2026/27 Beyond Engagement: Measuring Creative R&D, Audience Impact and Innovation in Art and Technology
Collaborative Doctoral Award | King’s College London | Serpentine Arts Technologies
This practice-based doctoral research addresses a critical gap in how arts organisations measure and account for their contributions to research and development (R&D) and innovation. Currently, success metrics for arts institutions focus predominantly on quantifying engagement through visitor numbers, social media reach, and audience demographics.
While these capture public-facing activity, they fail to recognise the substantial R&D work that occurs within arts organisations-particularly those working at the intersection of art and advanced technologies. In the context of ADAPT-AI’s focus on analysing and diversifying audience participation in immersive creative technologies, this research examines how arts organisations account for the R&D work that underpins their audience engagement strategies and contributes to more inclusive creative practices.
The PhD candidate will develop, test, and validate a new measurement framework specifically designed to track R&D and innovation activities in arts and technologies contexts, exploring how these organisations contribute to broader innovation ecosystems beyond traditional engagement metrics.
Research Context
ADAPT-AI is a doctoral training programme developing researchers who understand and diversify audiences for immersive creative experiences using AI and emerging technologies. This interdisciplinary programme addresses critical challenges facing the UK creative economy: a skills gap in leveraging new technologies for audience engagement, and a diversity gap in both the creative workforce and audiences.
Working with leading cultural venues in London, students will develop rigorous research skills alongside practical expertise in machine learning, extended reality (XR), ethical audience analysis, and inclusive participation methods.
Serpentine’s Arts Technologies department operates at the intersection of art, emerging technologies, and public interest research. Through strategic R&D, it generates insights into the technical, cultural, legal, social and ethical dimensions of technologies. Since 2014, Serpentine has commissioned experimental artworks with artists including Ian Cheng, Hito Steyerl, Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, and Jakob Kudsk Steensen.
Serpentine’s flagship initiative, Future Art Ecosystems (FAE), evolved from an annual strategic briefing into an innovation hub supporting embedded R&D, cross-sector partnerships and policy engagement. The latest edition, FAE5: Art x Creative R&D (2025), makes a policy case for recognising creative R&D as a distinct domain of innovation. Projects like the Choral Data ‘Trust’ Experiment-involving 15 UK choirs testing new approaches to AI training data governance-exemplify Serpentine’s commitment to public interest technology and policy influence.
Despite growing recognition of creative sectors as vital contributors to innovation ecosystems, they remain undervalued in traditional innovation policy frameworks which privilege STEM-focused metrics.
Arts organisations working with advanced technologies occupy an ambiguous position-functioning simultaneously as cultural institutions, R&D laboratories, conveners of interdisciplinary collaboration, and contributors to policy development. Yet engagement-based metrics fail to capture these multifaceted contributions.
This CDA directly engages with ADAPT-AI’s interdisciplinary training in AI, creative technologies, and audience research. While ADAPT-AI addresses skills and diversity gaps in audience engagement, this project investigates the organisational and policy infrastructures needed to support such work, contributing to ADAPT-AI’s objective of developing new economic models for audience access.
Key Research Areas
The successful candidate will work with supervisors to shape the precise scope of the research, potentially engaging with the following areas:
1. Innovation Metrics and Cultural Value Critical analysis of existing innovation measurement frameworks and their limitations when applied to cultural contexts; examination of alternative valuation approaches; investigation of how different stakeholders understand and measure innovation in arts contexts.
2. Arts Organisations as Sites of Creative R&D Mapping the types of R&D activities that occur within arts institutions working with advanced technologies; understanding knowledge flows between arts organisations and other sectors; documenting how arts organisations function within broader innovation ecosystems.
3. Advanced Technologies in Artistic Practice Examining how artists and arts organisations engage with emerging technologies (AI, blockchain, biotechnology, XR); investigating how arts-led approaches to technology differ from commercial or academic R&D settings; exploring the contribution of arts-technology work to critical discourse and public understanding.
4. Framework Development and Implementation Designing a new measurement framework that captures multiple dimensions of R&D and innovation; identifying appropriate indicators and metrics; testing and refining the framework through application to live Serpentine projects; developing practical implementation tools.
5. R&D and Audience Development Investigating how arts R&D activities contribute to audience diversification and engagement; understanding how arts organisations use R&D to reach underserved communities; documenting the impact of arts-technology R&D on audience experiences and diversity.
Methodology
This research will adopt a practice-based, mixed-methods approach combining theoretical inquiry with iterative framework development and testing. The embedded nature of the research-with the candidate positioned within Serpentine Arts Technologies-will enable an iterative, reflexive approach where theoretical insights inform practical development and practical testing generates new theoretical understanding.
Methods may include:
- Literature review and policy analysis
- Comparative case studies of arts organisations engaged in R&D
- Ethnographic observation of R&D processes within Serpentine projects
- Semi-structured interviews with artists, technologists, curators, funders, and stakeholders
- Co-design workshops to collaboratively develop the measurement framework
- Pilot testing and evaluation of the framework on selected Serpentine projects
- Audience impact studies connecting innovation metrics to engagement outcomes
Collaborative Partnership
The partnership offers a unique opportunity to conduct theoretically informed, practice-embedded research bridging academic scholarship and institutional innovation.
Serpentine Arts Technologies will provide: • Direct access to ongoing R&D projects across art and advanced technologies • Embedded research position within the Arts Technologies team • Real-world testing environment for framework development • Access to extensive networks of artists, technologists, researchers, institutional partners, and policymakers • Expertise in contemporary art, curatorial practice, arts technologies production, and public interest technology • Potential involvement in Future Art Ecosystems events, publications, and partnerships
ADAPT-AI will provide: • Expertise in audience research methodologies, including digital methods for audience analysis and inclusive participation frameworks • Academic supervision and comprehensive research training • Methodological expertise in innovation studies, cultural policy, science and technology studies • Critical framework for theoretical development and rigorous inquiry • Connection to broader academic debates on cultural value and innovation metrics
The candidate will benefit from regular presence at both institutions, gaining practical experience in arts institutional contexts while developing robust academic research skills.
Outputs
Expected outputs include:
- A completed PhD thesis contributing new knowledge to academic discourse on innovation metrics, cultural value, and the role of arts institutions in innovation ecosystems
- A practical measurement framework with accompanying guidance, tools, and resources for implementation by arts organisations
- Published academic papers and practice-oriented publications for the arts sector
- Presentations at academic conferences and sector events
- Potential contributions to Serpentine’s programmes, including public-facing research outputs or events
- Potential policy briefings for funders and cultural policymakers
Funding Opportunities
Funding will be for 3.5 years (full time) or 7 years (part time).
Both UK and international applicants are eligible, and up to 30 per cent of studentships can be applied to international applicants.
– Full tuition fees covered
– Annual stipend (UKRI rate: £22,780 (incl LWA) full time for 2025/26)*
– Research training and support
– Access to state-of-the-art facilities
– Opportunities to attend conferences and workshops
* The CDA pathway attracts an additional £600 uplift to the stipend.
Please note: UK Visa and Health surcharges are not covered as part of the funding for international students.
