Using creative skills and processes in alternative fields of activity has led to a number of innovative projects. This work have been particularly fruitful in research related work partnering creative activity with academic investigation.
The latest work has been a partnership Anthony Papathomas from the Peter Harrison Centre at Loughborough University. The project has developed a ground breaking new book The Very Alternative Guide to Spinal Cord Injury – intended to help people understand and come to terms with this serious condition. Feedback from the book and the visual content has been fantastic.
Another project was ‘Brick, Ball, Hoax Call’ working as an associate of the Emergency Services Research Unit in Nottingham – looking at attacks on fire fighters and seeking ways to better communicate the issues to decision makers.
Another project was a Creative Action Research Award to investigate a question that had never really been seriously considered – why dinosaurs are so popular a subject with children. The fascinating results included feedback from a large international survey.
A heritage lttery funded project ‘Terror from the Sky’ was an initiative looking into the forgotten history of the V1 and V2 weapon attacks during WWII – using the London Borough of Enfield as a case area. The project worked with students to carry out archival research, field archaeology and museum study. The culmination of the project was a unique new bomb map of the Borough – along with an education pack and a public event commemorating one of the attacks.
“Very good is an understatement,
I personally loved this as were able
to get practical with the research
and actually make it real”
From the Sky project participant
A commission from a group of universities looked at encouraging politics and international relations as a career option. The fascinating work included developing large scale scenario games based around national and international disasters – resulting in seeing the subject in a fresh and thought-provoking way.
Joe Robinson XL 