The Creativeworks London Festival celebrated four years of exploring the capital’s creative economy, bringing London’s researchers, creative entrepreneurs and businesses together.
This jam-packed day featured digital installations; technology showcases; passionate debates; expert panels, interactive workshops and presentations by researchers, thought-leaders and artists – showcasing the results of the 140+ projects CWL have facilitated.
Throughout the day visitors were able to:
Experience the outcomes of four years of innovation, collaboration and exchange
Discover the impact of collaborative research on the future of London’s creative economy
Learn about the process and benefits of knowledge exchange
Network with researchers as well as creative and cultural practitioners
Across 11 spaces over 11 hours, the festival is a culmination of four years of research and innovation. While everyone will have their own areas of interest, some of the day’s highlights include:
‘Learning From the KE Hubs and Thinking about the Future’ was the key panel that involved Directors of all four KE Hubs and kicked off the festival day. It was headed up by the launch of CWL’s film about the BOOST funding scheme, followed by a discussion on how arts and humanities can contribute to the success of the creative economy and what factors enable productive forms of knowledge exchange.
Professor Morag Shiach, Director of Creativeworks London, summed up the session as follows:
The four KE Hubs all identified the importance of networks within the creative economy and showed how their work had enabled and sustained these. The Directors also stressed that linear models of knowledge exchange or innovation did not capture the collaborative ways in which knowledge was generated or new products developed within the projects they had supported. The Hubs described how they had achieved significant culture change within their research partners, but it remained challenging for large research institutions to work with small companies on relatively small project in a timely fashion. Finally, the international impacts of the work of the Hubs had been very significant and there was scope to develop this further in the years ahead.
Creativeworks London: A Knowledge Exchange Hub, The BOOST Scheme
Installations
The ‘Library’ hosted a working pop-up film archive where visitors were able to experience and take part in June Givanni’s Pan African Film Archive. The installation was based on the model of a semi-permanent studio archive that could be located in different partner spaces, with its main storage off-site. Designed to make June Givanni’s collection of materials related to African cinema accessible, the archivist’s work invited visitors to try out the idea of a pop-up archive. If you are interested in the work of June Givanni, please get in touch through the above link.
‘Fighting Flatness – Selecting the Physical in the Age of Digital’ The Materials Council set up a physical library of curious materials, from translucent concrete to fish leather, which were available to be browsed, stroked and fondled by the audience, while Ian Hunter, director of Materials Council, was on hand to dicsuss the materials and the wider aims of the project. To get in touch with Ian, please follow the link above.
The Great Hall hosted the Digital Economy research strand’s big installation London’s Digital Ecologies of Collaboration and Reflections from the Future where audiences could step into the future and use Tine Bech Studio’s reflective surfaces imaginatively and re-imagine our future learning and research spaces.
A series of performances took place in the Chapel during the afternoon. The audience experienced innovative music and spoken word sessions, with contributions from Kate Ryder, Rob Sherman, Tony White and Nick Makoha.
Publications
Launched at the festival was also the Creativeworks London KE Hub Report. This report outlines the structure of the CWL Hub, what we set out to do and how our aims and objectives were realised.
You can still browse the programme below by session type or programme strand.
Fighting flatness – selecting the physical in the age of digital
10:00 – 17:30, Friday 29th April 2016 Anatomy Museum – Level 6, King’s College London No need to book just drop in! From translucent concrete to fish leather, Fighting flatness will display a collection of curious materials for you to stroke, poke and fondle. A Creativeworks London Creative Entrepreneur-in-Residence collaboration between Kingston University London and Materials Council, ‘Fighting flatness’ investigated how physical materials libraries …
Re-imagining An Archive: June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive Installation
10:00 – 17:30, Friday 29th April 2016 Anatomy Museum – Level 6, King’s College London No need to book just drop in! June Givanni is a curator of Pan African Cinema for over 3 decades; she has collected a wealth of materials related to that area of cinema. The materials include video and audio cassettes, posters, photographs and film stills, …
Encompassing five areas of critical digital enquiry this installation documents 20 projects supported by Creativeworks London between 2012 and 2016, funded via the Creative Voucher and Creative Entrepreneur-in-Residence schemes.
Creativeworks London are celebrating four years of collaborations. Join us for a champagne breakfast at 10am before attending your first session, or if you can't make that, join us at our finale drinks between 5.30 and 7pm when we’ll be patting ourselves on the back, exchanging contact numbers (aka networking) and thanking everyone for being involved.
