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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.
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.
Alliance researchers have devised and applied technologies that bridge the gap between the real and virtual worlds, linking digital data to physical entities. The ability to embed personal stories in objects and places has impacted on the way National Museums Scotland sources and displays collections, while Oxfam has used the research to bring added value to donated goods, leading to an increase in store sales of 53% over a week-long period. Mobile Visual Search technology has been taken-up by global brands and advertising agencies, including Nike, Disney, Vodafone, Nokia, Tesco, P&G, King & Partners, Mocom and Ogilvy, leading one industry expert to describe it as "the new model of marketing mobility". The work has led to a patent, the receipt of several awards, and influenced the formation of a spin-off company, Mobile Acuity (with revenue of over £0.5M to date), which has secured a major investment of over £1M, including from international corporation, [text removed for publication], to invest in the US and East Asia.
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.
Robin Mansell's research has impacted on government policy and corporate strategy in the areas of copyright and the Internet, investment in broadband networks, and arrangements for achieving network security and individual privacy protection. These are all key components of what has come to be known as information society policy. Her work has challenged policy makers to respond to the legitimate interests of citizens as well as to those of government and corporate stakeholders. These impacts are particularly visible in shifts in information society policy at the international level to include greater attention to citizen interests and in national policy debates about the future of copyright and business and government responses to the need for secure networks that also protect citizens' privacy.
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 research led by Professor Sita Popat with Scott Palmer enabled digital arts small-medium enterprise (SME) KMA Ltd to develop ground-breaking visual/kinetic ideas and permanently shift their creative product (and hence their income stream) from web design and popular music show projection to theatre and the cultural industries. Subsequent collaborative research and development workshops catalysed the design of a progressive digital projection for an international theatre company's production, influencing how audiences around the world received the work's political message.
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.
Research from the Digital arts strand of the CMR has had an impact in two related areas.
This case study demonstrates sustained impact on UK government and devolved government policy in the area of creative digital participation; on the regional implementation of that policy; on publicly funded community initiatives that benefited from that implementation; and on the NI school curriculum. It will also outline the beginnings of similar impact on an international scale: on government education policy and school and university curricula in, for example, Namibia and South Africa, where the underpinning research has been disseminated.