Impact case study database

Impacts have occurred across a range of communities, strengthened by active engagement and dissemination through outreach activities with schools and community stakeholders, public exhibitions, and technical training courses.

Informing policy on recording the condition of protected war-grave shipwrecks:

There are two specific bodies that have engaged with the research: The Ministry of Defence (Royal Navy) and the heritage agency, Historic Environment Scotland. The 3D visualisation methods developed from the research have been used in three major MoD licenced surveys of UK Naval war graves: HMS Hampshire (2016), HMS Vanguard (2017) and HMS Royal Oak (2018-19). The purpose of the surveys was to ascertain the condition of the ships after a century underwater (80 years in the case of HMS Royal Oak) and report on the location of any hazardous materials that were found. In all three surveys, large quantities of live munitions were found on the ships.

The Royal Navy’s Northern Diving Group (NDG) bomb disposal unit were given access to the 3D images on site and informed of the location of munitions so they could take any immediate action they deemed necessary. In the case of HMS Royal Oak, the survey pinpointed the location of the final German torpedo that had narrowly missed the ship, and which was lying on the seabed approximately 40 metres from the wreck – the NDG removed and destroyed it with a controlled explosion within 48 hours, thus making the wreck safe. The results of the surveys were published in a series of reports [R1, R2] and in the case of HMS Royal Oak, a 25 minute documentary, “Fallen Oak” was made to further disseminate the findings of the survey to the general public [E1]. Since its launch in October 2020, the documentary has received over 10,000 views (to Dec 31 2020).

The significance of the work has been confirmed by the Deputy Head of Designations at Historic Environment Scotland:

‘In our view, the pioneering visualisation work… has significantly helped efforts to investigate and protect the wrecks of Scapa Flow… This work has helped us to understand what survives on the seabed, to record threatened artefacts, and to take decisions in relation to the protection of these sites… [It] has also enabled observations to be drawn on the degree of survival of the wrecks, and the extent of deterioration in their condition over time. This information is of key importance in helping us to monitor the wrecks and to consider how these sites can be best managed in the future.’ [E2]

They go on to highlight the importance of the work in raising awareness and understanding of the wreck sites by the general public, noting that:

‘Without it, these wrecks, and the artefacts within them, would only be accessible to the very small numbers of the public who can dive, and therefore visit these sites in person.’ [E2]

Supporting the recovery of remains of airmen lost in the Mediterranean Sea

In collaboration with the University of Malta, the 3D visualisation methods were used to locate and record the excavation of human remains from a B24 Liberator bomber shot down in 1943. The DPAA was set up in 2017 by the U.S. Government to locate and recover military personnel lost in action. At a depth of 65m, the Liberator is the deepest underwater project DPAA have commissioned. Our earlier work on HMS Olympus (110m) and L72 (100m) proved that the project was feasible. The B24 project was only the second successful recovery of military remains from a submerged aircraft by the DPAA. [E3]

3D visualisation of the Liberator was disseminated to the public as a short, animated film and exhibited at the “Confluence: Tradition in Contemporary Art exhibition” at the George Segal gallery in New Jersey, USA (Oct – Dec 2019). The exhibition was attended by over 2000 people, including 60+ Leaders of The World Conference delegates (from Ivory Coast, Venezuela, Argentina, Galapagos, Japan, China, UK, Sweden and other countries) [E6].

Providing virtual access for the public to maritime heritage

Maritime war graves are protected sites, to which access is rarely given. The award of a special licence to the research team has enabled images to be gathered that give virtual access to previously inaccessible maritime heritage sites for the general public. The interactive visualisations in our WreckSight and 3D animations and images of the shipwrecks have been distributed online and placed in museums for wide public access (Stromness and Lyness, Orkney) [E4, E5].

The German WWI High Seas Fleet was scuttled in Scapa Flow, Orkney in 1919. The centenary events commemorating this final military act of WWI took place in June 2019 under the banner of Scapa100. The project was co-ordinated by the Orkney community and included 3D visualisation of the eight remaining German wrecks at Scapa Flow. We produced a series of virtual reality enhanced presentations [E7] for public visitors to the events, including school outreach, public talks about the 3D visualisation work and VR demonstrations. The events recorded over 2,000 visitors over a two-week period and provided virtual access to the shipwrecks to the general public who would otherwise be unable to experience them. The 3D Visualisations were also represented in VR to the general public during the centenary events and later at the Scapa 100 conference (October 2019). A new diving guidebook to the Scapa 100 wrecks was published to coincide with the centenary containing 32 digital images of the shipwrecks [R5]. The work was also presented to the Scottish Parliament in 2019 and at the Scapa100 conference in October 2019.

The research has led to a diverse range of changes in practice; changes in understanding of data; increased and widened participation in both research, scientific practice and innovation; in willingness and confidence to engage; and in informing and changing policy at local and national levels.

Community and social empowerment driving environmental change

People were engaged in MS action-orientated citizen science campaigns to gather environmental data, e.g. air quality, noise pollution and gamma radiation, to tackle failures in the reduction of urban pollution targets by municipalities. As a result, in Pristina, Kosovo, air quality data mobilised citizens to protest for the first time. MS framed this narrative, presenting accessible scientific research, and consequently captured headlines of major media outlet ‘Prishtina Insight’. In response the government enacted emergency measures, banning city centre transport over the course of 2 days for the first time [E3]. Meanwhile, in Plaça Del Sol, Barcelona, 40 active residents took up our resources and collected data which demonstrated that WHO noise limits were exceeded on a recurrent basis, deeply affecting their lives [E4]. The noise pollution was complex, related to late night public gatherings and drinking, and exacerbated by architecture, urban planning, local policy, social behaviour, urban health, and economics. Armed with their MS data, citizens combined lobbying of policy makers in the municipality with an awareness campaign highlighting the noise pollution, resulting in changes to public services such as night cleaning in the square and the refurbishment of municipal spaces to deter revellers; evidence from citizens is highlighted in a documentary [E5].

Changes in policy as direct result of citizen data

Citizens often cite policy as an area in which they feel they have little agency, however our activity created opportunities to address this. The cumulative results of citizen sensing campaigns, including evidence and data given by MS NGO to an EU convention, resulted in change to the Constitution in Kosovo. In 2018 the Kosovo Assembly convened and passed the motion to amend citizens’ right to clean air through 17 recommendations [E6]. ‘Citizen Science Revolution’ documentary (2018) reveals this impact, featuring citizens and investigator statements. The documentary had 37,000 views as a live broadcast and 2,150 views between 7 December 2018 and 31 December 2020 on YouTube [E5]. Policy experts have recognized the importance of citizen science and engagement in GROW [E7]; in 2019 Woods was invited by the European Commission Directorate General Environment to provide expertise on new ‘Guidelines on Citizen Science for Environmental Monitoring’, to promote citizen science for environmental policy development and implementation [E8].

Changes in understanding and practice with respect to soil management.

An independent EC assessment to validate project impact and best practice was undertaken as a part of the Knowledge Valorisation Policy; subsequently, GROW was highlighted in ‘Making Research Results Work for Society – Engaging Citizens to Accelerate Use of Research Results to Benefit All’ [E11]. Interviews with participants were conducted, and confirmed impacts included: In El Hierro, Canary Islands, farmers reduced water irrigation of crops by between ‘30 - 50%’; GROW Greece integrated soil moisture with GIS data to monitor flooding and migratory birds in a wetland (Evros Delta); Walt, a GROW participant in Portugal, built his own data dashboard to monitor the threat of desertification and wildfires.

GROW Soil Moisture Datasets have been accepted in the International Soil Moisture Network, a repository with 3,200 registered users to date, and released as open data with licence for innovation. The dataset is used for satellite validation, model development and validation, meteorological applications, drought monitoring and other applications (e.g. quality control). GROW’s impact regarding the validation of satellite products, making accurate modelling of extreme climate events possible, was recognised at the European Commission Group Earth Observations (GEO), a partnership of 132 governments and organisations, promoting Earth observations for a sustainable planet. The Principal at GEO, stated:

GROW Observatory … is the first operational, continental-scale Citizens’ Observatory … for the first time, crowdsourced data has been used to validate 4 satellite soil moisture products, and 10+ different satellite products can use this dataset…GROW brings GEO into the mainstream … It supports GEO priorities towards the Sustainable Development Goals, and addresses SDG2, SDG13 and SDG15. [E10]

