Ben Neal is an Arts-focused Creative Technologist and works freelance as Psicon Lab (pronounced "Sy-Kon Lab"). He collaborates with creative people who want to use technology, and brings their ideas to life.

He also co-runs Displace Studio an immersive Mixed Reality performance studio with co-lead Kerryn Wise. Their best known project is a VR experience called Facades which has toured internationally.

As a Creative Technologist he has a wide range of creative and technical skills and specialises in bringing them together to build unique products. As a Digital Producer he plans, manages and delivers complex projects, and provides knowledge and expertise.

He builds interactive software, games and immersive experiences often using Unity and utilising Augmented or Virtual Reality, 360 video and volumetric capture (mainly using Depthkit and Kinect cameras). He develops VR for Vive and Meta headsets and has experience with Motion Capture and skeletal tracking.

He also works with rapid prototyping using electrical sensors and microcontrollers (Arduino, Raspberry Pi etc.) to build gadgets with sensors, buttons and LED lights.

Ben does a lot of creative coding and is an experienced programmer (using mainly C#, PHP, Javascript and Python), often working with web, interactive, 3D graphics, audio, video, mobile devices, music controllers, and sound-reactive animation.

He's worked with a lot of arts, music and cultural organisations including Victoria and Albert Museum, Somerset House, Ikon Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, MAC, Studio Wayne McGregor, Eastside Projects, British Council and Pervasive Media Studio as well as festivals such as Sonár (ES), Supersonic, Fierce, Random String, Aesthetica, Encounters, Flatpack, Now Play This, London Design Festival and FIVARS (US/CA).

Ben currently is an Associate Artist at the Virtual and Immersive Production Studio at University of Nottingham. From 2017-2021 he was the Digital Producer at BOM and lead the tech development for the Commonwealth Games Queen's Baton Relay smart baton for Birmingham 2022 as well as working as producer on "Beholder" United Visual Artists' first VR artwork. He was also a BOM Fellow between 2016-2021.

Previous projects include work for Blast Theory, Rachel Maclean, Hervisions, Dazed, Open Data Institute, Coventry City of Culture, Motionhouse, Swoomptheeng, Outside Studios and Juneau Projects; and several projects for Birmingham City University, Loughborough University and online educational content for Oxford University Press.

Ben gives talks, presentations, workshops, consultancy and mentoring for clients such as Abandon Normal Devices, STEAMhouse and Animate Projects; Universities such as Birmingham, Coventry, De Montfort and Greenwich; many appearances at BCU's Maker Monday events, and several appearances on BBC radio and TV. He often speaks about creative and emerging technologies, and his work.

As of mid 2023 he's done over 55 talks and workshops, nearly 150 live performances (as musician, DJ, VJ or artist), had over 30 features on broadcast media, on websites or in publications; been involved in over 85 exhibitions and events (including nearly 60 festivals and a further 23 video screenings) and had projects shown at over 55 arts venues, including internationally in places such as Australia, Canada, Germany, Bulgaria, Kenya and Greece.

"I love collaborating with artists and creative minds on incredible,
unique projects to make tech-enabled artworks a reality."
- Ben Neal

Email Ben at info@psiconlab.co.uk or get in touch via social media (@psiconlab).