Transform it. Then transform it again.
The MArch year begins here — one week of making, one premiere.
Ten teams · one hundred makers · 18 September.
The double transformation
You transform materials by hand — machining, casting, shaping, printing. Then you transform them again: capturing and re-presenting the work as apparently habitable spaces on the Lab’s immersive volume and its 43-channel sound system.
In microcosm, and creatively, that is exactly what architects do — choose materials and processes whose transformations make spaces people experience. The media are new this year, which is the point: the medium changes the message.
A fabrication project first. Everyone makes.
Making and media
The material track
Kinetic rigs and material transformations, made at the bench and exhibited live. Every pair makes, and every pair leads one production element.
Iteration is the pedagogy — the two tracks run all week.Benches · workshopsThe media track
Capture the transformation and re-present it: a 60-second film per team, and abstract, apparently habitable space on the immersive volume.
Scaffolded end to end — your task is the creative one.Volume · 43-channel soundYou bring the ideas; the CAT LAB team brings the pipeline.
Ten teams, and you win together
Around one hundred makers, organised for a week of making.
Ten teams of ten
The whole cohort, in ten teams — your first community of the MArch year.
Five pairs each
Every pair contributes making and holds a lead production element.
A muse and a phrase
One guiding architect and idea per team — fragmentation, flow, and the rest.
Win or lose together
A shared 60-second film and a shared exhibit. Prizes by category, sound included.
From bench to premiere
One week, two tracks, one hard deadline that defeats procrastination.
Make
Arrive 9 September. Transform materials and build the kinetic rig.
Capture
Re-present the work on the volume. Picture lock, 16 September.
Premiere
Black tie, red carpet, films in the theatre. 18 September, 18:00.
Everyone completes CAT LAB Essentials — the induction that opens the Lab.
The exhibition runs for a week, for the whole University.
A media premiere, walkable
Friday 18 September: benches open at 18:00 with the rigs performing, then the films run in the theatre, then the prizes. Downstairs the rig performs; upstairs its transformed representation — the medium changing the message, and you can walk between them.
The exhibition then runs for a week, open to the whole University.
Make something worth premiering.
KINEMA ’26 is your first project, your CAT LAB induction, and the flagship of the Immersive Experience Lab’s launch. One week to transform a material — and transform it again.
“Transform it. Then transform it again.”
Dates, the brief, and everything you need to take part.
Open the project →About · ResearchEvery project is part of a living laboratory. What we ask, and how we protect you.
Read the explainer →The LabHow projects run at the CAT LAB, and what comes out of them.
Explore →