Shaping Tools and data for environmental monitoring activities across the EU

Our online education programmes on the Futurelearn platform (MOOCS) have delivered 27 weeks of education, providing rigorous training to more than 25,000 people from 182 countries around the world, to ensure data quality, and impart our framework and methods for the replication of Citizen Observatories. Between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2020), our book Citizen Sensing: A Toolkit has distributed 3,000 hardcopies, and is a licensed CC-BY-SA pdf resource; download data is modestly estimated at 2,400+ (UoD Discovery, 8+ additional websites) setting the benchmark to meet local and global environmental goals. Between October 2020 and 31 December 2020, GROW has licensed tools and data for reuse (downloaded 700+ times) [E1]. A range of NGOs, Governments, Institutes and Academia have adopted the approach including: Amsterdam Institute of Metropolitan Solutions, Lung Foundation, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute, Knowle West Media Centre, 300.000Km/s, National Institute of Public Health of Kosovo, U.S. Embassy in Kosovo and The Observatory for Public Sector Innovation [E5].

Impact has also been recognised by independent juries through the following awards to the Grow Observatory: Honorary mention ST+ARTS prize, ARS Electronica (2018) [E2]; Soil and Land Management Award (2018-19), European Landowners’ Organization; PIEoneer Awards Digital Innovation of the Year – Learning (2020) [E9].

Changing the framing of disability in design-led businesses

The impact of our research is embodied in two very different businesses:

Alleles has afforded self-expression to thousands of individual disabled customers worldwide. Founded in 2013, Alleles designs and manufactures 'fashion-led' covers for prosthetic legs and arms [www.alleles.ca\]. Founder McCauley Wanner questions “if any of this would have happened if it wasn't for finding Graham's book in the campus library":

When I came across Graham’s book, it literally changed my life… and became my ‘research bible’… [E1]

Alleles embodies the opening chapter of Design meets disability [R1], ‘fashion meets discretion’, identifying as “a team of fashion junkies. We are trying to solve a style problem. Not a limb one. In an industry with limited options we aim to provide choice for self-expression.” Alleles has shipped thousands of covers around the world, affording their wearers the ability to shape their own identity: “6 years since founding Alleles… making these products a reality for our clients has now created a movement for inclusivity" [E1].

In contrast, The Valuable 500 is a global business movement that seeks to address inclusion at board level. Launched at the World Economic Forum in January 2019, "where it made history by putting disability on the main stage for the first time ever", it has grown to influence the CEOs of nearly 400 companies, with $4.5 Trillion in revenue and 12 million employees, leading them to commit to “putting disability inclusion on their leadership agenda” [E2]. The Director of Inclusive Brands at The Valuable 500 and founder of Think Designable challenges the ‘trickle-down effect’ whereby disabled people benefit from technologies from elsewhere, arguing that disability can conversely revolutionise mainstream markets; she states that Pullin’s research "has influenced the mind set" of nearly 400 global organisations including Unilever, Microsoft, Barclays, Accenture, Bloomberg and Fujitsu and has “personally worked with the CMO of Prada to help them understand the innovation benefits of design meeting disability” [E2].

Changing the framing of disability and design in culture

The research has created cultural impact, from the individual experiences of disabled people as our research participants and mentors, to an exhibition that around 100,000 disabled and nondisabled visitors engaged with and other exhibits and articles with international reach, through curators and journalists:

Hands of X [R4] was exhibited at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Museum of Design, New York as part of Access+Ability, curated by Cara McCarty (15 December 2017–3 September 2018). The New York Times [E4] reported our focus "on people in the middle who don’t want to hide their disability, but also don’t want to become poster children for some futuristic, superhuman narrative.”

At V&A Dundee, our own exhibition Hands of X: design meets disability (27 June–1 September 2019) explored prosthetics in the context of disability studies [E5]. Public events included conversations between an amputee, a prosthetics student and eyewear designers [E6]. The V&A estimate that a majority of 140,000 visitors saw the exhibition and their own evaluation report found that the show helped people engage with a complex topic in a way that made them feel confident and comfortable. One visitor "was talking about how this kind of research was of interest because the prosthetic choices she has are uncomfortable and don’t feel in any way part of her” [E7].

