UWE Bristol have recently won funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) Capital Facilities Fund to deliver “The Bridge – A Creative Studio for Physical-Meta Production”. This new space, worth £3.1 million , for interdisciplinary, practice-based, design-led creative research will drive adoption of emerging technologies in the arts and humanities to stimulate novel forms of creative expression and production. The new lab will include New Generation Collaborative Robotic Arms, Motion Capture, Virtual Production, AI, Virtual Reality, Drones, 3D printing and Digital Fabrication.
The investment from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will support the sector and ensure UK researchers have access to the best labs and equipment they need to keep producing world-class science. UKRI is investing £103 million to expand and upgrade the UK’s world class research infrastructure, including digital infrastructure. UWE Bristol have received £2.3 million from AHRC as part of the UKRI investment.
The new studio is designed to breakdown the barriers between the technology enabling the creative industries and the artistic processes of content production. The space will deliver future-facing research that keeps pace with today’s rapidly changing technologies, whislt considering aesthetic, cultural and ethical implications. The Bridge will be a collision space for researchers from any discipline to work together on the research for tomorrow.
The Bridge will act as a beacon for the West of England and wider regions, seeking novel applications of technology to enhance Arts & Humanities research, whilst supporting the UK’s creative and cultural economy.
The Bridge will be based on UWE Bristol’s Frenchay Campus.