We are very pleased to announce the 2019 South West Creative Technology Immersion Showcase.
The SWCTN Immersion full Showcase is now SOLD OUT and for those of you who still want to be part of the day we have opened up the programme from 3pm – 6pm
The SWCTN Showcase will be held at Watershed
1 Canon’s Rd, Bristol, BS1 5TX
SWCTN Immersion Showcase Full Day Programme
Friday 12th July 2019 (10am – 6pm)
Immersion is a slippery process. It is an idea that means something different to everyone. It might mean escaping from the physical world or engaging more fully with it, it can be about augmentation, imagination or information. On the one hand we see massive valuations of future market potential attracting investor attention, and on the other the reality of creative businesses struggling to sustain themselves.
The SWCTN Immersion Showcase demonstrates the breadth of the conversation across practitioners from wildly different traditions – writers, artists, theatre makers, engineers, games designers, dancers, coders and more – who have gathered in the place called ‘immersive’. The day will explore the emerging market, from its instabilities and difficult challenges to the enormous future potential of immersive experiences – experiences which make people see, feel, think and work differently.
Join the Immersion Fellows and Prototype teams to look beyond the constraints of the field and the current notions of immersion through a day of debate, exhibition, networking and discussion.
Morning programme 10am – 12.30pm thought leadership section of the day, in the Cinema hosted by Jo Lansdowne Executive Producer Pervasive Media Studio.
10am – 10:30amShowcase RegistrationHead to the desk at Watershed’s cinema foyer on the first floor to pick up your programme for the day and sign up for any special talks or events.
Session 1
Welcome and introduction with Jon Dovey
The SWCTN Immersion Fellowship programme deliberately set out to see how immersive histories and forms could be newly mobilised in the production of immersive experiences. Programme Director Jon Dovey introduces us to the SWCTN Immersion Fellows: storytellers, theatremakers, game makers, a dancer, and a granite sculptor who join us for the day to discuss and explore how old forms and new technologies are combining to change what is possible. For more details on the Immersion Fellows click here
Session 2
The State of Immersion
Across the world, including here in the South West, immersion is an idea that means different things to different people. Immersion Fellow Julia Scott-Stevenson will explore the State of Immersion from the macro to the micro with Fellows Duncan Speakman, Vincent Baidoo and Aste Amundsen.
Session 3
Framing Immersion
In a landscape where all parts of the value chain are evolving at speed, this session will discuss tech production, distribution, audience engagement, business models and the fundamental grammar of the form. Mark Leaver will explore the challenges and opportunities of creating immersive experiences.
Session 4
Ben Dunks
Taking the steps beyond
How can a technology support you to quantitatively demonstrate what has previously been anecdotal? How can a new approach tell the story, and how can that story shift practice and mindsets? And can the use of immersive technology influence an industry? In this session Ben will interrogate his journey into immersion and explain how the tech has been the tool to get the answers he was seeking, to build and prove an innovative idea and to build investment for the future.
Lunch 12:30pm – 2pm
There will be some playful prompts encouraging you to use your lunch break to keep thinking about what immersion means to you. We will provide vegetarian and vegan packed lunches for all. If you have any dietary requirements then please email hannah.b@watershed.co.uk
Afternoon programme 2pm – 6pm
Prototype Launch 2pm – 3pm
Join us in Watershed Cinema 1 for a first look at the SWCTN Immersion Prototypes. These early stage prototypes aim to use new technologies to engage users in immersive experiences that are brave, ethical and that connect us to one another while creating value. The launch features eight short films introducing each project. For more details on the Immersion Prototypes click here.
Explore Immersion 3pm – 6pm
We invite you to examine the relationship between immersion and commercial possibility through thought leadership and playful prototypes that respond to an ever increasing need to develop new forms of production, distribution, audience engagement and business models. Our programme will feature opportunities for networking, debate and discussion, as well as exhibitions and demos across the harbourside. All spaces are accessible, close by with activities designed exclusively for our delegates by the talented immersion fellows and prototype teams.
Prototypes: Get up close and hands on with the prototypes. Test out the technology and discuss the processes and challenges with the prototype teams.
AudioWAVE Squid Soup
BabyBLS VIKA Books
EarthSongs Mitch Turnbull
Realtime Stagemaker Toolkit AnagramRenaissance Ben Dunks Responsive Content Generation Tool Triangular Pixels
Shared Pasts: Decoding Complexity Coral Manton
TacTiles Rowan James
Fellows: This series of talks and demos from the SWCTN Immersion Fellows offers a deep dive into their specialist areas of research and will include:
Across Voids: use of Immersive and AI Technologies to support griefSpeaker: Dr Norah Lorway Lecturer Creative Music Technology Falmouth University
The Possibilities of Immersive Mediation
Speaker: Marcus Smith
Distorted Constellations: Ritualising Augmented Reality: Accessibility as Innovative Creativity and the Use of the Sensory Space
Speaker: Nwando Ebizie
Other matters of Immersion: place, mess and entanglement
Speakers: Julia Scott-Stevenson, Duncan Speakman and David Paton
We will provide BSL to accompany all our speakers. To ensure all participants experience a fully playful day please let us know about any access requirements.
Any questions? Contact hannah.b@watershed.co.uk
South West Creative Technology Immersion Showcase is produced by Watershed and part of the £6.5 million project to expand the use of creative technologies across the region. It is part of Research England’s Connecting Capabilities Fund (https://re.ukri.org/knowledge-exchange/the-connecting-capability-fund-ccf/), which supports university collaboration in research commercialisation and encourages commercialisation of products made through partnerships with industry.
The network is led by the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), in partnership with Watershed in Bristol, Kaleider in Exeter, Bath Spa University, the University of Plymouth and Falmouth University. See https://www.swctn.org.uk/
