creating immersive spaces for all
This week Gav spent some time in the office & our demonstration immersive space with Jane Hewitt. Jane is photographer, artist, facilitator, teacher & friend of 4D creative.
Whilst she was here Jane spent some time with her camera around our Hope Mill base and sent us a collage of her work. We thought we’d share it with you (click the picture below to enlarge)
If you’d like to see more of Jane’s fantastic work you can follow her blog at:
http://www.janehewitt.blogspot.co.uk
Or on Twitter:
Last night 4D creative won an Education Investor award. Another trophy for our awards shelf!
The awards were set up in 2010 to promote excellence and recognise innovation in education. This year the gala dinner was held at the Hilton, Park Lane and Ben and Cathy attended on behalf of 4D.
The judges for the event came from a cross section of the education sector including the Department for Education, BESA and Partnerships for Schools. We are delighted to say we fought off tough competition to be announced as overall winners in the Use of Educational Technology category.
The award comes as great reward for all our efforts in 2012. With our first London space, new products and new features for our software ahead, 2013 looks like being even more exciting!
If you’d like to see one of our multi award winning spaces, just get in touch and we will do the rest.
Last night we attended the MEN Business Awards where we were runners-up in the Young Business of the Year category.
The awards gala dinner, held at Manchester Town Hall and hosted by Nicky Campbell, celebrated a range of businesses across the region. New companies right up to those with £100m turnover were hoping to scoop one of the coveted awards.
4D were nominated in the Young Business of the Year awards for companies trading for less than three years. The eventual winners of this category were One Iota from Rossendale who work in the e-commerce sector – many congratulations to them.
Despite not leaving as winners, it’s been a worthwhile and enjoyable experience to be involved in this years awards. We’ve met fellow business people across the region and from the sponsors of the event, The Co-op, PwC and Pinsent Masons. It was also a very enjoyable evening in the fantastic setting of Manchester Town Hall.
Full details on the other winners and the event can be found at the MEN website.
St Matthew Academy in Blackheath is to become the first school in London to have a 4D Immersive Space.
The finished space will be ready for use by the start of December and the school’s Principal, Michael Barry, is already looking forward to its arrival:
“I cannot wait until the immersive space is finished and I can look at the faces of our children as they walk in the room and find themselves in different places around the world or in different times in our history.
They will be able to be in the war, seeing and hearing the gunfire across their heads in the trenches. Just imagine their creative writing after they feel the emotion of being in that time and in that place …in our immersive space!”
We first met the school earlier this year. Since then, we’ve worked with the school to develop the perfect design for their needs. Principal Barry explains this journey further:
“I first saw 4D creative’s immersive space in an article on Twitter. I immediately got in touch with Cathy Cross and said “I love what I have seen please come and visit me”. Within a week we were having coffee together in my school planning how we could make an immersive space a reality. There was something I loved, not just about the concept of an immersive space but about Cathy herself, it was her passion for learning.
A few weeks later Ben Willetts arrived at SMA with a model of the immersive space in a box. He was full of passion too and captivated us with his box of tricks. Within two minutes of seeing the model in action and looking at the detailed plans for the space in our school, I had the finance director in the room and had agreed a leasing plan over three years.
I wanted an immersive learning space for our children and I wanted it NOW”
This is a significant and exciting installation for all of us at 4D and we will be announcing the opening of the space in the coming weeks.
If you’d like to have these details emailed to you, just send us a quick message via our contact page and we will make sure you are the first to know.
The power and flexibility of 4D Immersive Spaces is created by lighting, sound and projection. Outstanding immersive lessons need carefully curated content and every 4D Immersive Space starts with a bank of content that can teach lessons right across the curriculum.
We have recently worked with a team of creative and passionate freelancers who have developed a brand new library of content for our spaces. Images have been transformed, lighting states programmed and whole scores of music written.
One of our team, Tony Carberry, filmed this video showing some of his content creations which you can see below. Tony made us an enchanted forest, futuristic world and crashing waves theme amongst many others.
[media url=”http://vimeo.com/52302446″ width=”600″ height=”400″]
Of course, once a 4D Immersive Space is up and running, the power to create content is open to everyone! Teachers and pupils alike can source images or create new themes using cameras, phones and recording equipment. Putting pupils in charge of their lessons like this, raises engagement and pushes creativity.
