Emma is a Research Assistant at Plymouth University. She works on open-source solutions for fulldome creative projects across a range of hardware and software, including game engines, wearable technology, and realtime audiovisualization. Her background is in computer science and creative coding.
Pete Quinn Davis is an artist/designer and creative producer, specializing in visualising material data in different ways, through installation, data-objects, sound and projection. Quinn Davis mainly works with 3D scanners and 3D printers using them as collaborators to better grasp a world full of intricately connected systems and events. He is interested in how art and design emerge from the combination of information systems and physical processes that surround us every day. Through such diverse explorations he seeks to locate us in space and time and reflect the complexity of the world we all inhabit.
Quinn Davis studied at Cardiff College of Art, The Royal College of Art returning to the RCA in the early 1990’s, Quinn Davis was awarded the Data Fellowship for the Southwest in 2020, The iMayflower Project, The AHRC Curiosity Award, the Good Growth Award and the IAXX Case Study Award. He is a member of the FAR SOUTH WEST IMMERSIVE CLUSTER https://fswi.org.uk/
i-DAT’s algorythmic heritage flows through the core of our practice and dates back to the early years of our formation in 1998. Some of our creative Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning project include:
1997: Psalms:
https://i-dat.org/psalms/
Psalms is the Autonomous Wheelchair constructed by Guido Bugmann for Donald Rodney’s “Nine Night in Eldorado” at the South London Gallery, 1997. Now in the Tate Collection.
2000: Autoicon:
https://i-dat.org/autoicon/
Autoicon is a dynamic internet work and CD-ROM that simulates both the physical presence and elements of the creative personality of the artist Donald Rodney who died from sickle-cell anaemia. The project builds on Donald Rodney’s artistic practice in his later years, when he increasingly began to delegate key roles in the organisation and production of his artwork.
2000: THE S.T.I. PROJECT: THE SEARCH FOR TERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE:
https://i-dat.org/sti/
S.T.I. is funded by the SciArt programme (supported by the ACE, the British Council, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, SAC, the Wellcome Trust and NESTA)., and turns the technologies that look to deep space for Alien Intelligence back onto Planet Earth in a quest for ‘evidence’ of Terrestrial Intelligence.
2002: Artefact:
https://i-dat.org/2002-artefact/
Artefacts can change their meaning not just over the years as different histriographical and institutional currents pick them out and transform their significance, but from day to day as different people view them and subject them to their own interpretation. The ‘Artefact’ Project takes this fluidity as its starting point. The Artefact and its interpretation panel slowly evolve as visitors to the website play with it and reinterpret its meaning.
2002: Note Towards the Complete Works of Shakespeare / Generator:
https://i-dat.org/notes-towards/
Generator: curated by Spacex & STAR, with support from the Institute of Digital Art & Technology and the Arts Council of England (Collaborative Arts Unit). Spacex Gallery, 1 May – 22 June 2002, and touring in the UK. Generator will present a series of ‘self-generating’ projects, incorporating digital media, instruction and participation pieces, drawing machines, experimental literature, and music technologies. All work will be produced ‘live’, in real-time, with some elements continuing indefinitely.
2006: Noogy:
Installation in Portland Square, University of Plymouth. To talk to Noogy text: ‘noogy; and your question..’ to 07766404142. Noogy in residence is part of the Motion Plymouth Festival 2006. Noogy’s background is a little unclear. Some claim that Noogy arrived from deep space, originating somewhere off the shoulder of Orion, watching C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. Others claim that Noogy grew from within the network of CAT6 Ethernet cables, silicon chips and data mines that form the core of the Arch-OS system in Portland Square.
2006: Sloth-bot:
https://arch-os.com/projects/slothbot/
Sloth-bots are large autonomous robots that move incredibly/imperceptibly slowly. They reconfigure the physical architecture imperceptibly as a result of their interactions with people, over time. As the use of the space changes throughout the day, sloth-bots reposition themselves in anticipation of new interactions with the buildings occupants.
2014 QUALIA – a revolution in measuring audience feedback:
https://i-dat.org/qualia/
Enter Qualia (stage right). This is i-DAT’s ground-breaking digital technology and research project, which measures the mood of arts and culture audiences using a user-friendly interface that ‘gamifies’ the evaluation process. Qualia enables users to gain tangible rewards for taking part – such as discounts and exclusive offers – making data collection easy, fun and beneficial.
