PORTALS is a new interactive project by artist Lucas Chih-Peng Kao and TRAMWAY, Glasgow. It presents Lucas’ new 360 films within an online experience that uses TRAMWAY’s spaces as a dynamic, sculptural interface.

The virtual space is based on ‘Tramway XR’, a digital model we created from laser scans and 3D modelling of the building. This is the third digital exhibition we have prototyped, following Glasgow International and “Dressing Above Your Station” with PANEL. All aim to make artists’ work accessible to new audiences.

https://tramway-portals.online/

Thank-you to ShowStudio for an great review of Dressing Above Your Station. The project has gathered some amazing press, across the worlds of the visual arts, fashion, design and culture.

The ShowStudio Amy LeFay feature is here.

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And a selection of other articles can be accessed at these links:

Various Artists / Philomena Epps  interview Mairi and Beca / Link

Wallpaper / Tilly MacAllister-Smith preview / Link

The Herald / Teddy Jameison interviews Carol Campbell / Link

Artlyst / Clare Henry review / Link

Park Row is the cover star of this months AV MAGAZINE – the industry leading publication for Commercial Immersive Technology.

Features an in-depth interview with MD James, our hardware partners at SYSCO and some great photos of the different spaces that make up the Park Row experience including the centrepiece video-mapped dining room.

Next stage updates already in the planning.

<AV Magazine June / July 2022 link>

We are looking forward to attending the CreativeTech Scotland Gathering, this Friday 25th March, at Codebase Edinburgh.

ISO’s R&D unit isoLABS will demonstrate a range of recent prototypes exploring the digital capture of artworks, fashion and architecture that explore new modes of audience engagement and how digital twins can extend exhibition design.

ISODESIGN Partner, Damien Smith, will also be speaking on the “What’s Happening In Creative Tech In Scotland” panel, alongside pals from AXIS and Bright Side Studios.

Tickets are still available both in person and to join online at https://ctsg.scot

CodeBase Creative Edinburgh Creative Informatics UK

23rd February – Online.

Damien and Verena speaking at the Can Do Conference on ‘Will Technology transform the Arts’. We’ll be sharing reflections on how technology-led innovation can help develop new ideas around content and media production, alongsidefilm design studio  Painting Practice.

In the words of the organisers “Through our award-winning event series, Art of Possible, a feeder series for Scotland’s national innovation event, CAN DO Innovation Summit, we bring together an eclectic community of innovators, creatives, academics, policy experts and entrepreneurs to explore how unexpected tech collaborations can bring about new ideas and innovations to tackle challenges we are facing in industry and society.

https://www.candoinnovation.scot/

We’ll be attending SXSW this year as members of the Audience of the Future delegation to share UK work with an international audience and check out what cool stuff they’ve been working on! Our Head of R&D Verena will be following up on her pre-pandemic trip to Shanghai with ther recipients of Audience of the future funding. We’ll also get a chance to share a sneak peek of our StoryTrails project, developed in partnership with StoryFutures Academy, the BFI, Nexus and technical partners Niantic and Sketchfab. Breakfast burritos aat the ready!

<Link here>

Best of luck to the team at Blazing Griffin in the Scottish BAFTAS this weekend where their release of “Murder Mystery Machine” has been nominated for BEST GAME. One of the launch games for Apple Arcade, MMM is based on a procedural Police drama across 8 episodes.

We worked with the BG team to create the opening titles which evolved as individual intro sequences for each episode. These were created within the realtime games engine, with the original characters and environments and we used virtual cameras to stage and output the final scenes as dramatic openers, as with a TV series. And if you spot the clues you get a lead on who the Murderer is!

Introducing StoryTrails!
As part of the Storytrails Collective we are one of the 10 projects commissioned for UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, which aims to bring people together and reach millions through free, large-scale immersive installations and accessible digital experiences in the UK’s most ambitious showcase of creative collaboration, going live across the country in Summer 2022.

At the heart of StoryTrails will be the recruitment of the next generation of UK-based talent to help tell the stories of our communities. Across 15 towns and cities they will work closely with local people in each place to gather unknown, surprising and intriguing stories. Fifty creatives will be trained to use state-of-the-art immersive technologies to showcase and produce these stories in new and surprising ways. Led by Story Futures Academy, the StoryTrails Collective want to ensure that the UK’s creative industries are not only the best trained in the use of emerging and immersive technologies but that the future workforce properly represents the diversity of the UK.

StoryTrails is delivered in partnership with The British Film Institue, broadcaster and film-maker, David Olusoga, BBC, Uplands Television, Nexus Studios and ourselves. It will use leading edge technology from Niantic, makers of Pokemon Go and it will be brought to life in The Reading Agency’s national network of libraries embedding the project back in local communities, with event-making specialists Produce UK.

Find out more about the project by clicking here. Includes details on how to apply to be one of the 50 creatives – now open!

We’ll be virtually joining BEYOND FESTIVAL in Belfast on Wednesday sharing our TRAMWAY REVISITED project. Funded by Innovate UK’s Sustainable Innovation Fund it’s a 12 month R&D challenge bringing arts producers and venues together with specialists in digital experience design, architecture, visualisation and audience engagement to find new solutions that support recovery for the arts from the COVID-19 pandemic.

We partnered with
Glasgow Tramway, McGinlay Bell, Stageport, Indigo-Ltd, RVT Parametrix and Asè Consulting LLC to develop a range of pilots and prototypes including working with Glasgow International.

BEYOND is a unique, annual gathering focused on Research and Development across the Creative Industries. Now in its fourth year, the conference will be hybrid, taking place at Titanic Belfast and online on the 20-21 October 2021. Join us as we take part in the Immersive Futures Lab showcase – as one of 9 featured projects that demonstrate innovative ideas, new types of content and novel uses of technologies.

We will be speaking at “Meet the Makers” session 17.00 – 18.00 on Wednesday 20th October to preview our Tramway Revisited project, but Beyond has two days of great speakers, demos and discussions. If that’s your thing, click this link to find out more about the festival and Tramway Revisited. Virtual exhibition view: Sammy Baloji, Bodys Isek Kingelez, Glasgow International 2021 at Tramway

One of our projects completed during lockdown was The Box, Plymouth – the country’s largest new museum that brought together four collections under one roof. ⁠⁠
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They have been nominated for the National Lottery ‘Project of the Year’ Awards in the Arts, Heritage and Film category and need your votes!⁠⁠
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‘The Box on The Box’ live streamed films from their archives direct to some of the most isolated and vulnerable people in care homes, NHS wards and memory loss support groups, as an ambitious ‘reminiscence project’.⁠⁠
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The project’s success has since led to ‘The Box on Screen’ – through a pre-recorded format so the films can now be enjoyed by anyone, at any time on YouTube.⁠⁠
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Vote for ‘The Box on The Box’ via this link.
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