The UK-China Creative Challenge: Co-Designing a Hybrid 'Creature' as an Asset for Shanghai's Performing Arts and Screen Industries

2010年，上海通过一个可爱的蓝色小吉祥物“海博”来宣传世博会。如今，这座城市雄心勃勃的发展其设计、游戏、表演艺术和影视产业的计划，为中英两国提供了一个合作的机会，共同开发新形式的“共鸣角色设计”。这些新的实体可能会在实体和数字平台之间“传播”，以吸引和娱乐上海和其他地方的儿童和年轻观众。这个试点项目聚集了来自好莱坞、中国后期视觉特效制作部门、英国电视台和两国表演艺术场所的全球知名行业合作伙伴，与一个国际研究团队合作并指导他们完成一项独特的任务：共同设计一个混合跨文化“生物”的初始概念艺术品。这种文化“资产”可能会在未来成熟，成为舞台，屏幕，多媒体展览和沉浸式展览体验的讲故事工具。在诺丁汉大学、上海交通大学、法尔茅斯大学和中国传媒大学的组织领导下，与会者将组成一个高层次的“角色智囊团”，探讨如何利用“生物”的诞生来帮助上海创意产业的商业发展。长期目标是创造出一系列能够体现中英两国关系的跨文化人物形象。计划在上海和诺丁汉建立一对研究中心，以调查提高中国工人技能的前景，并开展国际卓越的比较受众研究。

In 2010, Shanghai branded and promoted its World Expo through a cuddly little blue mascot called 'Haibo. Today the city's ambitious plans to develop its design, games, performing arts and screen industries provides an opportunity for China and the UK to collaborate on new forms of joint 'resonant character design'. These new entities might be 'spread' across and between physical and digital platforms to attract and entertain children and young audiences in Shanghai and elsewhere. This pilot project gathers globally prestigious industry partners from Hollywood, China's post-production visual effects sector, British television, and performing arts venues in both countries to collaborate with and guide an international team of researchers charged with a unique task: to co-design the initial concept artwork for a hybrid cross-cultural 'creature'. This cultural 'asset' might be brought to maturity in the future as a storytelling tool for stage, screen, multi-media exhibitions, and immersive exhibition experiences. Under the organisational leadership of the University of Nottingham, Shanghai Jiao Tong, Falmouth and the Communication University of China, the assembled participants will form a high-level 'Character Brain Trust' to explore how the birth of the 'creature' could be used to aid the commercial growth of Shanghai's creative industries. The longer-term goal is to generate a broad range of cross-cultural characters able to bring to life and symbolise the relationship between the UK and China. Twinned research hubs in Shanghai and Nottingham are planned to investigate prospects for upskilling Chinese workers as well as generating comparative audience research of international excellence.