Cinekid Professionals Conference Report 2016

PROFESSIONALS

REPORT CINEKID PROFESSIONALS CONFERENCE 19 October 2016

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Cinekid Professionals Conference The 2016 Cinekid Professionals Conference comprised a multi-layered overview of the current audiovisual kids industry in the face of an ever-evolving communications landscape. The conference was presented within the context of Cinekid’s 30th anniversary, and offered the opportunity both to celebrate and to reflect on the momentous changes within the sector over this period.

Topics ranged from ‘kindfulness’ and ‘mindfulness’ in kids’ media, international co-production and its effects on story-telling, gender representation to the new hardware/software on display at MediaLab and its effects on story-telling.

The day was moderated by doc director, curator, Dutch Directors Guild board member and crown member of the Dutch Council for Culture, Tessa Boerman.

Moderator Tessa Boerman, director, curator, Dutch Directors Guild board member and crown member of the Dutch Council for Culture

‘Kindfulness’ and ‘Mindfulness’ in media The day’s proceedings started with an overview of the ReCHILL programme, focused on the building of kids character skills with the onus on kindness, empathy, gratitude and self-awareness, all attributes proven to enable them to succeed in later life.

Hip-hop artist and writer Akwasi Ansah and director/animator Mascha Halberstad stressed the point that while screens may, for kids, seem more fascinating than the world around them, that is no guarantee of happiness, hence their mantra, “go see the world again, not the screen!”

They are therefore adherents to, and advocates of ReCHILL, the highly entertaining programme for kids to ‘give space in their brains for happy thoughts’. “We want to make meditation cool for kids,” they underlined.

“Train their brain and get them to a higher consciousness.”

This is effected not just through fun meditation but also by the sharing of acts of kindness, not just in the classroom but out in the community as well (and of course purveyors of such random acts of kindness can receive the ReCHILL Compassion Specs [to a get a clearer view on even bigger acts of kindness] and the ReCHILLstraw [to drink in more kindness]). We “set out to do something which is not hippy, but Hip-hop.”

The programme is broadcast to 8-12 year-olds on School TV in the Netherlands and on NTR from January 2017, and is promoted via various offline events (and very much online via the Android App).

Akwasi Owusu Ansah (right), hip-hop artist and writer, and Mascha Halberstad (left), director and animator.

Lesli Rotenberg: PBS Kids Elaborating on the theme of ‘kindfulness’ in media, Lesli Rotenberg, Senior VP and General Manager PBS Kids, explained her company’s mission: “to use the power of media to create a better world where every child discovers unlimited possibilities. We believe in the potential for every single child and we believe that media, when developed responsibly and thoughtfully, has the power to provide children with the learning opportunities that can help them realise their own potential.”

But in these days of uncertainty about new media and the myriad devices that can relay it to children, Rotenberg underlined how media such as

PBS must help the 70% of parents who believe that the world can be an unkind place in which to grow up, and who therefore want to feel empowered to take a greater lead not only in their children’s entertainment but in their social and personal development.

To illustrate her argument she showed a number of clips from PBS Kids shows. Splash and Bubbles and Wild Kratts emphasised the need for empathy and the ‘art of apology’. A clip from Ready Jet Go taught about friendship, teamwork, resilience and how to re-frame failure as ‘new learning’.

Dinosaur Train emphasised how to be kind to a friend in need (in this case a dinosaur who sang just like Elvis).

Lesli Rotenberg, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Children’s Media and Education PBS Kids

The primary goal of PBS Kids, she explained, is “to reach children and model healthy social and emotional development strategies” but the company is also determined to develop resources to enable families to access content that addresses character skills. The PBS Parents Catalogue, for example, is a digital resource that allows parents to navigate a website (ordered according to child’s age) which offers up a plethora of programming. If you have a child with a temper tantrum you can navigate towards a programme or a song or a scene that will help alleviate the problem, e.g. the Take a deep Breath and Count to 4 song from Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood. “That was developed for three-year-olds but it works pretty well on 20-year-olds as well,” joked Rotenberg.

“On this app kids can play and sing and it starts by having them identifying and naming their feelings when they are playing with their friends and favourite characters.”

Rotenberg and her team have also gathered the highlights of this information into small shareable nuggets that they post on social media platforms for the benefit of parents. The response to this has been very strong and underlines research carried out by PBS that shows how parents rank the mastery of social skills much more so than other attainments, such as gaining top marks in academic subjects like mathematics.

