FACT in association with Nottingham University.

FACTLab in association with Nottingham University’s Mixed Reality Lab and the Performing Data research project brought together 8 research-led arts projects in a set of showcases, performances and workshops throughout July that highlighted creative projects that used data as a raw and live material.

Projects included an Open Mic new musical instruments session – including and programmable interactive “Box” instrument and a guitar that shared its growing ‘digital footprint’ throughout its lifetime in a way that resonates with both the aesthetic of an acoustic guitar and the craft of traditional luthiery; a caravan-based narrative film created from fragments of memory recalled in therapy that was triggered by live brain signals of the viewer with participants seeing a unique version of this film; a Prediction Machine that marks ‘moments of climate change’ in our everyday live based on an end of the pier fortune telling machine – the Prediction Machine tracked local weather live at a weather station on the roof at FACT, combined with projected temperatures for the year 2045 and predictions written by local people; a project that devised a “haptic” storytelling device and worked with VIP veterans with PTSD to capture their emotional states during storytelling and “share” these through heat and vibration with an audience and a tea making machine that deployed a live sensor on Hastings Pier monitoring waves data.

A follow on application to the AHRC that will develop more physical interfaces using other traditional end of pier devices is currently submitted.