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This case study documents the initial impacts of a site-specific theatre project: Fortnight that was conceived and developed by Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) contemporary artist Peter Petralia between 2010 and 2012. The project exemplifies research that seeks to explore engagement with place, locality and community using pervasive digital technologies, and utilises these methods to enhance the creative potential of individuals and organizations. Fortnight's impact is social, cultural and economic as documented by the 800 participants and producers involved in the project so far. Fortnight has also generated impact within the creative industries through the innovative application of its use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. To date Fortnight has been curated and hosted in Lancaster and Bristol (2011), Manchester (2012) and Oxford (2013).
`Social Interpretation' is focused on developing new systems to enable the interpretation, discussion, collection and sharing of cultural experiences with, and between, museum visitors, demonstrating the following 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:
Research conducted by the UCL SCEMFA research group into materialising the digital has had many and varied impacts, including the creation of new forms of artistic expression, and the production of new cultural resources. The research has also had demonstrable impacts on cultural heritage, both through the acquisition of its outputs into important national collections and through contributions to policy relating to the preservation of digital artefacts. Wider societal and cultural contributions have been delivered through work in the public realm, and commercial benefits have accrued through collaboration with Liberty.
Our research on the ways in which digital platforms enable people to make and share creative material online, and thereby foster creativity in individuals and groups, has had a number of particular direct impacts on the media and cultural industries. At the LEGO Group, there have been several impacts, on policy, on training, and on product development. At BBC Children's, collaborative research about an online world for children led to changes in commissioning processes. At S4C, the work had an impact on digital media strategy, and led to a change in the company's statement of overall corporate aims and values.
This case study concerns analogue interfacing of digital content and services and examines interfaces which seek to be bespoke, inclusive, meaningful and engaging associations of crafted materiality. Through a series of deployments of prototypes in a range of real world contexts this case study demonstrates the value and interest, beyond academic research, for crafted physical interfaces.
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.
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.
The Music Walk project has brought contemporary art music to new audiences and enriched the public's experience of public spaces. The impact of Hopkins' research arises from this project commissioned by the BBC Proms for its John Cage Centenary on 17 August 2012, with the involvement of Transport for London. The project had direct impact upon 600 members of the public who took part in a performance event around the Albert Hall using mobile media devices, and a further 5,961 people who accessed the project website. The project also had impact upon the policy-thinking of the BBC in relation to using mobile media to reach and engage new audiences, on Transport for London in relation to its strategy for pedestrians, and on new music promoter Sound and Music, which has commissioned further iterations of the project for London and beyond.
The project impacts by connecting people with technology through an interactive art project. Portable equipment ensures wide participation: people respond to, and interact with, virtual living creatures in an entertaining but instructive context. Bringing together human participants (able to intervene in the environment) with the virtual bugs (responsive to stimuli/their environment), people are challenged to consider cause and effect in the physical environment as well as their own inter-social relations. The impact which is cultural, imaginative and pedagogic is achieved through touch rather than via the normal emphasis on the communicated world.