Museums Immersive Network - hosted by Cornwall Museums Partnership and XpoNorth

Chair

Amy Shakespeare
Innovation Manager, Cornwall Museums Partnership

Innovation Manager, Cornwall Museums Partnership

Amy is currently project managing the wAVE Immersive Experiences in Museums Project, funded by the Coastal Communities Fund. Working in partnership with Falmouth University and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership, the project is creating augmented and virtual experiences at five museums in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Amy has previously worked at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, as well as the National Trust in visitor experience at Godolphin, the Tin Coast, and the West Cornwall portfolio. During this time, she was the Trust’s lead for the Interreg Vista-AR project with Exeter University. Amy is a trustee for Kids in Museums, Young Trustees Movement Champion, and was a Clore Emerging Leader funded by Historic England in 2019.

Nicola Henderson
XpoNorth Heritage Specialist / Project Manager, Museums and Heritage Highland

Nicola Henderson is a freelance arts and heritage consultant. She has worked within Scotland’s cultural sector for over 15 years – from Glasgow to Aberdeenshire via Skye and Sutherland. Nicola has worked as director of two of Scotland's leading cultural organisations as director of Timespan Museum and Arts Centre in Helmsdale and Woodend Barn in Banchory. Following the birth of her first child in 2014, Nicola has worked freelance on a number of different projects – from devising and delivering Associate Artist programmes to managing New Music Scotland and working with the Highland Heritage sector on building resilience. Driven by a passion for ensuring access to our cultural heritage and high quality arts engagement is available for all regardless of where or how they live, Nicola now works with XpoNorth on supporting the Highland heritage sector to innovate for the future.

Speakers

Tanya Krzywinska
Professor of Digital Games and Digital Economy, Falmouth University & Artist

Tanya Krzywinska was President of the Digital Games Research Association (2009-2011), is the Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal Games and Culture (Sage) and has worked with some of the leading figures in games worldwide. She has authored books and many academic articles on digital games and is currently writing a book entitled 'Gothic Kernow'. Tanya has led research projects funded by AHRC, Coastal Communities, EC, and the Arts Council, each focused on some aspect of immersion and games.


Janine King
Heritage Development Officer, The Castle Heritage Centre in Bude

Janine is the Heritage Development Officer for Bude – Stratton Town Council. She is responsible for the day to day running of The Castle Heritage Centre, Bude, planning exhibitions and heritage events, and managing a team of volunteers. Janine previously worked as a primary teacher before taking on her current role in 2016.

Dave Patten
Head of New Media, The Science Museum, London

Dave Patten’s role includes managing all aspects of new media and AV, from conceptual design, prototyping and production to project managing external developers and production companies. He has a background in electronics and computer science and has worked at the Science Museum for over 30 years, developing exhibitions and leading development teams. He developed the technical systems for the Science Museum’s Wellcome Wing and Dana Centre. Recent work includes Web Lab, the multi-award winning collaboration with Google, Engineering Your Future, an interactive exhibition for teenagers on engineering and a secondment to Frost Science in Miami to help develop exhibitions and systems for a new museum which opened in 2017. Dave Patten runs the Science Museum Groups Digital Lab Initiative which experiments in emerging technologies and visitor experiences.


Sadie Young
Director, Timespan

Sadie Young is a researcher, curator and educator and Director of Timespan, a cultural institution in the very north east of the Scottish Highlands with local, global and planetary ambitions to weaponise culture for social change. Sadie is committed to using the cultural institution as a public space to expand the civic sphere and to respond to social urgencies through communal learning, the production of collective knowledge and lobbying at all levels, and is motivated by those on the coal face fighting for emancipation, liberation and equality. She was previously Director/Curator of the curatorial and educational platform, Lanchester Gallery Projects at Coventry University.

Jacquie Aitken
Digital Heritage Curator, Timespan

Jacquie Aitken has a background in archaeology, museums and immersive technology and has a lifelong interest in researching Highland history, landscapes and communities and has worked in the regional and independent sectors for over fifteen years. Her roles at Timespan include the curation of the museum and community co-production and over the last two years, she has led the development of new digital visitor experiences and virtual reconstruction models of the past, as part of the Connected Culture and Natural Heritage in the Northern Environment (CINE). As a supporter of community archaeology, Jacquie initiated the Brora Salt Pans Excavation Project and now leads the research group.

Rob Sherman
Interdisciplinary Narrative Designer

Rob Sherman is a writer, computational artist and narrative designer. He runs Bonfire Dog, a small design studio that creates narrative experiences for museums, art galleries, charities and many other cultural institutions. He is a Digital Research Fellow at the British Library, and a Visiting Lecturer in Digital Narrative at the Royal College of Art.

Graham Hogg
Co-Founder, Lateral North

Graham is one of the co-founders of Lateral North. Lateral North works across a diverse range of projects including community masterplans in rural and urban areas, through to delivering innovative exhibitions, such as the Scottish entry to the 2016 Venice Biennale. Their work has seen them travel throughout the High North, including projects in Alaska, Iceland and Norway and collaborating with international partners. Graham has worked alongside Anchorage Museum and other Alaskan partners for the past three years on Future Arctic, developing an atlas of the circumpolar north and a future vision for the region. Working alongside Collective Architecture he has helped develop a carbon-neutral, community focused master plan for Strathclyde Country Park as well as leading architectural workshops for Paisley Primary Schools focusing on the town’s heritage. At the moment, during this crisis, Graham is leading Lateral North's response to the pandemic and what this means for the city in which their team lives; Glasgow. After the Pandemic - A Glasgow Response to Covid-19 is a call to action to Glaswegians regardless of their background to come together to RETHINK, RE-IMAGINE and REDESIGN the city to be greener, sustainable, and more resilient. The project is a collaboration between Lateral North, Fergus Bruce and Laura McHard.