UK-China Collaborations Event in Shanghai
‍Prof Richard Koeck has been invited as a UK delegate by the AHRC/UKRI to present the results of a recent network grant with the film/animation studio Aardman and the Shanghai Theatre Academy as partners.

Their joint work was presented at a Showcase Reception, as well as the High Level Forum and Workshop (Portman Ritz Carlton) in Shanghai. The UK delegation visit  comprised four main elements:

1.     Industry visits (2nd December), enabling the UK delegation to undertake visits to leading creative industries organisations in Shanghai

2.     Showcase reception (2nd December), bringing together academic and industry representatives from the UK and Shanghai to reflect on the collaboration between the UK and China in the creative industries to date.

3.     Forum (3rd December), providing a platform from which to explore the benefits (and challenges) of enhanced UK-China collaboration in the creative industries via a series senior-level keynote addresses and panel discussions.

4.     Workshop (3rd December), providing an in-depth focus on the work funded through the AHRC Fund for International Collaboration programme to date

Logo: © Aardman Animations 2019

2019 TVE Global Sustainability Film Awards
We are pleased to announce that Monika Koeck (CineTecture), director and producer of the film "A Low Carbon Future for China's Furnace Cities", has been awarded the 2019 Global Sustainability Film Award in the category of "AI and Digital Innovation". This impact and research film was commissioned by Cambridge University and produced with the support/partnership of CAVA.

‍Presented at a gala event in London, the tve awards spotlight exemplarily films sitting at the forefront of environmental and social change. Launched 8 years ago at BAFTA (the home of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts) recipients of this prestigious award have included major international film/TV/broadcast companies, such as last year’s win for the BBC with David Attenborough's documentary "Blue Planet". This year's films were judged for both their creative execution and the credibility of the solutions they present, highlighting real action being taken to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Founded in 2007 by Monika and Richard Koeck, CineTecture specialises in film and media productions focusing on research, impact, and public engagement in relation to art, architecture and cities. Previous broadcasts, films and installations produced by CineTecture have featured in festivals, galleries and national museums worldwide. This is the second time (2013; 2019) that Monika Koeck’s work and CineTecture have been recognised by the tve film award.
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In 2019, CineTecture was a partner in an EPSRC and NSFC funded research project led by Prof C. A. Short (Cambridge University) as the principle investigator. The large team of experts in, for instance, climate modelling and computational fluid dynamics, working on the project  included, among others, Prof Runming Yao (University of Reading), Dr Laetitia Mottet (Imperial College London), Dr Jiyun Song (University of Cambridge) and partners in China, Prof Baizhan Li (Chongqing University), Prof Jian Ge and Dr Jindong Wu (Zhejiang University).  

The film received the award for offering unprecedented insight into this world-leading (UK/China funded) research, exploring ways to develop a low-carbon retrofit adaptation scheme for an enormous existing building stock (>9 billion m²), without the need for new buildings (>CO2 emissions). The research sought to address the issue of occupants’ changing thermal comfort expectations (problem/self-installed air-conditions) in some of the most extreme climate regions of China.
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Monika Koeck wrote the script and subsequently shot the film with two Chinese crews on location in the cities of Chongqing and Hangzhou, before using CGI 3D (Piotr Olszewski) and 2D animations to translate and interpret complex research data into an accessible format. In doing so, her work not only a creative practice research output, but also a pathway for worldwide distribution of the research and its impact.

St George's Hall: If These Walls Could Talk

Professor Richard Koeck, Pete Woodbridge and other colleagues from the Centre of Architecture and the Visual Arts (CAVA) have collaborated with Culture Liverpool, Immersive Storylab, Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, CineTecture and Draw & Code to develop a ground-breaking participatory and immersive mixed reality experience.

Prof Koeck led a team that brought together world-leading researchers with leading-edge creative practitioners – such as a BAFTA winning writer, a world-class performing arts organisation and immersive technology experts – to create a pioneering hybrid spatial experience.

The location-based prototype was produced for one of city's most iconic heritage buildings – the 19th century St George’s Hall (Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, built 1841–1854), which is an intrinsic part of Liverpool’s UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Two launch events are hosted by CAVA who provide guests with the opportunity to immerse themselves into the famous court case of Florence Maybrick who was accused of poisoning her husband, and taken on a journey back in time to experience and feel what it was like to encounter Liverpool’s late Victorian prison and justice system.

The team created an immersive mixed reality experience, combining 3D projection mapping, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Live Performances that produces an entirely new kind of digital visitor experience. But more than that, with the support of Microsoft's Mixed Reality team in the US, the CAVA team created the world's first volumetrically filmed (3D holograms) UNESCO heritage experience using Microsoft's HoloLens system.

Keynote: Word | Image | Space
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Prof Richard Koeck (CAVA) and Oscar Raby (VRTOV) give keynote addresses at the 2019 MPE and MeCCSA Practice Network Symposium; held at the University of Kent and organised by Dr Maurizio Cinquegrani and Dr Richard Misek.

This symposium  explores the interaction between word and image in media-based practice research. As creative practice has increasingly found a home within academia, and as digital technologies have made possible new methodologies and forms of output, the hegemony of the written word within arts and humanities scholarship has been challenged from different directions. From curated exhibitions, through audiovisual essays and interactive websites, to sound art, practice research now challenges the logocentric focus of humanities research across all media.

The symposium  highlights how practitioners in various fields engage with the interdependence of word and image. By bringing together disciplines including film, photography, sound art, and interactive media, it will bring the audiovisual strategies for ‘shaping knowledge’ adopted within different media forms into conversation with each other, and allow them to illuminate each other.

Prof Koeck's keynote address on "word | image | space" is given from the vantage point of someone who regards creative practice as a key constituent of (non-linear) research and as such knowledge creation. He  draws attention to historical and present-day interdependencies between three (often regarded as different) knowledge domains. He is alluding to trends in society, often driven by technological innovations, where are beginning to split these domains apart. In this process, we begin to see autonomous and self-referential tendencies, which will pose new and significant challenges for a media-obsessed/depended society such as ours.

With this in mind, Prof Koeck will share some of his own practice-based research projects/outputs and illustrate that an understanding of these interdependent (contextualised) knowledge domains will become particularly important as we move into a future in which virtual (VR) and augmented realities (AR) are increasingly defining not only media-based artistic practices, but also are our lived, everyday life experiences .

4 June 2019, 6.30pm to 8.00pm
RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London, W1B 1AD
receipt £5 standard; £3 for students, RIBA members and RIBA Friends

In an informal setting and in dialogue with experienced and imaginative guests, The Colin Rowe Lectures aim to discuss the role of the image in architecture, particularly the crucial role of architectural photography. The lectures are considered as an open forum of discussion for architects, photographers, students and the simply curious. All are welcome.

We are delighted to announce that our next lecture will be delivered by Juhani Pallasmaa. Architect SAFA, Hon. FAIA, Int FRIBA, Pallasmaa has been active in urban planning, architecture, and exhibition/product/graphic design since the early 1960s. He has held many positions, including Professor and Dean, Helsinki University of Technology (1991–97); Director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture (1978–83); and Rector of the Institute of Design, Helsinki (1970–71). He has held several visiting professorships in the US (Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., University of Illinois, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Virginia and Yale University) and lectured widely in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia. Pallasmaa has published 50 books and more than 300 essays in 30 languages, including ‘The Embodied Image’ (2011), ‘The Thinking Hand’ (2009), ‘Encounters: Architectural Essays’ (2005) and ‘Encounters 2’ (2012), ‘The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema’ (2001 and 2007), and ‘The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses’ (1996 and 2005).
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Forum convened by Marco Iuliano (University of Liverpool) and Valeria Carullo (RIBA). valeria.carullo@riba.org

Image:: © Juhani Pallasmaa2019

Shaun the Sheep in Shanghai: A Location-based, Mixed Reality Cinema Experience
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Imagine sitting in a cinema where a new "Shaun the Sheep" short is playing; yet the audience will be sitting in an auditorium that is digitally enhanced and art directed to look like it is part of the film. Characters will leave the two-dimensional canvas to continue their story in the auditorium space.

This project, funded by the AHRC, proposes as new partnership between the Centre of Architecture and the Visual Arts (CAVA), Aardman, China Media Capital (CMC) and the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) that is the basis for a new alliance between the UK and CCI/Media organisations in the Shanghai region. The aim of this a research/industry partnership is to collaborate on a unique, location-based, mixed reality cinema experience in a specially designed theatre in Shanghai.  

