i-DAT

An Open Research Lab for playful experimentation with creative technology
i-DAT
i-DAT’s mission is to engage people in thinking deeper and differently about how they intertwingle with data and computational systems in an increasingly technologically mediated world.
i-DAT is an Open Research Lab for playful experimentation with creative technology. We co-create and share technological prototypes and practices that push and challenge the boundaries of digital arts and creative media practice. Our main focus is on making data tangible, playable and readily available as a material, to generate new meaning and inform participation, audience engagement and innovation in the arts.
Since its formation in 1998 at the University of Plymouth, i-DAT has delivered world-class research which is manifest as a range of public projects (boundary-fluid art works, interventions, systems and cultural prototypes). Our projects are delivered through interdisciplinary collaborations which place people and communities at their core. i-DAT is a vertex in an international network of researchers and practitioners and host to a community of PhD students and artists.
 

Research areas

 

Explore our research projects

Quorum: Cultural Computation

Quorum comprises research in the design, development and application of software and hardware that augment, evaluate and increase public engagement in cultural experiences. Working collaboratively with communities and not-for-profit, public and private organisations, Quorum's impact includes the design of cultural value metrics to increase public engagement, organisational culture change, financial value, and marketing reach; the design of the Arts Council England ‘Impact & Insight Toolkit’; enhancing the curatorial techniques of the Tate; the application of artificial intelligence to improve safeguarding and pupil engagement for schools; strategy change of Plymouth City Council’s open data policy to engage citizens and industry; designing collaborative audience experiences for the international Fulldome community.
Quorum logo
Immersive Media Lab

Immersive Technologies – Entrepreneurial Futures

Lanhydrock plaster ceiling

Restoration of 17th century plaster ceiling at Lanhydrock House

Inside i-DAT's Tate Modern installation This Is Where We Are (TIWWA) - an immersive and interactive algorithmic sculpture fuelled by the data we collectively generate.

Quorum: Cultural Computation

Scan Pete Davis

Re-imagining heritage artifacts

The Space Interface Project, Dr Mathew Emmett

The Space Interface Project

Open State -  The research originates an ‘intelligent’ platform to enable collaboration between international disabled and non-disabled dancers spanning Japan and UK

Open State

Person working on an allotment with a pink tint over the image.

Regenerative Energy Communities

Raspberry Pi

Data and algorithmic objects

Digital Conservation

Digital conservation

Rendering of the Four Continents Image at the V&A

Four Continents

Ludic

Ludic Architectures

Murmuration Unity Fulldome MRI flythru.

AI

 

Research impact

Murmuration timelapse

Murmuration Unity Fulldome MRI flythru

Emoti-os.me chatbot

Qualia – a revolution in measuring audience feedback

Artory - the What’s On App for culture in Plymouth

TIWWA – A Quorum project @ Tate Modern
Artory – the Artory pilot programme was intended to run from 17/01/2015 (iOS and Android Artory Apps were available from 15/12/2014) for one year but ended up successfully serving its collaborating culture organisations, their audiences and the City of Plymouth until October 2017.
Emoti-os.me is a chatbot. It uses conversations with its users to understand the collective mood of pupils at Plymouth School of Creative Arts (UK). It is created for and with these pupils to give students a voice and a way to express how they collectively feel about important matters at the school.
 

Funded research

Billennium by Paul Blakemore

South West Creative Technology Network

CFP 9 Immersive vision theatre interior

Environmental Futures and Big Data Impact Lab

 

Postgraduate research opportunities
PhD Digital Art and Technology
The research is collaborative and participatory at its core, engaging audiences and communities and cultivating a rich transdisciplinary approach through collaborations across the arts and sciences.
PhD Codex
The full-time PhD consists of an 18-month residency period in the UK followed by a mobility period in a collaborating institution.
Planetary Collegium
Our research builds on the rich legacy of the Planetary Collegium, a radical nomadic postgraduate research model developed by Professor Roy Ascott .
 

Our researchers

 

Research environment

Immersive Vision Theatre
i-DAT manages the development of the Immersive Vision Theatre , originally founded as the William Day Planetarium in 1967; the dome was transformed and reopened in 2008 and is now delivering shows, productions and research into immersive full dome environments.
"The IVT transcends the gap between the arts and sciences, and its potential is enormous. We can enable audiences to fly through the Milky Way, but we also have software through which they can journey deep inside the human body to the microscopic and nano level. Plymouth is one of very few universities to have such a facility at its disposal, and it is something quite special of which we should actually be very proud."

FULLDOME UK

FULLDOME UK is a not-for-profit organisation aiming to support artists, creative professionals and researchers working in immersive dome environments and frameless media. We do this by organising fulldome festivals, screenings and workshops. These events provide an opportunity for film makers and performance artists to share their skills and experience with other members of the fulldome community and to present their work to new audiences.
Immersive Vision Theatre
 

Journals and conferences
 
rlb night view

Research in the School of Art, Design and Architecture

Our researchers work across the arts and humanities fields, from fine arts to game design to architecture and environmental engineering. We have particular strengths in interdisciplinary collaboration from a local to a global scale to advance knowledge and catalyse change. The focus of research in the School is on addressing global and societal challenges, and researchers are actively engaged with stakeholders outside the University context to contribute to meaningful and tangible impact for people, the environment, and communities.
Four Tet performs in the midst of a Squidsoup light installation in 2019 (courtesy: Rikard Osterlund/Squidsoup)

SHAPE disciplines address global challenges associated with marine, health and sustainability through the lens of place

Through five place-based research themes, we investigate the intricate relationships between communities, the natural world, and technology.
Locally, we co-create sustainable solutions to complex problems in order to build resilient and thriving neighbourhoods, cities, and regions. This work transcends geographical, social and political boundaries to become applicable on a global level.
place-based research
SHAPE – Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts for People and the Economy