The vast majority of cultural organisations face significant barriers in transitioning towards networked, online cultural and business models. We call this the 'New Real.' New literacies and skills are needed to develop and delight online audiences while negotiating the profound, complex challenges surrounding safety, privacy, transparency, and misinformation in networked environments. Being able to critically reason about the function of a system makes us more resilient in the face of future system failures, or can help us to make judgements about whether systems are safe and ethical. Our project responds directly to this need. Qualitative research through participatory design and ethnographic methodology will investigate the potential for strategies from data arts to be tailored and situated for organisations newly producing online experiences. It will specifically address the design of online and hybrid experiences to both delight audiences and develop critical literacies around the underlying tensions and moral dilemmas in the New Real. Aim: to better understand how to facilitate and accelerate the transition to resilience through new cultural, social and economic models for the UK's world leading cultural sector. This is supported by three concrete Objectives (O), each corresponding to a work-package (WP) and research question (RQ): O1: Understand the strategies used by data arts practitioners and organisations to delight audiences and build critical literacies in the New Real. O2: Co-design pathways with cultural organisations towards new forms of pandemic-resilient online and hybrid experiences. O3: Synthesise a set of actionable insights, tools, concepts and models that can enable and support post-COVID19 recovery.

Our project aims to provide an engaging, awe-inspiring interaction with science for a large, general public audience. Through an exhibition of large-scale, high-impact images in the city centre of Edinburgh, it will showcase the ways in which advances in science and technology can – through cutting-edge imagery techniques – reveal some of the wonderful sights normally hidden to us. Free, open and accessible, the exhibition will provide a valuable platform for reaching new audiences. It will form a valuable part of our continued attempts to make science and technology easily accessible to those not necessarily engaged with, or targeted by, most traditional science communication activity. It will showcase some of the vastness, complexity and beauty of science in fields such as biomedical imaging and astronomy. In doing so it will draw attention to the techniques, technologies and research that make it possible to glimpse these otherwise invisible worlds.

How would you like to have your house cleaned automatically by a robot? Would you trust a robot babysitter? Do you think you would fancy a robot partner? How far do you think present-day robotics technology has actually advanced - can you tell the difference between science fact and science fiction? If a fully-functional, thinking robot could be developed, would you consider it human?How many of us have really considered the technical challenges and ethical issues of robotics research? Robot Thought? - Thinking about Robots is an event designed to enable family audiences to consider and convey their opinions on issues relating to science and engineering. The event uses the format of short dramatic vignettes to highlight important practical, personal and social issues relating to robotics. During each vignette a particular concept or issue is presented to the audience, who are then encouraged to express their opinions and concerns about the issues, and debate the implications of robotics on future society.The event format has already been trialled in Bristol, to great acclaim. This project will involve taking the highly popular and thought provoking performances to family audiences across the country. Eight science communication venues and four robotics research laboratories have signed on as partners to enhance the delivery and dissemination of this exciting event format over the course of the two-year project.

'Patterns' aims to deliver a high-impact, large-scale, outdoor exhibition that will explore, through a series of glorious full-colour images and sculpture, the science of pattern formation in nature. Launched at the end of January 2013 and running for 12 weeks, 'Patterns' be the flagship public offering of our 25th Anniversary Festivals, linking to a suite of activities across Scotland in celebration of the Scottish Government's 'Year of Natural Scotland'. Free, open and accessible, the exhibition will provide a valuable platform for reaching new audiences. It will form a valuable part of our continued attempts to make science and technology easily accessible to those not necessarily engaged with, or targeted by, most traditional science communication activity. Curated from a selection of world-class collections, a selection of up to 45 images and a number of specially chosen sculptural works will reveal some of the myriad of eye-popping visual formations that colour and pattern our world and will explain the role that the laws of maths and physics - the forces of nature - play in the manifestation of this astonishing order and regularity. From the patterns on a butterfly's wings, to the windblown ripples of desert sand, the allure of snowflakes and crystals, and the spirals of galaxies, our world is full of beauty, symmetry and complexity. Science and technology can not only explain WHY this is the case but can - through the use of cutting-edge imagery techniques - also reveal these patterns in all their glory. Choosing a number of these general themes, 'Patterns' will: - Provide a beautiful and arresting visual demonstration of nature's underlying order. - Reveal how mathematical and geometric principles act as a kind of pattern book from which nature constructs complex and sophisticated structures. - Demystify the exciting secrets of just how patterns come into being; how the repetition of simple rules leads to the formation of some of nature's most intriguing patterns in both living and non-living system. - Showcase the work of artists/photographers whose work is inspired by nature's underlying structure and form. - Demonstrate the vital role that science and technology play in making these patterns visible and explaining their genesis. 2013 is the Year of Natural Scotland and Edinburgh International Science Festival aims to tie this event to that overarching national objective to promote public interest and engagement in nature in science to align with a growing awareness and enthusiasm for the Natural Scotland agenda.

The aim of this project is to enable the public release and long-term support of software prototypes developed during the NETEM research project, thereby vastly increasing the impact and dissemination of the research. The NETEM ('Networking Technology and the Experience of Ensemble Music-making') project asked whether a wireless network of tablet computers could be transformative to the experience of musical ensemble playing. To explore this question, we developed two apps for Apple's iPad: NETEM Conductor and NETEM Performer. These apps display musical scores in the place of conventional paper scores, and synchronise the performers' scores with the conductors score. With synchronised scores, musicians cannot lose their place in the music. This reduces stress and increases confidence, enabling the whole ensemble to focus on musicality. It also enables access to ensemble music for less experienced musicians, and supports ensembles with performers of varied abilities. The NETEM project followed a participatory ethos, and the apps were developed with regular testing and feedback from a primary school orchestra and with a varied set of local musical ensembles, musicians and conductors. Feedback from these groups has demonstrated that the NETEM apps would be valuable to many musical ensembles. The apps in their current form are research prototypes, designed for the NETEM research project, and to be used with the support of the research team. They lack some user interface features and basic functions that everyday users would normally expect from a public release. Users without specific technical expertise may find them difficult to use. This project will develop the apps from research prototypes into consumer quality releases, following a clearly defined specification of new features that need to be implemented. We will also build an online community hub to support users. We will make the apps available to a wide user-base by creating a new version for Android in addition to iOS. Building on the rich participatory ethos established with the initial project, we have organised frequent testing sessions with a student ensemble and with our partner ensembles: Lewes Concert Orchestra, Dorothy Stringer Secondary School Orchestra and Community Music for All Sussex. A core concern of this project is to ensure longevity of the outputs, beyond the lifetime of this and future research grants. To achieve this, we are collaborating with Sussex Innovation Centre (SInC), a business support hub at the University of Sussex. SInC are conducting market research within the UK education sector and with community orchestras, and are identifying structures and organisations that will help us engage with stakeholders in these sectors. They will work with us to create a plan for setting up a company to support the apps and the community of app users. The company will operate with sustainability and affordability as its priorities. Revenue will pay for future updates and repairs to the software, and for long-term support for the community of users. Our collaboration with SInC is supported by a £5,000 grant from the University of Sussex Enterprise Panel, and will lay the foundations for an ongoing partnership through the company we form. The apps will be released in spring 2017, with a public launch event in London. At the event, members of the public of any musical skill level will be able to take part in an ensemble rehearsal and performance with professional musicians, supported and enabled by the software. A similar event will follow at Edinburgh Science Festival.