"Shaun the Sheep" is already a global entertainment brand known principally for its linear, animated, non-dialogue content (movies; TV series). This project will therefore focus on technical, creative and business innovation rather than on audience acquisition. It will also put Aardman  at the forefront of developing innovation, new methods, new knowledge and, through creating new audiences, access to a new market.

In terms of technological innovation, the team will seek a collaboration with partners in the UK and China. By using mixed reality technology (e.g. holograms tracked by computer vision), the project envisions to blur the traditional boundaries between the screen and cinema space, creating a new "narrative space" in which audiences are part of and feel fully immersed.

Stills and Logo: © Aardman Animations 2019

Architecture as Immersive Experience
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Prof Richard Koeck gave a lecture at National University of Singapore (NUS), Department of Architecture (DOA) in Singapore as part of a guest lecture series that was  organised by Dr Shu Yeng Simone Chung (NUS).

He explored in his lecture, from an architecturaland (moving) image-making perspective, the notion ofarchitecture being an immersive experience. He will linkhistorical examples of immersive image taking, representationand consumption with present-day architectural, economic, andcreative practices.

He drew attention to 19th and early 20th century immersivepanoramic representations of cities, such as the work of Barker,Horner, Hugo d’Alesi und Raoul Grimoin-Sanson and ask if andhow these historic precedents validate the hypothesis that the actof early image production and consumption was a fundamentally“spatial” enterprise and venture and can be seen as predecessorsof today’s “digital experience economy”.

Delegate to Public Forum, Singapore Design Week
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Organised by the Singapore Design Council as part of the Singapore Design Week 04-17 Mar 2019, Prof Richard Koeck was an invited delegate to the the public forum of the  UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN).

The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) was created in 2004 to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development. The 180 cities which currently make up this network work together towards a common objective: placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level.

While Liverpool is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities network in the category of Music, the Design network comprises of cities such as Singapore, Dundee, Istanbul, Graz, Geelog, Naoga, Kobe, Montreal, Detroit, and Bilbao.

Monika Koeck’s film Moulding Futures (see Vimeo link below) has been nominated for best film in the category "Reshaping the Economy" of the 2018 tve Global Sustainability Film Awards at BAFTA in London (see link below). The ceremony was hosted by Thomas Moore from Sky News; three films were selected in this category as runner ups for the highly prestigious award, Monika’s being one of them. Monika, a previous winner of the TVE film award (2013), was again nomintated and selected to have produced one of three best films in 2018. Her work was considered alongside that of much larger companies such as the BBC (Blue Planet), HSBC and Volvo.

The documentary film Moulding Futures illustrates the works and concepts of ECAlab (Environmental Ceramics for Architecture Laboratory) – founded by Dr Rosa Urbano Gutiérrez (University of Liverpool) and Amanda Wanner (Leeds Beckett University) – exploring new artistic and technological ways in which ceramics can be used as a sustainable building material, whilst at the same time examining the role of emerging digital technologies alongside traditional ceramic craftsmanship skills.

One of the aims of the film is therefore to show how art can meet science in a meaningful and environmentally sustainable way. It documents the process of how a deliberate ecological focus – that uses new and never tried before technologies with one of the world’s first building materials (e.g. combining parametric design, with 3D printing and clay) – can bring back clay into the realm of contemporary architecture as an ancient, yet highly innovative material to creates a sustainable and aesthetically rich environment.

Picture credit: Monika Koeck (left) and Rosa Urbano (right).

Prof Richard Koeck was invited as UK delegate to Shanghai to launch a call for a series of Partnership Development Grants focused on building new research-industry partnerships between the UK and China in the creative industries. The workshop was attended by leading academics, industry partners and leading members of the AHRC and UKRI. It was hosted by the Shanghai Theatre Academy (Prof Huang Changyong), co-organised by UKRI, EPSRC, Innovate UK and the AHRC (Professor Andrew Thompson) and visited by Dr Liam Fox (Secretary of State for International Trade).

The funding scheme will be announced soon and  awards will be part of a major new programme that will invest £5m on the UK side, plus co-funding from Chinese partners, over 4 years. It will be delivered in partnership with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; Innovate UK; the Shanghai Theatre Academy; and the Shanghai Economic and Information Technology Commission. The overarching aim of the programme is to enable a rapid scaling-up of engagements between the UK and China – with a specific focus on Shanghai – in order to facilitate new collaborations in the creative industries that deliver sustained economic, cultural and intellectual benefits in both countries.

