Centre joins knowledge exchange hub
The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design has teamed up with the RCA School of Communication to participate in The Creative Exchange, one of four new knowledge exchange hubs funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The Creative Exchange brings the Royal College of Art, Lancaster University's Imagination centre and Newcastle University's Culture Lab together to explore new opportunities for the creative and media based industries.
The aim of The Creative Exchange will be to expand the creative economy through new forms of citizen participation in the digital public space, which enables anyone anywhere to access, explore and create with digitized cultural content.
It will explore new models of engagement and exchange in the broadcast, performing and visual arts, digital media, design and gaming sectors, bringing together relevant arts and humanities academics, practitioners and companies with a cohort of PhD researchers around particular themes related to the digital public space.
The three participating universities will act as local test beds for the development of products, services, interfaces and experiences with field trials in London, Lancaster and Newcastle prior to larger public facing field trials in MediaCityUK/Manchester, which is the primary geographic focus for the project.
The Creative Exchange will support the Northwest regional strategy for growth in digital and creative media industries, whilst generating comparative research and development locally, nationally and internationally.
A cohort of 20 Doctoral researchers will be recruited in the first two years of the project in the three participating universities. They will be based in a dynamic series of Creative Exchange clusters, developing a series of projects with industry partners and contributing to new knowledge exchange practices.
Within the RCA, PhD candidates will be jointly supervised by the Digital Research Lab in the School of Communication, led by Professor Neville Brody, and by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, led by Professor Jeremy Myerson. This combination brings together communication and digital design expertise with skills and knowhow in citizen participation and user engagement.
Leader of The Creative Exchange is Professor Rachel Cooper, Chair of the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts and a member of the advisory board of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. Cooper says: 'This hub is a unique opportunity to bring three of the UK's top design research labs and academics from across the arts and humanities together with organisations and business to address the changing digital landscape.'
More on the AHRC Knowledge Exchange hubs here
