clusters. The University of Brighton believes in ‘Practical Wisdom’ creating
knowledge through practice – academic, professional and creative – and
through partnerships with industry, government and communities. The School
of Media leads on international research into how innovation can be driven
through creativity and inclusivity. Research and enterprise under ‘Connected
Futures’ explores how digital technologies can enable the creation and
distribution of content for social, cultural and business purposes.
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18. DEMO
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, UK
www.eca.ed.ac.uk/research/space-place-
sound-and-memory
LEAD CONTACT
Dr James Cook
Lecturer in Early Music,
Programme Director, BMus
jcook2@ed.ac.uk
TEAM PROFILE
Dr James Cook is lecturer in Early Music
at the University of Edinburgh. He works in
the apparently disparate fields of medieval
and Renaissance music and music for TV,
Film, and Video Game. These interests
are brought together in his AHRC-funded
project to recreate, in virtual reality, lost
performances and performance spaces.
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
The team brought together staff at the University of Edinburgh working with
Dr James Cook, and at the University of Abertay under Dr Kenny McAlpine.
Working closely with game developers, musicologists, architectural
historians, early music performers, the museum sector, and acousticians,
the team set out to recreate the sounds and sensations of early music
performance in virtual reality.
The project is hosted by the Reid School of Music at the University of
Edinburgh. The University of Edinburgh is currently ranked 18th in the
world, and the department of music is widely known for its research in both
musicology and acoustics.
SPACE, PLACE, SOUND AND
MEMORY: IMMERSIVE
EXPERIENCES OF THE PAST
Imagine experiencing a musical moment
from the past: a rich, sensory experience that
combines the flickering light from candles,
the exquisite performance of centuries-
old music, and the warm acoustics and
magnificent decoration of a performance
space that now no longer exists.
The Space, Place, Sound and Memory project brings together cross-
disciplinary expertise from a range of academic, industry, and cultural
partners to explore the point where performance practice, gaming and virtual
reality, technology, and culture and heritage meet. It uses 3D imaging, binaural,
and surround sound and room-impulse responses to create a software
application that allows users to experience the performance of Early Music in
an accurately-modelled historic space.
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20. DISCOVER THE POTENTIAL OF IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES
Digital Catapult offers a game-changing portfolio of programmes
and facilities to bring together immersive technologies’ growing
ecosystem. Digital Catapult offers facilities such as Dimension and
the Immersive Labs and runs innovation programmes including
Augmentor and CreativeXR. This provides unrivalled access to the
latest developments in virtual and augmented reality and supports the
development of a strong immersive ecosystem in the UK, all with the
ultimate aim of making the UK the best place in the world to create
immersive content and applications.
UKRI US IMMERSIVE MISSION 2019
The mission aims to explore the challenges and opportunities of the US
immersive landscape, build connections with top US businesses and raise
the profile of UK immersive expertise. The delegation includes companies
and research organisations supported by over £110m UK government
including the Creative Clusters and Audience of the Future programmes.
Highlights of the mission, running from 6-13 March, include visits to world
leading immersive businesses in San Francisco and a bespoke programme
of XR showcases and networking events during technology, film and
music conference SXSW in Austin, Texas. The mission is delivered by the
AHRC Creative Economy Programme for UK Research & Innovation.
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21. FUTURE ART AND CULTURE
Presented by British Underground with the support of Arts Council
England, Future Art and Culture at SXSW Interactive aims to create
opportunities for collaboration and business where the lines between
art, innovation and technology converge. The cultural sector in
England is leading the way and through this year’s Future Art and
Culture programme we present provocative discussions, pitches and
networking, and a diverse selection of work including VR and mixed
reality experiences, live coding performances and a downtown digital
installation exploring issues raised by the smart city.
“England is one of the world leaders in immersive art and technology,
with a thriving digital sector, internationally renowned creative industries
and an incredibly rich cultural heritage. This showcase demonstrates
how English arts organisations and technologists are developing
ground-breaking new forms of creativity, and we’re delighted to partner
with British Underground to bring it to South by Southwest.”
Francis Runacres, Executive Director
Enterprise and Innovation at Arts Council England
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22. DIGITAL CATAPULT
Digital Catapult is the UK’s leading advanced digital technology
innovation centre, driving early adoption of technologies to make UK
businesses more competitive and productive to grow the country’s
economy. We connect large established companies, startups and
scaleups, and researchers working with artificial intelligence, immersive
technologies, 5G and LPWAN to discover new ways to solve big
challenges in the manufacturing and creative industries.
CREATIVEXR
CreativeXR gives creative talent the opportunity to experiment with
immersive technologies to create new experiences that inspire
audiences. Focused on the creative industries, particularly the arts
and culture sector; the programme gives the best creative teams the
opportunity to develop concepts and prototypes of immersive content
(virtual, augmented and mixed reality). The programme offers access
to early stage finance, facilities, industry leaders and commissioning
bodies, and the opportunity to pitch for further development funding.
The programme has been developed by Digital Catapult and Arts Council
England, with support from Innovate UK.
The mission is delivered by the AHRC Creative Economy Programme for
UK Research & Innovation.
AHRC CREATIVE ECONOMY PROGRAMME
The Creative Economy Programme enhances and extends the Arts &
Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) reach in the creative economy,
emphasising the importance of arts and humanities research in
generating impact across the sector, ranging from micro-businesses
to large corporations. AHRC is one of the seven research councils and
Innovate UK and Research England comprise UK Research & Innovation
investing over £7bn annually.
ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND
Arts Council England is the national development body for arts and
culture across England, working to enrich people’s lives. It supports
a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from
theatre to visual art, reading to dance, music to literature and crafts to
collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and
teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes
life better. Between 2018 and 2022, it will invest £1.45 billion of public
money from government and an estimated £860 million from the
National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as
possible across the country.
BRITISH UNDERGROUND
British Underground produces showcases and strategic development
projects in music and the arts that focus on international success.
Working across the creative sector from Stormzy to The Royal
Shakespeare Company, they are an Arts Council England NPO and
part of the PRSF Talent Development network. Their London office is
provided by the Musicians’ Union and the organisation has relationships
across the cultural sector in the UK and overseas.
WITH THANKS TO PARTNERS
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23. Accelerating early adoption
of advanced digital technologies