Impact case study database

Co-creation of cultural products

The UK’s Creative Industries employ over 3 million people, are growing at four times the rate of the economy as a whole and contributed GBP116 billion in Gross Value Added in 2019. “ They have been central to the UK’s soft power, in driving tourism and exports, instrumental in bringing communities together and fundamental to the nation’s mental health” ( Creative Industries Federation, Spring Budget 2021). The sector is dominated by small companies innovating new cultural products which then influence the mainstream formats delivered by global media companies.

The MRL has partnered with 20 of these small companies and individual practitioners within our creative pipeline, co-creating inspiring cultural products and touring them widely to attract mainstream attention. For each collaborator, the new products – performances, installations, films, and museum experiences – have generated income, built company or artist profile and expanded capacity to deliver future works [A-F].

For example, the 20 year long collaboration between MRL and Blast Theory, a Portslade-based artists' group, whose work mixes interactive media, digital broadcasting and live performance, delivered two successful apps: Karen and GIFT. The interactive game Karen has been downloaded and used by over 22,000 players since its release in 2015. Karen’s release was covered by the New York Times and CNN, and the app has won multiple awards including ‘Best of British Digital’ at the 2015 British Interactive Media Association awards. GIFT , a webapp that enables museum visitors to create personalised tours as gifts for others, has been deployed by museums in the UK, Norway, Germany and Serbia. Based on this work, Blast Theory (working in collaboration with the MRL) was awarded GBP100,000 from DCMS to develop a concept for the forthcoming national Festival UK 2022 [A].

Employing the technique of visual-kinesthetic experiences [6], and working in collaboration with the MRL, Brendan Walker created VR Playground , a ride that overlays different virtual worlds on a physical swing. The work toured to festivals throughout the UK, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Kimmel Centre, Philadelphia and the 2018 PyeongChang Olympiad in Korea and has been experienced by 30,000 riders. As a result of the work’s reception, in 2018 Brendan launched a new company, Studio Go Go that provides interactive rides and VR experiences [E].

The MRL supported Matt Collishaw to develop Thresholds, a room-scale ‘superimposed reality’ installation that premiered at Somerset House, London in 2017, before touring to other locations in the UK, and to France and Turkey, being experienced by over 10,000 participants. Matt explains, “ Alongside software development and technical innovations, key concepts from the MRL team were also instrumental in shaping the work… The team at the University was also instrumental in helping understand the audience experience through a combination of audience interviews, live observations and analysis of system log data gathered from over 5,000 participants that revealed patterns of movement and dwelling” [B]. Thresholds received widespread media coverage (generating 59M social media impressions in Turkey alone) and was nominated for the prestigious Southbank Sky Arts Award in 2018. Matt is currently preparing a second new major in this oeuvre [B].

Horizon CDT student Roma Patel created The Enchanted Forest, an interactive installation for children that was experienced by over 2,500 families during a six-month run at Hullabaloo Theatre (Hull). Roma explains, “ *As a direct result of this success, I have since been invited to install commissions, deliver workshops and talks to creative practitioners including National Theatre (2020), nurseries in Great Yarmouth and Norwich (2017) and the Science of Learning Conference Durham (2019)*” [D]. Her spinout company, Makers of Imaginary Worlds, established in 2020, has already won two Arts Council Awards and an EPSRC Telling tales of Engagement award to make further shows [D]. MRL research also enabled her works to continue to reach audiences in 2020. “ While face-to-face installations have been severely disrupted by COVID in 2020, we have successfully adapted to provide online storytelling workshops throughout October and December” [D].

Embedding concepts and methods

Lessons learned have been generalized into design concepts which have been disseminated through three further strategic activities: (i) the release of decks of ideation cards; (ii) collaboration with the BBC; and (iii) a joint training programme with B3 Media targeting young Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic artists.

Ideation cards have emerged as a popular format for disseminating know-how to user experience designers in industry and researchers in academia, and also for engaging end-users in co-design. To date, 1250 decks of Mixed Reality Game design ideation cards have been distributed to industry and training partners. Museum networks Culture24 and Europeana helped run workshops with the Visitor Box museum deck with over 50 museums throughout Europe [G].

Research has been embedded at the BBC through a series of PhD internships, touring installations , and the provision of support for the organisation to develop their own deck of ‘BBC Values’ cards, “ as the basis of a new framework for measuring viewer experience of its output” [H]. Head of Section, Future Experience Technologies explains how the broad variety of engagement has led to several impacts on the BBC including, “ the ability to take part in speculative research that delivers new ideas and technologies into the organisation; developing our staff; and expanding our teams through internship” [H].

Researchers in the MRL have promoted diversity by partnering with B3 Media to deliver the Talentlab programme that trains young Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic artists in digital technologies. The MRL has provided bespoke support to over 30 film and digital artists through Talentlab, all of whom have gone on to make new works and win awards, with ten undertaking residencies in the MRL. Founder and Creative Director of B3 Media explains, “ *The MRL offers ideas, technology and expertise enabling the artists to explore and produce artworks they otherwise wouldn’t have been able... The artists often have cutting edge complex ideas but lack the technical expertise to develop them, so the combination of MRL, the brilliant team of researchers, together with myself and B3 media allows us to realise these ideas creating some incredibly successful art pieces as well as developing the careers and onward opportunities for the artists” [I]**. During his residency, Richard Ramchurn created two brain-controlled movies, touring them to venues in the UK, Iceland, Hong Kong and Italy. Richard explains how engaging with the MRL research led to improvements in the quality of his work, as well as enabling access to funding, technical support, and a broader audience, “ Nottingham’s pre-existing concepts of trajectories and uncomfortable interactions shaped the design of my films, while the studies of audience engagement led to new concepts such as ‘contesting control. Working with Steve and employing the performance-led research in the wild method provided the opportunity to study the interactions and responses with the audience, to react and improve the product – which is not something I could have done in the private sector” [C].

In summary, research by the Mixed Reality Lab, has been used by artists and creative companies to develop new cultural products – performances, installations, films and museum experiences – that have toured to 84 venues in 16 countries, and been directly experienced by 87,000 people, and indirectly by millions more, to critical acclaim [J].