Summary of the impact

Research from the Digital arts strand of the CMR has had an impact in two related areas.

• It has fed into and impacted on policy and planning for the development of the creative industries in Northern Ireland
• It has helped cultural institutions and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) to develop mobile phone apps and interactive gaming solutions to the problems of maximising audience participation and increasing footfall across key cultural sectors.

Summary of the impact

The research in this case study explored how media and cultural practices of communities are transforming in the digital age, and addressed the ways in which digital tools can enhance the lives of communities. There have been two main areas of impact: (1) contributing to the preservation, conservation and presentation of cultural heritage of communities; and (2) enhancing public and professional understanding of digital transformations in communities. The two main beneficiaries have been (i) local communities, and organisations working with and for communities in the South East of England, and (ii) professional communities of journalists and communicators in the UK and Germany.

Summary of the impact

Kafka's Wound', a response to Kafka's short story `A Country Doctor' (1919), was created as part of the `Re-imagining the Literary Essay for the Digital Age' (RILEDA) project. The essay is available at www.thespace.lrb.co.uk.

Commissioned from the London Review of Books (LRB), an independent literary publisher, RILEDA was supported by £45k from ACE who invested £3.5m in 51 commissions. The work was `located' in the Space, an experimental digital arts service, itself a major project within Arts Council England's creative media policy and its Public Value Partnership with the BBC.

Headed by Will Self, novelist and professor of contemporary thought at Brunel University, RILEDA involved over 70 collaborators drawn from the School of Arts and many other departments (especially Computing, Engineering and Design) in a collaborative, interdisciplinary, practice- based, research project. Institutional contributors included the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the Imperial War Museum, and the National Centre for Jewish Film. The research was carried out between March and July 2012 and the essay was `published' in August 2012.

Highly innovative and of high artistic quality, RILEDA has impacted diverse audiences worldwide, evolving the multi-media digital literary essay while encouraging innovative approaches to digital arts and supporting the case for future public digital arts services. It raises important issues about the nature of authorship, collaboration, and co-design in digital forms which frame broader questions about the nature of creativity, intellectual property rights, and the processes and experience of reading.

The high artistic quality and innovative user interface engaged a significant worldwide audience with 49,208 visits in 12 months, 57% from outside the UK.

Summary of the impact

In the fast changing era of digital technology this cluster's research impacts upon audiences locally and internationally. Through experimental films and videos, interactive media and performances its outputs engage and challenges audiences in cinemas, galleries and on the worldwide web. As well as galvanizing public consciousness on climate change (Franny Armstrong) and engendering greater understanding of synaesthesia (Sam Moore), a significant dimension to the impact focuses upon the transition from analogue to digital technology. While the moving image and performance work (Guy Sherwin and Paul Harrison) also expands the boundaries of moving image technology in the spatialised context of galleries.

Summary of the impact

This case study describes the impact of research undertaken by Falmouth's Autonomatic Research Group on developments in the UK Craft and Designer-Maker sector. This sector consists of individual or small groups of creative practitioners producing high value individual and bespoke products in studio/workshop environments using ceramic, glass, metals, textile and mixed media. This sector has been slow to benefit from the digital economy for reasons including cost, perceptions of relevance, accessibility and training. Autonomatic has worked to highlight digital technologies relevance to small scale and bespoke manufacturing, increase accessibility, and provide opportunities for businesses' and communities' creative development.

Summary of the impact

Research at the University of Dundee providing original insights and new directions in the way that internet technologies and data can be embedded in the real world through being given physical forms has lead to impacts that include:

• Contribution to changes in the global organization (Mozilla), its perspective of the internet;
• Changes in the way Open NASA approaches open data;
• Contribution to the V&A's approach to the exhibition of digital work exhibition development at the V&A;
• Product development within a UK Design Industry SME.

Summary of the impact

The switch of the nation's televisions to receive digital signals is widely acknowledged as the biggest government-enforced change in British life since 1971's decimalisation. Jonathan Freeman's research on the human factors of digital switchover is recognised as an essential source of information to government, industry, and consumer groups (including charities such as RNIB) and therefore as a key foundation in the success of the switchover. In particular, his research influenced the design of easy-to-use TV equipment, and communications about switchover to different types of viewer, improving the experiences of millions of TV viewers in the UK and beyond.