In June 2025, we help our first annual gathering the Big Thing. A space for the immersive arts community, at any stage in their journey came together to connect.

The 2025 edition was produced in partnership with Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture and Bradford Producing Hub.

We kicked off with a private view of YOU:MATTER by Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) at the National Science and Media Museum, followed by a conversation between MLF’s Robin McNicholas and our director Verity McIntosh on immersive storytelling and making the invisible visible.

That evening, we celebrated with our warm-up party at Bradford Live in collaboration with UKBlackTech.

Day two brought together artists, curators, technologists and creative leaders for a full day of talks at St George’s Hall. With a warm welcome from Verity McIntosh (Director and Principle Investigator), Tom Millen (Director of Crossover Labs) and Jenny Harris (Director of Programme at Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture). A full programme of talks at St. George’s Hall, including two key panels: Getting Messy, chaired by Maitreyi Maheshwari (FACT, Liverpool), explored the unpredictable moments when immersive technology fails or glitches and how embracing these limitations can open new storytelling possibilities. Later, the Archival Reimaginings panel brought together researchers, artists, and curators Tosin Olufon, Abira Hussein, Avinash Kumar, and Helen Starr to discuss remixing cultural memory and breathing new life into archives. They shared personal insights and tackled themes of authorship, ethics, and disrupting colonial narratives, highlighting the voices of Indigenous and marginalised communities.

Other highlights from the day included talks by Ana Brzezińska, Ali Eslami, Elijah, and a keynote by Karen Palmer on imagination as infrastructure. We also launched the Annwn Prize and explored themes from presence and poetic worldbuilding to collective memory and the creative potential of failure.

We wrapped the day with performances and playful encounters at Bradford Live including Emoji, Elsewhere in India, and Robo Bingo – followed by a late-night dancefloor takeover.

From accessible design to creative failure, collective memory to future storytelling, on day 3 we heard from artists, researchers and technologists experimenting with immersive tools to ask urgent questions and imagine new possibilities. Participants were able to experience Ancestors, an immersive interactive experience inviting participants to become the great great grandparents of humans 200 years in the future. Guided by AI and smartphones, players collaborated to explore possible futures shaped by climate change, technology, and social challenges, making collective decisions that shaped the narrative and sparked deep reflection.

The day ended with a warm farewell and refreshments at the Great Victoria Hotel.

Watch our highlight video below.

Video credit: The Big Thing 2025 – Darshan Gajjar www.darshangajjar.co.uk