On her audience Rotenberg commented how “PBS is kind of funny in that we have very very strong audiences that are very young and then we skip a few generations and we have super strong audiences that are 50, 60 and 70 plus who tend to be the grandparents.” She also stressed how PBS Kids has a very active group of teacher advocates who reach out to it as a continuing and trusted source.

30 years of Cinekid: Simone van Dusseldorp Netherlands Film Fund Commissioner Monique Ruinen interviewed celebrated Dutch director Simone van Dusseldorp whose Owls & Mice opened this year’s Cinekid. The director also picked up the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Netherlands Film Fund Commissioner Monique Ruinen (left) interviewed Simone van Dusseldorp (right), director

Van Dusseldorp explained how at film school a teacher told her to remember images that were very important to her in her early life and to write them down. She thought of almost 200 images. “Go on writing,” he said, and then after 500 images she had created a very important source to which she has been able to return to for series such as Secrets from the Schoolyards. “You have to use the images of your own past.

When you are a child there are these little things that are very important to you.”

The originating ethos for Owls & Mice, Van Dusseldorp explained, was how, when she was a child, she felt both a wariness of people who are different, but also a thrill in being a little different. Nevertheless, she developed close friendships with children who were not so similar to her. “And for me it is very important that parents and the teachers were outside of this world.”

She stressed how the type of children she likes to write about are ones that are “honest and anarchic” and pointed out how the schoolyard is a fascinating place to observe kids (she has two small kids herself).

Directing children can be tricky, she says. “If a child doesn’t want to play anymore, then you don’t have a contract.” So it is essential to find out from the beginning if a child has staying power, the confidence to perform in front of a crew and the ability to cope with the stress of it all. She organises a mini mock crew day in which she is a little more harsh than usual, in order to test their resolve, and then asks them to make an honest assessment as to whether this is something that they wish to pursue. If it is a ‘no’ then that is very good too. “But it is important that they like to play. The joy of playing is very important too. And to speak out loud.”

But much psychological support is provided on set too, with on- and off-set mentoring.

What has she learned after six feature films? “Sometimes you have to make a story and sometimes you have to educate. I always concentrate on the story and not the education as children get a lot of education elsewhere.”

International co-production: effect of cultural differences in storytelling The Fund’s Monique Ruinen introduced Swedish producer Petter Lindblad and Dutch co-producer Marleen Slot who talked about their Siv Sleeps Astray, which opened Berlin Generation 2016 and was pitched at Cinekid for Professionals in 2014. The film concerns a little girl’s first stay-over at a friend’s house, where she finds a pair of playful badgers for company.

“I always wanted this to be a co-production,” stressed Lindblad.

“Most films benefit from being international co-productions.

You bring so much to your project from different cultures and you can create a better film that way.”

Added Slot: “What I liked so much about this is that it was actually quite special to find a co-production that was so open to Dutch elements, not only behind the scenes but in the film itself, as we have two important cast members from the Netherlands. It was not just a financial contribution but also in the content.” Aside from the cast the film employed a Dutch designer, costume designer and composer and was, according to Lindlad, a “beautiful mix.” “It wasn’t just the money, I want to be really involved,” Slot repeated.

Ruinen brought up the tricky issue of cultural differences but in the case of this Swedish/Dutch co-production there was very little, both Lindblad and Slot agreed. “It was really smooth and nice to work with all the talent from the Netherlands. I didn’t find anything that was a cultural problem,” said Lindblad, although Slot pointed out how directors Catti Edfeldt and Lena Hanno Clyne needed convincing about a Dutch composer.

“But we decided that within the budget the composer should be Dutch,” Slot added. “They were like ‘we have much better composers in Sweden’ so we brought them to the Netherlands and invited three different Dutch composers to talk with them and play them some of their work, and in the end the directors were very happy that Merlijn Snitker found the right tone for the film.”

Monique Ruinen (left), Film commissioner at the Netherlands Film Fund, Marleen Slot (middle), Founder and producer at Viking Film and Petter Lindblad (right), Producer and owner at Snowcloud Films.

“But that is the way you do co-production, you have to have a certain amount of spend on the creative and the technical input so you can tick the boxes.

You don’t want to always talk about a creative project like this, but nevertheless it becomes very important to tick the boxes in the right way,” commented Lindblad.

Were Slot’s Latin American co-productions more difficult to realise? “It really depends on the people you work with,” she responded. “That is so important in this business, that at every single level you choose the people that you feel you can work with, and that you can trust, whether they are from Brazil or from France… And for me I always choose based on stories and on directors. Their previous work is always very important. And also does it have appeal here in the Netherlands? I also want to bring these films to the Dutch audience.”

In conclusion, Lindblad stressed, how if you are going to spend the next five years of your life working with somebody on a co-production, then you must choose somebody you will like and have fun with. “You can’t just co-produce on the basis of liking somebody’s film. You will be spending time with them, sitting in meetings discussing aspects of your film and it is much easier to discuss and compromise when you are doing it with somebody that you like and trust and respect.”

10 years of Copenhagen Bombay Copenhagen Bombay CEO Sarita Christensen delivered a refreshingly honest appraisal of how the “defaults and mistakes” made by her company in its early years helped transform it into the thriving studio we see today.

For the past decade the company has aimed to make original storytelling for children and youth. (Prior to running Copenhagen Bombay, Christensen was running a children and youth department at Zentropa.)

The structure of the group today comprises seven companies, and three years ago they made their first incursions into the Chinese market, met an inspiring partner/entrepreneur who really wanted to explore different ways to educate Chinese children and was very inspired by the open European education methods, based on innovation and entrepreneurship.

“We are building a partnership, almost getting there to build up the first production,” confirmed Christensen.

Her project development model is not only to create a film or a TV series but to create an IP and to explore every potential in “folding out” to other platforms “but some of the lessons we learned is not to do that with every idea we develop, as it takes time and costs a lot of money.”

The company conducts its own distribution and world sales, and have done so successfully since 2009 to over 40 countries.

Her first example of learning by mistake was The Apple and the Worm (budget €2.2m), about the symbiotic relationship that develops between the title characters. The company erred in making it too wordy, and aiming too much of the content beyond kids to adults, so smaller children just couldn’t get it. Audience figures came in at 35.000, a third of the expected figure of 100.000+. Copenhagen Bombay had also applied a commercial fruit and vegetable concept within 1100 stores on the opening night across Denmark.

But the film’s lack of success scuppered any chance of further commercial roll-out.

From this experience, Christensen learned to listen more, to attach a consultant at script stage and to get earlier input from buyers.

Sarita Christensen, CEO Copenhagen Bombay

The film Beyond Beyond (€2.8m budget) covered the subject of death but turned out to be too sad for young audiences. The feedback was good, but parents were reluctant to expose their children to such torment. The figures were low: 12.000 admissions.

The problem was that the company failed to react to warnings from buyers at an early stage as to how sad it really was, especially the story‘s ending.

“I learned my lesson because I lost a lot of money in my Easter holidays where we opened simultaneously in Sweden and Denmark,” Christensen told the audience.

After the experience on Beyond Beyond Christensen stopped the creative processes on all the projects in development within the company’s writers rooms, “to see where and how to work details in to the script development, to create stronger stories but also to make sure we don’t lose the children, instead to give them some real hope in the end.”

The company then tried to apply the lessons learned to Get Santa, which was supposed to have been greenlit in the summer of 2014. But buyer feedback warned the company that there was too much bad language in the script.

They were concerned also about too much potential violence. So they re-wrote, as costly as that can be, “which was the best thing to do,” and, as it turns out, good for Cinekid too as Get Santa was in competition here this year. Copenhagen Bombay naturally saw the benefit of the extra development they put into the film. They also tested the film on children, which they normally don’t do (“which sounds stupid,” Christensen concedes) but which was very beneficial to the film’s development, as well as to its distribution and sales strategies.

Copenhagen Bombay is currently in production on Next Door Spy, which was pitched at the 2016 Junior Co-production Market, but director Karla von Bengtson revealed recently to Christensen that Denmark has been producing feature length animated films for more than 25 years, but this is the first directed by a female. “I didn’t know if this was good news or bad news.

I was actually very ashamed,” admitted Christensen.

Christensen’s conclusion: “To summarise, we should work 100% professionally. It sounds obvious but sometimes we tend to forget – I know I do – because we get so emotionally involved.

“But my very brilliant employees tell me, why not put in place a strict and structured plan for every film, and while I say ‘too boring!’ they are right,

and we HAVE too, and we must stick to it. It is good to be strict, to keep to a solid structure within the development of a project.”

