Dr Rob Eagle

Profile

I joined the School of Performance & Cultural Industries in September 2023 as a Teaching Fellow in Cultural and Creative Industries. Previously, I was a Research Fellow with the British Film Institute (BFI) and XR Stories (University of York), lectured in virtual and extended realities at the University of the West of England and supervised MA students in Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King's College London. I completed my PhD at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) on the use of immersive technologies (augmented reality) for interactive documentary storytelling. 

As a lecturer, researcher and practitioner, I work across interactive and immersive media, performance and film. My recent practice has included WALK THIS WAY, a large-scale generative light and music installation commissioned as part of the 2023 BD is Lit, the Bradford light festival. Previously, I created an interactive augmented reality installation, Through the Wardrobe, which toured internationally to film festivals and galleries 2019-23, including Sheffield DocFest (nominated for the Digital Storytelling Award), HOME (Manchester), International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA, nominated for the Immersive Storytelling Award), Barbican Centre, London and Goethe-Institut China, Beijing. I also had two R&D residencies exploring the use of augmented reality in live dance performance, including with National Dance Company Wales (2020) and Light Moves Festival (Limerick, Ireland, 2021).  

I am currently in post-production on a feature-length documentary, 69, about the oldest gay leather social group in Europe. My previous short film, ‘OINK!’ (2020), shot in Berlin, about gay masculinities and sexual imaginaries, was funded by the AHRC and screened at 12 international film festivals 2020-1. 

Research interests

My research interests span a number of areas, including interactive documentary, immersive media, arts practice-as-research and the use of emerging technologies in performance. Current research activities:

• Research consultant on Arts Council England-funded project, looking a emerging paradigms for touring interactive screen-based art 
• Creative director on practice-led research project involving place-based approaches for outdoor public art installations

I was a consultant researcher with the AKO Storytelling Institute in the University of the Arts London, where, as part of a team, I examined the emerging field of impact storytelling (report forthcoming, 2024). I focused on the ecosystem of social impact entertainment (SIE), including the evaluation of arts and film in campaigns and alternative metrics and forms of assessment of campaign ‘impact’.

2022-3, I was a joint Research Fellow with the British Film Institute and XR Stories at the University of York, where I examined the role that screen-based entertainment plays in the everyday lives of 16–25-year-olds in Britain. I delivered a series of talks on the findings of that research to both academic and industry audiences, including SXSW.

Qualifications

• PhD: Digital Art, Media & Design, University of the West of England
• MA: Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester
• BA: Social Anthropology and Russian, University of St Andrews

Professional memberships

• International Council of Museums (ICOM)
• British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS)
• British Academy Early Career Researcher Network

Student education

I teach on both undergraduate (Global Creative Industries BA) and postgraduate (Culture, Creativity and Entrepreneurship MA) modules, alongside supervising ten postgraduate Independent Research Projects. I am also an Academic Personal Tutor (APT) for eighteen UG and PGT students in the School of Performance and Creative Industries.