International Collaborations and Remote Immersive Filmmaking

Online Creative studio practice provides a space to explore, experiment and build a conversation with material, medium and methods. Artists and designers use intensive engagement with contexts and issues to discover contemporary practice’s origins. The studio practice is rooted in exploring mediums, tools, and techniques combined with mindful attention, resulting in new ideas and approaches.

Srishti students moved the studio collaboration remotely, devising ideas from concept to completion. They collaborated entirely from home to create short immersive experiences with basic mediums. They interviewed people near them and produced a series of animated documentaries for VR and Social Media whilst developing their voice and ideology; in less than three weeks and with no previous knowledge of immersive mediums.

The Online mode of working was new to the students and facilitators alike. Still, it made for an exciting opportunity for students to connect with artists across the globe and engage with a new medium. Group work was mediated through online collaboration and daily progress reviews and feedback. The students were a mix of 2nd-year Digital media arts and other disciplines like Visual communication and Information arts, making this a unique interdisciplinary workshop.

Working with their strengths and finding value in their personal experiences, they created engaging VR artworks that moved beyond the limitations of remote learning and teaching, telling stories of isolation, and overcoming grief and identity. The short animated documentaries were created using hand-drawn animation and photoshop to view on a VR headset or an immersive youtube channel.

ART+ (Art Reimagined with Technology) is a brand new conference hosted by the Royal College of Art and Falmouth University. Initially founded through the want to share practice around creative subjects and some of the shared challenges and successes of transitioning physical creative practice online, this soon developed into a want to share more widely within a friendly community from the areas of learning, teaching and digital technologies about some of the amazing practices going on in support of a great student learning experience. Aiming to bring together the people behind the scenes and giving opportunities to those colleagues and peers who are not necessarily nationally, or internationally, well known to share their work, practices and stories in support of a great student experience, we hope to create an inclusive space with opportunities for all.

Creative art and design disciplines have, historically, been very hands on. Students are makers of their work, often with the support of their peers and staff. Advancing technologies have opened up new ways of making and assessing work that were impossible before. This theme welcomes submissions to showcase ideas and projects about making using technologies. These could be examples of evolutions in art making or mega trends such as extended realities.