Impact case study database

Described as “the best contemporary arts practitioners” by the Director of Animate Projects [E1], boredomresearch's innovative work progressing science-art collaboration has produced significant impact for a wide and varied range of beneficiaries.

By representing research data in visual, intuitive formats, boredomresearch provided their scientific collaborators with a “fresh look at their own work” [E2, p.10], encouraging questions and insights into abstract concepts at the frontiers of research. This positive feedback loop enhances scientific practice.

Scientists at the Artificial Life Laboratory described how working with boredomresearch on Robots in Distress “surely improved the quality of our work”; “they felt like fresh wind, that show[ed] us things, thoughts, views about our own work we did not know” [E3].

A collaborating scientist described how Dreams of Mice envisions, “with an astonishing accuracy”, a fusion of methodologies for displaying neural activity that would help scientists “get closer to solving the mysteries of the brain and sleep” [E4].

Dr Paddy Brock (University of Glasgow) describes how Isley and Smith’s work on Afterglow advanced his thinking on incorporating landscape into epidemiology models, something his field struggles with: “It is very difficult to make a model entirely spatially explicit, while at the same time making it quick, efficient and generalisable.[...] It’s been really interesting thinking about [Isley and Smith’s] approaches in terms of current trends in epidemiology and how space is being incorporated into these models” [E5, 9:00].

Projects from boredomresearch have provided innovative engagement opportunities for the public, in which “the merit […] is scientific as well as artistic” [E6, p.29]. Collaborator Dr Brock praised how Afterglow “had great value in terms of science communication and engagement” [E6, p.22].

As well as communicating research, the work of boredomresearch exemplifies and promotes the actual practice of communicating science through art. Award panellists commended how “in AfterGlow art embraces science” [E6, p.28], providing a “memorable example of artists employing digital media to its full potential” [E6, p.28]. Over 3,422,063 engagements from scientists, industry, civil society, policy makers and the public were recorded for the Silent Signal exhibits [E7]. A further 252 people [E8] visited the Robots in Distress exhibition in Arizona in December 2020, where visitors “gained a greater appreciation of scientific artwork” and are “hopeful that exhibitions like this one can be used as an example of how art and science can intersect and demonstrate the social and academic merit of arts based research” [E9].

In 2017, the Biodesign Institute in Arizona invited boredomresearch to share their interdisciplinary research methods and present AfterGlow. The research insights “played a key role in forming the strategic public outreach documents for a successful bid of over USD8,500,000 from the National Cancer Institute to establish the new Arizona Cancer and Evolution Center” (ACE) [E10]. Best practice learnt from boredomresearch also led to a funded five-year art-science public communication initiative and a scheme dedicating “an estimated USD30,000 of funding for the next four years enabling four artists to collaborate with scientists leading to an estimated four new public engagement opportunities” [E10].

In addition, “[w]orking with boredomresearch has enabled ACE to establish new and improved working relationships with cultural organisations at a national and international level including the public science education centre - Centre of the Cell, Queen Mary University of London, CDC Gallery (Centre for Disease Control), Atlanta, Georgia and the ASU Art Museum, Arizona” [E10]. This supported ACE’s goal of “accelerating the progress of scientific research by harnessing creativity and innovation from the arts to create more expansive-thinking scientists and establish wider outreach potential” [E10].

Animate Projects exceeded their exhibition target audience of 24,000, thanks to Afterglow contributing “the largest proportion of viewings of all commissioned projects” [E1]. In Berlin alone, 84,000 viewed AfterGlow at a screening at the Sony Centre [E1]. AfterGlow also helped Animate Projects extend their reach into Asia, with screenings in Korea. This achieved a key strategic objective for the organisation, which has now gone on to lead new SciArt programmes in Asia with Isley as their best practice representative and mentor [E1].

Animate Projects “invited boredomresearch […] based on their previous work of creating dynamic real-time animation projects influenced by scientific research” [E1]. These skills and experiences developed the practice of Animate Projects and their capacity for new types of work; “AfterGlow was the first Animate Projects production that was produced as a live animation installation […] This has supported me to gain confidence in this field and has led onto the development of an XR project with gallery partners in the Midlands” [E1].

Producing high-quality character animation involves time-consuming manual work, making its production difficult and inefficient. Humain Ltd. aims to create the world’s best automated online character creation service through new techniques, to produce high-quality virtual characters and their animation efficiently.

Dr Shaojun Bian was employed via the KTP to develop new techniques [R3, R7: E1, E3, E4]. She previously researched automatic rigging and skin deformation [R2, R4] as part of the European Commission funded PDE-GIR project ( http://pde-gir.com/). The new techniques developed by the PDE-GIR project have been applied in Indeform Ltd. [E3], disseminated to many audiences through two PDE-GIR workshops [E4], and provided a foundation for the subsequent KTP [E5] and resulting impact [E2, E6].

