Dr Rob Eagle

Profile

As a Research Fellow in Cultural Value at the Centre for Cultural Value, my role involves helping to make the Centre’s research relevant and accessible to cultural practitioners and policymakers. I first 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) and lectured in virtual and extended realities at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol). I completed my PhD at UWE Bristol on the use of immersive media for interactive documentary storytelling. 

Outside of the Centre for Cultural Value, I am also a director of the Bradford Digital Arts Lab, which aims to facilitate a space for emerging digital artists in the district of Bradford to network and take creative risks. The Lab has been key in fostering emerging artistic talent in an ecosystem that has historically neglected the digital arts.

I have 17 years’ industry experience working in communications, cultural institutions and broadcast media production. 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 include audience research (contributing to policy advice for the BFI and evidence for the House of Lords), immersive and emerging media forms for entertainment and documentary storytelling, arts practice-as-research, interactive documentary and the use of AI in entertainment.

Previously, I was a consultant researcher with the AKO Storytelling Institute in the University of the Arts London, where I co-wrote a report on the use of storytelling for social change, 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 BFI and XR Stories, 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)
• Theatre & Performance Research Association (TAPRA)

Student education

I currently do not have any teaching responsibilities. Over the past five years, I have lectured and supervised UG and PGT students in areas including the cultural and creative industries, digital media studies, art practice-as-research, digital media (particularly immersive media) and visual anthropology.

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Cultural Value