Funding: AHRC Creative Clusters Initiative, £5,625,771 (2018-2023)
Grant number: AH/S002855/1
Investigators from UoA32: Prof Karen Fleming, Dr Justin Magee, Alec Parkin
Principle Investigator: Professor Paul Moore
This is one of 'eight new creative research & development partnerships bringing together the UK’s renowned creative industries with our world-leading university sector' (AHRC, 2018).
Future Screens NI comprises the two higher education institutions (Ulster University and QUB) 20 investigators and a number of key industrial partners central to the creative economy in the region, including NI Screen, BBC, Belfast City Council, Belfast Harbour, Causeway Enterprise Agency, Digital Catapult, Catalyst Inc., RTE, Games NI, Kainos, Invest NI, Techstart NI, Matrix and Tourism NI.
The Northern Ireland Assembly defines the creative industries as 'those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property'.
The Partnership has, from this, developed a definition of, and a working model for, the creative industries in NI which is focused on participation, cultural and economic growth, and social and economic regeneration placing the Partnership as a leading developmental catalyst in this NI sector.
Art & Design researchers are mostly involved with the immersive work package, however also contribute to the leadership work package.
Academic Staff have been involved in the delivery of the following funded sub projects:
- Lead2grow: Embedding design culture and applied design research methods into 28 SME’s across NI (Dr Justin Magee with Business colleagues Prof Karise Hutchison and Rachael Fergie)
- Axial 3D and HUMAIN: Design led methods changing how pre-surgical procedures are conducted in orthopaedics, cardiology and neurosurgery through Machine Learning code and 3D virtual modelling (Dr Justin Magee with School of Computing & Intelligent Systems colleague Dr Shane Wilson)
- NI Screen: 4K rendering development for 8 Screen companies across NI (Alec Parkin)
- Taunt: Real-time rendering R&D for pilot project (Alec Parkin)
- Enter Yes: Creation of a High Definition Rendering Pipeline to compete internationally and establish an industry standard. Received praise from Invidia (Alec Parkin)
- Boom Clap Play: R&D for an untethered spatial control solution for creative visualisation- gesture based control systems, gaming and installation (Alec Parkin)
- White Pot: Development of a hyper-efficient real time terrain deformation system enabling player self-expression (Alec Parkin)
- NEON: To develop an augmented reality (AR) conversation story prototype called “Talking Sense” (Brian Coyle with Psychology colleagues Prof Mickey Keenan and Dr Stephen Gallagher)
- Pop Up Design Museum: Investigating and developing a novel approach to delivering Belfast Design Week in the Covid-19 pandemic, through a blend of digital and physical city-wide initiatives (Dr Brian Dixon)
- Small Town Big Dreams Podcast: Investigating the impact of Covid-19 on the creative industries in Northern Ireland, resulting in a public-facing podcast series and 'pandemic' toolkit for creatives (Dr Brian Dixon)
- RONA-LINGO: "How Corona virus has changed language in a post pandemic climate- to develop a new creative methodology for technical manual production." (Dr Justin Magee, Dr Jack Joyce & Dr James Fallon (Head of Psychiatry & Neuroscience UCI, USA)
- Flickerpix Ltd: Creating an animated feature film for theatrical release using methods that are unique to the stop-motion animation industry. (Alec Parkin)
- Blackstaff Games Ltd: Developing animated Avatars for enhancing communication for content creators. (Kyle Boyd & Dr Victoria Simms in Psychology)
- Belfast Design Week: Building on previous successful projects seeking to showcase Northern Ireland’s design heritage alongside the work of contemporary local designers and design students through using interactive content such as mapping technology. (Dr. Brian Dixon).
- Lyric Theatre NI: Creating evidence-based recommendations on how VR can enhance the Live Theatre experience for audiences in light in social distancing. (Dr Justin Magee & Dr Declan Keeney, Director of The Ulster Screen Academy.)
- Blick Shared Studios: Developing a programme to provide inspiration and support to help freelance, startup, micro and small businesses in the creative industries in Northern Ireland following the Covid-19 pandemic. (Dr Brian Dixon)
- Louise Taylor: Producing a community project Recrafting the Narrative of Grief to encourage engaging with traditional crafts exploring grief and hope in the context of Covid-19 through a digital platform. (Professor Karen Fleming in collaboration with Professor Cherie Armour at Queens University Belfast).
- Stéphanie Heckman: Creating a project to develop workflows for creating live time-lapse animations and VR illustrations that visualize the collective thought process in videoconferencing meetings, in a bid to combat the new phenomenon of ‘Zoom fatigue’. (Alec Parkin)
- Oaken Studios: Developing a virtual reality interactive narrative experience exploring the subject of grief and bereavement VR and explore a sensitive mental health subject from an interesting original perspective. (Alec Parkin)
- Soft Leaf Studios: To develop a wholesome point and click adventure made with game accessibility at the forefront of its design. (Brian Coyle)
- Jordan Whitefield: Developed an animation, 病毒和我 (The Virus and Me) w to explore and raise awareness of how the pandemic has affected the Chinese community in Northern Ireland, their experience of marginalisation and how it has impacted their mental health and sense of belonging. (Alec Parkin with Dr Trisha Forbes - Research Fellow at Queens University Belfast)
PhD Researchers have been involved in the following:
- Ara Devine: Artist, filmmaker and practice-based PhD researcher. This research draws on a specialized knowledge of border-art in Ireland to develop a short narrative film project entitled 'Turf'. (Supervisors: Dr Clare Gallagher
Mr Ken Grant, Professor Paul Seawright) - Alasdair Asmussen Doyle: PhD researcher in partnership with AEMI [artist experimental moving-image, Dublin) Whose research investigates how early filmic representations, in parallel to cartographic tools have framed our understanding of ourselves and our place in the world (Supervisors: Dan Shipsides, Dr Aisling O'Beirn, Professor Willie Doherty)
- Niamh McConaghy: PhD researcher with a research practice investigating to what extent a combination of visual and literary representations of chronic pain experience can produce a more effective means to communication and understanding (Supervisors: Professor Karen Fleming, Dr Justin Magee, Dr Pamela Whitaker)
- Jane Morrow: independent visual art curator and PhD researcher with a specialism in artist and organisational development PhD research focuses on the precarity of artists’ studios and workspaces in Belfast; labour and practice, collaborative and co-operative models, and permanence and peripateticism. (Supervisors: Dr Cherie Driver & Brian Connolly).
