i-DAT’s activities are underpinned by a critical research agenda. It is host to a transdisciplinary research community that comprises practice-based PhD students, supervisory teams (drawn from Science, Technology, Architecture and Art and Design), practicing artists and industrial collaborators. Formerly framed as the Nascent - Art & Technology Research Group, i-DAT’s research activities are central to its core mission.
nas-cent adj. [...coming into existence; emerging,
...a substance at the moment of its formation...].
The symptoms of i-DAT’s Nascent research can be described as collaborative, experimental, practice-based and applied, and embrace intelligent environments, interactive art, ubiquitous computing, sonic architecture and the construction and dissemination of emergent ‘transmedia’ forms.
It explores the transformative potential of digital technology (hardware & software), both as a catalyst for the evolution of cultural forms and as a substrate for transdisciplinary research and innovation. In this context digital technology acts as a ‘Rosetta Stone’ for arts/science collaborations and as a critical ‘lens’ for viewing emergent scientific and cultural knowledge.
The key Nascent research question is:
“What are the transformative qualities of digital ‘technology’ and how do these qualities manifest themselves through and within transdisciplinary, practice-based and applied methodologies?”
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i-DAT’s ToolBox and Activities provide a rich context for Full Time and Part Time research students from a variety of disciplines, who can either engage with these major initiatives or build their research activity grounded in their own creative practice. Individual research student profiles can be found on the People page of this site. i-DAT’s nascent research embraces transdisciplinarity as an inevitable consequence and emergent principal of digital practice, where theory and practice / form and content, are reflexively linked.
i-DAT’s research activities critically explore digital practice within art and design and across disciplines where the affordances of digital practice are intrinsic to their evolution. In this volatile and emergent context i-DAT engages with contemporary debates around ‘practice-based’ and applied research methodologies to gain new knowledge through creative practice. Critical and theoretical engagement is seen as essential to an original investigation that employs practice-based research methods or practice-led research that explores the qualities of the practice itself.
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Factory:
The Factory is an integrated set of processes developed by i-DAT to support research, production, management and evaluation methodologies that underpin the development of the i-DAT’s programme, network and the use of the ToolBox: more information:
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Publications:
As well as i-DAT’s research projects, tools and activities a selection of publications, texts and presentations can be found here: more information
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Funding:
Funding for projects, studentships and research assistants has been successfully obtained from a wide range of sources: more information
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Apply:
If you are interested in applying to i-DAT for a MPhil/PhD: more information
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i-DAT Research Workshops:
The i-DAT Research Workshops build on the heritage of a series of practice based production workshops, seminars and symposia. These include: Scale Electric, Far Away So Close, AHO+Bartlett=i-DAT, etc.
These workshops critically and playfully engage with themes, technologies and behaviours which form the symptoms manifest in the individual and collective practices of the i-DAT research community. These workshops are usually resource intensive so numbers may be limited. However, i-DAT will disseminate the research process and production work to a wider research/learning community and general public through documenta published through the i-DAT website and/or produced artefacts.
i-DAT Research Workshops will normally take place on a Thursday afternoon between 3 - 5. Locations will vary depending on the nature of the workshop, collaborations, and hosting organisations. Practice based Workshops may fall over several days (as with Far Away So Close and Scale Electric). For updates please refer to this page and the i-DAT News posts.
Smaller seminars will also be held to nurture and support research students undertaking the various stages of the MPhil/PhD cycle.
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i-DAT 2011-12 Research Event Programme.
These presentations and workshops provide a framework for research support for practice based initiatives for the i-DAT research community (including: i-DAT PhD students, Research Assistants, visiting artists/researchers, MRes Digital Art & Technology students and i-DAT’s collaborators).
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Tuesday 01/11/2011:
14.00-16.00.
Location - IVT.
Pervasive Memory, Gianni Corino.
