RCA Digital Direction Showcase

About

X January, 2023: The Royal College of Art (RCA) today unveils a major new multi-year partnership with Outernet London, the newly opened media and culture district in central London. This ground-breaking educational partnership will see RCA students use Outernet’s world-leading interactive platforms to showcase their innovative digital work and immersive experiences.

RCA students will have the opportunity to experiment with Outernet’s digital canvas of screens exhibiting their work throughout The Now Building, Pop One and Pop Two spaces, located next to Tottenham Court Road tube station. This is the most advanced immersive space in the world featuring 23,000 square feet of floor-to-ceiling, 360-degree, wraparound 16K screens across four storeys. Outernet London uses the latest immersive technology to create new experiences for music, arts, culture and creators.

The collaboration between the RCA and Outernet London will be a leading testbed for creative and digital art, design and storytelling, public engagement and innovation allowing Outernet and its wider community to engage with RCA student activity. The partnership will launch with the RCA Digital Direction showcase from 22 - 26 February 2023, featuring work created by students on the MA Digital Direction programme, which addresses the urgent need for inclusive and relevant storytelling using new technologies.

This five-day festival of digital artworks and performances including Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, 360 video, games and multi-screen installations will demonstrate the power of connecting world-class technology with creative vision. Highlights include ‘Follow The Name’ by Yujie Wu, a captivating 3D video game which explores the deep connection between plants, places and people. The audience is invited to find their way out of a garden of camellias by listening to the sounds of people calling the camellias by their local names, reconnecting this plant with its place of origin. ‘Digital Death Masks’ by Aiden Shabka, an installation inspired by the death of physical identity, uses multi-screen generative video to showcase the continuous building and destruction of identities procedurally forged from fragments of individuals.

Dr. Paul Thompson, Vice-Chancellor, Royal College of Art, said “At the RCA we champion the value of interdisciplinary collaboration between the arts and sciences, and so we are proud to partner with Outernet Global to harness the power of immersive technologies to amplify the creative work of our students. I look forward to seeing the students’ digital creations come alive through these innovative tools.”

Philip O’Ferrall, CEO Outernet Global, said “As a world first, Outernet was conceived with a pioneering mission to innovate in creative storytelling and deeply connect with audiences. What’s so exciting about the partnership is that we have a shared vision with the Royal College of Art around how to do exactly that and the screens and spaces at Outernet were built for this kind of creative endeavour. The incredible list of alumni at RCA has shaped and changed the artistic and cultural landscape for so many years. Now their current students will be able to share their work on our immense digital canvas right in the heart of London.”

Tom Simmons, Head of Programme, Digital Direction, Royal College of Art, said “Our partnership with Outernet provides a unique opportunity for RCA students to experiment with the scale and immediacy of immersive storytelling, exploring what digital storytelling can be, how it can bring people together, connect diverse experiences, confront social and ecological inequalities, and reveal more caring ways for us to live in our world today.”

The Royal College of Art has been ranked the number one institution for art and design in the world by the highly regarded QS World University Rankings every year since 2015. It has a deep commitment to the creative industries, demonstrated through the profound influence the College has had on many of the most significant artists and designers of the last two centuries. Alumni include such major figures as Bridget Riley, David Hockney OM, Sir Frank Bowling, Tracey Emin RA CBE, Sir Ridley Scott, and Sir Anthony Finkelstein. The RCA has a uniquely global and interdisciplinary approach to digital storytelling with staff and students convening from a plurality of backgrounds from computer science to the arts.