JENI ALLISON
Jeni Allison is a knitwear brand based in Edinburgh, prioritising digital design and simulation technologies to make the product development process as accurate, sustainable and visual as possible. The brand is a celebration of Scottish knit innovation with its first products launching in September 2021. Jeni also works freelance designing and developing knitwear for manufacturers, arts organisations and brands, as well as being a design educator. She works part time as a knit technician at Glasgow School of Art and is currently working on an education programme with Craft Scotland exploring teaching STEM through contemporary textiles. Jeni was a global finalist in the Woolmark Performance Challenge 2018 in association with Adidas.
Jeni’s Resident Entrepreneur project focused on building a web-based application to facilitate affordable, bespoke knit customisation.
AMICABLE ANIMAL
Amicable Animal is the moniker of Edinburgh-based university lecturer and indie developer Tom Methven. Originally formed as a creative outlet for his obsessions with time, neon and synthwave, it quickly mutated into a way of collaborating with other talented creators to make strange and interesting games that respect players’ intelligence.
In January 2021, Amicable Animal released its first commercial game on Steam and Switch: SOLAS 128, a game of interconnected puzzles where players redirect and reconfigure rhythmic pulses of light to breathe life back into an ancient machine. Almost entirely wordless, and with a focus on accessibility, SOLAS 128 has received both critical and player acclaim for its fully interconnected world, expertly paced introduction of mechanics, and puzzle design.
SOLAS 128 was a finalist for the UKIE’s UK Game of the Show event 2021, an Official Selection at Strasbourg, and an Indie Dev World Order (puzzle) winner. Since release, it has garnered an 82 Generally Favourable score on Metacritic and is currently sitting at a 100% Very Positive rating on Steam.
For his Resident Entrepreneur project, Tom focused on a new project prototype called Fabricate Reality.
JULES HORNE
Jules Horne is a writer and publisher from the Scottish Borders. Her writing includes stage and radio plays, spoken word, film, museums interpretation and song lyrics, and is inspired by the life and languages of her native region. Her work often plays with scale and layers of epic and closeup storytelling. Her site-specific plays ‘Allotment’ and ‘Thread’ (dir. Kate Nelson) have won Edinburgh Fringe Firsts, and she is under commission to the Lyceum Theatre for a play about women’s rugby.
Radio plays include ‘Macmillan’s Marvellous Motion Machine’ (dir. Rosie Kellagher) for Radio 4, about the Scottish inventor of the bicycle. Jules was a lead artist on the arts-science collaboration ‘Working the Tweed’ for Year of Natural Scotland and her film ‘Unconformity’, about Borders geology, was recently screened at Alchemy Film Festival. As a rural entrepreneur, she publishes her own books and audiobooks and is exploring ways writers can work with technology to expand performance. Jules is our Marchmont House Resident Entrepreneur, in addition to funding and support from Creative Informatics, she also undertook a two-week residency at Marchmont House.
Jules’ RE project focussed on developing creative IP to transition from services to products, for a more sustainable writer livelihood.
CARO OVERY
Caro Overy is a musician and sustainability professional. She leads community choirs, facilitates community music projects and collaborates with other musicians as a vocalist, songwriter and guitarist. In Caro’s environmental work, she builds on her professional background in Higher Education Sustainability, supporting cultural organisations and artists with practical responses to the climate emergency both in her role with Creative Carbon Scotland and with her current development project, Climate Friendly Culture.
Caro was selected as one of our Round 1 Connected Innovators and also secured funding as a Creative Informatics Resident Entrepreneur. Her Resident Entrepreneur project focussed on developing a tool to support creative practice in collaboration with Creative Carbon Scotland and InGenerator.
VISIBLE INK TELEVISION
Visible Ink are creators and aim to be producers of fantasy live television series for national and international markets. Their previous broadcast one-offs and series are in drama, documentary, comedy, children’s TV and dance for Sci Fi Channel, Discovery Channel, Children’s Channel and ARD in Germany.
Visible Ink is led by cameraman, writer, director, producer, creative entrepreneur and Founder Martin Fisher. Drawing on their live action and animation expertise, Visible Ink are working to develop MoPaCT, a performance capture and precise positioning system that allows ‘animation into live’ integration. Their Resident Entrepreneur project focussed on development of the MoPaCT MVP, creating an innovative tool that can be used in Visible Ink’s own work and marketed as a new, much needed product for the Film and TV industry.
