MyWorld Funded Projects

Challenge Call

Catalysts and Connectors: Tools for the Creative Industries is the first of the MyWorld Challenge Calls led by Digital Catapult. We are delighted to share details of the nine companies that have been awarded £50,000 funding to address the industry challenge set by Industry Partner NVIDIA or the open challenge, exploring innovative tooling solutions relating to the creation, delivery and assessment of experiences. The Challenge teams will also benefit from a 16-week support programme delivered by Digital Catapult with, NVIDIA.

TLG- Live Puppetry Performance for Digital Character Animation

The Black Laboratory working with NVIDIA

The Black Laboratory is developing a system to allow digital animated and digital controlled characters to be performed using the techniques of physical puppet performance.
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Otto: A real-time immersive visual-media solution for the performing arts

Larkhall

Larkhall will be working to advance immersive lighting technologies by creating a prototype system which supports real-time immersive visual-media solutions for the performing arts.
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IMPRESS Launchpad

Force of Habit working with NVIDIA

IMPRESS Launchpad is a machine learning-assisted gaming influencer discovery and outreach tool, empowering SME ("indie") game development studios to reach larger audiences. It is a video game marketing technology which will help studios gain insights into content-creators, influencers and market data, and will offer further frictionless workflows to assist in reaching niche/segmented gaming audiences.
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Future Places Toolkit

Zubr.co in partnership with Uninvited Guests

Future Places Toolkit will be a powerful and flexible augmented reality application for use in participatory architectural design and creative consultation. By combining augmented reality with realtime participant feedback, it will be possible to see live drawings, 3D models, and plans overlaid onto existing buildings, allowing discussions with communities to take place in-situ where a development is proposed.
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Feel sound. Anytime, anywhere with GroundWaves haptic shoes

GroundWaves Limited

GroundWaves is developing an innovative haptic calibration tool that enables an enhanced haptic experience.
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Feel Learn Do

Anagram

Creating a prototype of Feel Learn Do; an application consisting of a unique suite of technical tools that monitor, log, aggregate and translate a user’s physiological and behavioural data during their experience of a piece of narrative VR or MR.
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Enhancing Safety and Creativity in AGITO Operations: A Centralized Software Control and Sensor Integration

Motion Impossible working with NVIDIA

The project aims to develop a lightweight control and visualisation software for AGITO systems, eliminating the need for a one-to-one Master Controller relationship while adding motion control features and libraries for AGITO Sports, AGITO Trax, and AGITO MagTrax configurations.
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AI toolsets for VFX

Lux Aeterna working with NVIDIA

Lux Aeterna proposes bringing the power of generative AI to our 3D VFX tools, to create a malleable exchange between these two worlds that can be applied to a wide range of use cases to provide a new way to generate and improve assets, and achieve unique visuals.
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Meaning Machine MyWorld Project Example May 2023

“Active Agent” NPC Tooling

Meaning Machine working with NVIDIA

“Active Agent” NPC Tooling helps developers move away from rigid, pre-defined in-game characters (NPCs) and towards the concept of “Active Agents” – who can engage in freeform, improvised conversations that are meaningful to every player’s playthrough.
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Collaborative Research and Development (CR&D)

As part of MyWorld’s Collaborative Research and Development (CR&D) Open Call, led by Digital Catapult, five projects have been awarded a share of £1 million. The projects represent a mix of early-stage and award-winning companies whose work is steadily gaining momentum. The projects will explore a range of ambitious ideas addressing emerging challenges from across different areas of the Creative Industries.

In collaboration with our globally recognised universities in the region, the project teams will develop an exciting mix of innovative prototypes. These prototypes will drive cutting-edge research and impact industry which will further fuel the West of England’s creative technology sector and beyond.

Live project

STREAM

MLF and All Seeing Eye in collaboration with UWE

STREAM (Synchronous Tools for Realtime Experiential Activity Management) this project will develop a suite of tools designed to support the streamlined delivery of co-present and high fidelity XR experiences to mass audiences. This project is developed by Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF), All Seeing Eye and The VR Lab at the Digital Cultures Research Centre, University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)
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MetaversEngine

Awarri in collaboration with UWE

MetaversEngine is a cross-platform avatar system that allows users to commission avatars from 3D artists and uses NFT technology to give users control over their identity, representation, appearance and personal data in virtual worlds.
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a woman interacting with one of Air Giant's soft robots

Giant Tactile Robots

Air Giants in collaboration with University of Bristol

Air Giants are pairing up with the Bristol Interaction Group, an academic group specialised in the interactions between humans and technology. Bristol Interaction Group will be studying how users interact with their soft creative robotics, looking at the vocabulary of touch and at what emotional power these interactions can have, to let Air Giants understand what these new capabilities can be used for.
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Digibeat: Immersive Feedback Using Inertial Sensors