The development grants will be the first stage in a suite of funding activity. They are intended to provide a platform for the initiation / enhancement of research-industry partnerships between the UK and China with a view to larger, longer-term collaboration. The awards will enable partners to scope new ideas for research and development activity, identify industry challenges and opportunities, interrogate key themes and shape priorities.

It is anticipated that projects will explore areas including, but not limited to: the screen industries; theatre / performing arts (particularly in relation to mixed reality experiences); gaming (particularly in relation to mobile devices); and creative design.

Source: AHRC. For information see AHRC link below.

Hack the Root is a film directed by Monika Koeck, produced by CineTecture in association with CAVA (Monika Koeck / Richard Koeck) that is part of RIBA North's latest public exhibition. The film documents the work of  Dr Mae-Ling Lokko (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) who, with the involvement of children and community groups, has grown and built a life-size pavilion from agrowaste for the Liverpool Biennial 2018. "Hack the Root" is  commissioned by RIBA North and Liverpool Biennial 2018 and is funded by the Arts Council UK.
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The film, which is part of an ongoing public installation, creates the awareness that billions of tons of waste is being produced by the agricultural/food industry, meaning that agrowaste is one of the most underutilised material resources currently existing. Through upcycling, the film illustrates how mycelium can transform this waste into valuable, high-performing bricks/panels that offer alternatives to conventional materials and as such can meet the housing demands of a growing world population.  

All building materials are being recycled. While the grow trays must be made from a material that the mycelium is not consuming (e.g. plastics), they are being used for up to 250 grow cycles before being recycled. They mycelium itself, consumes pollutants during the feeding process and has air cleansing properties once it is grown and installed.

CAVA is leading a collaboration between Culture Liverpool, Draw and Code, Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts and Immersive Storylab to develop a ground-breaking participatory and immersive mixed reality experience. The team is creating a functional prototype for an entirely new kind of digital visitor experience that is being developed for and tested in one Liverpool’s' most iconic heritage buildings – the 19th century St George’s Hall (Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, built 1841–1854) which is intrinsic part of Liverpool’s UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Prof Koeck, Director of CAVA states: "Technologies such as the ones we are using here will have major implications for architecture and cities in the near future. We are immensely proud to produce here what seems to be the world’s first volumetric, holographic, mixed reality experience for a building that is part of a UNESCO world heritage site. The lessons we are learning here and the impact from this will hopefully be considerable."

This weekend the team shot scenes using depth field technology. They were produced by Richard Koeck and Pete Woodbridge; and directed by Philip Wood. Particular. A great thanks goes to the entire production team, actors and the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts.

CAVA researcher Ian Costabile has created prototypes for sound interactive business cards. Ian led the design and production of a business card design that contains sound and interactive sensors. The purpose of this card was to investigate creative ways of sharing contact details within networks of musicians, technologists and business representatives. The information contained in the card displays contact information and services offered by an artist (the author). The concept was to produce an affordable design that could easily be produced by a single person, initially for a maximum of 20 pieces. Several prototypes were developed, documented and tested during the first semester of 2018.

To Download the full paper, please see the link below.

Prof Richard Koeck talk on "Immersed in the Image of the City" opens the Film, Space and Architecture Symposium 2018 at the Architectural Association in London. Brian Hatton, organiser of the symposium, invited leading film as well architectural scholars, such as Ian Christie, Penelope Haralambidou, François Penz, Renee Tobe, Nigel Coates, Mark Cousins and Robert Maxwell, to discuss the intersection of these knowledge domains.

This symposium examines how films offer means of spatial rendition, of interest to architects. One is through motion, by montage, focal range, and camera mobility. A second way occurs in fiction films through the acting-out of behavioural, affective and psychological potentials that may be suppressed in actual buildings and places. Films are an archive of evidence of how rooms, buildings, and places might be lived : as ‘truth 24 times per second’ (Jean-Luc Godard) and as a ‘ribbon of dreams’ (Orson Welles).

This event is also be occasion to review the role of film studies at the AA, from its introduction by Bernard Tschumi, through the experiments in film-making by Pascal Schöning’s students, to now-common assimilations of motion film practices, via digital technology, to architectural design.

Prof Richard Koeck is giving a keynote at the 2018 Prague Paper One conference with the theme "On Being Of Virtual". The event is being organised by Prof Dr Jüri Soolep, NCSU European Centre in Prague and will take place 15-17 March 2018.

