Meet us at SXSW 2024
Date: 11 March 2024 14:00 - 12 March 2024 18:00
Event overview
Each year, SXSW brings together creatives and industry leaders for nine days of discovery across a variety of events including conference sessions, keynotes, film & TV festival screenings, music festival showcases, comedy festival events, competitions and awards, world-class exhibitions, and much more.
Meet us at the UK House at SXSW where the world’s top creative and tech talent comes together to experience and share new ideas about the future of the creative economy – to be inspired and to build new relationships. Our presence at SXSW will be a flagship for UK creative innovation – demonstrating UK creative and tech excellence to US and global influencers.
Our sessions
1.Why Music? The benefits of developing a music vertical for your startup – Hosted by BPI
When
Monday 11 March, 14:45 – 15:15
Location
UK House@SXSW – Main Stage
Synopsis
Hosted by Amalie Briden, Innovation Manager at BPI, this panel explores some of the UK companies and startups that are taking on music verticals, whilst also demonstrating the powerful potential and growth opportunities for wider convergent media.
This session will deep dive into the strengths and benefits of working with the UK music industry to test and refine ideas, the power of music to enhance other entertainment media, and some of the challenges in securing funding, investment or clearing licenses as part of the process.
Panelists to this talk will explore how the UK recorded music industry is offering itself as a testbed for innovative collaboration with startups, what music can do to enhance wider experiences and how important it is to work alongside each other.
This panel is part of a two-hour session hosted by the BPI (the voice of the UK record industry) focusing on highlighting and showcasing some of the tech solutions and companies offering ‘the best of British’ innovation talent in and for the music industry – as well as the wider entertainment industries.
Speakers
- Host: Amalie Briden, Innovation Manager at BPI
- Tony Martin, CEO of Celestial
- Nick Fellingham, Founder and CEO of Condense
- Jessica Driscoll, Director of Immersive Technology at Digital Catapult
2. From experimentation to impact – Creative uses of AI in the wild
When
Tuesday 12 March, 10:15 – 11:00
Location
UK House@SXSW – Disguise Stage
Synopsis
Hosted by Jeremy Silver, CEO of Digital Catapult 2013-2024, this panel delves into the transformative influence of AI within the creative industries.
Founders, creative technologists, artists and experts from Digital Catapult’s programmes such as MyWorld and CreativeXR converge and explore the evolving landscape where AI is revolutionising creative expression. The panel will be sharing compelling use cases and real-world examples showcasing AI’s role in enhancing artistic productivity, facilitating experimentation, and fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Speakers
- Host: Jeremy Silver, CEO of Digital Catapult 2013-2024
- Thomas Keane, Co-founder of Meaning Machine
- James Pollock, Creative Technologist at Lux Aeterna
- Aoi Nakamura, Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of AΦE, Choreographer, Dancer
- Nick Fellingham, Founder and CEO of Condense
3. Demonstrating the use of responsible AI in the creative industries
When
Tuesday 12 March, 11:00 – 12:00
Location
UK House@SXSW – Disguise Stage
Synopsis
Join Digital Catapult and Target3D for a creative technology demonstrator with a special guest and a fireside discussion, exploring responsible adoption of AI and other innovative technologies in the creative industries.
This demonstrator focuses on the integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) with Synthetic Humans and emotion-driven motion capture. It explores how to responsibly adopt these technologies, control AI for creative purposes and the ramifications for production.
Speakers
- Dan Munslow, Executive Producer at Target3D
- Ashley Keeler, Co-Founder and Head of Studio at Target3D
4. Aoi & Esteban (AΦE) – Case Study
When
Tuesday 12 March, 12:00 – 13:00
Location
UK House@SXSW – Disguise Stage
Synopsis
Previous cohort members of the third edition of Digital Catapult’s CreativeXR programme, AΦE (AE) will share and demo their latest development of a new XR Dance project LILITH.AEON, driven by AI and audience interaction. LILITH.AEON, is an ambitious, multi-disciplinary extended reality (XR) immersive dance experience that integrates innovative technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Motion tracking-generated Visual Effects (VFX) in Unreal Engine.
This ground-breaking production will redefine immersive storytelling and create new services and commercial opportunities by making its technologies available for other businesses.
Speakers
- Aoi Nakamura, Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of AΦE, Choreographer, Dancer
- Esteban Lecoq, Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of AΦE
5. Pioneering the future of creative technologies: from AI to XR – Hosted by DBT
When
Tuesday 12 March, 12:15 – 13:15
Location
UK House@SXSW – Main Stage
Synopsis
The creative industries are in an accelerated period of change, as new technologies generate fundamental shifts in production, distribution and experience – from AI to XR. The UK is at the centre of these new global opportunities combining creative excellence and tech innovation.
This panel will explore how the UK proactively invests in the future of the creative economy, allowing its world leading creative sector to experiment, prototype and adapt ahead of emerging markets; and simultaneously giving international businesses the opportunity to access cutting-edge innovation built on existing creative strengths.
The UK Government has recently announced £150M+ investment into innovation with creative technologies. We will hear from the people designing and delivering these R&D programmes, alongside businesses who have brought groundbreaking new products and services to market as a result.
From Belfast to Bristol to Brighton and beyond, these innovation programmes are generating centres of excellence in technology led creative R&D right across the UK – providing an insight for global companies on the strengths, capabilities and opportunities in creative cities outside of London.
