Culture Lab

Culture Lab is the focal point for creative practice at Newcastle University, supporting the work of researchers and students involved in high level, experimental and multi-disciplinary creative arts and interactive technology projects in a world class, cutting edge environment. Our facilities include professional audio and video production studios, high definition cinema projection, motion capture systems, and digital prototyping machinery. We encourage forms of self-sufficiency amongst researchers and students alike through direct engagement with acts of making and creating.

RESEARCH
Research carried out at Culture Lab is interdisciplinary and practice-led. Artists work alongside engineers and social scientists in large open plan spaces that encourage exchange of ideas and collaboration. Theory informs practice, which in turn drives research. The outputs of our research, then, are as much books as they are artworks as prototypes, products, and spin out companies. Our research community consists of leading academics, post-doctoral fellows, and PhD candidates. Their work is funded by research councils, sponsored by industry, and seed-funded by university and regional strategic initiatives.

TEACHING
Culture Lab hosts a range of teaching that benefits from our world class, purpose built facilities. This includes classes in film and film production, theatre, and architecture. The Master of Research (MRes) in Digital Media is the first post-graduate programme that was designed from the ground up to fully take advantage of Culture Lab to support student projects in interactive media arts. Students benefit from spaces designed specifically for making, for reflecting, and for sharing.

ENGAGEMENT
Culture Lab is a partner in Newcastle upon Tyne's vibrant cultural sector. Situated at the gateway to the city, we host a range of public events that include concerts in partnership with local organisers, poetry readings in partnership with the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts, and film screenings. We co-sponsor an artist in residency programme in partnership with ISIS Arts, and host a regular series of informal seminars open to the public, the Lunch Bites series. We hold open days for professionals from industry, international visitors, and local school children. With Culture On Site, we take the lab out into the city to engage directly with the citizens of Newcastle.