XR Spotlight – Judi Alston and Andy Campbell

John Rose-Adams, Senior Creative Producer at XR Stories, talks to Judi Alston and Andy Campbell, the people behind One to One Development Trust and Dreaming Methods.

XR Stories has worked with both One to One Development Trust and Dreaming Methods on projects including The Abandoned Library and Revealed.

Judi, Andy, please introduce yourselves.

Judi Alston: I’m the Creative Director of One to One Development Trust, an arts organisation based in Wakefield. 

We started out in 1988 as a film production company with a strong community focus, focused on telling stories that would make an impact and amplify voices that weren’t heard in the mainstream. In 2003 the organisation became a registered charity. 

Andy Campbell: I’m the Digital Director for One to One Development Trust. Judi’s introduced One to One, so perhaps I should introduce Dreaming Methods. 

It started out in the early 1990s on the old Commodore Amiga. Then it transformed, went online and became an expanding collection of digital art, electronic literature and experimental narrative games.

For a long time, we used Dreaming Methods as a label on One to One Development Trust’s more experimental endeavours, using different technologies in the community work we were doing. The idea was to play with storytelling, particularly text-based storytelling.

Then we realised that Dreaming Methods was potentially its own entity. We decided to see where we could take it, and it eventually transformed into a full studio.

You both have origins in screen-based storytelling. How did that evolution towards working in XR come about? 

Judi: It was very organic. If you’re driven to tell stories – for me starting as a filmmaker, for Andy as a writer – what you’ve got at your disposal are tools in the toolbox. Depending on the audience or the method you want to use, you pick the tool for the job. XR is just one of many tools. Sometimes it’s a really good choice, sometimes you might use something else. 

Andy: I was putting together an archive of our older Dreaming Methods work. We delivered a lot of things via the Web and, as early as 2000, we’re using phrases like ‘immersive storytelling’. I remember thinking, “how can we make this as immersive as possible? How can we get rid of the browser clutter and completely absorb people, and compel them to be part of this story?” So I think it’s naturally been a gravitation towards XR for us, because that is currently the ultimate way to immerse somebody into a story.

Judi: It’s quite nice not being defined by genre. When we started in XR, probably around 2014, it was the new frontier. People didn’t need to be pigeon-holed into genres like writing, film, or games. Andy and I have always been outside the mainstream in one way or another. XR is becoming more mainstream now, but we look forward to seeing where it goes, to evolve with that as well. 

Has it been limiting because you didn’t have a ‘tribe’ of creatives working in a similar way to you?

Judi: You definitely have that imposter syndrome thing. We love being members of Game Republic and they really support us as immersive practitioners, but we’re very aware we’re not solely producing games. 

Andy: The fact that XR crosses industries is perfect for us. We don’t just sit in one camp. You can feel a little bit like an outsider and, like Judi said, an imposter. That’s maybe not a realistic thing to think, because we are actively working in all those places. 

What are the key things that you’ve taught yourself, or gone out and learned?

Judi: One to One has always been people-focused – we’ve always been good at working with people. But using technology where you’re taking headsets on and off people has brought a whole new area of learning how best to make people feel comfortable and secure. And being appreciative that it might be their first time using that type of technology. That’s quite a big deal, so we facilitate that experience in a sensitive, respectful way. 

We’ve hopefully opened up the path to a lot of people that wouldn’t have ever experienced XR, that might not go to galleries or universities. I feel proud of that. 

Andy: We’ve had to be very adept at shifting between technologies, because of our work going back a long way. I’ve come from a web design background. My skills were primarily on the web, using technologies like Flash to do creative things. Then Flash disappeared, so you had to find another way. I taught myself Unity, which remains our core development tool. It’s a Swiss army knife, you can take it in lots of different directions. 

Judi: When I started as a filmmaker, I wasn’t even working digitally: it was analogue. Our first edit machine was an Amiga too. The camera I had was ginormous. I used to wear a battery belt that was like The Terminator. The changing face of technology in our lifetimes has been amazing. 

Do you draw a thread from your documentary filmmaking, making somebody feel at ease and empowered as part of the story that you want to tell?

Judi: Absolutely. It’s an absolute, paramount ethic of our work. It doesn’t matter whether somebody’s in front of a camera or having a VR headset put on, or we’re showing them how to use augmented reality. It’s the same process of taking people on a journey, and then encouraging them on their own journey of creativity and experimentation.

Tell us about Streets of Change?

Judi: Streets of Change came about through a commission from West Northamptonshire Council. The brief was to produce both a documentary film about homelessness and a virtual reality interpretation of life on the streets. Something like that ticks all our boxes. 

Over 100 people came to the launch and it was unbelievably moving. We’re so proud of both parts of it. I think the VR is one of our best projects. It’s been created in Unity, and puts you in the shoes of somebody sleeping rough on the street. It has things alluding to Northampton, but we’ve deliberately done it where it could be any street, in any town in the country. Because it’s representing experiences that are happening everywhere. 

The aim of both the documentary film and VR experience is to raise awareness of homelessness, addiction and recovery. But also to smash some of the prejudices and public perceptions of how people end up on the streets. Nobody’s that far away from it, really. 

Andy: It’s a perfect fit for VR in that it puts you in someone else’s shoes. It was interesting shifting from The Abandoned Library, with its outdoor landscape to doing something very claustrophobic, that feels incredibly realistic and sort of threatening. I’m really pleased with it. We’ve had some of the best responses we’ve ever had to our VR. 

Judi: I was confident on the film – we had so many people involved who had real life experience. But with the VR we were reinterpreting their stories. It was nerve-racking, taking that to an audience of people that are or have been homeless. The biggest relief, personally, was getting that recognition that it felt authentic from the people it was representing. 

