Interdisciplinary studio bridging the gap between creative industries and technology opens at UWE Bristol

A new £3.6m laboratory has opened at UWE Bristol which will provide a unique arts, humanities and technologies multi-disciplinary space for researchers, entrepreneurs and businesses across the West of England.

The Bridge Studios will bring together creative arts, design and technology to pioneer interdisciplinary research at UWE Bristol using AI, VR, motion capture, immersive audio and collaborative robotics to drive innovation and industry collaboration.

The new lab is spread over 500sq.m on UWE Bristol’s Frenchay campus and features the latest collaborative robotic arms and advanced robotic technology which will be used for research into data-driven art, craft, design and architecture. A robotic fabrication lab within The Bridge Studios includes a multi-directional 3-metre robotic arm which can be used for large-scale 3D printing in architecture and building design.

Another standout feature within the facility is an immersive studio with a 7x4m LED screen which is at the core of the lab’s advanced research capabilities in virtual and immersive technologies.

Motion capture technology will provide highly accurate tracking for human, robot and objects for use in animation or interactive artworks. The Bridge Studios also offers space for exhibitions and performances.

With £2.3m funding from the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), The Bridge Studios will build upon the West of England’s rich creative and cultural environment and bring together two growth-driving sectors – creative industries and digital and technologies – identified in the government’s new industrial strategy.

The Bridge Studios has been designed as a collaborative space for artists and businesses from outside of the University together with researchers and technicians, to break down the barriers between technology and the creative industries, and close the knowledge gap between ‘real world’ and virtually immersive environments.

Tavs Jorgensen, Associate Professor and academic lead for the new facility, said: “The Bridge Studios provides a unique opportunity to bring together skills from diverse research disciplines and explore how knowledge from within creative disciplines can cross fertilise with research and innovation within science and technology.”

One of the research projects that will be taking place in The Bridge Studios is led by UWE Bristol’s Tom Mitchell, Professor or Audio and Music Interaction, and Dr Dominic Potts, research fellow. The project, ‘Outside Interactions’, will build upon Tom’s previous research in developing gestural music gloves which use motion capture and AI to enable wearers to create music with hand movements, and have been used by artists such as Ariana Grande.

MiMu gloves, a wearable musical instrument, allow artists to expressively create music through hand gestures and not be restricted to sitting behind laptops or keyboards when producing music – instead, controlling this technology through the gloves.

The next stage of this research, taking place at The Bridge Studios, will develop high precision sensors within the gloves that will sense a wearer's interactions with physical objects. Rather than embedding sensor technologies within a musical instrument, the project will aim to relocate this technology onto the body, sensing interactions through wearables.

This will remove the rigidity of a physical musical instrument and mean artists can create and perform music through wearable tech in a way that is totally unique to their artistic identity, designed to any shape, scale or structure. It also offers more accessible options for disabled musicians who may face barriers to playing traditional musical instruments.

Arts and Humanities Research Council Executive Chair Professor Christopher Smith said: “The Bridge Studios will utilise AI, VR, motion capture, immersive audio and collaborative robotics to create accessibility for artists and boost the creative industries with cutting-edge digital innovations.

“Investing together in the infrastructure that underpins excellent research and innovation will help us deliver long term sustainable skills and economic growth. AHRC is committed to research and innovation which will deliver on the ambitions outlined in the government’s industrial strategy.”