“And be open with the sharing of knowledge to involve all departments to make sure that everyone has something to say from a very early stage.

The entire Copenhagen Bombay leadership has to approve projects at a very early stage and that is really new, because normally it was just me having a coffee and telling the talent how much I love their work and we will make whatever they come up with!

“At that point I didn’t exactly stop saying ‘no’ but ‘maybe we can do something else’. Which was not what people had ever heard before.”

Christensen revealed that the company now has a board of directors, and that this was not a bad thing. Her final piece of advice was two-pronged.

Firstly, even if it may seem like a lot of money, always have a first draft translated for buyer feedback. And secondly, “if the script is not good, don’t make the film!”

Gender in (and/or out of) the picture Thijs de Wit and his band of gender-fluid musicians opened the afternoon session with a highly entertaining and very musical interactive demonstration of how to create a gender neutral audience. Then the session got down to the business of analysing the industry and its output in terms of gender representation.

Performance by PIPS:lab

Anna Serner, CEO of the Swedish Film Institute kicked off the debate with a key-note in which she highlighted examples of gender inequality, most notably that of the experienced, highly competent and well-prepared female Chilean director who had to jump through hoops during an IDFA Forum pitch, as compared to her ill-prepared and generally incompetent male counterpart whose pitch was successful on the grounds of a track record that was no more impressive than hers. “We do not look at men and women with the same eyes,” she underlined. “I discovered a long time ago to stop talking and start acting. Just talking won’t change anything.”

So Serner decided to make an action plan within the Institute, formulate specific arguments and act accordingly to address this imbalance and remove all barriers. So for the past four years the SFI has run a web project – Nordic Women in Film - that has collected data about all female participants in film (for the record Birth of a Nation was not the first long feature film ever made. The female director Lois Weber had made “a hundred long features by then”).

Anna Serner, CEO of the Swedish Film Institute

A matching/mentoring programme was established that paired experienced female directors with new female directors. “It is not a mentorship of how to be a director, it is a mentorship of how to get your idea to the audience through all the barriers and the gatekeepers. You have to be street-smart and you have to take a lot of shit. You have to have support from somebody else.”

Women have to put up with discouragement at every turn, Serner pointed out, and have to cope with the language of negativity, as opposed to the positive messages that their male counterparts receive. When men hear “Wow, go for it”, women hear, “Are you sure? It is a very competitive business.” And of course this has a bearing on self-confidence.

The Swedish Film Institute does not apply quotas, she stressed, but all projects are scrutinized for fair gender equality, and they have achieved very good results accordingly. In the years 2013 until 2015 the breakdown of SFI-funded features was as follows: female directors 44%, female screenwriters 46%, female producers 56%. In terms of assessing their quality, of the Swedish feature films selected for Berlin 2015 71% were directed by women and in 2016 60% were directed by women. TIFF 2015 saw 80% of Swedish films directed by women, with a figure of 20% in 2016.

Cannes 2016 was a straight 50/50.

“It is not about gender neutrality. Storytelling always comes from the perspective of the person telling the story. And we have a different perspective of life. This shows that the perspective of the woman in telling the same kind of story feels new and unique and that is why the festivals are interested. We are not giving them new storytelling, just a new perspective.”

Sophie van Bauwel, Associate Director of the Department of Communication at Ghent University, was next up to give an academic appraisal of gender representation in children’s film and television. Her opening remarks confirmed audience perceptions that children’s media did not reflect a gender balance, nor was it free of gender stereotyping. Her research covered the quantitative ‘body count’ of males to females in programming, the qualitative way they are represented and also the viewing habits and consumption patterns of the end audience. Much of the research concentrated on TV and Disney.

Van Bauwel found that 68% of characters were male, who were characterised in the main by ‘doing’ against the 32% of females who are mainly characterised as operating ‘within private spheres’. In animation 60% of characters are male. What’s more, there are considerably more male than female superheroes, and the female ones are generally slim and

wear revealing clothes. Male characters are more likely to be leaders and will reveal traits ranging from assertiveness, athleticism, bravery and tech-savviness, whereas their female counterparts will be warm, emotional, attractive, romantic, superficial and (quite often) in distress. What’s more, narrators are mainly male, as are monsters and robots in children’s films and programming. Sidekicks and antagonists are three times more likely to be male as well. What’s more, males are more likely to be white.