2016 Quorum Cultural Computation:
Quorum proposes new analytical techniques which focus on enhancing audience engagement through the use of conversational AI, Artificial Neural Networks, Self Organising Maps and Deep Learning Networks to innovatively integrate subjective and objective data.
2016 TIWWA:
https://quorum.i-dat.org/tiwwa/
A technological fusion of interactive light and sound, this dynamic data driven artwork asks audiences to consider the data they generate and the algorithms that increasingly influence their behaviour. This Is Where We Are offers a glimpse into a future where we work rest and play with and through algorithms.
2016 Murmuration:
https://i-dat.org/murmuration/
Murmuration was one of the outcomes from the E / M / D / L – EUROPEAN MOBILE DOME LAB for Artistic Research (http://www.emdl.eu/) partnership of European and Canadian cultural organisations funded by EU Culture Program. This post contains information and documentation on this project component.
2018 Women Reclaiming AI:
https://i-dat.org/women-reclaiming-ai-for-activism/
Women Reclaiming AI (WRAI) is a collaborative AI Voice Assistant made by and for self-identifying women. It is created through a series of free, inclusive and collaborative workshops with the ambition of growing a community and a shared data-set which better represents its users.
2018 The Infinite Guide:
https://i-dat.org/the-infinite-guide/
The Infinite Guide is a speculative art work and research project, powered by a conversational Artificial Intelligence, (a natural language human-computer interface). It took place simultaneously online and at KARST in Plymouth, UK.
2018 Emoti-OS:
https://i-dat.org/emoti-os-me/
Emoti-OS is a chatbot. It uses conversations with its users to understand the collective mood of pupils at Plymouth School of Creative Arts (UK). It is created for and with these pupils to give students a voice and a way to express how they collectively feel about important matters at the school.
2018-2021 SWCTN:
https://www.swctn.org.uk/automation/
https://www.swctn.org.uk/data/
The South West Creative Technology Network (SWCTN) is a £6.5 million project to expand the use of creative technologies across the south west of England. The network is offering three one-year funded programmes around the themes of Immersion, Automation and Data.
References:
Postgraduate Researchers:
> Liz Coulter-Smith current PGR Exploring Generative Automatism and Process Art through Large Language Models.
> Dr Denis Roio: Algorithmic Sovereignty
i-DAT Research Sessions 2024-25:
Backstory:
The i-DAT and CODEX Research Workshops build on the heritage of a series of practice-based production workshops, seminars and symposia. Workshop methodologies critically and playfully engage with themes, technologies and behaviours which frame the symptoms of individual and collective practices of the i-DAT research community: https://i-dat.org/research/
Our agenda is enhanced by a range of future focused research instruments, such as the Immersive Vision Theatre, Digital Fabrication and Immersive Media Laboratories (DFIML), and the Real Ideas Devonport Market Hall, that blur the boundaries between the physical and the virtual, the real and the imaginary.
Previous Research Sessions can be found here…
January 2025
February 2025
Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker
Exhibition Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker Following acclaimed presentations at both Spike Island (Bristol) and Nottingham Contemporary (Nottingham), Whitechapel Gallery brings this major survey exhibition of the late British multi-media artist Donald Rodney (b.1961, West Bromwich; d.1998, London) to London.
(TBC) i-DAT Research Seminar.
March 2025
April 2025
May 2025
June 2025
July 2025
August 2025
September 2025
October 2025
November 2025
December 2025
March 2024
April 2024
May 2024
June 2024
July 2024
September 2024
October 2024
Ronnie Deelan Talk: Creative Talk: Ronnie Deelan The Secrets of a Versatile Artist’s Distracted Focus Date: Thursday 10 October 2024 Time: 16:30 – 18:00 Venue:The House stage
November 2024
[MYTH]COMMUNICATION: ‘Crises of meaning in the age of the (im)material Image’ (panel).
The Material Image 1 – 3 November 2024 The 8th International Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference at the Intersections of Art, Science, and Culture.
