BLOC is a new Film & Drama Arts Research Facility at QMUL, comprising a state-of-the art cinema, gallery equipped for multiscreen, sound-proofed film studio, performance project room, with interaction and monitoring capability from an adjacent post-production suite, and a sound-proofed recording booth. All spaces are fully accessible, physically connected, and digitally networked.
At the centre of the Facility is a cinema designed by leading architects McFarland-Latter, which features the latest in Dolby Atmos surround-sound and 4k projection technologies. Underpinning the facility are core principles of civic engagement, access to the arts for all, visibility and inclusion, and the recognition of divergent perceptions and perspectives. BLOC is supported by a steering group with members from Film, Drama, People’s Palace Projects and EECS and has been designed to facilitate new and innovative research investigating the cinema, gallery and studio as experimental laboratory environments.
BLOC encourages research practices involving moving image, performance, multisensory aesthetics, the relationship between mediation and liveness, image augmentation, multimedia performance, motion capture, ambisonic playback, building and empowering audiences, audience interaction and analysis, VR, haptics, and more.