Prof Soolep notes: "Artificial Intelligence has developed to the level, where humans are no competition to it in a complicated games. The new information and media technologies have radically changed our life. Digital Platform, enabled by the Third Industrial Revolution, has been infused into our lives so tightly, we almost do not notice anymore. A parallel reality has emerged, widely referred as Virtual."

The Prague Conference II will discuss on the "Being of Virtual" within the framework proposed by the first conference:

* Architecture, creative and artistic disciplines and society
* Public Space and democracy
* Epistemology and its critique

Four CAVA PhD researchers were invited by the School of Architecture & Design at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in Guangdong Province in China. The travelling group comprised of Zhuozhang Li, David Ogle, Alastair Eilbeck and Niek Turner.

The kind invitation has come from Professor Duan Wu, the Secretary General of the Design Committee, who commented that "the workshop and exhibition has been very successful". It entailed our CAVA researchers exploring interdisciplinary, practice-based perspectives between architecture, art and design. The 10-day workshop ended with an exhibition of work produced during the workshop as well as films previously produced in Liverpool by Monika Koeck.

Prof Koeck was invited to present three lectures and seminars on his research at Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta) at ETH Zürich and the University of Zürich. Particular thanks for the invitation goes to Prof Laurant Stalder, Prof Fabienne Liptay, Jacqueline Maurer and Daniela Ortiz dos Santos.

The lectures/seminars addressed topics from a interdisciplinary perspective, such as Prof Koeck's recent research findings in media archeology on 18th/19th century Panorama in relation to being "immersed" in the image of the city; the future of immersive technologies such as AR/VR in relation to architectural practice; and the use of digital technologies in relation to research on archival film material.

Prof Koeck and Zhuozhang Li lead a workshop on the topic "The City Represented" in the Coop Masters programme at the Hochschule Anhalt at the Bauhaus in Dessau.

Alongside a series of lectures on "Represented Space" (Levebvre), "Lived Space" (Situationists), and "Cinematic Space" (Koeck), the group also apply their research in a practice exercise. Students produce experimental photographic works, which investigate and challenge the traditional notions of singularity of the medium in terms of e.g. authorship, space and time.

Pete Woodbridge is invited to present his work at  FIELDWORK, a field trip to Abandon Normal Devices Festival 2017, which takes place from 21-24 September 2017 in the UK’s Peak District National Park.

Organised by the Barbican and Abandon Normal Devices, with the British Council, FIELDWORK  is a gathering of 30 producers, curators, artists, designers, and thinkers from around the world. We’ll be meeting in the context of AND Festival 2017, a roving biennial of new cinema, digital culture, and art.

Over three days of debate, short talks, and walks across the festival sites, we’re hoping to forge a new multi-disciplinary network that can be bold in vision, international in perspective, open in approach and dare to collaborate to form new models of practice across arts, science, technology and culture.

Richard Koeck gives the final keynote at the 2017 International Visual Methods Conference (IVMC ) in Singapore, 16 -18 August. The IVMC is an interdisciplinary conference bringing visual scholars and practitioners together. Held every two years and for the first time in Asia in 2017, the conference seeks to foster greater dialogue in the area of visual methods, in both theoretical and practical aspects.

The event is hosted by the Singapore Institute of Technology in collaboration with Nanyang Technological University. The conference organisation is led by Terence Heng, Liew Kai Khiun, Jesse O'Neill, Oh Soon Hwa, New Hsio Wei and Janice Fong.

Richard Koeck will speak on "Immersed in the Image of the City". His talk explores, from an architectural and (moving) image-making perspective,how we make sense of the city, thereby linking historical perspectives of image taking, representation and consumption with present-day architectural, economic, and creative practices. He argues that these concerns will become particularly important as we move into a future in which virtual (VR) and augmented realities (AR) increasingly “merge” moving images with space and thus challenge our perception of architecture and the city.

We are now inviting applications for a fully-funded AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Studentship to join the Centre for Architecture and the Visual Arts (CAVA) in partnership with McCann Manchester (http://www.mccannmanchester.com) for a three year period of research leading to the award of PhD at the University of Liverpool.

