i-DAT

We co-create and share technological prototypes and practices, that push and challenge the boundaries of digital arts and creative media practice. Our main focus is on making ‘data’ tangible, playable and readily available as a material, to generate new meaning and inform participation, audience engagement and innovation in the arts.

Hosted by the University of Plymouth, i-DAT has been delivering world class cultural activities since 1998 and continues to evolve its programme of activities, pushing the boundaries of digital arts/creative media practice. It generates playful opportunities for research, production and collaboration, and makes technological innovations accessible to artists and audiences.

Some of our people

Immersive Vision Theatre
i-DAT manages the development of the Immersive Vision Theatre (IVT), delivering shows, productions and research into immersive full dome environments. 
The IVT transcends the gap between the arts and sciences, and its potential is enormous. We can enable audiences to fly through the Milky Way, but we also have software through which they can journey deep inside the human body to the microscopic and nano level. Plymouth is one of very few universities to have such a facility at its disposal, and it is something quite special of which we should actually be very proud. 
Professor Mike Phillips, Director of i-DAT (read the full article).
Originally founded as the William Day Planetarium in 1967, the dome was transformed and reopened in 2008.

i-DAT at the Tate Modern 

On 17 June 2016 i-DAT helped the Tate Modern to celebrate the opening of the Switch House, it's new £250 million extension named after the part of the power station that the new galleries occupy. 

This Is Where We Are (TIWWA), an immersive and interactive algorithmic sculpture fuelled by the data we collectively generate, took over the North East corner of Tate Exchange. This evolving piece immersed people in a collective algorithmic experience, teasing them to contribute to the 2 swarm behaviour and sing the body electric.

TIWWA has been created by i-DAT with Tate Collective in partnership with University of Plymouth, InterCity, GaiaNova, Immersive, The Picture Works and TR2, through support from Arts Council England and Tate.

TIWWA visualisation

Research opportunities

i-DAT’s underpinning research concerns are making ‘data’ generated by human, ecological, economic and societal activity tangible and readily available to the public, artists, engineers and scientists for artistic expression with a cultural and / or a social impact. It involves designing and constructing networked sensors and software platforms that focus on the significance that harvesting, processing and the manifestation of data can play in contemporary culture.

More information on our five core research strands can be found on our website