Pervasive memory (Corino, 2010) as a concept is deeply grounded in cultural theories of Ong (1982) and Goody (1977), a human centric view of technologies and development of media. The cultural framework represented by these thinkers is one of the strongest conceptual references, which will be used in this research project. Pervasive memory represents my initial attempt of moving a step forward in defining the theoretical framework and identifying the shifting elements; it is a way to highlight the qualities of the entities I am dealing with. The definition carries different shadows and embeds the areas of research with a cultural perspective. Memory is a key element in the Internet of Things (IoT) discussion and it somehow is the link to a cultural and social perspective. In addition, memory also is a key concept in the social studies discipline, such as in Assmann’s (2005) cultural memories or in Halbwachs’s (1992) collective memory. Both collective memory and cultural memories are not referred here in the canonical way their authors intended, as they are somehow borrowed and shifted, included in the lager picture represented by the Pervasive memory concept.
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Wednesday 16/11/2011:
17.00-20.00.
Location - IVT.
Human Geography v1.0/Bio-OS
DataLab Presentation. Slingshot, Katy Connor, Hannah Wood:
http://www.bio-os.org/projects/
Human Geography v1.0 describes the emergence of Bio-OS (http://www.bio-os.org/) and the development of several ‘provocative prototypes’ through artists commissions and co-design ‘Data Labs’ (http://x2.i-dat.org/datalab/).
As a biological instrument Bio-OS builds on the i-DAT’s ‘Operating Systems’ (www.op-sy.com) initiative. These open tools for gathering data from environments (buildings and landscapes) and organisms (crowds and bodies) are focused on delivering dynamic and interactive outputs through a range of technologies (such as social networks, streaming media, mobile phone Apps, Full Dome environments, etc). These ‘Operating Systems’ dynamically manifest ‘data’ as experience in order to enhance perspectives on a complex world.
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NB: Delivery of the Confluence Project Workshops (http://confluence-project.org/) has meant the Wednesday 07/12/2011: 15.00-17.00 session by Dr Simon Lock, Interpretive visualisation, has been postponed to Monday 23/01/2012: 14.00-16.00 (see below). Apologies for any inconvenience.
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Monday 23/01/2012:
14.00-16.00.
Location - IVT.
Interpretive visualisation Dr Simon Lock.
Combining creative and flexible interpretation of scientific data, with engagement and immersive technologies (Dome and XBox Kinect) for the development of educational applications.
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Tuesday 21/02/2012:
14.00-16.00.
Location - IVT.
City OS: City Master Plan with Plymouth City Council.
i-DAT has been working with Plymouth City Council to develop a digital infrastructure for generating a real time map of Plymouth. The presentation describes the development of the ‘Sutton Data Pool’ which acts as a prototype for a broader City wide deployment.
Sutton Harbour was previously know as ‘Sutton Pool’ and could be seen as the catalyst for the birth of contemporary Plymouth. The location marked the hub of trade and traffic that laid the economic and social substrate for the rest of the city. This proposal for a public installation titled ‘Sutton Data-Pool’ takes note of the significance of the location, referencing the Sutton Pool origins but radically transforms the nature of the trade and traffic to the context of the Twenty First Century. It provides a unique and interactive light sculpture and data (information) platform for visualising interactions between visitors to the area and the traffic of data that pivots around the Harbour.
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Tuesday 20 /03/2012:
14.00-16.00.
Location - IVT.
Hundreds of Things: the Internet of Things for Cultural Networks.
Lee Nutbean, Cornish Mining Heritage/World Heritage Sites/UC Falmouth.
A presentation of the early stages of a work in progress: i-DAT, in collaboration with University College Falmouth and Cornwall Mining is engaged in a practice based research project to explore the potential of smart networked technologies (topically described as the ‘Internet of Things’) to map and evaluate the movement and relationships of people and resources across a geographically distributed communities.
The research is taking place through collaborating cultural and heritage venues and regional art galleries distributed across Cornwall. These venues act as active nodes on a dynamic network, linking communities of local residents to a transient community of visitors. They operate as conduits for exchange for ideas, knowledge and physical objects. They also become nodes on more problematic seasonal networks, such as supply chains for food, traffic and amenities (water, electricity and sewerage).
The research is engaged in participatory design process through the use ‘provocative prototypes’ or ‘cultural probes’. It will explore the use of smart networked technologies, such as RFID’s, networked sensors, mobile phones, web and embedded technologies, to reveal the complex processes that exist within this networked ecology.