As Humain Ltd. highly appraised, “BU development of the facial rigging tools and techniques for skin deformation, machine learning-based 3D facial expression, fast character modelling with sketch-based PDE surfaces and automatic rigging has given the company an edge over the competition, enabling the company to use photographic and video input into their process instead of a scan as well as use algorithms” [E6].

Before developing the new techniques, getting a 3D virtual character into production required between a few days to a few months. The new techniques [E1, E2] enabled Humain Ltd. to automate the transfer of Action Units from their own database to another character, removing the need for 3D modellers, which “reduced the time frame to create complete models with realistic facial expressions from 30 days to a few minutes” [E2, E6]. This is a significant time and cost saving to Humain Ltd.

As well as saving time, the new techniques have helped to make Humain Ltd.’s workload more streamlined and efficient. Producing high-quality 3D virtual character requires experts, modellers and animators from different disciplines to work together, and heavy and time-consuming manual operations are involved in the production process. The new techniques have been integrated into the company’s product offerings, transformed the company’s facial development pipeline from a labour-intensive process by highly specialized artists to a simple command line interface that everyone in the company can run. According to Humain, this has “enabled [them] to develop technology and capability that has moved the company from being purely considered as an outsource vendor to a state-of-the-art R&D partner to world leading technology and entertainment leaders” [E2, p.6-8].

The impact on industry practices is also highlighted by Indeform Ltd.’s comments: the main benefits of PDE-based modelling Blender plugin [S1] application in medical and engineering areas are “Flexibility and ability” and “Speed of predefined models generation”, “it takes seconds to generate new model”, and “This is a huge benefit” [E3].

Transforming Humain Ltd.’s ways of working has changed its external reputation. As Humain Ltd. stated, “the game-changer contribution of BU researchers” has enabled the company “to achieve its goals while reducing the time and effort required to create a facial rig, which is a breakthrough which has and will become a huge profit centre for the company as it enables Humain to complete industry leading facial rigs with much fewer resources” [E6].

The techniques developed by BU researchers at Humain Ltd. have made it possible for them to “work on cutting edge projects with world-leading organisations in the technology and entertainment industry, such as Activision and Google, sign contracts to expand our portfolio and services (e.g. Axis Studios and The Imaginarium) and obtain further funding to develop our technology which have placed us as a reference in a highly competitive business market” [E6].

Humain’s increased competitiveness is demonstrated by the following examples:

• Humain Ltd. was asked by leading entertainment organisation HBO to provide the evidence of developing non-photorealistic (NPR) characters. With the new techniques, Humain Ltd. delivered a fully realised NPR character with animation running inside the Unreal Engine, 24 hours later. Humain Ltd. won the USD400,000 contract [E2, p.8], beating two other competitors.

• The Imaginarium Studios required rigging characters for an innovative television show for a world leading streaming company. Using the developed techniques, Humain Ltd. offered a unique approach to capturing the actors’ movement and won the contract [E2, p.8].

• The developed techniques contributed to the successful delivery of a GBP500,000 project to Microsoft [E2, p.11].

• The developed techniques served as the basis for a successful application to the Audience of the Future Immersive Technology Investment Accelerator in 2019. The company secured GBP90,000 in equity investment from TechStart NI and GBP210,000 from Innovate UK [E2, p.6].

• Over the past 3 years, the company has worked on 16 different projects, generating a revenue of GBP1,153,000 [E6].

Social connectedness plays an important role in wellbeing, and those living in global cities, such as London, often suffer from social isolation and loneliness. A pivotal role of the digital arts is to connect the public through a cultural offering and shared experiences of participatory art.

The Health, Economic, and Social impact of the ARTs (HEartS) study, led by the CfPS, included analysis of KIMA: Voice. As demonstrated by R3, the study of 144 KIMA: Voice participants showed increases in social connectedness, feeling in tune with others, and happiness, concluding that audiences’ wellbeing profits from participatory art engagement. With over 4,000 visitors to KIMA: Voice, the findings from R3 indicate a significant impact on the wellbeing and mental health of participants. The CfPS states, “KIMA: Voice effectively demonstrates that participatory arts can contribute to perceived social connectedness among the public, alleviating side effects of social isolation and loneliness” [E1].

In 2020, KIMA: Voice was longlisted for the coveted Lumen Award. Founder and Director of Lumen Art Projects states that BU’s research “is exemplary in actively connecting members of the public through shared sound experiences […] and contributes to a breaking down of societal barriers […]. Research outcomes of the HEartS study […] quantitatively measured the impact of the KIMA: Voice artwork on perceived social connectedness, happiness and loneliness, and was able to show a significant link between creative engagement and mental health” [E2].

