Back in early 2022, we welcomed Tim Powell to Reading as our Creative Entrepreneur in Residence. In this role, Tim would work with colleagues across the Heritage & Creativity research theme on connecting academic research with the creative industries and a range of collaborators and funding streams. In addition to raising opportunities for all researchers – many of the talks Tim delivered or organised were offered to colleagues across the whole University – the heart of the programme involved recruiting a cohort of Creative Entrepreneurs who would develop a series of pilot projects under Tim’s mentorship, informed by their existing research and by new engagement with external partners. Now, we can look back at the impressive projects that have emerged from these collaborations.
Tim’s background as a producer and creative consultant has been of immense value to our research community and the cohort. He brought different ways of thinking about audiences and engagement, connected us with dynamic expertise from industry, and helped turn research ideas into projects with strong impact and potential for commercialisation. He has been a great mentor to the cohort and an absolute pleasure to work with.
I’ve been struck by how diverse these collaborations have become – no two projects look alike, yet all manage to bring complex research to audiences in new and dynamic ways. Importantly, these projects don’t end with the pilot programme, and the connections that have been built between the cohort and industry or museum partners will continue to grow and develop.
Professor John Gibbs, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research (Heritage & Creativity)
Forget What You Know
Ellen Pilsworth, Lecturer in German and Translation Studies, and David Brauner, Professor of Contemporary Literature.
“Forget What You Know” (FWYK) is an interactive, immersive experience designed for teenagers about disinformation and defending democracy with the lessons of history. This project was developed in collaboration with Fast Familiar, an award-winning digital story studio that combines expertise in theatre, facilitation and creative computing.
FWYK draws on Dr Pilsworth’s research into contemporary responses to emerging Holocaust reports in the 1930s and Professor Brauner’s current work on the contemporary dissemination of conspiracy theories. The experience places participants in a counterfactual world where civil liberties are being systematically eroded and asks urgent questions about power and freedom, providing a toolkit that aims to inoculate participants against viral disinformation.
Throughout our three-year journey on the CEiR programme, we acquired a whole new skill set. We learned how to identify and target potential end-users, pitch the project to different constituencies and pivot to respond to fast-changing political realities. The programme encouraged us to reconsider our professional identities and to think creatively about the possible applications of our research. Above all, it broadened our horizons and introduced us to the joys of collaboration.
Although the CEiR programme has now ended, our journey with the project is far from over. We are currently in talks with JW3, Hope Not Hate and the Sigrid Rausing Trust about raising further funds for FWYK and are developing plans for refining and testing the project in partnership with local schools. The hope is that these activities will create both immediate impact by countering the spread of conspiracy theories and disinformation among teenagers, and a lasting legacy in terms of combating threats to our democratic infrastructure.
NISSEN – an immersive installation
Teresa Murjas, Professor of Theatre & Performance
Scattered across Checkendon woods, in rural Oxfordshire, are several abandoned Nissen huts, the former homes of people displaced by conflict. Inspired by these huts, I have developed an immersive installation titled “NISSEN” through the CEiR programme. My work explores the role these structures played in Britain’s migration story, with particular focus on the inter-generational impacts of the Polish Resettlement Act, the first mass immigration legislation passed by the British government in 1947.
The CEiR programme gave me the opportunity to collaborate with artist Matt Rosier and filmmaker James Rattee, working alongside sound technician Abeer Mohammed and technical director Chris O’Shea. NISSEN features a structure designed and fabricated by metal sculptor Jack Hardy and vocal performances by actors and doctoral researchers Gemma Cutler-Colclough and Magdalena Mosteanu.
NISSEN has found its first home in the Forces for Change gallery at the Museum of English Rural Life. The project currently exists in two versions. The first is an immersive experience combining video projection and a surround soundscape, which was revealed on March 18th at a stakeholder event at the MERL. This event aimed to bring on board new partners and funders, with participants experiencing the prototype installation from inside Hardy’s metal structure. The second version combines elements from this event and will remain at The MERL until June 2025.
My research involves working creatively with archives and collections, and in this context CEiR has provided a highly supportive environment for thinking deeply about immersive practice as well as a platform for building ambitious new connections that I hope will take the installation far beyond Reading. Inspired by NISSEN, The National Archives will be running a workshop at The MERL on May 23rd 2025, which I will host as part of their “Second World War: Languages, cultures, and legacies” programme. It will “mark and explore multilingualism, cultural diversity and the global impact of the Second World War, with a focus on Polish experiences”.
Stories on the Move – playing with translation
Sophie Heywood, Associate Professor in French and Co-Director of the Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing
Stories on the Move (SoTM) immerses young people in the publishing world by actively engaging them in role-playing publishing industry processes, transforming their perceptions of language learning. Through digital technologies and games-based learning techniques, young people experience firsthand the journey that stories make in translation, discovering that translation is about so much more than just looking up words in a dictionary. The project connects experts in languages and ICT teaching with a team of children’s publishing professionals, translators and immersive education experts to explore the possibility for digital world building and tools to enhance the in person, hands-on workshops and create ambitious languages outreach.
Thanks to the CEiR programme, I was introduced to innovative approaches including games-based learning, immersive experiences and other techniques used in the creative industries today to bring stories to life. This inspired me to be bold and experimental in my approach, and to overcome my trepidation towards digital technologies. I learned the fundamentals of project design from an entrepreneurial perspective: how to consider my target audience, how to pitch my ideas to potential partners, and how to build collaborations in design as an iterative process, with built-in milestones and clear pathways for implementation and sustainability.
During year two of the programme, I developed partnerships, research questions and working methods for running a pilot phase of the project. This included leading a team of trainee language teachers, translators, literary scouts, and immersive and digital education experts to deliver and evaluate pilot workshops with 55 Year 10 languages pupils from three schools in the Reading area. Pupil feedback confirmed the positive impact the workshops had on their understanding of the real-life applications of languages.
The SoTM team is now developing funding bids to move the project to the next phase: to design, produce, playtest and evaluate a prototype digital platform that will allow us to scale up the project and intensify its games-based and immersive elements.
Virtual World of Stonehenge
Duncan Garrow, Professor of Archaeology
This project developed from the World of Stonehenge exhibition which I co-curated for the British Museum. The exhibition ran from February to July 2022, and brought together over 400 objects from 36 institutions across Europe, a “once in a lifetime” collection of Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age material culture that many specialists were thrilled to see all in one place. The “real” exhibition was visited in person by 190,000 people. Its success and popularity was reflected in multiple five-star reviews. The associated outreach/engagement events and YouTube talks have so far been enjoyed by over a million people.
With the help of the CEiR programme, I was inspired to take this work further. The Virtual World of Stonehenge project, in collaboration with the British Museum, aims to build on the exhibition’s success, facilitating global accessibility by delivering an online, virtual 3D version of the show with additional enhanced content which will enable people to travel beyond the museum out into the world of Stonehenge.
We have now secured a mosaic of funding to develop and ultimately deliver the project. In February 2025, we conducted focus groups with members of the public to explore the idea and its potential. Over the next few months, we will be working with digital heritage content designers ArtasMedia to develop and embed enhanced content and new digital experiences within the Virtual World of Stonehenge, and then conducting further focus groups to evaluate this. In 12 months’ time we hope to have delivered a globally accessible 3D experience.