Meaningful Digital Things
sprinkled with a pinch of creativity

Latest…

Our @castprj has featured in the launch issue of inthemesh Great to be trailblazing https://inthemesh.com/archive/hyperlocal-mesh-network-armenia/ …. read more

About the Media Innovation Studio

The University of Central Lancashire’s School of Journalism and Media established the Media Innovation Studio in 2012. The Studio was set up as a research centre and learning lab. Our staff are engaged in a broad range of media activities spanning community and industry media research, progressive digital teaching and developing new technology.

The Media Innovation Studio operates in the liminal spaces beyond and between the boundaries of traditional disciplines, bringing together areas of research where there are often no obvious connections. The Studio’s research has a social focus driven by asking the sort of questions whose answers create impact through meaningful new opportunities and enriched life experiences.

We generate new knowledge through the creation of disruptive technologies with some of the team developing web connected objects, wearable technology and tangible interfaces whilst others explore data, drones and digital content creation.

Media Innovation Studio

What we do

Our research delivers insight and innovation around the means and processes we use to share information: our technology and media. It’s underpinned by a passionate belief that through innovative thinking we can achieve research excellence delivering real world impact and shaping policy.

How we work

Our relationships with both local communities and international industry partners help us to see the big picture. Our studio at the University of Central Lancashire, UK is a home for world class creative, collaboration; a place to share skills, knowledge and experience across disciplines.

Our impact

Together we create meaningful new opportunities and experiences for communities that disrupt, engage, entertain, inform, empower and create lasting change.

View works

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Projects

Sound of Colour

<h3>Sound of Colour</h3>
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<div class="two-thirds"><iframe  id="_ytid_85834" width="600" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uUAkOG07gjs?enablejsapi=1&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&modestbranding=0&rel=1&showinfo=1&fs=1&theme=dark&color=red&autohide=2&controls=2&playsinline=0&" class="__youtube_prefs__" title="YouTube player"  allowfullscreen data-no-lazy="1" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=""></iframe></div>
<div class="one-third">The Sound of Colour is an interactive musical installation, comprised of a camera based MAX/MSP patch, feeding MIDI information into several different sampler instruments within Ableton Live Suite 9. A bespoke table top surface creates a blank canvas for multi coloured balls acting as physical instruments to compose music. Surrounding the table with guttering provides storage and safe keeping of the balls, enhancing the experience and keeping the flow of the musical process steady. The decision to use soft, playful and brightly coloured balls was adopted as they are easy to move, throw, spin and bounce across the table top surface, while also being attractive to children.</div>
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NewsThings

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<h3>NewsThings</h3>
<p>NewsThings combines news, information, ambient design approaches and the Internet of Things (IoT) to explore how people engage and interact with co-designed connected objects.</p>
<p>Partners include the Media Innovation Studio, Trinity Mirror Regionals and Thomas Buchanan creative agency. The project places users at the centre of the innovation process and creates physical-digital prototypes that convey news and editorial content, which will be placed in people’s homes or public spaces.</p>
<p>NewsThings also examines IoT infrastructure and examines how IoT-driven data could benefit news publishers, how new content management systems can power connected objects and the commercial opportunities that NewsThings create.</p>
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<div class="two-thirds"><img class="alignnone wp-image-4253 size-large" src="http://mediainnovationstudio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_9564-small-630x420.jpg" alt="" width="630" height="420" srcset="http://mediainnovationstudio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_9564-small-630x420.jpg 630w, http://mediainnovationstudio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_9564-small-300x200.jpg 300w, http://mediainnovationstudio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_9564-small-768x512.jpg 768w, http://mediainnovationstudio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_9564-small-600x400.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px" /> </div>
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homing