Speakers
- Chair: Mark Leaver, DBT Creative Sector Specialist
- Andrew Chitty, Project Director CoStar
- Jessica Driscoll, Director of Immersive at Digital Catapult
- Rob Hifle, Creative Director at Lux Aeterna
- Sarah Ticho, Founder and Director of Hatsumi
__
Lux Aeterna and Meaning Machine are part of the first of the MyWorld Challenge Calls led by Digital Catapult “Catalysts and Connectors: Tools for the Creative Industries”. Both companies have benefited from a 16-week support programme delivered by Digital Catapult with NVIDIA.
Celestial Labs and Condense Reality are part of MyWorld’s Collaborative Research and Development (CR&D) Open Call, led by Digital Catapult.
For more info, visit MyWorld website.
Our speakers
Dr Jeremy Silver
CEO
Jeremy Silver, CEO of Digital Catapult, is an entrepreneur, author and angel investor. He is a Trustee of the British Library and a member of the UK Creative Industries Council. Jeremy sits on the boards of HammerheadVR Ltd, Imaginarium Studios Ltd and FeedForward.AI.
Thomas Keane
Co-founder, Meaning Machine
An award-winning game designer who focuses on turning speech and language into gameplay mechanics. He has spoken extensively about his unique approach to game design at conferences such as GDC, and in industry press. Building on the critical success of his 2022 game “Unknown Number”, he co-founded Meaning Machine – a new studio dedicated to unlocking the “fun potential” of cutting-edge Natural Language AI. As a Creative Director, he oversees the development of several experimental games that use generative AI in their core mechanics – as well as the development of new technologies that aim to inspire other developers to explore this brave new world.
James Pollock
Creative Technologist at Lux Aeterna
James’s role involves investigating emerging technologies and their potential application within the studio’s VFX workflows. Lux Aeterna is a BAFTA and Emmy award-winning visual effects studio based in Bristol, England. The studio takes projects from concept art to screen, collaborating closely with clients such as Netflix, BBC and AppleTV to deliver rich, evocative visuals across film and television.
Aoi Nakamura
Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of AΦE, Choreographer, Dancer
An accomplished performer in state theatres in Germany, Jasmin Vardimon Company and Punchdrunk since 2006. She is an award-winning choreographer with her work Ototoxic (2008) which was awarded first prize at the international choreography competition at Aarhus and was performed in Germany and Japan. AΦE (AE) is a Medway-based dance company that develops unique dance experiences which seamlessly integrate cutting-edge technology into performances. Founded by accomplished dance artists Aoi Nakamura and Esteban Lecoq in 2016.
Esteban Lecoq
Co-founder & Co-Artistic Director of AΦE, Choreographer, Dancer
Esteban has worked with Johannes Wieland Dance company (Kassel, Germany), Jasmin Vardimon Company and Punchdrunk among numerous other artists and choreographers in dance, film and immersive productions. He started to choreograph alongside his performing career since 2008. AΦE (AE) is a Medway/Kent (UK) based dance company founded by Aoi Nakamura and Esteban Lecoq. Their uniqueness lies in the use of technology to completely reinvent audience participation by touring their productions worldwide.
Nick Fellingham
Founder & CEO of Condense
Founder and CEO of Condense and software engineer with a passion for immersive technology, with expertise ranging from machine learning to UX design Condense, a UK based start-up founded in 2019, has developed world-leading technology to capture and live-stream volumetric video into virtual spaces.
Jessica Driscoll
Director of Immersive Technology
An immersive technology specialist Jessica Driscoll is Director of Immersive Technology at Digital Catapult. She has an MA in Digital Culture and Technology and experience of working with a variety of technologies from virtual reality, augmented reality and haptics in the creative and industrial sectors.
Dan Munslow
Executive Producer at Target3D
Dan spends his time between the Performance Capture, ICVFX and VolCap Target3D stages in Central London and at Proto in Gateshead AKA the Advanced Media Production network. Dan headed up the Virtual Productions Test Stage, an R&D project demystifying ICVFX workflows and is part of the team that opened up Target3D’s London Studio at Tower Hill where he has worked on projects such as Louis Vuitton’s Yayoi Kusama project with W&N Studio, Nick Knight’s showstudio performance capture for Lady Gaga and Bjork and worked alongside Rafik Anadol on Andy Murray’s 2023 Wimbledon Generative Art Installation. Dan is currently looking into ethics around GenAi in the creative sector.
Ashley Keeler
Co-Founder and Head of Studio at Target3D
An Advanced technical engineer with 15 years experience in performance capture and 3D technologies. With a career spanning live events, digital puppetry, virtual reality application deployment and VFX, Ashley brings a detailed understanding of tracking technologies and workflows to the team including system design, implementation, deployment and training. Ashley has worked internationally with high profile clients, world leading experiential installations, AAA productions and major brand activations.
Sarah Ticho
Founder and Ceo of Hatsumi
A transdisciplinary artist, activist, producer and death doula. She develops projects at the intersection of art, health and immersive technology including Soulpaint & Explore Deep. She is an advocate for the adoption of XR in health in her role at the XR Health Alliance, and has won numerous awards including the Unity for Humanity grant in 2023, and International VR Health Association’s Hero Award in 2022.
Meet with us at SXSW
If you’re interested in setting up a meeting with our team at SXSW please fill in the form below.
Location
SXSW – UK House
Downright Austin
East 10th St & Red River St
Austin, TX 78701
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