MSc Digital Futures
(now incorporated into MSc Digital Art and Technology)

The year I studied for my Masters was an incredibly busy year but a very successful one. At the same time as doing the course, along with three other students from my first degree course, I set up my own digital production company which has gone from strength to strength winning lots of awards.

The company recently won its first major international award for the Weller Astronomy Galleries installation at the Royal Observatory, beating off competition from thousands of other companies from 25 countries.

HMC Interactive creates interactive multimedia products for a wide range of industries, including Chocolate Rain for Cadbury and Digital Grass for the BBC. Our latest project has been to create interactive experiences for the visitor centre at Torquay’s Living Coasts. These include a touch screen penguin training facility which allows people to nurture, grow and teach penguins a survival skill.

The Masters course helped me to be daring and risk taking, giving me confidence to believe in my own creativity. In my work with HMC Interactive, our clients always ask us for impossible things that don’t exist, and yet we find a way of making that fantasy a reality. It really is the most interesting job in the world.

“It really is the most interesting job in the world”

This is my story about coming to university

When I came to an open day at the University I saw one of the lecturers presenting some of the great games that final year students had created. When I saw them I thought, “I’d love to make something like that.” Four years later I was running my own software development company and winning countless awards.

After graduation I was very busy. I won the Submerge Award with three other students for creating an online game and, together, we worked really hard to build HMC Interactive, an award winning software development company. HMC Interactive creates interactive multimedia products for a wide range of industries from education to entertainment and beyond, turning fantasy into reality. It’s great fun building theme parks and attractions all over the world. It’s never boring and I love it!

For one of our American clients we created audio-reactive disability rooms for children with autism and cerebral palsy. It uses high-powered hidden microphones to turn children’s sounds into a world of colours and light. We worked with leading American speech therapists to create it and we are hoping to bring it to the UK soon.

Currently, I am working on the Space Gallery at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, making huge digital rooms full of interactive starscapes from the Hubble telescope. We are also designing new interactive playspaces for the Cadbury World theme park in Birmingham. “Purple Planet” is a realm of mirrors, wall-sized screens, hidden cameras, motion detectors and interactive projections that react when you touch them or move your body. They form a series of mind-stretching virtual exhibits including such features as chocolate rain falling from the sky and a photo booth that moulds people into cyber chocolate sculptures.

“It’s great fun building theme parks and attractions all over the world. I love it!”