Rewriting the Narrative awardee Ben Bland has developed a tool kit, Neoco, for remote working specially aimed at creative industries.

Ben Bland received funding from Future Screens NI to research and develop a web platform to facilitate working remotely. Titled Neoco Toolkit & Playbook, the project built during lockdown by Ben Bland and partners with the goal of helping people find ways to improve the way they work, collaborate and build successful lives for themselves. Neoco includes over 240 tools, 50 published guides, 16 case studies and much more. The playbook aims to be of particular value to anyone currently working remotely or considering remote work – both independently and within teams and organisations – in any sector, but with a specific focus on the creative industries.

More information on Neoco Toolkit & Playbook can be found here: https://neoco.io/

Ben Bland has spearheading developments in online marketing and e-commerce, digital strategy, and wider tech start-up consulting & entrepreneurship. Ben is a partner at a newly founded innovation practice, Loopers. 

For more information on Ben please follow the following link: http://benbland.me/

This project was funded by a Future Screens NI Rewriting the Narrative award.

Sentireal develops XR programme to assist educators in social work with limited technical experience.

Belfast-based software development company Sentireal have teamed up with Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) researchers on a Research & Development project aimed at accessibility to Extended Reality (XR) use by non-technical educators. The project engaged various social work, education, medical and sonic arts researchers associated with QUB to focus on various safety-critical applications.

The project’s primary objective was the creation of a software and media platform that educators could use to author immersive experiences to train student social workers. The project focus was on Authoring Virtual/Augmented Reality media and associated software apps for safety-critical training applications. Often the domain expert or educator wishing to author this type of immersive training scenario would need significant experience in specialist technical areas. The project sought to develop the appropriate techniques and software tools for non-technical specialists to author adaptive immersive experiences to train student social workers. Eliminating the need for third party specialist for the technical tasks the objective would minimise costs and give direct agency to the intended practitioners in the hands-on design of the software. 

Sentireal is now utilising the outcomes from this R&D project to feed into a wider Sentireal R&D and product development programme for a new software platform called “immersonal”. 

Sentireal was founded in 2013 and based in Belfast. The company’s projects focus on the fields of augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Their team have expertise in audio and video processing, digital communications, data security and System-on-Chip.

For more information on Sentireal visit: https://www.sentireal.com

TEAM:

Sentireal Team
Dr. David Trainor, Chief Technology Officer. 

Greta Kelly, XR Content Designer 

Ryan Pendleton, XR Content Designer 

Philip Caraher, XR Application Developer 

Queen’s University Belfast Team

Dr. Paul Best, School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work 

Dr. Carolyn Blair, School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work 

Dr. Janine Stockdale, School of Nursing and Midwifery

John Doran, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences 

Dr. Franziska Schroeder, Sonic Arts Research Centre, School of Arts, English & Languages 

Dr. Matilde Meireles, Sonic Arts Research Centre, School of Arts, English & Languages 

Michael McKnight, Sonic Arts Research Centre, School of Arts, English & Languages 

Hanna Slattne, Sonic Arts Research Centre, School of Arts, English & Languages 

This project was funded by a Future Screens NI Research & Development award.

Rejig addresses pandemic hybrid learning inequality with a case study and tool kit project Listening Learners – Beyond the School Gate

In response to the Rewriting the Narrative Education call, Rejig proposed a case study and development of tool kits for student and school support for online and restricted learning conditions. Rejig set out to give school pupils tools and support to share the stories of their experience of COVID 19 to help inform and inspire educators as they redefine school during and after Covid-19. The project had a further aim to address practical application of online learning through schools whilst addressing continuity issues of the level and quality of content through engaging projects.

Noting the inequality in online access due to economic status and that the reliance on online content would further widen an already large gap in achievement based on a student’s socio-economic status, Rejig acknowledged a unique opportunity to rethink how some aspects of education are designed and delivered. The project sought to equip the pupils and schools with tools to tell their story with the following opportunity to share their stories and listen to stories of peers, families and school leaders. The project would seek to integrate key learnings from student-led observations to form a deeper understanding of the impact of the pandemic.

Following the initial engagement with a select pod/case study, the group developed a prototype tool kit for gathering insights and storyboarding which, in turn, is suitable for school pupils and used to effectively give a voice to the stories of their experience of COVID 19 and its impact on their educational journey. The case study supplied ample information and feedback with the resulting the tools developed, built and prototyped having the potential to be used widely by schools and teachers with potential efficacy beyond the pandemic restrictions.