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Tuesday 14/05/2012:
14.00-16.00.
Location - IVT.
i-DAT National Portfolio Strategic Plan.
In March 2012 i-DAT will become an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation. This presentation outlines i-DAT’s strategy, mission, KPI’s and its delivery against ACE Goals:
This Strategy presentation provides a reflexive template for i-DAT’s future plans. After 12 years of dynamic research, digital production and collaboration with leading researchers, artists and industry professionals it is time to review our vision, mission and core activities. The document examines our digital heritage and lays down a framework for our future.
Our core activities are framed as ‘Operating Systems’, and consolidate the our history of research, production and collaboration:
Arch-OS: an architectural operating system developed to manifest the temporal and ecological life of buildings.
Bio-OS: a biological operating system to collect and manifests biological data.
S-OS: a social operating system to model the ‘invisible’ creative and social capital within urban and rural communities.
Eco-OS: an ecological operating system to collect and manifests environmental data.
Dome-OS: a Full Dome Operating System, a transdisciplinary instrument for the manifestation of material, immaterial and imaginary worlds.
This framework will enable us to embrace the opportunities created by digital technologies to be collaborative, networked and open in order to sustainably co-create social, economic and cultural benefit for society. It will focus our activities to harness innovation in order to tackle the complex challenges facing individual, social, cultural and economic development in the 21st century.
This document defrags and reboots our activities to enable us to build on the opportunities offered by our new location in the Media Art & Design Research Centre located within the School of Art & Media in the faculty of Arts. Our activities continue to draw inspiration and support from a dynamic and responsive international Advisory Board which consists of leading practitioners, artists, scientists, academics and business leaders.
Through Playful production we will push new modes of creativity and research. The document identifies and articulates the mixed economy of synergies between world-class research, creative production, commercial applications and industrial collaborations and sponsorship. It recognises our fundamental need to collaborate and share resources across the cultural sector and sees reciprocity as a critical part of our DNA.
[i][>][…], in originally defining the ‘i’ as being greater ‘>’ the sum of its parts ‘…’, we can now see that it is, in fact, a swarm of parts operating as a tensegrity of reciprocal creative forces.
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Tuesday 19/06/2012:
14.00-16.00.
Location - IVT.
Confluence-Project.org. Eco-OS. http://confluence-project.org/
Confluence is a ground breaking cross disciplinary arts, technology andenvironment project being delivered by the North Devon Biosphere Foundation, Beaford Arts, Appledore Arts and University of Plymouth’s i-DAT (Institute of Digital Arts and Technology). The project is funded by Arts Council England and Leader 4.
Commissioned artists Jon Pigott, Antony Lyons, Simon Ryder and Simon Warner will develop new work that responds to the environment of the River Torridge and its communities. Supported by and working with i-DAT, the artists will have the opportunity to use and respond to a resource of real-time and recorded data collected through ECOIDS (data capturing devices) to develop their practice and create new work.
This core activity will be enriched by a layer of integrated education and engagement work. The artists will work with the project partners to deliver workshops and/or practice based demonstrations that encourage local engagement and participation, contributing to the partners’ education and community programmes across the communities of the Biosphere. This work, with local schools in Dolton, Merton, Great Torrington, Bideford, Appledore and Instow will encourage the creation of artworks in response to locally collected digital environmental data which will illuminate, both for the communities of the Biosphere Reserve and for a wider audience, current environmental developments within the Biosphere. The artists own work and the work created with each community/school group will be exhibited in the summer of 2012.
A series of road shows events will be taking place this Autumn to launch the project in the communities in which we will be working. i-DAT and their 5metre Inflatable Dome will be on show with demonstrations and workshops being run for the community.
Confluence is a flagship project designed to act as an exemplar of high quality artistic and scientific practice, supporting and informing visual arts practice within a rural and environmental context.
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Coming soon in 2012…
FullDomeUK (http://www.fulldome.org.uk/) DomeFest. Date and location TBC.
FULLDOME UK! A not-for-profit association supporting artists and researchers working within Fulldome immersive environments.