An artist and one of four mentors amongst many other disabled participants on Hands of X, acknowledges the power of the exhibition stating that it "unquestionably helped inform a personal process of acknowledging my own disability and challenging my internalised ableism." As an artist, he reflects that this has "helped me to align what had until recently been separate aspects of my life, art practice and disability", thereby also changing a broader cultural and artistic landscape:

Also, in a more literal way, these collaborations have emboldened me to talk about and prioritise aesthetics and comfort as part of the requirements and expectations of a prosthesis, in situations where experts often solely focus on function [E3].

Invitations from the design press, including Icon, Dwell (circulation 900,000 in print and online) and Domus, illustrate a growing awareness of our research and these issues within magazines that do not often feature disability. Introducing our article on robotic prosthetic hands, Domus editor Sir David Chipperfield acknowledged this:

While it is traditionally an area dominated by technologists and clinicians, there is clearly a role for designers in considering the profound significance of materiality and personal identity. [E8]

Changing the framing of design in disability-related practice and education

Our international impact on disability-related practice spans inclusive design and assistive technology. Within Microsoft's Inclusive initiative alone the work has influenced 50,000 employees and featured in 500,000 screenings.

The Principal Design Strategist (herself disabled) and co-founder of Microsoft's Inclusive Design writes that our research "helped us frame the inclusive design practice as a one-size-fits-one method" [E9]; she goes on to state that within Microsoft, "Our inclusive curricula is in part grounded in our learnings from Graham. It has now been taught to over 50K Microsoft employees and inspired dozens of new products and features." In their Inclusive Design Toolkit [E10], Pullin is one of three "key people" thanked for their "leadership in inclusive design" and interviewed in the film 'Inclusive' [E11], screened internationally and streamed over 500,000 times worldwide. At the time of writing, The Principal Design Strategist confirms that “to date 50 universities have used the Inclusive Design Toolkit in their course curricula and 70+ have leveraged the film”; she notes:

Graham’s quote… “It is not about us and objects. It’s about us and each other.” is a standard on our presentations to external partners and has been shared with over 5,000 companies worldwide. [E9]

Two teams of researchers within the Visual Practice, Curation and Critique research grouping at DJCAD have, over the last sixteen years, investigated aspects of British and European art practice from the 1960s onward, having drawn on expertise developed within our Digital Archives. Projects informed or initiated by these archives have created a global engagement of over half a million visits. The online databases currently receive an average of 700 active users per month, the majority in the younger age bracket of 18-44 (Google Analytics retrieved 10/12/20); in addition, the Demarco Digital Archive has 164 subscribers, each of whom have made their own online curations.

Preservation and democratisation of cultural assets

McArthur and Watson’s research into the Demarco Digital Archive uncovered original video reels of Tadeusz Kantor’s The Water Hen from a performance in 1972. The previously unknown footage was digitized and restored by Lockhart, transcribed by researchers at Kantor’s archive in Krakow, then translated in Edinburgh. This formed the basis for McArthur’s subtitling, moving the raw translation into English that paralleled the colloquial nature of the original dialogue.

The significance of the footage was confirmed by the leading Kantor scholar, who spoke at the press launch of the UNESCO International Year of Kantor:

‘The efforts of the Media Archives Team cannot be overstated… prior to the discovery and digitization of the Kurka Wodna/Water Hen footage, there was no recording available of Kantor’s productions from his object/machine theatre, 1944-1975… Consequently, any effort to provide analysis of performance style or on-stage dramaturgy in Kantor’s theatre was speculative and inconclusive.’ [E3]

In 2015 The Water Hen was screened in Venice during the Biennale, and subsequently in Gdansk, Warsaw, Berlin, Dusseldorf and Tokyo. The restored Water Hen was central to a major exhibition in Sao Paolo (18/8/15-14/11/15) attended by 90,000 visitors.

The exhibition 24 Arguments: Early Encounters in Romanian Neo-Avant-Garde 1969-71 at The National Museum of Romania similarly drew on materials restored and preserved by the research team, in this case the digitization of a film capturing two seminal performances made by Paul Neagu during his thirty-year exile in the UK, described as:

‘an essential act in the exhibition, given the fact that the Romanian public have never had access to the works and documents presented in the exhibition.’ [E2]

The REWIND Media Preservation Lab has ensured the preservation of footage that would otherwise have been lost to future generations, as evidenced by projects such as the The London Community Video Archive (with Goldsmiths), which provides a significant record of counter-cultural events and happenings in 70s & 80s London. The Lab’s work in transferring obsolete video to digital formats has been praised as ‘ recovering and revising this history... as a resource for contemporary debates and activism’ [E4].

