We’re very pleased to announce participation in this year’s Creative Industries Fund!

The award is funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency. Their remit is to drive productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas. They fund business and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and drive business investment into R&D. Their support is available to businesses across all economic sectors, value chains and UK regions. Innovate UK is part of the wider UK Research and Innovation.

eXtended Reality (XR) experiences

Our application is to undertake research and development of two prototype XR experiences, with a particular focus on 3D sound.

The first explores the use of procedural audio to create an audiovisual artwork that can adapt and transform in real time within a Virtual Reality “activated environment”, based upon user exploration and interaction.

The second will investigate the use of head tracked, 3D audio to provide the foundation to overlay exciting sonic artworks, stories and experiences that transport us from, or augment our real world environment.

The funding helps us design and build these prototypes and will bolster a portfolio of work aimed to generate new client services and help identify market gaps for new product development.

Team

Working alongside frequent collaborator and ex BBC R&D colleague Tim Cowlishaw, we’ll create a playful, research lab environment over a three month period to explore these areas.. Our work will be guided by mentors David Johnston, technologist at Digital Catapult, Irini Papadimitriou, creative director at FutureEverything and Nick Luscombe, creative director of Musicity, broadcaster and ex BBC Late Junction host. Alongside our official mentors, we’ll be sharing and evaluating our work within our network of artists and technologists to get valuable feedback.

We are extremely excited to get started and explore the potential of this space and thank Innovate UK for their confidence and support!

If you’re interested in our progress then subscribe to this blog for updates, ideas and code samples as we proceed. You can view all related posts using the CIF2021 tag.

Photo by Tanner Boriack