Fine Art and Creative Writing graduate Clodagh Delahunty-Forrest is developing an interactive world that responds to the sensory needs of SEND and neurodivergent young people.

Lancaster University graduate Clodagh Delahunty-Forrest has received £25,000 from the CreaTech Frontiers Live & Immersive Innovation Fund to develop Trinket, an accessible immersive experience combining stop-motion animation, interactive technology and responsive environments.

After graduating in 2023, Clodagh now works as a creative director and games artist with BOM (Birmingham Open Media), an immersive arts organisation that uses virtual reality, augmented reality and games to create experiences with a strong social purpose.

Recognised with Innovate UK’s Career Breakout Award and named Young Tech Person of the Year at the Birmingham Tech Week Awards 2025, Clodagh has already taken her work to SXSW London and the Venice Biennale.

We spoke to her about immersive art, the ideas behind Trinket and how studying Fine Art and Creative Writing at Lancaster helped shape her career.

What is immersive art, and what do you bring to it as an artist?

I love working in immersive art because it uses cutting-edge technology to actively immerse audiences. Unlike traditional art, it turns viewers into participants who can enter, explore and shape an experience.

Technology alone is not enough, though. Immersive projects need original, exciting visuals and a cohesive art direction to make them feel believable. That is where I come in as a technical artist.

Across virtual reality, extended reality and augmented reality projects, I bring a strong artistic focus. My role can include creating concept art and bespoke 3D assets, as well as guiding the overall art direction from initial concept through to completion.

Tell us about Trinket and your recent funding award.

I have received a £25,000 grant from CreaTech Frontiers’ Live & Immersive Innovation Fund to expand Trinket.

The project started as a short experiment combining stop-motion animation with backgrounds built in Unreal Engine 5. I created it while completing BOM’s brilliant Immersive Arts Bootcamp.

Over six months, I’ll be developing Trinket into a 360-degree immersive experience co-designed with and for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and neurodivergent young people.

Inside a projection-mapped space, participants will work together to calm an anxious digital stop-motion puppet named Magpie by completing interactive tasks.

Using non-contact tracking and real-time biometric technology, the environment will be able to adjust its projections, lighting and audio in response to the participants. The aim is to reduce sensory overload and allow the space to respond directly to the audience’s needs.

What will the development process involve?

I’ll be collaborating with West Midlands animation and technology organisations including Second Home Studios, BOM and Holosphere.

Together, we’ll experiment with projection mapping, accessible hand tracking, depth cameras and a custom Unreal Engine 5 scene-management plugin.

I’m also working with specialist educators and psychiatrists to ensure the experience is neuro-inclusive and grounded in research.

Looking further ahead, Trinket has the potential to tour schools, medical centres and festivals using a mobile inflatable dome. This could allow us to deliver experiences tailored to different neurotypes in a wide range of settings.

Your current work might seem very different from a Fine Art degree. How are the two connected?

Moving into immersive art felt like a natural progression from studying Fine Art and Creative Writing at Lancaster.

Specialising in digital art under Jen Southern and Nathan Jones was transformational. They encouraged me to push beyond traditional boundaries and introduced me to live performance, projection and working with audiences in real time — things I had never considered before university.

Studying games on our Creative Writing course, and Charlie Gere’s Art Writing module, also sparked my interest in narrative-driven projects.

I leaned heavily into film during my final year too. I joined LU Film Society, wrote scripts and worked on short films. These different media might seem unconnected, but the common thread running through my work is a love of visual storytelling.

Immersive art has become the ultimate platform for me to bring my art, stories and technical skills together in one space.

What advice would you give to current or prospective Lancaster Fine Art students?

Branch out and experiment. Don’t feel limited by your course title: explore other creative fields, join societies and test how different disciplines can drive your practice.

Definitely take full advantage of having a studio space and being surrounded by creative peers. I miss being able to bounce ideas off my classmates and the way we all supported one another.

I’d also recommend visiting immersive exhibitions, installations and experiences to discover what is possible beyond traditional galleries. It can be really eye-opening.

The degree goes by so quickly. Absorb everything you can and, most importantly, enjoy it.

Trinket is supported by CreaTech Frontiers, which is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, establishing a West Midlands CreaTech ecosystem by funding collaborative R&D, supporting business innovation and developing skills and talent.