The Edinburgh Futures Institute hosted the second CreativeTech Scotland Gathering on 26 May – an opportunity to meet, share and showcase the data-driven innovation and creative technology in Scotland.
The gathering was held across three venues in the University of Edinburgh throughout the day: Informatics Forum, Bayes Centre and Inspace.
Over 150 attendees joined the gathering, which featured talks, workshops and demonstrations from the creative technology community across Scotland.
Sessions, workshops and demos
The sessions held at the main venue, Informatics Forum, featured a range of speakers showcasing innovations from leading players in the creativetech community.
Main venue sessions included an Opening Keynote from Richard Scott of Axis Animation detailing the 23-year journey of Axis in adopting each wave of creativetech development in animation and games, as well as speakers from Scotland-based design agencies such as CreateFuture and ISO, who shared their experience in using creative technology in their projects and partnerships.
An insightful and moving talk by Headline Speaker Toby Coffey from the National Theatre showed innovation in Immersive Storytelling. Innovators in music, dance and theatre discussed their use of creative technology in performance, and leading creative practitioners in animation, virtual production, immersive media and AI shared their views on the future of screen tools and the impact of AI.
The event closed with a talk by Alexandre Colle and Camila Jimenez Pol from POCCO on the making of “Between Two Waters” – a dance piece between a new robot, ‘Anemone’, and Madeline Squire from the Scottish Ballet (the full performance can be viewed in full on the EFI website).
In Bayes Centre and Inspace a range of creativetech workshops were delivered and demonstrations covering augmented reality, VR, virtual 3D touch, fashiontech, musictech, AI, games, interactive apps and robotics in dance and interiors, rounded off with a reception featuring Ben Schogler of Playable Tech hosting a DJ Beat Blocks party.
The Gathering’s main venue sessions were livestreamed and recorded, and are now available to watch on CreativeTech Scotland Gathering’s website. Profiles of the speakers, workshops hosts and demonstrators are also available on the website.
Caroline Parkinson, Sector Engagement Manager – Creative Industries and Director of Creative at Edinburgh Futures Institute says:
“Establishing the CreativeTech Scotland Gathering in 2022 was a leap of faith after two years of isolation due to the pandemic, but the response was so positive and the feedback that this sort of cross sectoral, pan Scotland Gathering bringing industry and academia together on creativetech innovation was needed. This was echoed again in the feedback this year, and already inspiration and connections that were forged have been communicated to me, which is so exciting and has buoyed us at EFI to plan for an even bigger Gathering in 2024, and to plan to circulate around Scotland.”
Further information
Watch recordings of CreativeTech Scotland Gathering 2023 sessions
