Since the Arts Council R&D project commenced in December 2013 Exploring Senses CIC has been evolving and expanding at a tremendous rate. In particular, in the last two months Exploring Senses artists have been working in a constant state of rapid growth, as we started three major contracts in August 2014.

Our first contract and artist collaboration is with Home Live Arts, who booked us to provide Toy Hacking and Robot Relays with augmented reality experiences, within their celebrated 'Alternative Village Fate';

Booking one = Hopscotch Day (community prep work for Shuffle Festival)

Booking two = Shuffle Festival (curated by Danny Boyle)

Booking three = LolliBop Festival (curated by the Southbank Centre)

All three events were a major success, and we hope the Home Live Arts connection will continue into 2015.

Our second major new contract is our collaboration with BACA school in Falmer, Brighton. Exploring Senses was asked to provide two weeks of arts and crafts orientated around Toy Hacking, Robotic CommuniToy, CommuniToy animations, Robot Relays and making tee shirts. The sessions were called 'My Imagination' and were a roaring success with the young people aged 10-11yrs, and the staff.

Our third major contract is and collaboration with the Brighton and Hove Libraries Arts Council Funded project 'Evolving in Conversation. The project partners include Photoworks and South East Dance. Exploring Senses artists Hannah and David have been employed to assist in arts award delivery and arts activities and events programing. This is a long term project and we are very excited by this!

During the last two months the technology we ordered has started to arrive (Oculus Rift, Structure Sensor, 3D Printer, and Microsoft Kinect for Windows V2). Fortunately whilst Hannah and David were tied up with the BACA Summer School, Louis has had time to tinker with the technology, and has achieved amazing results, especially within this short time frame! Chris has also managed to build our Printrbot Simple 3D printer, although we are still in the process of getting to grips with the software to print.

The Young Inventors Centre is a two year funded Exploring Senses makerspace project to be located at Brighton Youth Centre twice weekly for ages 8-12yrs, and 13-19yrs. We decided to create a new neutral name for this project that is focused towards young people discovering what their natural skills, abilities and interests are, and we aim to achieve this by introducing an experimental learning program, which works similar to a hackspace/fablab, but has more structure. The Young Inventors Centre program of activities will be delivered by Exploring Senses artists and collaborators, it will include the latest cutting edge digital technologies, arts and crafts, analog and digital, low tech vs high tech. We understand that not everyone is destined to become a programmer, and that not all programmers are artists or makers in a physical sense, and that some people work best with their hands and others with their minds etc. We hope our activities will help young people with differing and complementing skills, and interests start to collaborate, just like Exploring Senses artists have with other artists and technologists. We draw our inspiration from similar projects such as the Dave Eggers '826 Valencia' approach to after school reading and writing clubs, a UK example of this being the London Ministry of Stories.

We would like to achieve similar goals, and ultimately aim to encourage young people to pursue careers they enjoy and to become active citizens.

Exploring Senses are also influenced by the Brighton Fuse report;

http://www.brightonfuse.com/

The Brighton Fuse starts with the belief that by connecting the arts, humanities and design with digital and ICT, then creativity and innovation can be enhanced. An initial 2-year research and development project which mapped, measured and assisted Brighton’s creative, digital and IT (CDIT) cluster was carried out in 2013. The project supported mutually beneficial connections between higher education, those engaged in the creation of arts and culture and Brighton’s digital technology sector.

The report focussed on small CDIT cluster organisations of 7 or more staff members, which had an equal number of freelance employees, or possibly more! These organisations are run by entrepreneurs, who either have arts or humanities, and are generating 20% growth within the city of Brighton and Hove.

Bearing in mind the above information we have identified that Exploring Senses bridges four sectors;

Arts (commissions, education and community activities and events)
Third Sector (community, public workshops, Young Inventors Centre)
Education (arts, extra curricular, entrepreneurial, activities and events)
Public Sector (workshop commissions for businesses, team building days etc)

Current Funding

Through trial and error we understand that we must apply for project funding appropriately;

Arts Projects = Arts Council, arts commissions such as 'Shine of London Road', ICT and Art Connect, Home Live Arts and the Young Inventors Centre at Brighton Mini Maker Faire 2014, Brighton and Hove Libraries 'Evolving in Conversation'.
Third Sector = Peoples Health Trust, Local Council, Big Lottery, Sussex Community Foundation (local charities and trusts).
Education = Partnerships with local schools such as BACA, Oriel High, and Brighton Digital Festival Education Commission 2014
Public Sector = private workshop commissions such as BrightonSEO.

Future Funding

Exploring Senses will continue to expand upon our current funding strategy. We understand the growing importance of the Young Inventors Centre project, as we have identified that it can be embedded into three of Brighton's biggest regular festivals;

Arts = Brighton Festival/Fringe/B.fest Youth Arts Festival: May (for one month every year)
Digital = Brighton Digital Festival: September (for one month, every year)
Science/Education = Brighton Science Festival: February (for two weeks every year)

Also, we would like to take the Young Inventors Centre (YIC) to the road, and create a mobile maker space. We now have the tools, and are rapidly gaining knowledge of how the tools can be used together. Within the R&D project we have started to develop successful program of activities, which is unique to the Exploring Senses brand, and we understand there is a need for our services to create pathways for young people to discover sustainable and enjoyable career paths. With this in mind we would like to seek larger sustainable funding to enable Exploring Senses to grow to be able to achieve these goals.

Funding Possibilities

David Allistone will be meeting representatives from Community Works to discuss potential funding opportunities for Third Sector projects. We have identified the following suitable funders;

Arts Council = to enable Exploring Senses to expand and fine tune their R&D project ready to tour in art galleries and museums.
Arts Commissions and EU funding = to enable R&D of specific arts component within the bigger R&D Arts Council project, and to provide extra opportunities for collaboration.
Coast to capital = to enable YIC to go mobile to help generate new educational career pathways for young people to employment.
Big Lottery + Awards for All = to enable YIC to go mobile to help generate new educational career pathways for young people to employment, and to enable YIC program of activities during the Brighton Science Festival and/or Brighton Festival/Fringe/B.fest.
Sussex Community Foundation = to enable YIC program of activities during the Brighton Science Festival and/or Brighton Festival/Fringe/B.fest.

The Exploring Senses team is growing, and we are individually taking an active lead within our organisational roles;

David Allistone: Roles within Exploring Senses;

Company Director
Artist, Maker, Designer
Creative Director
Educator
Workshop facilitator
Youth Worker
Arts Award Advisor (qualified instructor at all levels)
Long Term Strategy Planner & Co-ordinator
Project Manager & Coordinator

Hannah Coxeter: roles within Exploring Senses;

Company Director
Artist, Maker, Designer
Creative Director
Educator
Workshop facilitator
Youth Worker (Youth leader in Charge at BYC, ages 13-19yrs)
Arts Award Advisor (qualified instructor at all levels)
Lead Arts Award Advisor for BYC + Brighton and Hove Youth Collective
Project Manager and Coordinator

Louis d'Aboville: roles within Exploring Senses;

Freelance collaborator
Digital Artist, Programer, Tinkerer,
Educator
Workshop facilitator
Youth Worker

Christopher Willatt: roles within Exploring Senses;

Company Director
Inventor
Electronics and Engineering
Educator (retired D&T teacher)
Workshop facilitator
CommuniToy Kits Designer
Business Strategy Advisor

The Future

Once a more sustainable model has been achieved, which resembles a brand product, we can start looking at larger funding such as the Technology Strategy Board. Below are some links to other possible funding streams;