A creative industries success story

Creative Informatics events at Edinburgh Science Festival

Creative Informatics, the research and development programme established to bring together Edinburgh’s world-class creative industries and tech sector, has partnered with Edinburgh Science Festival to celebrate the end of its funded programme and showcase the brilliantly wide-ranging community that has been built.

Since 2018, Creative Informatics has supported individuals and organisations working in the creative industries in Edinburgh and Southeast Scotland to do inspiring things with data and digital technologies.

Events and activities inspired by the project come together in a festival programme packed with creative experiences, demonstrations, and debates at the National Museum of Scotland and Summerhall.   

A new interactive exhibition ‘Unleashing the Power of Data’ runs throughout the two weeks of the festival at the National Museum of Scotland, and showcases some of the incredible artworks, objects, and innovations developed by Creative Informatics community. VR and AI tools combine with light, sound, and music across a series of immersive installations.

Exhibits include a VR obstacle course through digital landscapes traversing forests, valleys and cliffs from game designers Bear Hammer; a collaborative music making app that transforms phones into magic wands, allowing audiences to make music together in real time, created by Ray Interactive; an interactive light-box from artist Dominka Jackowska combining art, sound, and animation allowing users to manipulate sounds through drawing and movement; an AI-driven, Lego-powered DJ centre which allows visitors to create their own music using building-blocks, designed by Playable Technology; data-inspired art and sculpture from artists Rebecca Kaye, Mella Shaw, Caitlin Macdonald and Inge Panneels; and a digital exploration into Edinburgh’s fabled ‘lost’ Empire Palace Theatre.

Other events include ‘Creative AI for Creative Work’, a talk at the National Museum of Scotland exploring the burgeoning world of AI and its positive potential for use across the creative sectors, as Chair Frauke Zeller – Professor of Human-Computer Interaction and Creative Informatics at Napier University – is joined by creative professionals working with AI to enhance their projects – from developing playful innovations to creating new revenue streams for sound and audio production.

Lastly, experience why Scotland has a global reputation in the video game, film and TV industries at Let’s Play, a data-driven evening for adult audiences at Summerhall, part of the festival’s ‘Nights Out’ programme. This playful evening features interactive experiences, short talks from industry creatives and researchers, and AI-generated beats creating a live soundtrack to the event.

Festival-goers are invited to immerse themselves in a new world of data-driven inspiration and discover more about the programme behind the creative innovations. 

Creative Informatics is led by director Melissa Terras, Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage at the University of Edinburgh’s Design Informatics in Edinburgh College of Art, and since 2018, has supported creative professionals in Edinburgh and Southeast Scotland to develop new and innovative work by providing funding and development opportunities that explore how data can drive ground-breaking new products, business, and experiences.

Over the last five years the programme has engaged with almost 3000 businesses and individuals, with 683 benefitting from training and new skills programmes, and 136 SMEs supported to explore data-driven business opportunities.

This work has sustained 429 jobs and created 210 new products, services, and experiences, in turn generating over £7.5 million in further funding and investment. As the funded programme draws to a close, Creative Informatics now looks to the future and legacy support for the community created in the past five years.

Professor Melissa Terras, Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage at the University of Edinburgh: ‘We’re really excited to be celebrating the achievements of the Creative Informatics programme at this year’s Edinburgh Science Festival.

“Our events have been specially curated to highlight some of the extraordinary work developed through our programme – from innovations in gaming and audio production to artistic creations that push the boundaries of how we think, feel and interact with the world around us.

“These events and exhibits showcase the incredible Creative Informatics community that has been built over the last five years, whose practice, products and networks will form a lasting and supportive legacy for creative professionals across Edinburgh and South East Scotland’.

Creative Informatics is a partnership across four organisations: the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier University, Codebase and Creative Edinburgh, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Department of Culture, Media & Sport, the Data Driven Innovation programme and the Scottish Funding Council. 

Creative Informatics: Unleashing the Power of Data | Hawthornden Court, National Museum of Scotland | 30 March – 7 April

Explore some of the innovative products, new experiences and groundbreaking creative work that has been developed through funding and support from Edinburgh’s Creative Informatics programme.