10:00 - Launch & Closing DrinksGreat Hall / Ground Floor
Reflections from the future
Step into the future. Use our reflective surfaces imaginatively and re imagine our future learning and research spaces. Use your power of reflection to see anew. Show and tell us all what you see – reflect your power of knowledge and send a #reflectspace photo and/or message back in time through Twitter or Instagram. Share knowledge and create connections across time and space.
Learning from the KE Hubs and thinking about the Future
How can the Arts and Humanities contribute to the success of the creative economy? What are the factors that enable productive forms of knowledge exchange? David Docherty will chair a panel involving the Directors of the four AHRC KE Hubs for the Creative Economy and the Interim Chief Executive of the AHRC.
Speakers:
Morag Shiach (Creativeworks London), Jon Dovey (REACT), Michael Marra (Design in Action), Jeremy Myerson (The Creative Exchange) and Andrew Thompson (AHRC).
Join Ruth Catlow (Furtherfield) and Mariza Dima (Creativeworks London) in this public video game-building workshop that uses drawing and play to stir imagination and discussion and help the Creativeworks London (CWL) community develop a collective vision of the future of ‘places’ of academic and artistic collaboration beyond CWL.
10:30 - Get Involved! / WorkshopsCouncil Room / Level 2CLA
Devising an Audience Research Strategy for London Museums
This will be a participatory working session in which the Creativeworks London team will share what we have learned about audiences for London museums during the last eighteen months and together participants will develop an Audience Research Strategy for London Museums for 2016 and beyond.
Speakers:
James Doeser, King’s College London
Maurice Davies, King's College London and Royal Academy of Arts
Medwen Roberts, Morris Hargreaves MacIntyre
Devising an Audience Research Strategy for London Museums
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10:30 - Get Involved! / WorkshopsRiver Room / Level 2CLA
Making Friends Showcase
Tessa Whitehouse (Queen Mary University of London) and Emilie Giles (Codasign) will showcase creative technology work created by the young participants of the ‘Making Friends’ project. The project explored historically-informed research questions about childhood friendships and technology through hands-on electronics-based creative activities. It generated wonderful outcomes which will be shared at the festival.
Fashion, Innovation, Research, Evolution: Developing a Designer Fashion Knowledge Landscape
Little is known about the networks and collaborative process that form the ecosystem of the designer fashion and textile sector. This session looks inside the designer fashion industry towards the people and the collaborations that are vital for research, innovation and sustainabililty.
Illustration credit: Josie Wiley for the F.I.R.E project
Women, Creative Collaborations and Digital Thinking
Through the Knowledge Exchange Programme at Creativeworks London, an interesting situation has been unfolding with 62% of those awarded research collaborations being women led and many projects focusing on developments in digital thinking, products or projects. This session will open a timely discussion on gender, collaborations and digital thinking.
Chair: Sara Jones (Cass Business School, City University London), Speakers: Ghislaine Boddington (Body>Data>Space), Ruth Catlow (Furtherfield), Lydia Fraser-Ward (Fantasy High Street) and Roberta Communian (King’s College London).
Collaborative research and the creative entrepreneur’s journey
Many current models of entrepreneurship and 'start up' emphasise an accelerated, technology-led, market and investment-focused process centered on an idealised 'heroic' founder. How does collaboration between artists or early stage creative businesses and arts & humanities researchers drive ideation, value creation and sustainability? This session will look at the potential for the collaboration between researchers, artists and creative SMEs to provide better indications of where value is created in an iterative, design-led process of innovation.
Chaired by Iain Bennett, BOP Consulting. Confirmed speakers: Lara Ratnaraja (University of Birmingham), Dr. Martin Smith (Ingenious Media), Prof. Andy Pratt (City University London), Paul Bason (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Graham Hitchen.
Nick Makoha, Creativeworks London Creative Entrepreneur-in-Residence has worked with Maura Dooley from Goldsmiths, University of London to share Metic experiences of Black British Writers. The term ‘Metic’, first used by T S Eliot, translates as foreigners or resident aliens whose allegiances are split between their homeland and their new country. Join them and esteemed Black British Writers Kei Miller, Anthony Joseph, Malika Booker and Kayo Chingonyi for a 'Black Metic' talk and Q&A.