If you’d like to come and see what content we use in our spaces or how you can programme outstanding transformational lessons, then just get in touch.
In the coming weeks we are throwing open the doors to two of our completed immersive spaces and you are invited to come and explore!
You can experience our bespoke software and see how easy it is to create engaging, inspirational lessons to ‘wow’ pupils of all ages and abilities.
You can also chat with our teaching experts and design team to find out how you could have a space at your school.
The event details are as follows:
22nd November – Hebden Green School, Winsford (1pm – 5pm)
28th November – TEN Centre, Salford (3pm – 6pm)
These are totally free events but we do ask you to register in advance so we can limit the impact on our host schools.
To register simply send an email to hello@4dcreative.co.uk with the event you are looking to attend or fill in the form below. Or you can call our office on 0844 414 2595.
[contact-form-7 id=”3178″ title=”Open Day Contact Form”]
A 4D Immersive Space in a box! Last week, our design team set about making a model box so we can show what we do on a mini level. All run by our own software, you can experience how the press of a touchscreen can transform a room (albeit a very mini room).
The box features all the technology we usually fit into a whole space including a fully functioning interactive floor!
We decided to build the model box so we can show in a very quick, playful way, exactly what we do to larger spaces and the impact this could have on teaching and learning. We will be taking our model box to schools, conferences and exhibitions in the coming weeks.
If you’d like for us to come and visit you with the model box and to look into what we could do at your school, then just get in touch. There’s no obligation or charge for this process, we will just need an hour of your time.
Making dens goes to the very core of 4D creative. The whole company started from the idea of creating immersive spaces using simple everyday objects.
What we do today is ‘extreme den making’. The idea that you can transport pupils to another world and engage them on a deeper emotional level works whether you are under a giant parachute or in one of our permanent installations immersed by LED lighting, surround sound and giant projection.
Here’s a film of our creative director Cathy explaining the best way to make dens and the impact it can have on pupils. The full video is below or to see more like it, head over to YouTube.
If you’d like to book a den making course or to visit a 4D space just get in touch and we’ll do the rest.
[media url=”https://vimeo.com/51209506″ width=”640″ height=”360″]
Recently our teaching and learning expert Gav took members of the 4D team for a special training session to make sure we all knew how to upload content onto our software, 4D create.
Outstanding lessons need carefully curated content and 4D create enables users to upload their own images, videos and audio in seconds. Pete brought some photos from a recent trip to Berlin, Benji brought some video from a family get together and Lou sent her son into the garden to get some snaps! After a quick demonstation we were all able to make our own immersive experiences by dragging and dropping pictures and audio into the software.
Free workshops
We enjoyed the session so much we thought we’d open it up to everyone! Gav will be running an introduction to 4D create to show the simplicity and power in uploading your own content and it’s completely free to attend (though it would be great if you bring some images/audio/video with you – these can be either on a memory stick or just bring your phone/camera with you on the day) You will also learn what content work best when creating immersive environments to help you prepare some outstanding lessons.
Date: November 6th 2012
Time: 3 – 5pm
Cost: Free!
Location: 4D Offices, Manchester, M4 7JA
To book, simply send an email to hello@4dcreative.co.uk with ‘4D create Workshop’ in the subject line. Places are strictly limited so book now to avoid disappointment.
NB due to the expected uptake, there is a 2 places per organisation limit for this course.
4D will be exhibiting and hosting some workshops in the coming weeks. Here are all the details, plus how you can register.
12th October – Action For Children’s Arts – Polka Theatre, London, SW19 1SB
This event is aimed at practitioners working with young people with SEN. Cathy will be running a workshop within a temporary immersive environment to show a little of what can be achieved. Full details and to register click here.
16 October – Autism Central, QAC, Birmingham, B16 9SB
We’ve heard lots of great stories from our schools about how our spaces are having a positive impact on those pupils with autism. This event is bringing together a range of products and services targeted at those with autism, as well as a series of seminars and discussions for delegates to choose from. Full details and to register for free click here.
We will also be announcing some 4D open days very soon so get in touch if you want to come and see one of our spaces in action.