FULLDOME UK organises events with the goal to promote Fulldome as an artistic medium in its own right, and as a platform for research into data visualisation, group collaboration and the effects of immersive environments on our perceptual and cognitive processes.
FULLDOME UK sees the Fulldome context as rich site for development of new material that will satisfy the demand of audiences across Europe today for multisensory, participatory, immersive content that moves beyond the notion of the ‘screen’ into the idea of ‘environment’ which can be appropriate in both educational and entertainment contexts. There is now an increasing acknowledgement worldwide of how 3D experiences may change and enhance visual and aural perception though understanding of the reasons for this are unclear and our proposed programme of work can offer ways of growing understanding through experiment and cultural/intergenerational exchange.
Semester 3 to be continued….
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Archive:
i-DAT 2010-11 Research Event Programme:
07/10/2010: Reformation.
Research Group Meeting to map the future activity of i-DAT and its research community. Immersive Vision Theatre, Plymouth University.
10/11/2010: Boundary Work I.
Workshop in association with the Boundary Work exhibition. Exact date to be confirmed.
Technology in the Practice of Art and Science. Wandesford Quay Gallery Cork Ireland. Hosted by Cork Institute of Technology in collaboration with: Blackrock Castle Observatory / Crawford College of Art / Tyndall National Institute (advanced technologies in scientific research) / IxDA (Interaction Design Association in Dublin and Limerick) / IDC (Interaction Design Centre, University of Limerick) / Fields, Edinburgh College of Art / i-DAT / Ubiquity Journal.
02/12/2010: Scale Electric/Art in the Age of Nano Technology - Replay.
With guest presenter Dr Paul Thomas from COFA, Sydney. Following on from the Scale Electric workshop held in July 2010 and the Art in the Age of Nano Technology exhibition held on the john Curtin Gallery, Perth, WA, this workshop will continue to count the angels dancing on the head of a pin.
20-21-22/12/2010: Data Manifestation Workshop.
This workshop will explore the intimate relationships a range of disciplines have with the data that informs their research. Bringing together Earth Scientists, Micro Biologists, creative practitioners, data visualisation/sonification, nano technologists, anthropologists and psychologists, etc, the workshop will invite short anecdotal accounts of data intimacy accompanied by an evaluation of the level of reification of the data particular disciplines use in their understanding of the world.
20/01/2011: Revaluation:
Research Group Meeting to re-map i-DAT near future activity and research community.
17/02/2011: Reciprocity Workshop.
Workshop exploring the activities of CO-OS community - www.co-os.org - commissioned artists from Austria, Brazil, Greece/Spain and UK to develop new work.
25/03/2011: i-DAT DATA Lab.
Pervasive Media Studios, Bristol, 15.00-17.00. This is the first meeting to establish a series of Collaborative Data Lab’s, Bio-OS 1.0, to develop and share ‘instruments’ or ‘provocative prototypes’ that lead to new practices, knowledge and resources for artists and transdisciplinary practitioners. The intention is to make the data generated by human and ecological activity tangible and readily available to the public, artists, engineers and scientists for potential social, economic and cultural benefit, exploring the transformative potential of digital technology to nurturing new cultural forms.
19-20/05/2011: The ‘Thingification’ of the Internet.
Practice based workshop located in the IBM Smart Planet Lab in association with Ubiquity Journal.
23/06/2011: i-DAT Interdisciplinary Workshop/Seminar.
02-02-04/07/2011: Dome Fest II.
The sequal to the FULLDOME UK 2010. A celebration of the FullDome experience, we present a day of screenings, presentations, discussions and perhaps some realtime performance. The event takes place at the Immersive Vision Theatre (IVT) based at the University of Plymouth.
[For further information contact: mike.phillips@plymouth.ac.uk]
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Images:
1: ‘Constellation Columbia’ Courtesy of The Arts Catalyst. Video: Marko Peljhan. MIR Campaign 2003, Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Russia”.
2: Arch-OS design teleconference (USA-UK). Peter Anders, Roy Ascott, Martin Beck, Mike Phillips.
3: Inflatable dome, Shaun Murray and Pete Carss.
4: Arch-OS Core.
5: Arch-OS workshop. People with Slothbot simulation.
