Hallam hosts Sheffield DocFest Alternate Realities strand

Sheffield Hallam University hosted the Storytelling in Gaming: Challenge Lab and Indivisible exhibition as part of Alternate Realities, Sheffield DocFest’s extended reality strand

Press contact: Emma Griffiths | e.griffiths@shu.ac.uk

Alternate Realities explores the powerful works that blur the lines between documentary, narrative and gaming.  

The three-day Storytelling in Gaming: Challenge Lab, developed as a partnership between Sheffield Hallam University and Sheffield DocFest and supported by the British Council, hosted five creative teams in a lab residency at Sheffield Hallam’s 360° immersive Igloo suite before presenting their work to industry professionals.  

The teams developed prototype immersive games to be experienced in the Igloo, which explored wide-ranging narratives including local folklore, Indian cinema, gender identity, and the ethical dilemmas of driving an ice cream van.  

Hallam also presented Indivisible: The 360 Igloo as prism/portal/potential as part of the programme.   

Amy Carter Gordon, curator of the Indivisible exhibition, said: “Excitingly, Hallam’s role as a Major Partner with Sheffield Docfest has now expanded into the rapidly evolving 360 immersive space. Not only did we provide new technologies for global teams to interact with – but we also provided academic and technical expertise. I curated the Indivisible showcase to demonstrate the application of innovative techniques in 360 by Sheffield Creative Industries Institute researchers and to provoke dialogue with Docfest industry delegates about how we might take these skills, expertise and creativity into new partnerships and industry projects.” 

Indivisible explores the unfolding opportunities afforded by the technology, physical experience, and connectedness of the Sheffield Hallam University Igloo 360 immersive space. 

Indivisible showcased three new digital installations from artist-researchers at Sheffield Hallam University – City of Echoes by Anne Doncaster, Germinate and Reclaim Industrial Terrain (GRIT) by Professor Jane Prophet, and Good Storytelling is... by Jake Goodall.  

City of Echoes drew participants into Sheffield’s lost architecture by reconstructing demolished historical structures using 3D point cloud models and revisiting the story of the Tinsley Cooling Towers with a poem voiced by Joe Kriss.  

GRIT by Jane Prophet immersed participants in towering poppies and dandelions, in a 360-video celebrating the resilience of flowering weeds which thrive in rubble and ruins. The installation explored how together, these plants symbolise persistence, adaptation, and nature’s capacity to reclaim damaged landscapes. 

Good Storytelling is... was developed as an interactive tool and experience to challenge ideas of storytelling through abstract data visualisation. A short documentary was followed by a chance for participants to experiment, reflect and interact with the installation.