Van Bauwel outlined simple and straightforward principles for change in order to redress the balance. Firstly, in terms of pure body count, it is imperative to show an equal number of boys and girls. Secondly, be prepared to effect role reversal. Roles which are traditionally assigned to one gender should be assigned to the other. Thirdly, break stereotypes of colour preferences (blue/pink etc.), body-shape and dress. Fourthly, assign competencies and skills equally across genders and allow them to have similar characters and aspirations, therefore presenting a greater degree of complexity in their characterisation. Fifth, avoid gender-sensitive language (e.g. he is acting like a girl). Finally, present all of the above both explicitly and implicitly.

“This is the starting point among media professionals to create a more gender-balanced representation and in the end this will equate to quality content,” she concluded.

Andrew Kavanagh, CEO Kavaleer Productions Dublin-based Kavanagh spoke about his TV series Kiva Kan Do. The idea of the show came to him three years ago, although its antecedents go back a decade.

Back in 2006, Kavanagh did a show with the BBC about time-traveling kids discovering inventions from the past, and he had difficulties presenting diversity as there were not many female inventors before the 20th Century.

But then a few years ago he attended a design dinner in Dublin and met Dawani Kumar, an inventor herself from the age of five who kept a book of ideas all her life. She actually invented a dripless teapot, taking the standard academic assignment seriously (unlike her fellow students) and ended up patenting a system which is applicable across many other disciplines and industries.

Kavanagh was determined to put both her and her sense of determination into a kids show, hence Kiva Kan Do. “I wanted to make something that my boys could watch, both science nuts,” he commented. “But one that had a girl protagonist, why not.” He also wanted to instill a sense of simplicity in the project.

Kiva is based on Dawani, and is from a Jainist tradition of making peaceful inventions. Kiva’s parents are very supportive and she has a very practical grannie. “Everything is solvable for Kiva,” Kavanagh adds.

Her best friend is Sol, who is a great mender, so their skillsets meld well.

Andrew Kavanagh, CEO and founder Kavaleer Productions

“Part of the problem I had when I was pitching this at places like MIPCOM was everybody said I wasn’t going to get this financed because girls don’t like inventing, and all those hackneyed stereotypes,” commented Kavanagh. “I am a parent and I know [this is not the case], but it is all led by the market and money isn’t a good indicator of how to make content.

But I love it when people tell me I can’t do something because I am Irish and I don’t like being told what to do. So I went ahead and proved them wrong. I financed it and it is on air. It launched on RTE Junior, it is going to be on TG France next year and hopefully we will be announcing a lot more sales from MIPCOM. There is an appetite for it. Even in the past two years with SVOD and crowd-funding, people are listening. So we have to keep making so that they keep listening.”

Sheena Macrae, Director at Lightcube Sheena Macrae went straight into her project in development, entitled Ollie’s Edible Adventures (about a very picky eater who gains particular super powers depending on what he eats) and described her desire to devise a holistic brand on the subject of healthy eating, replete with academic and educational input, as well as impact studies. TV will be the driver but Macrae wants to bolt on other component elements to underline the message and to combat such issues as childhood obesity.

On the subject of gender representation she admired the Sports UK This Girl Can poster campaign of women excelling in sports and the #banbossy campaign (spearheaded by Beyoncé) which looks to eliminate sexist language in media, as well as the work undertaken by the Geena Davis Institute.

Macrae listed the essential pointers that she always writes on her figurative blackboard that describe the content that she wants to offer to the market. 1. Visually distinctive 2. Something which contains within its DNA the issues she wants to address 3. PSED; personal, social and economic development, the idea of emotional intelligence as a tool for learning.

She turned to the example of Jelly Pixies (in development 52 x 5mins) for two to five-year-olds, about characters who want to be real fairies, but magic (as well known) takes practice. Magic is, instead, something that sparkles from inside, Macrae reminded the audience. “Jelly Pixies is a comedy of learning and doing together, and using their own individual skills to get there.

Every story is underpinned by the idea of social and emotional development, and understanding the feelings of others.”

“It is really about not just doing a TV show. It is about building a brand.

