Current projects

Learn more about the projects we’re leading on and the partners we’re working with.

UCL Art Futures seed funded projects

This seed funding supports UCL academics with knowledge exchange, impact and innovation activities with arts, cultural and heritage partners. The funding enables researchers to collaborate with industry by supporting an initial project that will grow and have long-term impact.

These projects are funding by UCL’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) 2022-27.

Find out more about the last funding call.

Current AHRC IAA funded projects, linked to Art Futures

Digital twins: Expanding arts access and engagement for secondary school students through virtual reality and intelligent conversational AI avatars

Principle Investigator: Dr Stephen Hilton, Associate Professor, UCL School of Pharmacy

Co-Investigator: Professor Kieren Reed, Slade School of Fine Art

Project partner: St John’s Catholic Comprehensive School, Gravesend, Kent

Project summary: This project aims to increase access to arts education and creative career pathways for students in economically challenged areas. Despite the UK arts sector contributing £126 billion annually and employing 2.4 million people, arts education is often undervalued, particularly where financial and geographic barriers limit students’ exposure.

This project will establish a sustainable digital link between UCL’s Slade School of Fine Art and St John’s Secondary School in Gravesend. This link will use UCL Arts Digital, an immersive virtual reality (VR) platform based on award-winning software developed at UCL. A digital twin of St John’s will be created to enable students to interact with UCL’s arts resources, engage with AI-driven avatars of professional artists, participate in virtual workshops, and receive digital mentorship—without the need for travel. This initiative aims to show the arts as a viable and inspiring career option, promote social mobility, and provide a scalable outreach model. 

Lewes Seaford: Diversifying creativity and heritage

Project lead: Jon Sygrave, UCL Institute of Archaeology

Co-developing art technologies for more inclusive visual art spaces

Project lead: Dr Sara Adhitya, Senior Research Fellow, UCL Pearl/Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering

Project partner: CVAN London and ActionSpace

Project summary: A growing number of arts organisations are calling for greater equity and inclusion in art spaces and working environments, particularly for neurodivergent artists and artists with learning disabilities or other complex needs.

Through a series of studio and gallery visits with key arts organisations across London, including Autograph, ACME and SPACE Studios, together with neurodivergent participants, the project will explore how technologies can help improve the accessibility of studio environments and the curation of exhibition spaces. It will also consider how technologies can help artists with learning disabilities, who may be non-verbal, to communicate their artistic endeavours and participate in co-creation processes.

Through this collaborative exploration of art tech innovation, the project aims to provide agency to neurodivergent artists and empower this underrepresented artistic community. 

Encounters Creative Fellowship

The Encounters programme offers creative practitioners the opportunity to explore new directions in their own practice in partnership with UCL academics.

The annual programme is run by The Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) and the School for the Creative and Cultural Industries (SCCI). This year, one of the Quirk Creative fellowships is linked to UCL Art Futures.

Read more about the Encounters programme.

This year’s fellowship, entitled 'Encounters: Knowledge Futures in the Age of AI', is:

Low-tech AI infrastructures

Project leads: Daria Jelonek and Perry-James Sugden, Studio Above&Below

Studio Above&Below seeks to bridge the gaps between humans, machines, and the environment by exploring how technology can shape more meditative, healing and sustainable interactions with our surroundings. Grounded in research-based methodologies, they specialise in creating immersive artworks that combine Mixed Realities (XR), digital art, and live data systems to make invisible phenomena tangible.

They work extensively with scientists, ecologists, technologists and policymakers to push the boundaries of digital media and generate new narratives around responsible contemporary and future living. Their projects have been exhibited internationally, from the Royal Academy and Tate Modern in London to SONAR+D in Barcelona, UCCA in Shanghai and Transmediale Studio in Berlin.

Find out more on the Studio Above&Below website.

Project description: Low-Tech AI Infrastructures is an artistic research project that reimagines the present and future of AI through simplicity, accessibility, and environmental consciousness.

At the heart of the project is a large-scale artistic roadmap that visualizes possible pathways toward this alternative AI future. This speculative design tool maps out technologies, ethical challenges, and creative directions that prioritize low energy use, transparency, and collective and ecological access over speed and scale.

The roadmap will be shaped through a series of public talks, critique sessions, and a research series hosted at UCL. These events will create opportunities for students, researchers, and the wider public to co-develop ideas and practices for more intentional, inclusive AI futures.