Zero Point Motion in collaboration with UWE

This project will aim to start a new project on fine motion finger tracking and heart monitoring via ballistocardiography with a single sensor. Through this physiological data, they hope to provide creatives with an insight into the immersion or emotional state of the user. The team is led by Founder and CEO, Dr Lia Li, a 2022 recipient of InnovateUK’s Women in Innovation Award.
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Boyce from Caravan Collective performs at the Metaverse Studio

Cloud Compression for Live Volumetric Video

Condense Reality in collaboration with University of Bristol

Condense, is a Bristol-based startup, focusing on the delivery of live immersive experiences to end users. This project will look at the novel application of deep learning to efficiently compress live-streamed volumetric video in order to host live music events in the metaverse. The project will make a major contribution to the state of the art in volumetric video delivery and generate a significant impact on a wide range of immersive video applications.
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Celestial Live

Celestials Labs in collaboration with Bath Spa University

Celestial Live is a project that will enable the creation of new drone light shows that astound and amaze audiences. As opposed to current pre-recorded drone animation, Celestial Live will have drones that respond to performers in real-time enabling the expression of their music or dance through an immersive fusion of colour, scale and movement.
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Sandbox

Six creative teams have each been awarded £45,000 to build an urban prototype that connects people to their city, thanks to Watershed’s Playable City Sandbox as part of MyWorld’s IDEAS programme. The below projects place play at the heart of the city, sparking imagination and conversation about inclusion, sustainability, surveillance and the future of cities. The prototypes will be showcased in Bristol in July 2023.

Live project

Zoomscape Zoetrope

Jack Wates & Thomas Blackburn

A zoetropic light experience, designed to be viewed from moving train windows upon arrival and departure from Bristol Temple Meads station. The proposal aims to capitalise on the railway as a cinematic space of arrival in the city to deliver a playful and memorable experience.
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The House of Weaving Songs

Dhaqan Collective

The House of Weaving Songs is inspired by the Somali-style nomadic structure called the Aqal. The interactive installation will integrate Somali weaving songs and woven tapestries in an experiment to connect the city to cultural practices that can inspire us in our fight to tackle climate change.
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The Expression Orchestra

Pyka

The Expression Orchestra comprises a collection of alternative, easy to use digital instruments designed to empower and broaden young peoples’ access to musical performance primarily in educational settings, with a particular focus on SEN/D and ALN students.
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the apothecary network

The Upsetters

the apothecary network is a prototype app that explores how creative tech and AI can play a part in climate action by sharing the knowledge required to establish a network of decolonial community apothecaries which centre herbalism, ancestral knowledge, community, collective joy and a connection with nature.
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Street Pixel

Biome Collective

With a network of modules that replace existing paving slabs, Street Pixel transforms the pavement beneath your feet into a dynamic system of lights; drawing a path in front of you, linking you to another person or inviting you to play a game. Street Pixel is being developed with the general public and the environment in mind. It is a project that celebrates creative technology and a sustainable approach to materials and electronic hardware and we will be searching for sustainable solutions and opportunities at every step of the way.
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Squeeze Me

Air Giants

Squeeze Me is an installation designed to provoke play and connection between strangers in an urban environment, using Air Giants’ novel inflatable soft robotic technology to provide a compelling and charming tactile and visual experience.
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Kinship Wayfinder

Surfing Light Beams & Beta Jester

Kinship Wayfinder is an exploration into how AI can help to foster meaningful connections; to create trust, kindness and friendships between disconnected people.
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How (Not) to Get Hit by a Self-driving Car

Tomo Kihara + Playfool

In this intervention, passers-by are challenged to avoid being detected as humans by an AI-powered image recognition system. With the help of a machine learning model, a camera tries to detect human activity every three seconds. Anyone can join a game where they try to go from the beginning to the end of the court without being detected.
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Glory Mold

Produced Moon & Studio Areté

A speculative fiction installation created by Produced Moon and produced by Studio Areté, Glory Mold is an investigation of alternate intelligences. Featuring an interactive AI character influenced by real-time organic data, as well as artefacts from our imagined future, the Glory Mold experience aims to playfully challenge current conversations in business and academia around the role of AI and humans’ relationship with the living, organic world.
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Fireflies, a Glitch by Screaming Color and Arcane

Glitch AR, Screaming Color

Fireflies, a Glitch by Screaming Color and Arcane is next-generation street art brought to life through augmented reality (AR). Glitch AR are creating a transformative experience that turns Bristol’s streets into a colourful, sci-fi-infused digital jungle awash with spectacular visuals and music from local artists.
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A heart, being held up by two people in wheelchairs.