“This kind of [research] helps to assess and evidence the role media art and participatory art can play [in] the public’s mental wellbeing, in an increasingly fragmented society. In times when the public is facing increased challenges from social isolation, and sensory deprivation, it is important to provide active cultural incentives to break down societal barriers, and to encourage the public to engage creatively with one another. The pioneering participatory media artwork KIMA: Voice plays a role not only in actively encouraging creative engagement by the public, but also in assessing its impact on mental wellbeing,” [E2]

The National Gallery credits KIMA: Colour as a “means to foster social connectedness” during the Covid-19 pandemic [E3a]. New, remote audiences were able to engage in “shared experiences of cultural heritage” [E3a], with over 2,000 unique views on YouTube and a combined social media reach of over 100,000 people [E3b]. “Through this new type of participatory art, and the ensuing exchange via social media, our audiences were able to remain socially connected […] in a shared cultural experience, at a time when museums were not accessible to the public,” [E3a] An NHS consultant and arts therapy Professor at Brunel University further emphasises “the important contribution of [BU] research and the use of participatory arts for improving social connectedness to mediate wellbeing for people who may not otherwise access social support” during Covid-19 [E4].

From a clinical perspective, many severe physical and mental health issues could be prevented with early interventions focusing on building trust through social connectedness [E4]. The NHS consultant and arts therapy Professor notes that the KIMA artwork provides “ethical and safe ways of building connections between participants that have the potential to impact on a range of health issues through mediating interpersonal connectedness” [E4]. Furthermore, the consultant states that their own clinical practice has been enhanced through use of ‘non-clinical’ spaces to widen accessibility to therapeutic interventions and investigation into participatory arts engagement within clinical interventions [E4].

Over 30 policy makers and experts for voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations attended a talk hosted by Kensington and Chelsea Council on KIMA: Noise, called Head_Space. Kensington and Chelsea Social Council commented, “Participatory art offers huge potential for […] engaging audiences who wouldn’t otherwise consider or care about topics such as noise pollution”. Through KIMA: Noise, the Analema Group “are spreading the message that we all have a role to play in changing our environmental landscape for the better” [E5]. This deeper understanding of the link between participatory art and social connectedness benefits creative practitioners and public decision-makers, particularly post Covid-19, when the need for societal connectedness is paramount.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), which has “overall lead responsibility for policy on noise management in England”, acknowledged the important role of this research in raising awareness of the health effects associated with noise among the general public [E6]. “Participatory art such as KIMA: Noise is so important […] as it communicates through a different medium to those traditionally employed by Government, and can therefore broaden the scope of public debate and help to inform policy decisions related to impacts of sound and noise.” [E6]

KIMA: Colour received coverage from 19 regional news outlets across the UK and Ireland, raising awareness of the National Gallery’s great masterpieces [E7]. Together with the gallery’s researchers, Gingrich and Renaud demonstrated the potential of media art to raise a renewed interest in classic art forms with a significant online reach of 158,000 people [E3a, E3b]. The introduction of digital platforms “proved the resilience of the Gallery during its greatest crisis since World War II” and demonstrated that it can “stay relevant in a world that emphasises participatory, immersive experiences” [E8]. Furthermore, over 50 curators, scientists, technical specialists and university students involved in the development of KIMA: Colour gained a greater understanding and first-hand experience of the potential of immersive art and the use of digital platforms to engage new audiences [E3a, E8] and expand appeal, “especially to communities who may feel historically excluded” [E8].

Noise pollution has significant and measurable effects on sleep patterns, concentration, social behaviour and heart rates, which can lead to increased risk of stroke, coronary heart diseases and diabetes – yet public awareness around the subject remains limited. Only by understanding the problem are people able to help themselves via targeted interventions. Through a series of creative public and community activities, including: three art installations, expert panel discussions, workshops, talks and the creation of a documentary, KIMA: Noise contributed to public awareness of the effect of noise on health [E9].

The Tate acknowledges that Analema Group’s KIMA: Noise at Tate Modern in 2019 addressed local, national and international audiences [E10] by focusing on noise pollution across Southwark Council, where daytime baseline levels for urban noise reaches 80db on a weekday. (Prolonged exposure to noise above 70db has the potential to harm hearing.) Beneficiaries of the impact included live and online audiences of 1,973 people and a social media reach of approximately 165,000 [E11, p.15]. Awareness of the effects of urban noise on health and wellbeing was raised among local community representatives, local and national policy makers and the wider public, provoking a public debate and encouraging those affected to help themselves [E9, E10].