<p><img src="http://mediainnovationstudio.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/1ed5f7d8-aaa8-4ec0-ba16-01acdf45b8be-630x420.png" alt="1ed5f7d8-aaa8-4ec0-ba16-01acdf45b8be" width="630" height="420" class="alignleft size-large wp-image-3353" srcset="http://mediainnovationstudio.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/1ed5f7d8-aaa8-4ec0-ba16-01acdf45b8be-630x420.png 630w, http://mediainnovationstudio.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/1ed5f7d8-aaa8-4ec0-ba16-01acdf45b8be-300x200.png 300w, http://mediainnovationstudio.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/1ed5f7d8-aaa8-4ec0-ba16-01acdf45b8be-600x400.png 600w, http://mediainnovationstudio.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/1ed5f7d8-aaa8-4ec0-ba16-01acdf45b8be.png 640w" sizes="(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px" />Homing, a new interactive sound art work created by artists Jen Southern and Sam Thulin with the Media Innovation Studio at University of Central Lancashire. Based on the original letters of soldiers from the trenches of WW1, Homing uses sound to make connections at a distance; between presence and absence, people and place, displacement and home.</p>
<p>At the Roll of Honour, a sound composition from the cemeteries at the Somme can be heard, with all the sensory qualities of the local conditions; wind, rain, whistling, stonework. Out on the Flag Market, these sounds give way to fragments of stories from the men in the trenches.</p>
<p>Approaching the Cenotaph, the soldiers’ words are disrupted by ever intensifying GPS interference. This distant, targeting technology of modern day warfare, creates a sonic fog through which individual voices can no longer be heard, reflecting the difficulty of communication through the constant battle between signal and noise.</p>
<p>Homing is a special commission  by In Certain Places and Preston Remembers, developed with the support of the Lancashire Infantry Museum, Harris Museum & Art Gallery,  Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts and the Centre for Mobilities Research at the University of Lancaster.</p>

CAST

<p>The broadcasting and discovery of relevant information is one of the pressing concerns of the 21st Century. We know there is an increasing take up of mobile devices, in which consumers are increasingly demanding access to and engagement with new forms of media ‘anytime anywhere’. However, a number of challenges stand in the way of a truly ubiquitous access and retrieval of content. Research to date shows that findability and sustainability persist as two key challenges for the free flow of information in restricted environments. This is particularly true in countries with large areas that remain remote. A step change is needed to meet the needs of millions of communities worldwide.This project researches the impact of hyperlocal proximity broadcasting on communities using WiCastr devices.</p>
<p>This pilot is designed to overcome a central problem: providing relevant information in remote locations where connectivity is either non existent, problematic, costly and simply not reliable, and where media is, or may be controlled with biased agendas. People want to read their local blogger but find he is drowned out by the hectic and noisy online Google search-driven place of the Internet. They are at the local post office and want to know about the church service times, or when the post office is open but have no mobile data coverage. They are at a protest or concert and want to interact with all the other people at the event, without having to use Facebook or the Internet which may be otherwise controlled or restricted. Others might need valuable business or medical services but can’t access the Internet because the network has been damaged or shut down.</p>
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<td>A pilot will test innovative WiFi proximity broadcasting as a ‘word of mouth’ tool.  It will reveal a method to:</p>
<p>deliver innovative hardware devices in hard to reach places</p>
<p>–       test the ability to act as a digital ‘word of mouth’ service amplifying local content providers (such as bloggers, youth groups, charities) in their local communities by making content available for free</p>
<p>–       connect people in new ways without the need for the Internet,  applications, data plans or beacons and explore how to reduce the reliance on the gatekeepers of the Internet, such as Google and Facebook through new digital content ecosystems</p>
<p>–       create new knowledge about real world data capture and analysis</p>
<p>–       create valuable field knowledge about the Internet of Everything through a hyperlocal cloud platform providing Fog connectivity anywhere and anywhere we want.</td>
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<a href="http://mediainnovationstudio.org/cast-project/" class="g-btn color_primary size_small"><i class="fa fa-rocket"></i><span>Launch Project</span></a>

Wonderful digital things require
a good mix of combined skills & disciplines

Contact Us

Media Innovation Studio ME413, Media Factory, UCLan, Preston, PR1 2XY

mis@uclan.ac.uk

Meaningful Digital Things sprinkled with a pinch of creativity

Latest…

About the Media Innovation Studio

Media Innovation Studio

What we do

How we work

Our impact

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11

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Projects

Sound of Colour

NewsThings

homing

CAST

Wonderful digital things require a good mix of combined skills & disciplines

Publications

Journalism

HCI

Games

IoT

Interactive

Drones

Sound

Data

Media

Contact Us

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Meaningful Digital Things
sprinkled with a pinch of creativity

Wonderful digital things require
a good mix of combined skills & disciplines