XLab & MA Immersive Arts

The Experimental Technologies Lab grew out of four years of research at FACTLab, a collaboration with Liverpool's FACT. Researchers, artists and technologists produce projects together as teams, using a methodology of active co-design: diverse people invited to explore creative technology through hands-on experimentation with electronics, immersive and interactive media and fabrication. Since 2015 the lab welcomed over 4,500 visitors, working across the Liverpool Fab Lab, LiveLab and the X-Gallery, with an immersive projection room, room-scale multiplayer VR, mixed reality headsets, holographic displays, 3D scanning, 8K stereoscopic 360 cameras, digital fabrication and more.

The MA Immersive Arts was designed so students would explore and experiment with augmented reality, mixed reality, projection mapping, holographics, future screens and virtual reality, run jointly between the Liverpool Screen School and the Liverpool School of Art and Design. Modules covered immersive storytelling, an immersive arts lab, a collaborative project with an external partner, research and proposal, and a major practice-based project. It was built in consultation with creative industry and arts partners and with the North West's immersive technology sector.

In December 2018 the team ran the Immersive Storytelling Experiences Research Symposium, bringing over 200 delegates from industry and academia to explore R&D in these mediums. In 2020 this body of work saw me named in the BIMA 100.

Related: my teaching, lecturing and curriculum design.

More on virtual production, LED volumes and ICVFX in Manchester and the North West.