Crip* Intelligence

Poetic Computation

This project will create disability justice tests that score the ethics of common AI foundation models. By making visible the inherent bias and prejudice constantly replicated in these systems, players will explore creative and playful responses to how they might ‘rescue’ them. *Crip is a term that we, along with some of our community, have reclaimed through disability scholarship, culture and activism. You can read about Crip reclamation here: https://nowthenmagazine.com/articles/crip-a-story-of-reclamation
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Creatura Speculatrix

Domenica Landin & Playfool

Through an immersive, artificial habitat, this project tells the natural history of Creatura Speculatrix, creature-like machines evolving from a broader understanding of intelligence beyond the human, that prompts us to rethink what we understand about intelligence, and the diverse ways it can be expressed.
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Fellowships in Residence

Ben Samuels

Fellow in Residence at Bristol Old Vic

Ben Samuels is Watershed’s Fellow in Residence as part of the MyWorld IDEAS programme. He is spending seven months in residence at Bristol Old Vic, embedded in the digital presentation of  Complicités production. This is a practical fellowship that will develop approaches to digital presentation of theatrical performance, focusing on liveness, immersion in digital formats and connecting live and digital audiences. 

Joseph Wilk

Fellows in Residence at Ultraleap

Joseph Wilk is one of Watershed’s Fellows in Residence as part of the MyWorld IDEAS programme. He is spending ten months in residence at Ultraleap and the Pervasive Media Studio, prototyping hand-tracking gestures for home VR gaming. This is a practical Fellowship that will create guidance and tooling for game developers through prototyping and experimentation.

Ellie Chadwick

Fellow in Residence at Condense Reality

Ellie Chadwick is in a practice-based Fellowship at Condense, exploring ways of performing in their virtual venue and creating guidance for performers through experimentation and user experience research. She will also collaborate with an Academic Fellow who is evaluating different ways of performing in Condense’s virtual venue.

Helen Brown

Fellow in Residence at Condense Reality

Helen Brown is in an Academic Fellowship at Condense, in collaboration with the MyWorld Understanding Audiences Research team. She is focusing on evaluating different ways of performing in Condense’s virtual venue and shaping guidance for performers through experimentation and user experience research.

Shakara Thompson

Fellow in Residence at Celestial

Shakara Thompson is in a practical and analytical Fellowship at Celestial, exploring the world of drone light shows, and the possibilities for Artificial Intelligence to influence the process of creating them, both technically and creatively.

Harry Willmott

Fellow in Residence at Zero Point Motion

Harry Willmott is in a practical and experimental Fellowship at Zero Point Motion, focusing on designing and conducting user research using VR enriched with finger tracking and physiological monitoring, to understand how these features impact the user’s presence and immersion in the experience.

Amy Rose

Fellow in Residence at Air Giants

Amy Rose is in a practice-based Fellowship at Air Giants, exploring how the context of interaction with Giant Tactile Robots shapes participant journeys, and how to devise stories that invite engagement and play.

Clarice Hilton

Fellow in Residence at UWE Bristol, working with Marshmallow Laser Feast and All Seeing Eye

Clarice Hilton is in a practical Fellowship with UWE Bristol, Marshmallow Laser Feast and All Seeing Eye, exploring the ways in which people with different disabilities might experience and value various modalities (such as such as type of headset, controller and environmental interaction) in location-based VR, and how this should inform the design process.

Chloe Meineck

Fellow in Residence at Bath Spa/Creative Twerton Community Engagement

Chloe Meineck is a Fellow in Residence as part of the MyWorld Ideas programme, focusing on Community Engagement and Participation at the Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries at Bath Spa University. Chloe will explore accessible creative technology and how it can be co-designed/co-created to have an impact on people’s lives.

Dr Rosie Poebright

Fellow in Residence at Bauer Media

Rosie Poebright is a story experience architect, digital artist and real-world game designer with a Doctorate in Audience Participation. They are a Watershed Fellow in Residence as part of the MyWorld Ideas programme, focusing on the Future of Radio with Bauer Media. Rosie will focus on conceptualising how the future of radio will layer into our everyday lives in a world shaped by AI and responsive technologies.

Gabrielle Shiner-Hill

Fellow in Residence at Bath Spa/Fashion Museum "Dress of the Year"

Gabrielle Shiner-Hill is a Fellow in Residence as part of the MyWorld Ideas programme. Her residency is at The Studio in Bath with the Fashion Museum, exploring the digitisation of existing fashion assets and how these can be implemented within the digital realm.

David Matunda

Fellow in Residence at Knowle West Media Centre Community Engagement

David Matunda is a web developer, digital artist, writer, and a Fellow in Residence as part of the MyWorld Ideas programme. His Community Tech Infrastructure Fellowship at Knowle West Media Centre will focus on community tech and participation. David hopes to identify the challenges and barriers to accessing community tech.

Frazer Meakin

Fellow in Residence at Pervasive Media Studio/Skills and Training

Frazer Meakin is a Director (Theatre & Film), Movement Director and Educator. He is a MyWorld Fellow in Residence, exploring the skills and opportunities which young people need for a career in creative technologies.