12:00, Friday 29th April 2016 Outside in the Quad, King’s College London 14:00, Friday 29th April 2016 Anatomy Museum – Level 6, King’s College London No need to book just drop in! Our awardees have the knowledge. Visit the Quad outside at 12pm where we’ll be asking them revealing questions about their collaborations in our very own black cab. Grab a coffee and join …
12:00 and 14:00 - Get Involved! / Talks, Panels & DemonstrationsOutside in the Quad at 12:00
Anatomy Museum from 14:00KE
Com-media: Role Playing for Idea’s Solutions
Com-media is an online game inspired by a theatrical form, played with other festival participants to tackle real world issues and provide inspiration towards possible solutions. If you have a business challenge or critical issue to address, turn it into a scenario, choose a Com-media character and act out possible solutions! Com-media is devised and developed by Alda Terracciano and Mariza Dima. The organisers would like to thank Rainey David for her advice.
12:00 and 15:30 - Get Involved!Great Hall (for session briefing only) / Ground FloorCLALDE
Superpiano
13:00 and repeats at 15:30, Friday 29th April 2016 Chapel – Level 2, King’s College London No need to book just drop in! Kate Ryder was Creativeworks London’s Creative Entrepreneur-in-Residence (CEIR) working with composer and researcher Dr Tim Ewers at Kingston University in 2014/15. See more information in relation to melhores jogos de caça-niquel gratis. The CEIR project ‘Creating a …
A Series Of Rhymes, Rills, Warbles, Mnemonics & Chanties
A musical diversion through the alternate histories of multi-modal artist, musician and games designer Rob Sherman, Interactive-Writer-In-Residence at the British Library. Come and hear adapted and original songs, sea shanties and ballads from Rob's ongoing and vast multimedia exploration of a version of the 19th century, On My Wife's Back.
“I’m the sort of person who” : Identity and Context
Have you ever noticed how different you feel when you wear a suit? Or how differently some people behave face to face compared to online? This fun, informal, practical workshop by Fanshen theatre will playfully explore the moments when we surprise ourselves, the different personae we have and the cues that unconsciously guide our behaviour.
“I’m the sort of person who” : Identity and Context
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14:00 - Get Involved! / WorkshopsRiver Room / Level 2A
From Academic Collaboration to Commercialisation
How can the commercial ambitions of the SME partner be achieved after a University-SME collaboration? Exploring the possibilities and barriers of investment for later stage innovation. Organised by Business Partnerships at Queen Mary University of London and Ogenblik Ltd.
Speakers:
Chair: Anthony Lilley OBE (University of Ulster), Dr Christopher Haley (Nesta), Chris Wheatcroft (Angels Den), Beatrice Rogers (KTN), Prof. Jonathan Freeman (Goldsmiths, University of London), Naveed Parvez (Project Andiamo) and Deborah Werbner (Ogenblik Ltd)
Discussing the multi-dimensional characteristics of London’s creative workspaces: Film and Panel
This session is about the difficulties of running a creative startup and a creative workspace in London. Film: What’s the future of creative work in London? (10 mins), the Panel (35 mins).
Speakers: Kirsten Dunne (Greater London Authority), William Chamberlain (Creative Wick), Paul Augarde (Poplar HARCA), Octavia Hirst (Lost My Name) and Jack Fortescue (ACME).
A Long Table Conversation on Digital Heritage Commons
Employing the Long Table method devised by performance artist Lois Weaver, this conversation will focus on issues related to the impact of digital technologies in reconfiguring the nature of the archive, supporting new curatorial approaches to heritage as well as engaging new audiences in interactive creative ways.
Image Credit: Alex Eisenberg, Live Art Development Agency
A Long Table Conversation on Digital Heritage Commons
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14:00 - Get Involved!K020 / Ground FloorLDE
Creating Routes – The Crossroads
Where does the best learning take place – in a classroom or on the job? This workshop will get you exploring, sharing and laughing about the ways you like to learn and the gifts that can emerge when you work at the crossroads between practice and theory.
This participatory workshop will be led by Creating Routes alumni: Louise de Froment, Josh Solnick and Shanika Warren-Markland.
Tony White’s short story uses the language of contemporary law-enforcement to devastating effect, delivering a ‘modest proposal’ that London’s Holborn Police Station tower be decommissioned and converted into a 50-metre high, networked memorial: The Holborn Cenotaph.
