Unboxed creativity in England
ShareFrom 1 March until October 2022, England is showcasing its incredible creative talents of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Maths). A series of public events, installations and festivities offer the perfect backdrop to planned business activity or group incentives in each of the participating towns and cities.
‘Unboxed: Creativity in the UK’ features ten major, multi-site and digital creative projects that share inspirational ideas and possibilities for the future.
About Us
The festival opens with ‘About Us’ - a spectacular open-air event that combines live performances and multimedia installations to celebrate the history of the universe from the Big Bang to the present day.
'About Us’ uses cutting-edge projection mapping, animation, music, poetry and live performance to celebrate our extraordinary connections to everything around us.
Created in collaboration with UK poets and scientists, this free-to-attend show will be projected at night onto landmarks in Hull, as well as in Luton.
Dreamachine
Featuring winning entries from schools-based nationwide poetry and Scratch animation competition, the 25-minute projection show will immerse audiences in an exhilarating journey through 13.8 billion years of history in a celebration of the infinite ways in which we connect to the cosmos, natural world, and one another.
Elsewhere, the ‘Dreamachine’ immersive experience will be staged in London from spring until autumn.
Inspiration for ‘Dreamachine’ is a little-known 1959 invention by artist inventor Brion Gysin. His experimental homemade device used flickering light to create vivid illusions, kaleidoscopic patterns and explosions of colour in the mind of the viewer, and was designed to be the 'first artwork to be experienced with your eyes closed.
Over 60 years after its original invention, leading minds in architecture, technology, music, neuroscience and philosophy have radically reimagined Gysin’s concept as a powerful new kind of collective experience.
‘Dreamachine’ leads audiences through an immersive environment of light and sound - created by and unique to each viewer. The kaleidoscopic world revealed by the Dreamachine comes from within, providing a magical insight into the extraordinary potential of our own minds.
Storytrails
‘Storytrails’ is a blended reality experience into the hidden histories that have shaped 15 UK towns and cities. Installation ‘gateways’ are appearing in Blackpool, Bradford, Bristol, Lincoln, London, Sheffield, Slough, Swindon and Wolverhampton.
Through these gateways, people can explore some of the extraordinary hidden histories that changed where we live and who we are. The stories that made these destinations what they are today will be retold using state-of-the-art AR and VR technology.
PoliNations
Moreover, ‘PoliNations’ is a city-centre forest garden of magical proportions in the heart of Birmingham, filled with real and architectural trees – in an oasis of thousands of plants, grasses and flowers co-planted with the city’s residents.
Towering architectural ‘Super-Trees’ drink rainwater and create electricity using wind power, as the forest plays host to a vibrant free events programme from the 2nd to 18th September. It will culminate in a grand finale where the ‘Super-Trees’ will burst into joyful clouds of colour.
Tour de Moon
‘Tour de Moon’ - a two-month festival of nightlife artists, music and digital experiences developed by young people aged 18-25, created in collaboration with the moon. Split into eight distinct strands, the Tour de Moon will take place in Leicester, Newcastle upon Tyne and Southampton.
Our Place in Space
Designed by the artist Oliver Jeffers, ‘Our Place in Space' is a 10km sculpture trail that will be followed by digital events and learning activities. From 30th July to 29th August, the installation will take place in Cambridge and will allow visitors to explore what it means to live on Earth and to experience other perspectives of the solar system and human existence.