We are seeking to appoint a PhD student with a qualification in Architecture, Urban Design, Interaction Design, or related discipline who wishes to purse a doctoral study on the topic of the ‘personalisation’ of outdoor advertising (OoH) in the context of architecture/cities. The study we wish to pursue aims to offer insight into how personalised OoH advertising, within privacy and ethical boundaries, can engage the public not only in commercial terms, but also create a sense of ownership and positive influence on the visual culture of urban environments.

We are seeking an applicant who wishes to conceptualise future applications of digital, media and creative technologies (e.g. VR/VR/MR applications) in the context of architecture/cities and outdoor advertising. The student will work with CAVA and McCann Manchester on new concepts and has the opportunity to collaborate with the Virtual Engineering Centre for immersive visualisation, simulation and testing. We welcome applicants who see themselves as ‘creative technologists’ with a skillset or wish to work on VR/AR simulations and software such as Unity.
http://www.virtualengineeringcentre.com

The stipend is at least £14,533 per annum for three years. In addition, the PhD registration fees for the Home/EU students will be covered for the entire period. Additional support for travel costs can be provided.

The minimum requirement is a first degree (First or Upper Second) in architecture, urban design, interactive design or related discipline with an interest/expertise in marketing and/or digital media and creative technologies. To apply, please the following information to artshr@liv.ac.uk by no later than 5pm on Friday 23th June 2017.

• A short CV with prior academic qualifications and relevant information with regard prior expertise.
• A short statement (around 500 words) as to why they are interested in conducting this PhD, and why they are particularly suitable for this post (with reference to transferable skills and experience in engagement/impact and the topic area).
• The names of TWO academic references, who can be contacted after a successful shortlisting.

The successful candidate will be required to complete a postgraduate research application form (available from http://www.liv.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/applying/).

All HEIs receiving studentship funding from any AHRC scheme must adhere to the AHRC's standard eligibility criteria for student residency and academic qualifications. Only Home students and EU students who are ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK for 3 years prior to the start of the studentship can apply.

The 'Training Grant Funding Guide' should be read alongside the 'Terms and Conditions of RCUK Training Grants' and the 'RCUK Training Grant Guide' which are both available to download from the RCUK website at: http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/funding/grantstcs/

Informal inquiries are very welcome. Please contact Professor Richard Koeck (r.koeck@liverpool.ac.uk). Interviews are planned to take place in the first week of July 2017, commencing Monday 6th July. It is intended that the post will start on 1st October 2017.

Closing Date: 23th June 2017.

North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council

Transformation NW is a fully-funded doctoral training programme that applies design and creative techniques to maximise new product and service opportunities for business in the North West. Students co-create a programme of applied research in collaboration with large and small businesses. Transformation NW aims to enhance growth and prosperity in the region in support of the industrial strategy.

Building on the research expertise in design, digital technologies and the creative sector across four core NWCDTP partner institutions (Lancaster, Manchester Metropolitan, Liverpool and Salford Universities), innovative cooperation and collaboration across the whole consortium will help to deliver new product and service opportunities for businesses in the North West. Our approach draws upon the NWCDTP’s research excellence in design, technology and the creative sector, and the consortium’s experience in innovative in doctoral training.

Through interdisciplinary collaboration linking large and small-scale businesses together, students will undertake an applied PhD typically comprising three or four thematically linked projects with industry partners. Adopting a open and cross-industry approach, students will fuse science and technology with creative techniques, integrating place- and thematic-based responses to foster conditions for a sustainable, resilient and inclusive economy.

In response to the Industrial Strategy, research themes to which design and creative practice can be applied include:

* Transformative digital technologies
* Technologies for the Creative Industries
* Manufacturing processes and materials of the future
* Bioscience and biotechnology
* Leading edge healthcare and medicine
* Smart, flexible and clean energy technologies
* Quantum technologies
* Robotics and artificial intelligenceSatellites and space technologies

Transformation NW aims to further grow and scale up the creative sector in the North West whilst enhancing and contributing to the wider industry, recognising the value of combining science and technology with design and creativity, upon which much of the economy increasingly relies.

More information and application package available here:
http://www.nwcdtp.ac.uk/prospective-students/

Closing Date: Monday 3rd July 2017.

LIVERPOOL(E): MOVER, SHAKER, ARCHITECTURAL RISK-TAKER​

The opening exhibition at RIBA North will consider Liverpool’s long, often maverick, history of architectural ambition, its willingness to take risks and consider audacious schemes – a trait which has ultimately resulted in the dramatic and celebrated skyline we see today.