In that we will be working with the European Woman’s Audiovisual Network, we are hoping to link in the Geena Davis Institute, we will be working with

academics and psychologists to make programmes that are appropriate but can drive the idea of emotional development… My goal ultimately is to have a parent wearing a T-shirt that says, ‘I’m a Jelly Pixie’ too, because we have started something that feels positive and more like a movement.”

Annika Bluhm: Dreamworks Animation Annika Bluhm came to Cinekid to discuss the re-boot of a much-loved British animated character: Noddy. Noddy is a toy who lives in Toyland. He was created by Enid Blyton (the JK Rowling of her day) back in 1949 and he has gone through many iterations over the years.

The challenge was to reinvent a character that had been around for ages. In the last three years alone there had been three different versions of the show.

Bluhm explained that Dreamworks owned the IP on the show and how they were “extremely blessed” to work with Gaumont Animation on the show. They were responsible, Bluhm underlined, for much of the creative development on the show.

Dreamworks made Noddy a detective. Why? Because he was always a passive character historically, so they were very keen to make him much more active, to lead the stories.

The basis of this show is enquiry-based learning, Bluhm pointed out, that stresses the ‘who, what, why, where, when and how’ and what Noddy does, in his guise of detective, is to ask those questions, therefore modeling for small kids how to get the answers they want to know. “If you help kids ask the questions to find answers for themselves, it will start to go into their heads and they will start to take it on board,” said Bluhm.

Bluhm had another very specific raison d’etre in re-booting Noddy in the way she did. “One of the reasons we developed this way back at the beginning is that I was very keen to put a clever kid in the centre of the show. Clever kids don’t often get to be the centre of the show, or the hero. The clever kid usually gets to be the sidekick, while the hero goes off and does it.” And who was the model for this re-boot? Sherlock Holmes. “Curious minds lead to great adventures.”

Bluhm and her team did a lot focus testing on the show, talking to children, parents and carers in three different countries, two of which had a big history with Noddy (UK and France), to determine what to keep, what to lose and what to amend, and that focus testing informed everything that went into the show, as did the work done with an education consultant.

The colour combinations remained, especially Noddy’s blue hat, although that became a beanie. Four of the key characters remained, Noddy, Revs (formerly the Taxi), Bumby the Dog and Big Ears (in the US he is Mister Squeaks). The other new characters were there to reflect archetypes of toys that kids would have in their toy boxes, for example Smarty Saurus, the smart girl scientist, Deltoid the Strong Man (a bit thick, talks about himself in the playground). Bluhm dropped the goblins, and were replaced by mischievous unicorns (the Naughtycorns) – “cheeky and always up for a laugh” – who have become break out popular characters with kids, Bluhm claimed.

Annika Bluhm, Creative Executive DreamWorks TV

Noddy uses a tablet and kids love it. Parents were conflicted by it as it was a ‘screen’, but screens are a part of life – they are not going away, and Bluhm was determined to model in the show how that element of children’s lives is not going to go away. He uses it to gather clues, not to go onto Google, she underlined.

Her team also introduced a series of exciting Toylands in which the action takes place, such as Fable Forest and Animal Acres.

To summarise, Bluhm explained how she and her team went right back to the beginning and re-assessed the premise, the characters, the design and re-created a world that is very specific, a world where toys come to life. If they eat, they toy-eat, if they sleep they toy-sleep. Everything is about play, and that is the basis of the show.

At the end Bluhm reacted to criticism of gender representation in the show. “The show is based on classic characters,” she responded. “And when we did the focus testing, some of those things we couldn’t change.

We cannot suddenly make Noddy a girl. It is just not going to happen.

We looked at children and we looked at children’s playboxes and I can completely understand that people look at Deltoid and ask why there should be a heroic strong man, but he’s funny, he’s a joke… A lot of things can be dealt with by humour. I don’t think it necessarily means that you are not aware of gender.”

Storyfactory: Between hardware and software Three artists exhibiting at MediaLab presented examples of how they approach the business of story-telling through their exciting new innovations and interfaces.

Ruairi Glynn is an artist who divides his time between an arts practice that involves building installations for public spaces and an academic practice in which he teaches things (learned in his arts practice) to students, aiming “to get people to engage in building things and to animate architecture in different sorts of ways.” Trained as an architect and interested in designing movement and responsiveness, he is happy, he says, to gets his hands dirty, learning about light and robotics and electronics and “making things”, but for specific spaces and experiences.