Rejig is led by Patricia Flanagan, MBA. Patricia’s core passion is understanding how Design Thinking and Creative Problem solving can be used inclusively across society. As a specialist facilitator Patricia has designed and delivered a wide range of design thinking programmes and workshops for strategy setting, team building, development of funding proposals, uncovering insights, innovation in the third sector and strengthening social enterprises. Patricia has over 25 years’ experience of working in education and business development in Northern Ireland. She currently sits on the Board of Craft Northern Ireland and previously was on the board of Museums and Galleries Northern Ireland. 

For more information on the project and Rejig visit: https://www.rejig-inc.com

This project was funded by a Rewriting the Narrative award from Future Screens NI in partnership with NI Screen.

Chief Executive of Neon Deepa Mann-Kler presents a masterclass for Artists Into Immersive.

On 3 August 2021, Deepa Mann-Kler, CEO of Neon and Future Screens NI awardee recently held a masterclass in association with NFTS Scotland and The Glasgow School of Art on how creatives are using Extended Reality to explore and push boundaries in Augmented and Virtual Reality. Mann-Kler shared her experiences as an artist and as Chief Executive of Neon, a company using immersive technologies to enhance health and wellbeing.

Deepa Mann-Kler is Chief Executive of Neon and Visiting Professor in Immersive Futures at Ulster University. Deepa is an is an internationally acclaimed, multi-disciplinary artist with over eleven years’ experience of major international exhibitions and public art programmes. Recent awards include Royal Television Society Finalist RETNE “Interactive Entertainment” 2017. WinTech Series Finalist “Tech Start Up Of the Year” 2018. PitchAtPalace Finalist 2018. TEDx Speaker “Being Human” 2019. Digital DNA Finalist “Tech For Good” Talking Sense AR App 2020.

Neon uses immersive technologies to enable choice for people over their own health and wellbeing. For more information on Neon visit www.discoverneon.com

The programme was made possible with support from StoryFutures Academy and Creative Scotland.

Cupboard Games have developed a game exploring ethical engagements with historical events.

Cupboard Games have developed a prototype PC game that seeks to address a common tendency in contemporary games that use historic tragedies and traumatic events as spectacle. Working with Dr Declan Keeney of Ulster University the Research & Development project sought to test a different methodology than standard historical games to see if a game could act as a tool to engage with historical events with integrity. Titled Checkpoints the game is described as a Playable Documentary. The designers focused on recounting the events that took place at the purpose-built permanent checkpoint at Coshquin, Derry/Londonderry on and around the October 1990 proxy bombing. To assist in the research, the team approached one of the first police officers to arrive at the Coshquin after the explosion, Robin Young as key advisor.

Addressing a key concern regarding trauma and spectacle, the project team set out a list of principles and guidelines for ethical game design and production. These guidelines sought to address issues of trivialising events and to ensure that the project did not raise any existential questions regarding the border on the island of Ireland. Furthermore, the team stated that the project was not to be politically motivated nor being created with the intent of pushing any specific political agenda.

The teams’ intention was to establish a framework for Playable Documentaries that address real events with games as a method of storytelling. Through first person roleplay, a player could experience and evoke the past. The framework established by the project could then be used for a variety of subjects from historical settings to recent events.

Cupboard Games is a boutique game studio developing carefully crafted, intimate experiences across genres and platforms. Established in 2015, Cupboard Games believe in combining rich narrative experiences with unique gameplay. Along with developing their own IP, they work with a diverse range of clients across the world to help with design consultancy and development solutions.

Participant

Robin Young is a retired sergeant in the Royal Ulster Constabulary-George Cross and Police Service of Northern Ireland and now, peace activist. Robin was the first police officer to arrive at the Coshquin checkpoint shortly after a huge bomb exploded near Derry/Londonderry killing 6 people. Robin appeared previously in a documentary ​We Carried Your Secrets, ​a film​ ​written and directed by Dr Declan Keeney in 2010,​ ​describing the event from his perspective.

TEAM 

Production Team 

David Baxter, Audio lead 

James Hugh Dalton, 3D environment artist 

Paul Dillon, Creative lead 

Jonathan Hatton, Technical lead   

Zaltina Yordanova, 3D character artist 

Research Team

Prof. Brandon Hamber, John Hume and Thomas P. O’Neill Chair in Peace based at the International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE), Ulster University

Dr Alan McCally, Honorary Research Fellow (History Education), Ulster University

Prof. Alan Smith, UNESCO Chair and Director of the UNESCO Centre, Ulster University.

Co-investigator: Dr Declan Keeney, Director of the Ulster Screen Academy, Ulster University 

This project was funded by a Future Screens NI Research & Development award.