What approaches are you considering to get Streets of Change more widely seen?

Judi: There’s interest from a homeless charity, looking at how we can tour it around the country, to raise issues around homelessness. In a way, what we need is more funding to research how we can expand this. But there’s definitely a market. 

Andy: We also made sure that it’s not just for VR. There was a big touchscreen setup amongst the VR headsets, and a lot of people went on that. You could put the headphones on, and look around the scenes in 360°. 

We’re trying to streamline stuff so it can be run in non-VR situations. The application detects whether there’s anything attached. If there’s a headset, it’ll go into VR. If not, it will go into touch, or let you use the mouse. So there’s possibilities to push it to the web as well. With WebGL and Web GPU coming to the fore, I’d be keen to explore what we can do with that. 

Judi: It’s interesting, we found this with the public preview of Revealed – The Pit Camp as well as in Northampton. A lot of people went on the touchscreen first and the VR afterwards. For some people the touchscreen was the way into VR. To experience it first in a way that they could see more easily, and that then enticed them into trying VR. 

We demoed that at The Art House Open Studios. It was really busy, and such a mix of people. A lot of ex-miners came, as did the children of miners. But we also had people from outside the UK, with no knowledge of the miner’s strike or the British political system at all. 

One to One Development Trust has now partnered with Wakefield Council on an XR Heritage project. That starts later this year. The idea is that we’ll do a similar XR storytelling project on two heritage locations in the Wakefield district. In two years, the new Museum in Wakefield will open and this work will form part of its permanent exhibitions. It’s hugely exciting – heritage is an area that we’re very passionate about. 

With digital art, permanent exhibition is really important. Look at how much mileage Bradford Museum got from their Magic Carpet ride: if it had been a fleeting thing it would have been lost. But it ran and ran. And that’s what makes these things impactful, isn’t it? 

Judi: One of the challenges is trying to link up with museums or galleries to show this work. There are amazing things being produced, but you need the corresponding galleries, museums, establishments to be taking a risk and moving forward with things as well.

When you say taking a risk, is it partly fear of having to look after the technology? Or is it that they are not funded for this kind of work, and so it’s hard for them?

Judi: I think places are getting the funding to do it. People want digital, and people want immersive. But sometimes people don’t understand exactly what that means, practically speaking. They might think that they want something all bells and whistles, and then they maybe don’t have the staff power or the hardware to run it. Some of our work is really relevant for schools. But primary schools and lots of secondary schools are often short of even basic computers. 

Andy: That’s another reason for moving in the direction of the web to me. It’s much more accessible, certainly in education. 

Judy: The fact that we got to show The Abandoned Library in an art gallery for three weeks was fantastic. That’s whetted our appetite to develop work that can be exhibited in those spaces, but breaking into that world is challenging. 

How would you like the technology and the means of production to improve over the next five years? 

Andy: I’d like to see more stuff in the mainstream that isn’t low poly-style, shooty-type, VR experiences. So when you put the headset on you’re seeing more diverse content – which is starting to happen with some of the changes Meta are making. If you’re a developer you’re aware of things like App Lab and SideQuest. But for the majority, their idea of VR is shaped by what they see straight away when they put a headset on. 

I get a little frustrated having to shoehorn things onto standalone headsets. They seem incredibly poorly powered compared to developing for PC-VR. Also more of an open standard of developing, where you’re not constantly having to tweak your build for different devices. So you can create one thing, and it will be easier and quicker to develop for multiple platforms. I know there’s OpenXR, but it’s not perfect.

Going from having the power of a PC, to being constrained by the limits of a mobile device can be frustrating from an artistic point of view. Other developers might think, “Sod it, we’ll just shed stuff, and that can be the version for the Quest”. But I don’t like that! I like to find ways to make it as consistent and rich as possible.

What’s next for you? 

Andy: From a Dreaming Methods perspective, we’re currently working for hire on a digital series called Inanimate Alice that we’ve been leading the development on for 14 years now. It’s mainly used in education. It’s the story of a girl wanting to grow up to be a games designer.  Each episode gets increasingly sophisticated – starting out when she’s eight and following her story into her twenties. We’ve produced the last two episodes, episodes five and six of ten planned episodes. It’s starting to move into XR territory which is really interesting. 

We’re also developing an idea for an anthology of work, which includes The Abandoned Library. All set within a very similar gameworld, or storyworld, but different stories told through diverse means as well. So you might have a first person exploration game and a VR project set within the same universe. A collection of compelling short fiction, but told through immersive or contemporary tech.

Judi: I’m interested in how we can distribute work. We’ve got a catalogue of really good projects that deal with very contemporary themes; I feel like they’ve all got a lot more mileage in them. Things like The Abandoned Library, which still has potential to be toured and shown. So I’m keen to look at models of how we can get the work out to more people. I’m buzzing on the homeless project at the moment, because that is just finished. I feel committed to trying to get both the film and the VR seen by as many people as possible. 

Long-term future: just keep doing what we’re doing. We’ve done some really good stuff over the last few years, and I’d like to build on that. I’d like the opportunity to work with other artists and partners. We’re on the lookout for other collaborations, working with people that have similar values and are, like us, interested in pushing the creative boundaries.

Additional information

Trailers

Streets of Change documentary film 

Streets of Change VR experience

The Abandoned Library

Revealed – The Pit Camp  

Social media links

Twitter/X: @121productions and @dreamingmethods,

LinkedIn: Dreaming Methods. and One to One Development Trust

Instagram: onetoonedevtrust and dreamingmethods,

Facebook: onetoonedevelopment and dreamingmethodsltd.

TikTok: @onetoonedevelopment