The Future Jon Spooner
As I write this, it is March 2014 and we have published our first story - a version of Unlimited’s most recent show, The Noise, that also includes writers commentary, production photographs, cast and crew biographies and other “Bonus Features” that we and the Community Lab wanted to include in the app. In the next few months we’ll be publishing and testing versions of shows by a few other companies before opening the platform up to anyone who wants to use it. By that stage we’re hoping to have developed a much prettier site that can catalogue our growing library of stories and added a payment option with a range of business models (free, fixed price, pay what you choose) with any payments received going entirely to the artists. And by making the code for the platform freely available on GitHub, if there’s a function you want to add, you can! At Unlimited we’re not only interested in developing creative processes for collaboration, but also the social and political processes that allow us to work together most productively. Over the last 17 years of working together Clare, Chris and I (who co-founded the company) have created many different stories, telling them in many different ways and in many different places. What all of those stories share in common is that they are co-authored and co-written, often in conversation with our audiences. So a collaborative approach to the process of (co) designing this new platform made perfect sense to us. And I’m positive that the end result is better for it - more relevant and more useful to the people who will use it. More beautiful too. It’s been a real pleasure making Uneditions with everyone who’s travelled with us to this point and, if you haven’t worked in this way before, I’d recommend it. Not only are we excited by what we’ve made and the potential it has in the next stages of development, we massively enjoyed the process of making it. We hope you enjoy your experience of it.
Thank You
The Community Lab Rachael Abbey, Vicky Ackroyd, Liz Cable, Brian Cantwell, Polly Checkland Hardin, Jonquil Claughan, Penny Cunningham, Paul Dixon, Rhiannon Ellis, Emma Finnerty, Zoe Gumbs, Vanessa Guy, Joanne Hartley, Chris Huggins, Rachel Kaye, James Mckay, Christine Moore, Jamie Neil, Peter Panteli, Paul Phillips, Sally Ramsden, Andrew Strachan. Unlimited Theatre unlimited.org.uk @untheatre Creative Director: Jon Spooner Co-Director: Clare Duffy Co-Director: Chris Thorpe Producer: Ric Watts Associate Producer: Joanne Wain Design Team: David Edwards, Gareth Fry, Rhys Jarman, Pete Malkin, Katharine Williams Executive Director: Mark Hollander Administrator: Alison McIntyre Bookkeeper: Alex Smith Product Research Studio, University of Dundee productresearch.dundee.ac.uk Research partner: University of Dundee Workshop Co-Design: Uniform Insight Journalism: Media Innovation Studio Storythings storythings.com @storythings Matt Locke Silvia Novak Kim Plowright Design: Dean Vipond Prototype Development: Nicky Thompson Platform Development: Chris Thorpe App Development: Stuart Langridge at Click App Development: Erroll Roberts at Click App Development: Fergus Morrow at Click Head of Delivery: Hollie Wilmott at Click