Creative Informatics is an innovative part of Edinburgh University which supports creative entrepreneurs, and I’m delighted to have taken part in a residency with them, hosted by Marchmont House, a wonderful new home for arts and crafts in the Scottish Borders.
My project, Text Data Visualisation, looks at how visualisation can help bring texts to life in a new ways. As a writer and writing teacher, I’m particularly interested in applications in education and interpretation. I attended an inspiring Lancaster University Summer School in Corpus Linguistics, which opened my eyes to the potential of data techniques in teaching and storytelling. It ties in really well with teaching techniques I already use, and I’ll be developing this in more depth with the help of university experts.
Along with fellow resident entrepreneur, textile designer Jeni Allison, I went to Marchmont House to take part in CI LAB 18 – Crossing Borders, partnering Creative Arts Business Network in the Scottish Borders. The theme of rural creatives and digital innovation was a big part of the discussion and it was lovely to meet fellow entrepreneurial creatives, Hugo Burge and the Marchmont team, and Prof Kenny Mitchell over in the US, also a fellow member of the Moving Image Makers’ Collective.
For my Textvizz app, I was fortunate to find a brillliant developer in Rory Gianni of InChat, and a terrific mentor in Piotr Zielinski of Creative Edinburgh. The app is now going into beta testing and will be used for writing education.
Find out about the Creative Informatics Entrepreneurs! 