Create My World: Nature… an interactive world of wonder!

LEVEL are excited to announce their new interactive exhibition, Create My World: Nature by TECHSQUAD, running from 18 April until 27 June 2024!
Create My World: Nature is an interactive exhibition experience for all ages, focused on nature, world-building and exploration. It’s an exciting world of wonder where you can explore your creativity and make your own digital creations come alive! Over the duration of the exhibition, a new virtual world will be created, populated with living creatures and plant life made from artworks generated by visitors.

Participants of all ages can create flowers, plants, beetles, bugs, butterflies and more, using specially designed activity sheets. They can then scan their designs using the ‘Creation Station’ and watch as they are magically uploaded into a virtual 3D world! The LEVEL digital ecosystem is brought to life through projections around the gallery space. Using game controllers, visitors can then explore the digital world of wonder that they have helped create!

Create My World: Nature is a fun, family friendly experience to help unlock and inspire creativity. It invites visitors to reflect and respond to themes of nature and the environment, celebrating the natural world around us. Previously on show at QUAD Derby, it received some wonderful feedback from visitors: “Thank you so much for an AWESOME afternoon. We spent a couple of hours making animals and seeing our creations come to life on the big screen!”

The creators, TECHSQUAD, are a team of technicians, designers and creatives based at QUAD, Derby’s Cultural Hub. The team regularly works with artists and cultural venues to develop innovative and engaging exhibitions that explore the use of technology. Darius Powell, Creative Lead for Create My World: Nature says:

"Create My World: Nature was developed because we wanted an exhibition that would engage families to be creative together. As a team we wanted to find a way to create an installation that could be visually exciting, a technical achievement but remain simple to engage with on analogue level. The use of the design sheets versus digital screens, make the installation more accessible as visitors can create textures using any form of mark making. 

The end result is magical and an entry point to creativity. A quote
from a parent attending the exhibition sums up what we wanted to achieve: "My son's school had told us he just wasn't interested in the arts, didn't want to make anything. But today he has loved seeing his creations come to life - you've proved them wrong. Thank you. Creativity is inside of everyone and Create My World: Nature gives people an accessible place to explore it together."

Create My World: Nature was developed in collaboration with LEVEL Centre, QUAD and designers Sam and Tom Hawkins of FIRECATCHER. Create My World: Nature is suitable for everyone including school groups and families. The installation is free to visit, but advance booking is advisable through the Level Centre website. The Level Centre building is designed with access in mind.

Create My World: Nature is on show at Level Centre from 18 April until 27 June 2024. For more information and to book, visit: www.levelcentre.com/create-my-world-nature

Alongside Create My World: Nature, there is also the opportunity to visit our new Gallery Corridor exhibition, [Isolation] Art Mail by multidisciplinary artist Tracey Meek. Tracey was selected as the recipient of the first ‘Corridors Commission’ - a collaborative call out between LEVEL and QUAD, aimed at neurodivergent artists or collectives based in the East Midlands.

Isolation Art Mail began as a lockdown project facilitated by Tracey. The project was a way of collectively sharing experiences through art, offering comfort in difficult times. Similar to a chain letter, participants received the beginnings of an art piece, some art materials, creative prompts, and various random junk. They were invited to add or respond to the work. The art mail would then make its way from person to person, eventually returning to Tracey.

With over 100 UK and international participants, there was a lot of love shared between strangers. Tracey is now revisiting the art mail parcels, carefully unwrapping and collating the work for exhibition. She will create new work in response to the letters, drawing a celebratory conclusion to the project, culminating in its final iteration [Isolation] Art Mail.

[Isolation] Art Mail will exhibit in the Gallery Corridor at LEVEL from 18 April – 27 June 2024 and then at QUAD in Derby from mid-July to early September 2024.