Three Years of Partnership with UCL PEARL

For the last three years we have had the absolute privilege of working with the incredible researchers and community outreach team at UCL PEARL. Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory (PEARL) is a department of University College London, based in Dagenham that studies the interactions between people and their environments. Through fully immersive and cutting edge technology they can alter space, colour, lighting, and sound to imagine and create environments that work better for people. It has proved a magical space for our young storytellers that has generated some of our most imaginative books and that sits on our doorstep!

In the summer of 2024, our graduate storytellers created ‘Sensational’ taking inspiration from PEARL's multi-sensory capabilities to create stories centred on sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.

Last year, the storytellers explored the research of Dr Clemence Cavoli and Dr Samar Maqusi and created their own ‘experiments’ through novel writing techniques.

Last month, our latest cohort of graduate storytellers took inspiration from Dr Sara Adhitya’s research into empathy and created tales that helped the reader walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.

At the heart of all these projects has been the connection between PEARL’s pioneering research and the creative voice and passion of the young storytellers.

We would like to say a huge thank you to UCL PEARL and the team there who have made this project so exciting and inspiring. Firstly, thank you to Professor Nick Tyler, Dr Sara Adhitya, Dr Clemence Cavoli and Dr Samar Maqusi who generously shared her research with the group and allowed us to take our creative work in exciting new directions. The technical production team at PEARL has also always worked its magic, transforming our book launch readings into multisensory pieces of art; we are very grateful for this support. We would like to say a special thank you to Helen King and David Kwakye. Helen and David have been such unwavering supporters of this collaboration and are always thinking two steps ahead to bring all of it together. Thank you all for creating such an environment in which young voices could flourish.