Research

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has launched a UK-wide network of creative technology labs to provide researchers and companies with innovative facilities to develop screen and performance technology.

Established with £75.6m of AHRC funding, the CoSTAR national network comprises a National Lab, three Network Labs and a Foresight Lab.

The National Lab is led by Royal Holloway University of London with partners including Pinewood Studios and the National Film and Television School. It will contain a dedicated stage and studio space, with a motion capture rig and a creative artificial intelligence computer facility accessible across the UK. 

Led by Goldsmiths, University of London with partners including BFI and the Creative Policy and Evidence Centre, the Foresight Lab will collect and analyse data to better understand the impacts of emerging technologies.

The three Network labs are: Screen Lab, led by Ulster University, with BBC Northern Ireland; Realtime Lab,  focusing on video games development and led by Abertay University; and Live Lab, led by the University of York with Opera North, which will develop technologies for live performance.

“The way we experience live performances will be completely transformed over the next decade”, said Professor Helena Daffern, Live Lab Co-Director and Professor of Music Science at the University of York.

“Imagine a live concert of your favourite artists where every member of the audience can shape their own unique audio-visual experience. You’ll have the ability to engage with every aspect of a production wherever you are, be it in the arena or the comfort of your own living room.”

“The Live Lab is poised to be at the forefront of innovation for live events,” added Professor Gavin Kearney, Lab Director and Professor of Audio Engineering at the University of York.

“We’re combining York’s research expertise with industry, public and third-sector partners who are all dedicated to innovation in live performance.”

The Natural History Museum's plans to relocate millions of specimens, including mammals, corals and worms, from London to Reading have been criticised by experts.

In a letter to The Times, seven former researchers at the museum and 23 international experts argued that the move would be detrimental and lead to a loss of expertise.

“While most biological research can be pursued on any university campus,” they wrote, “only natural history museums with their collections and experts located in intact and cohesive institutions can lead in this arena.”

The museum announced last year that it would move 28m of its 80m objects to a new facility at Thames Valley Science Park, on land owned by the University of Reading, constituting the most significant move of its collections since the 1880s.

The museum says the move will offer more space for the collection to grow and better opportunities for analysing and digitising specimens. In their letter, critics of the plan questioned why a London-based university could not be found to house the specimens.

Fred Naggs, a former staff member, said: “My take is they considered the collections and the scientists to be occupying prime real estate and that they could simply be moved out of London."

A museum spokeswoman said: “We’re moving some of the collection to Reading to make it easier for us to take care of it, digitise it and share its data with scientists all over the world who are finding solutions to problems like climate change, biodiversity loss and food security.

“We came to this decision by listening carefully to our colleagues and the wider scientific community. As a leading scientific research centre, we think it’s important to unlock and share the value of all natural history collections.”
 

One in five jobs in London is in the creative economy, up from one in six in 2016, new research has revealed.

Data from a recently released City Hall report show that in 2021, more than 1.1m jobs in London were held by people employed in the creative economy.

That figure includes both creative and non-creative roles within the creative industries as well as creative occupations in other sectors.

Focusing solely on jobs in the creative industries, the report found 795,500 roles in London during 2021, accounting for one in seven and up from one in ten in 2010.  

Looking at the impact of the pandemic on the creative industries, the findings revealed that in London, between 2019 and 2020, the marketing and IT service sub-sectors saw increases in gross value added, while most other areas experienced significant declines, particularly museums, galleries and libraries, design, and music, performing and visual arts.

Collectively, the city's creative industries were shown to have generated £51.7bn in economic output in 2020, a fall of 6.0% compared to 2019, which was below the London average (-10.6%) but above that for the creative industries UK-wide (-4.9%). The report noted that most sub-sectors of the UK’s creative industry recorded higher-than-average growth between February to June 2023.

In 2021 26.6% of the capital's creative industry jobs were held by self-employed workers, compared to 29.6% for the sector in the rest of the UK. There was a drop of 3.9% in self-employment in the city between 2020 and 2021, partly attributed to job losses and workers reclassifying themselves as employees.

The research showed that in 2022, the median gross weekly earnings for the creative industries was £786, with a gender pay gap of 18.7% compared to London’s overall gender pay gap of 13.0%. Although more diverse than in the rest of the UK, in 2021, London’s creative industries were shown to be more predominantly white (76.2%)  than other sectors in the capital, representing a 5.3% drop from an all-time high in 2014.

Holding a degree or equivalent qualification was also found to be more prevalent for those working in the capital's creative industries (80.2%) than in the rest of the UK (64.0%) and for London overall (61.5%).

In response to the report, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “[The creative industries] are a huge success story contributing tens of billions of pounds to our nation and supporting businesses across the country through their supply chains. But [they] still have significant challenges, including spiralling operational costs, Brexit bureaucracy and reductions in funding.

"I’m committed to doing all I can to support our creative businesses and continue to urge Ministers to provide sufficient support to help our creative industries drive economic growth and jobs as we build a better London for everyone.”

Teaching creativity in primary schools can help students and teachers improve their skills, according to new research funded by Arts Council England and the Freelands Foundation.

The year-long study, which was conducted by University of Exeter and worked with teachers from the Penryn Partnership in West Cornwall, found "notable increases" in both teachers' abilities to facilitate creativity and students' capacity to develop creative skills.

Teachers taking part reported “increasing confidence and practice” in teaching for creativity. Meanwhile, researchers found children took more risks in developing ideas and experienced a greater connection with knowledge and skills they had previously been taught. 

One teacher said: "This study has confirmed to me that making the time and space for creativity in the secondary classroom is vital if we want to equip teenagers with the kinds of skills that they so clearly need for the future."

Associate Professor Kerry Chappell, who jointly authored the report, said the findings gave “insight into how it’s possible to teach for creativity."

She added: "The fact that our research synthesis was also able to demonstrate widespread developments in both creative teaching and students’ creative skills shows that the Creativity Collaborative project has impact and could be scaled up nationally.”

An ongoing pilot project using travel assistant technology to encourage audiences to travel to cultural venues more sustainably has shared its initial findings.

Five cultural venues - Chichester Festival Theatre, The Point & The Berry in Eastleigh, Farnham Maltings, The Old Fire Station Oxford and The Electric in Guildford – are taking part in the Act Green travel pilot, which is being run by consultancy and research agency Indigo-Ltd in partnership with You. Smart. Thing (YST) and crowdEngage.

The venues have received Arts Council England funding to see if a combination of technology and messaging can influence audience behaviour.

YST operates travel assistant technology that allows audience members to see the carbon impact of their travel options. It has paired with crowdEngage, which enables venues to send communications to encourage audiences to use the travel assistant service, to create an integration between the two systems.

Since the pilot began in July, audiences across the five venues have created more than 4,000 sustainable travel plans.

Indigo-Ltd says the initial results show visitors are opting for low-carbon travel methods of public transport rather than driving to venues.

When compared with their usual travel behaviour those who used the route suggested by the travel assistant service reduced their carbon emissions by 41%, together saving an estimated eight tonnes of carbon over the last three months.

The pilot will continue to run until May next year, with results being published in the spring alongside a toolkit for other cultural organisations.

YST CEO Chris Thompson said: “We are delighted to see adoption of our technology across the cultural sector, and in particular, by theatre going audiences”.

“Behaviour change and model shift can be hugely difficult to achieve. It is brilliant to see these theatres offering tailored routes and low-carbon travel options that ultimately enhance the overall cultural experience they deliver.”