UNBOXED on the BBC

The BBC has been covering the work of several UNBOXED projects over the last six months, including Our Place in Space, Green Space Dark Skies and SEE MONSTER. You can enjoy the television and radio coverage via BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds.

Green Space Dark Skies

Commissioned as part of UNBOXED, Green Space Dark Skies has been developed by a creative team led by Walk the Plank and partners and networks including National Parks UK, Siemens, University of Salford, Landscapes for Life: AONBs and National Trust. The project set out to bring people together, to reconnect them to nature and to each other, whilst exploring our relationship to the countryside, our responsibility to protect it, and our right to access it.

BBC Countryfile was watched by millions on the night and can still be viewed on BBC iPlayer, includes a stunning finale featuring the four highest peaks of the UK: Scafell Pike, Ben Nevis, Yr Wyddfa /Snowdon and Slieve Donard. (Broadcast 30 October 2022.)

It featured some of the people behind the project, including creatives from outdoor arts, performance and engineering, as well as members of the public who have contributed to the Green Space Dark Skies journey.

For BBC Wales, Radio 1 presenter Sian Eleri visited Parys Mountain in Anglesey, north west Wales, for a Green Space Dark Skies event – celebrating the landscape and creating extraordinary artwork on it at dusk. Alongside her unique experience on Parys Mountain, Sian explores the previous events which took place at Craig-Y-Nos country park and Three Cliffs Bay, Gower, showcasing the short films that were made from those events. (Broadcast 2 October 2022.)

Over in Northern Ireland, the BBC captured the lights and musicians descended upon the Giant's Causeway, after they'd entertained crowds in the Giant’s Ring in the Lagan Valley AONB and at Gortin Glen Lakes in Sperrins AONB. As part of this Green Space Dark Skies event a family of musicians joined the lumenators for their first open-air performance. (Broadcast 2 August 2022.)

BBC Scotland's Landward team joined Green Space Dark Skies at Loch Insh in the Cairngorms National Park for a day on the water. (Broadcast 13 October 2022.)

Our Place in Space

The BBC covered the creation and installation of the Our Place in Space trail for its launch in Derry-Londonderry, including exclusive interviews with Northern Ireland artist Oliver Jeffers and astrophysicist Prof Stephen Smartt. Enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at a collaboration between scientists, artists and engineers that illustrated the scale of our solar system to visitors across the UK. (Broadcast on 23 May 2022.)

In the next episode, a sea of astronauts swarmed the Maiden City in an attempt to beat a world record for a gathering of people in space suits. (Broadcast on 24 May 2022.)

In the final episode, Astrophysicist Stephen Smartt introduced his mission to inspire the next generation of astronomers. From his office in Queen's University Belfast, Stephen leads a team monitoring the night sky, searching for new discoveries and exploring the great unknown. (Broadcast on 26 July 2022.)

BBC Newsround featured an interview with author and artist Oliver Jeffers about why he created Our Place in Space and took a tour of the sculpture trail. (Broadcast on 01 September 2022.)

For the Ramblings show on Radio 4, Clare Balding spoke to much-loved children's author Oliver Jeffers in Derry-Londonderry, who gave her a tour of the Our Place in Space sculpture trail - a scale model of the solar system. (Broadcast on 5 May 2022.)

SEE MONSTER

SEE MONSTER is an extraordinary act of collective creativity – a decommissioned North Sea offshore platform regenerated as a major new art installation in Weston-super-Mare - and was featured in an episode of Radio 5's Live Science podcast on 30 October 2022. Listen to We See Monsters on BBC Sounds.

BBC Introducing West broadcast live from SEE MONSTER in Weston-super-Mare, on 22 October 2022, with sets from Charlotte Clark, Immi Dash, Tessa King and Dutchie.

StoryTrails

The People’s Piazza: A History of Covent Garden takes a fascinating trip through 400 years of life in one of the UK’s most famous public spaces. It’s presented by David Olusoga – historian, writer and the Executive Producer of StoryTrails, which has spent the summer using cutting-edge immersive technology to unearth the hidden histories of 15 UK towns.

The documentary, broadcast by BBC Two on 13 November 2022, is a companion piece of StoryTrails, the UK’s largest immersive storytelling experience has been travelling across the UK this summer - from Omagh to Dundee and Swansea to Slough - showcasing hundreds of local stories and hidden histories using exciting new interactive technologies. The People's Piazza uses state-of-the-art production techniques to bring the ghosts of Covent Garden back to life.

Dreamachine

BBC Radio 4's All in the Mind show (10 May 2022) visited Dreamachine, an immersive sound and light installation that uses the power of flickering white light to create psychedelic experiences. The show interviewed two scientists behind the project - Anil Seth Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience, University of Sussex and Fiona MacPherson Professor of Philosophy, University of Glasgow.

Dandelion

BBC Scotland's Beechgrove show featured Dandelion, explaining the festival's ambitions and visiting one of the Unexpected Garden in Greenock. (Broadcast on 19 May 2022.)