In addition to collaborating with other organisations and academics, Fast Familiar undertake independent research, in line with our own interests.
Fast Familiar’s lead artist Dan Barnard is doing a PhD at the University of Sussex. He is researching what theatrical techniques like those used in Fast Familiar’s The Strategy Room can bring to policy design. This involves comparing The Strategy Room to other deliberative mini-publics like Citizens Assemblies and Citizens Juries. It also asks how these deliberative mini-publics might be incorporated into the wider design of our democracies. Dan's supervisors are Ann Light, Professor of Design and Lisa Peck, Associate Professor in Theatre and Performance.
Previously, Dan spent a decade as a Senior Lecturer at London South Bank University, where he led the Digital Performance Research Group and was a member of the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image.
FF co-lead artist Joe McAlister previously led the modules “Programming for artists and designers” and “Data and machine learning for creative practice” at Goldsmiths, University of London, (MA/MFA Computational Arts, BSc Creative Computing and BSc Digital Arts Computing degrees).
Through our longterm collaboration with Niamh Nic Daeid and Heather Doran from the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, we have also undertaken research into forensic science communication.
Publications
“Fast Familiar’s The Acquisitions Panel and the Decolonising Potential of Interactive Performance” Daniel Barnard, Lucy Tyler and Lisa Woynarski (2025) Theatre Topics, 35 (2)
“Can science comics aid lay audiences' comprehension of forensic science?” Isabelle Baxter, Daniel Barnard, Rachel Briscoe, Heather Doran, Joe McAlister, Niamh Nic Daeid, Andy Ridgeway (2025) JCOM, 24 (01)
“The Evidence Chamber: Playful science communication and research through digital storytelling” Daniel Barnard and Heather Doran (2021) Digital Narrative and Interactive Storytelling for Public Engagement with Health and Science, Frontiers in Science Communication
“The Justice Syndicate: how interactive theatre provides a window into jury decision making and the public understanding of the law” Daniel Barnard and Kris de Meyer (2020) Journal of Law and Humanities, 14 (2)
“The Justice Syndicate: using iPads to increase the intensity of participation, conduct agency and encourage flow in live interactive performance” Daniel Barnard and Kris de Meyer (2020) International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, 16 (1)
“Smoking Gun” Daniel Barnard, Tom Blount, Laura Koesten and Elena Simperl (2020) Interactions, 27 (5)
“Approaches to understanding and using Katie Mitchell’s Events technique in professional and pedagogical contexts” Dan Barnard (2020) Stanislavski Studies, 8 (2)
“fanSHEN’s Looking for Love: A Case Study in How Theatrical and Performative Practices Inform Interactive Digital Narratives” Dan Barnard (2018) in Rouse R., Koenitz H., Haahr M. (eds) Interactive Storytelling. ICIDS 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 11318. (Winner of the Best Short Paper award at ICIDS 2018)
“Using Games Based on Giant Dice and Time Restrictions to Enable Creativity when Teaching Artistic Subjects” Dan Barnard (2017) International Journal of Games-Based Learning 7 (3)
