- Andrew Pearsall (BCU)
Mood Pinball is an artwork in the form of a pinball game. Made with artists Edie Jo Murray and Harmeet Chagger-Khan, Mood Pinball allows players to expose city-wide noise data by visiting different locations at different times of day. Your mood can rise or fall based on noise levels, and the aim is to stay happy. A full size physical pinball machine was constructed with arcade buttons and ball shooter, and you can play on your phone as an Android mobile app, or in the browser. The work developed from workshops with neurodiverse participants who were asked how access to data might inform their lives.
Shown at Victoria and Albert Museum, The Open Data Institute, The Herbert Gallery, BOM, Coventry Biennial, The Bond Gallery and Broadway Cinema (Nottingham). Commissioned by the Open Data Institute (ODI) in partnership with the University of Southampton DataStories project, supported by the EPSRC, grant number EP/PO25676/1. Produced by BOM. Pinball cabinet by Joseph Welden with additional laser cutting by Juneau Projects. Music by Arc Vel. Photo credit-Paul Clarke. Available for exhibition - visit the website.
This VR demo for HTC Vive headsets was created with Motionhouse at De Montfort University to quickly trial volumetric capture and VR as a medium. Scenery provided by Motionhouse was transformed into a Virtual Reality city around which users can navigate. Dance was captured using the Azure Kinect depth camera and added to the scene. As people explore the scenery 3D volumetric video footage of performers is triggered along with other surreal encounters around the empty buildings.
Dis_place was a one-on-one immersive dance performance in The People's Hall, Nottingham. Visitors wore bone-conducting headphones which played sound over a distributed Bluetooth network as they were lead around a disused building. In each room they encountered live performers and 360 videos. One room of the building was captured using volumetric video (Depthkit with Kinect Camera) and recreated in VR using Unity complete with ghostly dancers.
Shown at Broadway Cinema, Nottingham and LCB Depot, Leicester. Dis_place is available from Itch.io and Viveport. Download from the link below. Photo credit-Julian Hughes.
- Andrew Pearsall (Birmingham City University)
- Tony Coleman, VJ (TheLAB)
- Shayal Chhibber, PHD student
good value for money"
- Dr. C. Samantha Porter (Loughborough University)
- Shaun Kelly, Musician (The Lights)
an invaluable contact"
- Charlie Levine, Arts Curator
- Nat Pitt, Gallery Owner (Pitt Studio)
- Matt Robinson, Artist (Jin Pow)
- Will Parker, Artist (World of Parker)
- Matthew Rowley, Associate
- Ria Butler, Manager (Eastern Garden)
- Matthew Head, PHD Student
- Sandra Graham, Artist
- Louise Latter, Head of Programme (Birmingham Open Media)
- Halina Dominska, Artist
- Edie Jo Murray, Artist
- Anna Horton, Artist (One Five West)
- Oliver Scott, Mercurial Dance
- John Sear, Real-World Game Designer (Museum Games)
- Kerryn Wise, Digital Dance Artist
- he made the complexities of technology clearly understandable"
- Chris Poolman, Artist (General Public)
- Harmeet Chagger-Khan, Artist
- Seraina Dejaco, Dancer
- Matt Hogan, Head of Operations (Ikon Gallery)
- Karolina Korupczynska (Stryx Gallery)
- Nick Murray, Producer (Now Play This)
He's always keen to innovate and push the limits"
- Sarah Martindale (Mixed Reality Lab, Nottingham University)
- Nick Slater(LU Arts)
caring and professional commitment to the project"
- Tyrone Huggins (Actor)
to get the best out of any idea."
- Baff Akoto (Artist)
Ben Neal is an Arts-focused Creative Technologist and has worked freelance for over 20 years as Psicon Lab (pronounced "Sy-Kon Lab"). He collaborates with creative people who want to use technology, and brings their ideas to life.
He also co-runs Displace Studio an immersive Mixed Reality performance studio with co-lead Kerryn Wise. Their best known project is a VR experience called Facades which has toured internationally.