He showed fascinating examples of how robotic figures are encouraged to develop responses to overcome problems, as opposed to relying upon their pre-programming. “As a designer you think you are supposed to design the behaviour of things, but could you not build something and let it learn how to use its own environment?” A robot was shown learning how to adapt to one of its limbs being removed. “This is really relevant to any idea of building resilient technologies that can adapt their behaviour when things start to break down.”

He then showed a film of his Fearful Symmetry installation at the Tate Modern in which a robotic glowing tetrahedron (the world’ s largest delta robot), glided through the air and seemed to engage with visitors in an uncannily human way, becoming “a kind of companion that guides you through that space.”

Ruairi Glynn, Director of Interactive Architecture Lab

Glynn went on to discuss the emotional relationship that is being developed here, and its potential manipulation. He showed us pictures of cute cars, a la Noddy, “our cute friends” which subsequently gain our trust (even when they run us over, as demonstrated graphically on video).

“Like Siri, for example. She can entertain you, answer thousands of questions, but it is designed for reasons of wealth, power and influence.

Siri is increasingly becoming integrated as the personality of Apple.

Cute, charismatic and anthropomorphic in a way that Minnie Mouse was for Disney, the non-human cartoon front for a clever and powerful California corporation which has great ambitions.”

Glynn’s ‘humble’ response to this, he said, was to teach design students and determine that animated machines of the future would not only be the purview of Google and Apple.

He showed examples from the MediaLab of silicon inflatable robots and the extraordinary Eye Catcher, ostensibly a frame on a wall but one which engages your eye contact before reflecting your facial expressions.

Ersin Han Ersin, creative director at Marshmallow Laser Feast, who develops installations, commercials and self-initiated projects, was up next. Virtual Reality, he argued, offers a particularly effective and easy way to immerse audiences and convey the message or the story – and in a cheaper way! He then gave a history of VR, starting with the front view of a train shot in 1906, screened in a cinema that was shaken from the outside and infused with train smells. But the company that offered the experience went bankrupt due to lack of content. “If it fails, then and now, it will be because of the content,” Ersin underlined.

“Now we have faster processors and faster computers, a new market and entrepreneurs with dollar signs in their eyes,” he added, but at least we have the opportunity before the whole VR thing becomes too big unwieldy to demand our own form of engagement with it, he added.

What’s more, everybody can (and does) claim ownership over VR – game-makers, filmmakers, animators everybody.

He spoke about the work he has completed, which included the Tree Hugger VR experience, for which he decided to “dial in to tree time” and capture the essence of the giant sequoia, up to 100 metres in size and aged up to 3200 years. The installation delivers what its name suggests. You wear the kit and you start hugging. “When you can scan them for data, you can fly through them in Virtual Reality… We recorded the bio-signals, the heartbeat of the tree, through which you can build deeper emotion connections and evoke feelings such as smells.”

Ben Unsworth, co-founder and President of Globacare, explained how the company’s topline purpose is engagement. Engagement is ultimately what he is selling, he stressed. He looks to create digital experiences for physical spaces, taking advantage of the high levels of immersion one can now experience with VR headsets. His company lives in the installation world, he said.

Game-based experiences have created a much higher level of physical and emotional engagement, he added, which demanded 3D engine game design capability, perfect for VR application. A typical installation will be a large format, room-scale multi-player VR game involving 3D scanning, a video

wall in the background, registration on tablets and custom electronics thrown in. “It is that all-inclusive opportunity to combine technologies to make things that haven’t been seen before.”

He demonstrated Paperdude VR, a homage to the 1980s video-game Paperboy, played on a bike and therefore a fitness trainer with CAT sensor to track skeletal motion. It was developed for demonstrations and for company promotion, and Unsworth himself became a meme as images of him demonstrating it hit the web.

Roomscale VR and The Void operate within large open spaces, untethered environments with multi player capabilities. Globacore’s Escape Tomb VR is a version of an Escape the Room game. You put on a headset and find yourself locked in a burial chamber that you must escape using the tools and artifacts on offer. It was developed for Samsung and has gone down a storm wherever it has been demonstrated, such as VRO Toronto.

One problem Unsworth points out, is that in actual space a virtual door can open onto a brick wall, so care must be taken by players in knowing the physical environment in which they are playing.

In summarising Unsworth stated how “technical capability can be used to build anything… and we are passionate about making this technology cheap and accessible by everyone.”

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