As the innovation programme draws to a close, this interactive showcase celebrates the achievements of its creative community. Stop by to experience virtual reality worlds, discover new data-driven artworks and use building blocks to create your own music. 

Exhibitors

• Bear Hammer | Venture’s Gauntlet | Explore vast and stunning environments such as open highlands, caves, cliff edges and a castle; each jam-packed with its own unique puzzles and challenges.
• Dominika Jackowska | Interactive Light Box | Interactive, fun, and playful electronic installation for an audience of all ages, combining drawing, sound, and animation.
• Ray Interactive | IMP | IMP is a fun, interactive, collaborative music making app that transforms phones into magic wands, allowing you to make music with your friends. Simply scan the QR code and you get to control a layer of sound and create music together.
• Tinderbox | Tinderbox Games Club Expo | Using different forms of technology to make games. Together we play, research and make games, as well as design our own artwork, audio & code needed for them.
• Ice Cream at the Interval | Reimagining the Empire Palace | A combination of physical modelling and digital innovation to explore and reimagine Edinburgh’s ‘Lost’ Empire Palace Theatre
• Yaldi Games | Wholesome Out and About | A factual life simulator that broadens your horizons. Learn about foraging, healthy cooking & creative crafts while playing and then recreate them in real life
• Mahsa Nikoufar | Creative Gradient | Creative Gradient uses GIS geospatial data and Python programming to turn raw data into contemporary pixel art, communicating the use of data to different age groups in fun and colourful ways.
• Kate Ives | To the Core | To the core is a tactile Jesmonite sculpture carved with geometric patterns that reflet data relating to the decline of native British species and explores what we can do to support biodiversity in our communities
• Ailie Finlay | My Kind of Book | Creative ways to ensure that children with complex additional needs, including PMLD (profound and multiple learning disabilities) have books and sensory stories to enjoy
• Playable Technology | Beat Blocks Live | A new app for iOS that enables you to build music in real-time with traditional children’s building blocks
• Ploterre | Naturally Curious | Ploterre uses environmental data to create artwork from processes and discoveries within the natural world. Combining principles from the fields of mathematics and design, it describes data via colour and form, making it more accessible, and beautiful in the process.
• Mella Shaw | Sounding Line | A short film showcasing how Mella created Sounding Line – a award-winning large-scale ceramic installation addressing the devastating effect of marine sonar on whales and other cetaceans.
• Cloud Quilting | Reul-iùil – guiding star | A personalised quilt pattern creator that allows makers to embed meaning in these significant handmade decorative and functional objects through the use of data-driven design.
• Caitlin Macdonald & Inge Panneels | Picture Your Poisons |Picture Your Poisons is an intimate portrait of a cancer treatment journey through the specific lens of one patient’s course of treatment.

Creative AI for Creative Work | National Museum of Scotland | Wednesday 10 April, 6pm

The rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence is creating challenges for the creative industries around human creativity, originality, intellectual property, and ethics. However, AI has incredible potential as a tool for creative work – for experimentation or as part of an ideation process.

Hear from creative professionals working with AI to enhance their projects – from developing playful innovations to creating new revenue streams for sound and audio production. Chaired by Dr Frauke Zeller, Professor of Human Computer-Interaction and Creative Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University.

Let’s Play | Summerhall, Dissection Room | Friday 12 April, 7pm 

Get your game face on and extend your reality as we explore how creative technologies and on-screen innovation are changing how we play and experience the world around us – and worlds we can only imagine.

Virtual production is one of the most exciting new technology areas and Scotland has a global reputation for game, film and TV production.

Join us for a playful evening with interactive experiences and short talks from industry creatives and researchers.

Try out some new creative tech or relax with a drink from the bar and some AI-generated beats.

Find our more about Creative Informatics and the Edinburgh Science Festival programme at creativeinformactics.org or edinburghscience.co.uk.

Follow the links to buy tickets and learn more about events.