University of Brighton launches virtual reality platform

The Studio-LAB project is led by Louise Colbourne, course leader for MA Graphic Design, who brought together the Schools of Arts and Media to create the platform with help from the university’s Creative Futures – a research and enterprise strand which supports, promotes and funds creative projects.

Run on a web-based platform, the virtual reality (VR) facility can be easily accessed on almost any device and enhanced for a fully immersive 3D VR experience with any headset.

Studio-LAB will allow research students and staff the possibility of using the platform to design exhibitions, 3D installations, images and text, moving image installation, 360 photography and sound and live performance.

airTime by Judith Ricketts

The Grid by Larry Achiampong and David Blandy

It is also possible to invite visitors into the virtual space for demonstrations, lectures, seminars and collaborative sessions.

The platform has been launched with the virtual installation The Grid, with Larry Achiampong & David Blandy showcasing selections from their video works- ‘A Terrible Fiction’ (2019) and ‘Finding Fanon 2’ (2015).

Louise said: “Developing this project has been timely and productive and very much born out of the lockdown situation this year. With funding from the university, I have been able to work with the developer Scott McPherson and the design team at Our Machines to realise what initially seemed an impossibility; to create a facility that enabled creative ideas and experiments to flourish with relative ease in Virtual Reality.

“I wanted researchers, artists and designers to be able to use a web-based platform that was both accessible for the makers and then also accessible for visitors with headsets or without.”

Paul Sermon, Professor of Visual Communication in the School of Art, added: “We are delighted to be supporting and hosting this new virtual reality project. As artists and researchers continue to look for alternative outlets for their creativity, this new online immersive environment provides an altogether new way of exhibiting and experiencing artwork in COVID times, and is a very welcome and timely alternative from the formalities and constraints of our ubiquitous video chat windows.”

Our Machines by Elfyn Round

Thee state ov creation by Amoeba

Olu Jenzen, Deputy Head of School (Research and Enterprise) for the School of Media, said: “The School of Media has a strong group of researchers interested in digital media innovation, particularly as it intersects with the arts and creative industries, and are proud to be a partner in this project.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on how we work, across academia and in the culture sector, has brought to the fore the need for exploring VR and other digital media technologies beyond the audience interface, to explore VR as a maker space for creative collaborations.”