Experimental Technologies Lab

Experimental Technologies LAB

Academic Role , 2020

I am now co-director, alongside Dr Mark Wright, of the Experimental Technologies Lab in the Institute of Art and Technology in Liverpool.

The Experimental Technologies Lab (ETL) is an enhancement upon four years of research pursued at Liverpool's pioneering workshop and research space, FACTLab, a collaboration with Liverpool’s FACT, the Foundation for Art and Creative Technologies, the UK’s leading new technologies arts organisation.

In ETL, researchers, artists and technologists produce innovative projects together as teams. Working at the Intersection of Art, Games, Media, Performance and Technology.

We have developed a research methodology of active co-design where diverse people are invited to explore the possibilities of creative technology through hands-on experimentation, with participants of a interested in getting involved with making and experimenting with electronics, immersive, interactive digital technologies and fabrication.

Since 2015, we have welcomed over 4,500 visitors to our events and activities. We are continuously exploring new ways to engage visitors and we work within a series of space resources: Liverpool Fab Lab for beta origination; LiveLab for testing; and the X-Gallery for dissemination and public workshops. People are invited to become actively involved in what we do, no matter what their experience.

ETL operates across disciplines and functions as an incubator of creative production, innovation and critical thinking for practice-based research and experimentation in the context of critical thinking, creative research and theoretical expertise. In a future that we are literally creating, talent and skills development are amongst our objectives. ETL develops projects and activities aiming at cultural production and sharing of knowledge and resources, in collaboration with artists, designers, scientists, technologists, HEIs and the commercial sector.

We have a number of associated researchers, organisations, fellows and post-graduate research students alongside a number of staff involved in technological, artistic and cultural projects across the world.

Our facilities include traditional workshops, TV and sound studios, the X-Gallery digital and creative gallery for experimental media, an immersive projection room that we can set up for room scale multiplayer VR and projection mapping, wireless HTC Vives, Oculus Quests, Mixed Reality headsets, projectors, interactive sensors, 3D modelling tools, holographic displays, digital fabrication and 3d printing, 3D object scanners, 3D room scanners, 8K Stereoscopic 360 cameras, depth sensors, microcontrollers and sensors and a range of high end tablets, pcs, phones (iOS & Android) and devices for emerging interface development.

Please get in touch if you would like to get involved in our work and mission to co-design the future.