Lockhart’s curation of works from REWIND featured along with >>FFWD Artist’s Moving Image from Scotland, as part of CURRENT, Phase Two at the Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum (17/12/16-15/1/17). This was the second in a series of exhibitions across China and brought seminal early UK video works to China for the first time, exhibited alongside contemporary Scottish video art. The exhibition received 7,500 actual visitors and 157,000 online visits, garnering media attention across 45 outlets including the Shanghai Daily (22/12/16), which stated:

‘Excavating the radical history encapsulated in seminal artists video works from the 70s & 80s, REWIND provides an in-depth perspective on the moving image.’ [E5]

A catalyst for physical and digital cultural legacies

In 2014 Creative Scotland commissioned a consultancy which recommended uniting the materials still held by Demarco with those in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (this had been prompted by an earlier exhibition curated by McArthur and Watson which had provoked a debate in the Scottish Parliament committing the Scottish Government to housing the Demarco Archive). An extensive site was purchased in north Edinburgh and plans for the new building were passed in 2018. The consolidated archive will be housed as a discrete unit within the planned £75 million National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) Collections Hub. This is described by the Director General NGS as a:

‘significant infrastructure development in a socially deprived area in Edinburgh…construction is scheduled to start 2022/3… A significant part of this building will be publicly accessible facilities for research, study, exhibitions and education.’ [E6]

A further impact of our growing reputation for digital archiving has led the internationally renowned performance artist, Alastair MacLennan, to deposit his entire archive (21/12/18) documenting over 600 performances and installations to join existing holdings of his work within REWIND and Demarco Digital. This gives a unique opportunity to capture the development of this growing legacy through a living archive.

Several major acquisitions were made, by Tate, of historic works made visible by REWIND, embedding a significant body of under-represented work within a national collection and consequently ensuring the long-term conservation and further dissemination through one of the most important collections of modern and contemporary art in the world. The expertise of the research team is acknowledged by the Tate:

‘… only 2 or 3 possible laboratories in the world with this set of skills and knowledge… that not only could transfer this early video format, but would also understand the context of video art in the 70s…’ [E8]

The acquisitions include David Hall’s TV Interruptions: The Installation acquired in 2014; Stephen Partridge’s Monitor in 2015, exhibited 2016-17. Tina Keane’s Faded Wallpaper (1988) and her In Our Hands Greenham (1984) were acquired in 2017 and 2020 respectively, following research into, and reconstitution of, the original installation [E7]. The Lab also collaborated with Tate in 2019, (prior to accession and exhibition) on the digitisation of Darcy Lange’s pioneering social documentary video practice: Studies of Teaching in Four Oxfordshire Schools (1977).

These ‘ pioneering but previously overlooked’ [E7] video works are now central to Tate’s digital legacy. The contribution of REWIND and its related projects are described by the responsible acquisitions manager (now at The Museum of Modern Art, New York) as ‘ crucial to re-assessing the canon of UK video art’ [E7].

Stimulating and showcasing creative works

Publications stemming from REWIND activity led to wider impact by opening artists’ video to a general audience. REWIND | Italia, Early Video Art in Italy brings seminal, early video experimentation into an international spotlight, providing a vital resource for research and study by making important Italian texts available for the first time in English [R2]. The UK Launch included a performance at CCA, Glasgow by artist Claudio Ambrosini described by Art Monthly (9/16) as:

‘a significant piece of research and a vital contribution to any library of video art history’ and Italian Journal Arshake (2/3/16) ‘a useful and extremely valuable tool’ [E9].

Conversely an extended, non-specialist audience of 300,000 (production company academy7) were introduced, most for the first time, to artist’s video in Kill Your TV, Jim Moir’s (Vic Reeves) Weird World of Video Art (BBC4 24/11/19 with further audiences via iPlayer and repeat broadcast). Lockhart was both consultant and interviewee whilst works by Partridge and Shemilt were among twelve selected from the REWIND archive featured on the programme. All unedited interviews from the programme were deposited in the REWIND archive [E10].