The Black Metic Experience: Performance by 5 Black Metics
14:15 and repeats at 16:45, Friday 29th April 2016 Chapel – Level 2, King’s College London No need to book just drop in! The term ‘Metic’ translates as foreigners or resident aliens whose allegiances are split between their homeland and their new country, coined by Creative Entrepreneur-in-Residence Nick Makoha, explaining the phenomena. The poetic performances by five black British writers explore …
Poetic Places is a new mobile app, produced in collaboration with the British Library, which allows users to connect with poetry and prose in the locations they depict. Sarah Cole, CWL Creative Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the British Library, will talk about the ideas, processes, and choices that have shaped the project.
Pre-selected SMEs will be able to access commercial funding advice from Chris Wheatcroft, Tech Club Manager at investor organisation Angels Den or you can drop in for a legal health check with qLegal, post graduate law students from Queen Mary University of London with experience of working with tech start-ups and entrepreneurs.
15:30 - Get Involved!Room K020 / Ground Floor1-2-1
Mutual Benefits: Residencies, Universities and the Cultural and Creative Sector
What types of knowledge gets generated through residencies, how does it take place, what are the outcomes and benefits, both for the hosting organisations and the person undertaking the residency? These are the kinds of questions that will be explored and discussed in a panel discussion on Creativeworks London's two residencies schemes: Creative Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Researcher-in-Residence. It will bring together and showcase some of our researchers, creatives and arts organisations that we have supported through the programme.
Chair: Peter Mitchell (University of Sussex). Speakers: Sorrel Hershberg (The Sorrell Foundation), Benjamin Poore (Queen Mary University of London), Cyril Shing (Chelsea College of Arts, University of Arts London) and Paula Graham (Fossbox).
Wearables have an emerging and dynamic role in the creative economy, so why is there a lack of critical research? Join TCCE and CWL in a roundtable discussion to explore the critical thinking around Wearables and their developments in the near future (#CWLwear).
Chaired by Dr Dan McQuillan (Goldsmiths, University of London) with Dr Enrico Bertelli (TCCE) & Rachel Lasebikan (CWL).
Riskkit: new strategies for creative collaboration
Design innovator Piers Roberts further developed his ground-breaking RISKKIT model for design entrepreneurs during his Creativeworks London Creative Entrepreneur residency at Kingston University. In this hack-it he encourages creatives, policy-makers and researchers to input ideas to RISKKIT on how it might further evolve as a tool for creative career development.
Riskkit: new strategies for creative collaboration
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16:30 - Get Involved!Room K018 / Ground FloorA
Re-inventing Invention
Innovation hubs and social networks remind us that the genres of ‘invention’ and ‘genius’ are past their sell-by date. Moreover, evolution shows creativity to be, in essence, a combinatorial process. We therefore developed an innovation tool that simultaneously re-combines four existing assets to produce six synergistic outcomes.
Speakers
Professor John Wood, Creative Publics
John McKiernan, Creative Publics
Developing effective Research Collaborations: A mini guide by Creativeworks London and The Culture Capital Exchange – Launch
16:40, Friday 29th April 2016 Anatomy Museum – Level 6, King’s College London Free, drop in! Since its launch in 2012, Creativeworks London has supported 109 research collaborations between academic partners and micro-businesses and SMEs in the arts, cultural and creative industries in London. In the process of doing so, we have developed considerable knowledge and know-how on what works …
London’s Digital Ecologies of Collaboration was launched at the Creativeworks London Festival on 29 April 2016.
The installation encompassed five areas of critical enquiry and documented 20 projects supported between 2012 and 2016 through the CWL Creative Voucher and Creative Entrepreneur-in-Residence schemes.
Digital Transnationalism looked at cultural interconnectivity across geographical boundaries; Digital Heritage Commons explored the way in which communities think about their environment, past, aspirations and futures; Democratisation and Digital Space looked at dynamic networks revealing new subjectivities and agency in divided societies; Active Digital Public(s) reflected on the process of meaning making of art and digital technologies through artistic co-creation and public engagement; Digital Tools of Innovation showcased the potential for digital to overturn old systems of production and consumption via new forms of distribution of resources and relationship to the natural world.
Located on the north bank of the river Thames, near Somerset House, the Strand campus of King’s College London is central, easy to locate and accessible.
King’s College London
Strand Campus
Strand
London
WC2R 2LS
Creativeworks London is one of four Knowledge Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to develop strategic partnerships with creative businesses and cultural organisations, to strengthen and diversify their collaborative research activities and increase the number of arts and humanities researchers actively engaged in research-based knowledge exchange.