December 2024
Holst Spaceship Earth: Transit of Venus
Date: Wednesday 4 December 2024 Time: 17:00–19:00 Venue: Immersive Vision Theatre.
Hotwire x Holst
Hotwire x Holst Wednesday 4th December 2024 Hotwire~ is an Open Research Lab for playful experimentation with creative technology set up by Andrew Prior and David Strang. There are hotwire nodes in Plymouth, UK and Suzhou, China.
Previous Research Sessions can be found here…
Celine is a lecturer in Game Design.
She specialises in Motion Capture post production and has worked on a number of AAA games and international movies.
She has a strong interest for children illustration – both traditional and digital, as well as textile illustration using embroidery and fabric collage.
She loves to create and design new worlds and characters.
Rachel Horrell is a PhD researcher specialising in accessible music technology, delving into ways to innovate new technologies that cater to musicians who are partially sighted or blind. Holding a Research Masters in Computer Music, she designed a brain-computer music interface for composing via the electroencephalogram. Rachel is also an accomplished musician and multi-instrumentalist. Notably, she participated as a vocalist in Derren Brown’s ‘Showman’ during two legs of the tour. Additionally, Rachel works as a music practitioner, collaborating with various primary schools in Plymouth, as well as contributing her expertise to early years settings through local charities like TakeArt and Evolve Music.
Ben is a PhD researcher in the fields of computer music and immersive social music making. His research is concerned with the development of new interactive digital audio systems for immersive composition and performance. In addition to this, he has worked both creatively and technically across a range of disciplines including live sound, studio production, live performance and interactive audio. He lectures in the areas of computer music, music technology and audio engineering.
Professor Dylan Yamada-Rice is an artist and researcher specialising in storytelling and play. She works in a range of media including drawing, Virtual Reality and game engines. Dylan studied Japanese Art History, semiotics and social science research methods before moving into experimental design.
She obtained a BA in Art History and Archaeology from the School of Oriental and African studies, University of London before going on to do postgraduate research in Japanese Art History at the University of Kyoto. She then went on to complete two Masters degrees in Childhood Education and Research Methods, before undertaking a PhD looking at children’s understanding of the visual mode within Japanese environments.
This interdisciplinary background has brought about a specialism in the role of culture in storytelling and use of emerging technologies, as well as how art and design practices can be combined with social science research methods to produce experimental means of collecting and analysing data. She has previously held academic posts at the University of Sheffield and in Information Experience Design at the Royal College of Art.
Lana is a PhD candidate and an Associate Lecturer at the University of Plymouth teaching on the undergraduate course BA/BSc Digital Media Design. The role consists of delivering lectures and workshops across a variety of modules and providing tutorial sessions to help improve student’s work.
Her interdisciplinary practice focuses mainly on creative coding and creating interactive interfaces, but also includes working with Arduino, creating projection mapping and VR/AR projects. Her PhD research is around building new ways of interacting with digital photographs and their relationship between family heritage and identity and real/digital environment.
Thijs [Tice] Mostert completed his Masters in Design at the University of Plymouth in 2021. Thijs has come from a healthcare background, working in secondary and primary care settings across the South West for over 10 years. He has special interest sustainability and the circular economy and digital fabrication. After completing his Masters he took on the role of project coordinator in ‘The Greenhouse’ at The Plot on Union Street for Nudge Community Builders (https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/arts-humanities-business/the-greenhouse) .
The project was aimed at upskilling the local community in Digital Design. Running free workshops in VR/AR, CAD and CAM skills with and for people from the local Community and the wider Plymouth area. He is passionate about creating more opportunities for meaningful collaborations within the community and with students from the University. Halfway through the project he took on the role of Research assistant for a joined project with various local Social Entreprises under the umbrella of the UK Community Renewal Fund in line with the government Levelling Up agenda.
In October 2022 he became one of the directors of Precious Plastics Plymouth (https://preciousplasticplymouth.co.uk/) and he is hoping to integrate this CIC with the work he is doing at The Greenhouse and the Fab City movement in Plymouth.
Qualifications:
Nursing Degree BA Hons – Hogeschool Rotterdam & Omstreken
MA Design – University of Plymouth
You must be logged in to post a comment.