Our series of Studio Talks continue with Makers of Imaginary Worlds, designers of interactive and engaging experiences for young audiences.
Makers of Imaginary Worlds' previous installation projects have relied on tactile materials and touch technologies to engage audiences. Recent project Thingamabobas makes use of contactless sensing technologies, robotics, machine learning, and AI to create a playful, sensory experience where participants meet and interact with a circus troupe of performative mechanical and kinetic structures.
Supported by a team of artists, creative technologists and researchers at the University of Nottingham's Cobot Maker Space they conducted a period of research and development exploring robotics, motion tracking, proximity sensors, infrared sensors, and pressure sensors (foot-based interaction) for the design of participatory experiences.
In this talk, Makers of Imaginary World's founders and artistic directors, Roma Patel and Rachel Ramchurn, will give an insight into the development of their recent work, share inspiring examples of other artists and creatives using and collaborating with robotics, and demonstrate NED: The Never-Ending Dancer — part of the Thingamabobas troupe of robot performers.
NED: The Never-Ending Dancer by Makers of Imaginary Worlds
Makers of Imaginary Worlds are currently exhibiting NED: The Never-Ending Dancer in Broadway Gallery as part of a residency supported by the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub.
Makers of Imaginary Worlds were recently announced as a winner of HOME-Zero, a creative research and development project to help ignite a public conversation about the relationship between household emissions and climate change. The project is a partnership between Nesta and National Gallery X (The National Gallery and King’s College London).
In collaboration with Lakeside Arts, writer Sam Redway and the Mixed Reality Lab, University of Nottingham, Makers of Imaginary Worlds will create an interactive installation that aims to address the value-action gap in behaviour around climate change and encourage families to make sustainable choices in their homes.