A £67,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) funded thanks to National Lottery players enabled 30 drawings, models and watercolours from the RIBA Collections, many of which have never been on display before, to be restored to feature in the opening exhibition. They include extraordinary un-built proposals for the city’s Anglican Cathedral by Sir Charles Nicholson and Philip Webb; a radical scheme, by Sir Denys Lasdun from 1959 for the Catholic Cathedral site and a bold vision for a new skyline by Graeme Shankland from the 1960s after two thirds of the city’s buildings were declared to be obsolete.

Visitors can watch a newly commissioned two-screen documentary film as well as a series of animation films by Monika Koeck which reflect on the buildings which were realised, and considers how the city may evolve if it embraces its historic architectural ambition. The documentary film includes interviews with Joseph Sharples (author of the Liverpool Pevsner City Guide), Michael Wilford (Stirling Wilford Architects), Natalia Maximova (Sheppard Robson) and Ian Ritchie (Ian Ritchie Architects).

UNVEILED PROJECT: ASOC @ RIBA NORTH

CAVA congratulates ASOC members from the Liverpool School of Architecture who had the opportunity to work with KHBT architects and the RIBA on a riveting large-scale installation. The installation, entitled the Unveiled Project, went yesterday on display as part of the opening of RIBA North. Our ASOC team, consisting of first and second year students, assisted KHBT architects in the all aspects of the fabrication of the installation. We highly recommend to see at at RIBA North down at the Liverpool docks.

Team:
Michael Rostock (2nd year)
Kyle Vadher (2nd year)
Bianca Roberts (2nd year)
Ciara Sullivan (2nd year)
Izzy Kendrick-Jones (2nd year)
Nariza Hopley (2nd year)
Olivia Dolan (1st Year)
Ed Turner (1st Year)
Angus Parkin (2nd year)
Ollie Marshall (2nd year)

Assisted by:
Sarah Munroe (2nd year)
Yashna Calleechurn (2nd year)
Arnes Ramic (2nd year)
Emma Newport (4th Year)

SPAK COMPASS UK and CAVA have won the Innovate UK's first "Design Foundation" competition to develop leading-edge urban screen innovation.

The Spark Compass platform™ manages data from user devices, wearables and sensors networks, enabling the delivery of smart content. This is done by analysing data patterns, setting specific rules and combining existing data sources. Powerful analytics on collected performance data, real-time behavior and actions provide granular visibility in a centralised platform.

Using trans-disciplinary design principles developed by Prof Koeck and Dr Kocaturk, the team will work on "intelligent, real-time, hyper-local screen-based OoH marketing" with the aim to innovate new ideas that ultimately could transform interactions between people and urban screens.

CAVA organises the demonstration of Microsoft's groundbreaking Hololense. Hosted by the VEC, Mike Taulty from Microsoft gave an exclusive demonstration of Hololens and its possible future application in culture, design and building industries.

Mixed Reality enables users to engage with digital information that is geo-locative and precisely stitched into space, using sensors that scan and build 3D environments in realtime. The event was attended by researchers and heads from the School of the Arts, School of the Architecture and School of Engineering.

Thank you Mike!

Richard Koeck gives keynote speech at the 3rd International AR and VR Conference in Manchester. Around 200 delegates and industry representatives from e.g. Samsung, Microsoft, Render Media CGI, BT attended the the conference at MMU that was organised by Dr Timothy Jung and Dr Claudia Tom Diek.

Richard's keynote covered the history of VR/AR as well as possibles futures in relation to architecture and spatial planning with a particular emphasis on the notions of "spectatorship" and "actorship".

CAVA PhD candidate David Ogle shows his work as part of Festival in York and in London.

Lumen was commissioned by ‘Make It York’ for Illuminating York Festival 2016 (26-29 October 2016) and installed in the historic quad at York St John’s Lord Mayor’s Walk. Visitors walked amongst skeletal coloured luminescent trees, to experience the unusual light and shade cast by their glowing branches and accompanied by performances of improvised music responding to the movements of audiences as they explored the installation.

The work has since moved to the forecourt of The Royal British Society of Sculptors building in South Kensington, London. 1 December 2016 - 10 February 2017; Wednesday – Friday 12.30 – 5.30pm (or by appointment) 108 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3RA