Media and Change: Beings by Universal Everything

Universal Everything describe themselves as a "collective of media artists, experience designers and future makers".

1. Visit the Universal Everything website to explore what they create. Choose five examples of their work. For each example: (a) list the name and year of the work; (b) the media form it is in (e.g. video, digital app, VR, AR, animation etc.); and (c) what the work was made for (e.g. creative or commercial opportunity).
2. Universal Everything was established in 2004. Consider the technological developments occurring at this time and why their work may not have been possible before.
3. The team at Universal Everything has worked remotely since its inception in 2004. Explore what this means and the technologies that would allow this to happen. Consider both the opportunities and limitations of this way of working.

Most media productions are the result of a collaborative process, in which many different individuals play a role in the development and production of a project. Watch the video above (10min, 22sec) to explore the following:

1. How does Matt Pyke (founder and creative director of Universal Everything) describe the collaboration that occurs? What are the benefits of this?
2. The video contains interviews with many of the Universal Everything team. What are their titles and roles? Where have you seen/heard these titles used before?
3. What are some of the words that Executive Producer Claire Cook uses to describe the style (i.e. the individual and distinctive qualities) of Universal Everything’s ‘output’?
4. Matt Pyke mentions that his work begins in a way that is “very much analogue”, naming hand drawn sketches as an example of this. Research the differences between analogue and digital formats of media.
5. In making their works, Universal Everything uses a range of modern technologies. What are some of those mentioned and what are their capabilities?

Universal Everything describe their approach as “life-affirming, future positive and audience-focussed”. Although their artworks are mostly screen and moving-image based, they are not limited to being viewed in traditional places like cinemas or galleries. Explore some of Universal Everything’s different types of work on this section of their website in order to answer the following:

1. What are some of the different places/venues where audiences might come across or engage with the screen-based works/products made by Universal Everything? Who might these audiences be? Describe their characteristics (i.e. their features and qualities such as age, status, knowledge etc.)
2. Does where or how (i.e. the technology) we view a product impact on our engagement with it? Choose one example where this may be the case.
3. As an audience member, how do you feel when you engage with Universal Everything’s work online? Consider how both your ‘head and heart’ connect to what you see and hear.

Given the highly immersive and interactive nature of Beings, these activities are best done in-person, with a visit to ACMI. It is recommended to allow around 1.5 hours for a class to move through the exhibition. Book online here.

If unable to attend the exhibition, some of the works from Beings can also be explored online at the Universal Everything website and on YouTube.

The above quote greets visitors as they enter the Beings exhibition space at ACMI, where they are then treated to 13 examples of Universal Everything’s work. Navigate through the space to find the interactive works: Future You (2019), Kinfolk (2024), Into the Sun (2022) and Symbiosis (2024). Have a go at interacting with these.

1. As an audience member, how do you feel when engaging with these works? Is it easy, difficult, interesting, fun, time-limited or does it feel familiar?
2. Using motion-capture technology, these works actually rely on audience consumption and engagement in order for them to ‘come alive’ and be seen. Because of this, would you consider yourself to be a ‘producer’ of these works? Why? Why not?
3. Look around the exhibition space and consider:

• Who are the other audience members present?
• What are the various characteristics (i.e. their features and qualities) of these audiences and how do they engage with these forms of new media?
• Are there any factors or accessibility issues that may prevent particular audiences from engaging?

Locate Tribes (2018), Maison Autonome (2022) and Transfiguration (2024). These works explore narrative concepts, both through their visuals and soundtracks.

1. Describe the stories explored by the creators in Tribes. What is the soundtrack that has been used? What is its purpose?
2. Maison Autonome’s visuals and soundtrack help portray a particular setting. What is this and what story do you ‘read’ when watching it?
3. Despite Transfiguration being a modern, digital work that comments on evolution, traditional analogue Foley practices were used to create its soundtrack. What everyday sounds and items can you hear being used to accompany what’s on screen?

This artwork is created live in the gallery and each character is unique. These hypnotic beings are born from code through a process known as ‘procedural generation’.

Procedural generation is often used in videogames to create animated characters, digital landscapes, textures, and even sound effects – all in real time. Universal Everything (UE) used motion-capture technology and CGI (computer-generated imagery) to create a suite of character models. They then established a set of rules to determine how colour, texture and shape could be combined before an algorithm was programmed to randomly select combinations. This generates infinite variations in the characters you meet on screen.

1. How does the knowledge that this is an infinite flow of new characters change the audience's experience of the work?
2. Digital artworks use huge amounts of energy, and when Universal Everything originally launched Infinity online as a streamed broadcast, it ran on 100% renewable energy and solar panels. Find out more about the digital carbon footprint of new technologies.

The didactic panels throughout the Beings exhibition (and the information found online) reference the media technologies, processes and programs that have been used in the creation of each work. Many of these are also used within other types of media productions that you may already engage with.

1. Universal Everything fuse together a number of digital practices and technologies to create their work. Provide a definition of what each of the following means and involves: code, CGI, motion capture, 4K and 8K video, generative processes, unending algorithms, real time
2. Unity and Houdini are two software programs that are mentioned numerous times throughout the exhibition. What are the capabilities of these programs and what media forms/production have they previously been used to create?

New technologies raise new implications for individuals and society. Creatively, new technologies can expand the boundaries around what is possible, but social, legal and ethical issues may also arise. Consider some of the broader ideas that exploring Beings may have raised for you:

1. Interactivity, like that used in many of the works in Beings, is a typical feature of digital media forms such as gaming, social media and also some streamed television/film shows. What are the personal and social benefits of creating more participatory content for audiences?
2. Do you feel the new technological possibilities offered by the changing mediascape could lead artists and public galleries like ACMI to pursue instagrammable moments at the expense of deeper ideas?
3. Some immersive or participatory technologies, like motion capture, may use cameras or sensors to capture or record an individual’s movement or voice. What legal issues might this raise, both now and in the future?
4. Displaying digital content is commonplace online and also at festivals, outdoor events and concerts. Digital content can be easily reproduced. Did you take any photographs or video within the Beings exhibition? Did you share these anywhere? Explore some of the challenges with trying to protect or license digital-based productions. Find a recent example of this within the news media.
5. Universal Everything’s experimentation with code, interactivity and machine learning is designed to create playful, life-affirming and non-threatening works. What do you think makes this so? Can you think of any other examples of machine-learning technologies that may pose greater ethical issues?
6. Universal Everything's production model depends on the decentralisation of creative work practices brought about by the accessibility of new technologies on personal devices and high speed internet. This means that the Universal Everything creative director Matt Pyke can develop ideas in his studio in Sheffield and then work with creative specialists situated across the globe. The Universal Everything workforce expands and contracts depending on current projects. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this way of working for the small permanent Universal Everything team and for their independent contractors?