Chris Follows

Emerging Technologies Lead at UAL-CCW, Artist and Co-founder at artsXR, founder of Digital Maker Collective and a Tate Exchange Founding Associate.

I'm the Emerging Technologies lead at University of the Arts London (UAL), Camberwell, Chelsea & Wimbledon (CCW), and have been at the forefront of championing awareness and integration of emerging technologies in creative tech R&D and FE/HE arts education, for the past two decades. I'm an artist and researcher exploring new technologies (XR, VR, AI) and its relationships to traditional arts practice.

I'm co-founder at artsXR an immersive production studio and founder of Digital Maker Collective, a voluntary creative tech Research & Development (R&D) group. I'm a founding associate of Tate Exchange, where I have curated and delivered a number of high profile creative tech projects and events.



DMC & Me:


In 2015 I was invited to be part of the Tate Exchange project, a new Tate Gallery initiative, a place for all to play, create, reflect and question what art can mean to our everyday. The Digital Maker Collective was formed as a response to this request and became one of 50 UK Tate Exchange Founding Associates from across the country.

The DMC have delivered a number of large-scale public events which actively engaged thousands of public visitors, and collaborated with hundreds of UAL students, staff and alumni as well as sector/industry partners and community organisations:

The DMC reinvents itself every year, and in response to the pandemic 2020-2021 the DMC adapted very well to the lockdown situation and started virtually meeting and making together every week in the 3D, immersive web.

I've found the past few months collaborating online with the DMC a rewarding & democratic experience in terms of being an active DMC participant rather than facilitating/managing the DMC. The DMC are also a lot less dependent on physical space, equipment, or budgets.


Image above: Exhibition online: framevr.io/chrisfollowsart

Chris Links: