Notes from the Beyond Conference

If you're interested in creative collaboration between industry, academia and research then the Beyond conference might be of interest to you. Open to creative professionals, the annual event explores the relationships between creative research and business innovation. Founded in 2018 in partnership with the Arts Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the conference held its fifth event in Cardiff on 18-20th October. I returned this year as a speaker, having gone to the first conference back in 2018. This gave me a chance to explore first-hand the many projects on display that have come out of creative collaborations. Below are three fantastic projects selected from the conference's 'Immersive Futures Lab' showcase.

Monoliths

Monoliths is a production from the Pilot Theatre (image 1). Three stories open the world of the English northern landscape in virtual reality, immersing us in what it means to come from it, live in it and belong to it.?The project interweaves renderings of three northern UK environments – a moor, a city and a coast – with sweeping soundscapes and poetic monologues. The production is part funded from XR Stories, part of the Creative Clusters AHRC* initiative.

*The UKRI - UK Research and Innovation - is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the UK's department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and is made up of nine councils. Each council provides funding for research institutes like universities, or private sector businesses, to undertake research and innovation projects. Businesses can apply directly to Innovate UK (one of the nine councils), whilst collaborations with research institutes tend to be the stronger route to other funding programmes.

Monolith's is an example of a project that is a collaboration between private and public enterprises, The Pilot Theatre and XR Stories partners: University of York, British Film Institute, Screen Yorkshire.

Steppenwolf

Steppenwolf (image 3) is a collaborative project between Charisma Entertainment, Warner Bros Discovery and XR Stories. The project uses film assets brought into the Unreal Engine, and combines this with the Charisma conversational engine. The resulting experience is a user 'player' conversation with DC Super villain Steppenwolf, as you talk to him in natural language.

Painting Music

The Painting Music project uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create music from live painted drawings, in real time.?This research and development began in 2018 in collaboration with AI developers Dr Starkey and Jack Caven from Aberdeen University. The algorithm is based on the type of learning used by the human brain, and responds to live-painting by producing musical notes that reflect the development of the evolving artwork. A portable and autonomous system was later developed, designed and fabricated by Ray Interactive that enables live broadcasting of Painting Music through any physical and digital platform.

The value of creative collaboration

All of the projects showcased at Beyond offer insight into how creative research, when applied alongside technology, can lead to innovations in audience engagement. And it's the creative thinking part threaded between these seemingly distinct disciplines that allows us to work in multidisciplinary ways.

Creative thinking is an asset that any person or organisation can have, it just needs to be uncovered (and valued). The best way to do this is by working in collaboration with others, particularly those with different competencies and experiences. What's demonstrable from the conference is that business and university collaboration (with some hefty government funding in between) can leverage creativity and with that, innovation ecosystems across the UK.

Terra pen - join us on 17 November!

If you're interested in collaboration - future or present, drop in to the Innovation Studio or come to one of our public events.

The next public event will be held at AUB on Thursday 17th November 'Drawing with Machines: Pen Plotters in Contemporary Art' - an exhibition showcase and talk from our resident creative business 'Terra pen'. Join us from 5.00pm for drinks and a look at digital drawing machines.