The Provocateurs

Written by Nicola Osborne

This summer three members of IDI took part in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, sharing their work through performances for paying Fringe audiences as part of ‘The Provocateurs’ (previously known as ‘The Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas’ at The Stand in Edinburgh.

Chris Elsden (Chancellors Fellow in Service Design) spoke the work he and his team are currently undertaking, in partnership with researchers at Natwest Group, on the Secret Life of Children’s Digital Monies. Through two performances he shared insights into how kids think about money in all forms – from piggy banks to pocket money apps like Rooster and GoHenry. Read more about Chris and his work here.

Across three performances, Shama Rahman (Innovation Fellow), talked about her research and NeuroCreate, which aims to enhance human creativity, performance and wellbeing by supporting people to enter and remain in creative flow, grounded in her background as a neuroscientist, neurodesigner and AI practitioner. Read more about Shama and her work here.

And finally, Nicola Osborne (Manager of IDI) shared their work on CoSTAR Realtime Lab through two performances that explored virtual production technology, what it might mean for the screen sector – particularly in terms of creativity and diversity – and why there is scope for exciting new R&D and research in this space. Read more about IDI and Edinburgh College of Art’s work on immersive projects, including CoSTAR, at ECA Immersive.