Creative Brainwaves 2025: Creativity, Connection, and XR in Action

As part of the Atlantic Institute’s work, the XR team often delivers a 360 film making workshop, gathering a small group of Fellows, Rhodes Scholars, or partners to create a mini VR film. The final piece is then edited and shared with the group a few days later. Usually, these workshops take place in the familiarity of the XR Lab in Oxford, with a small, well-prepared group over a number of days.

So how did Richard Smith and I find ourselves sheltering from Storm Claudia in the Lexicon Theatre in Dún Laoghaire, at Creative Brainwaves 2025, nerves jangling about to guide nearly a hundred people through the creation of a 360° film, to be edited and screened in under an hour? The answer is simple: Karen Meenan and Mike Hanrahan.

These two Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health are a force of nature, even stronger than the storm outside. Both deeply creative, they understand the transformative power of the arts for brain health. After attending Atlantic Institute XR Residencies in Oxford, they brought virtual realities into the mix, understanding this technology is a creative medium to be harnessed for good. They now generously embed this technology into their communities in Ireland, namely through Creative Brainwaves 2025.

The event, curated and hosted by Karen and Mike gathered creatives around brain health. The room wasn’t just listening; we danced, sang, laughed and cried. Gráinne McGettrick, Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, shared insights into making the invisible visible for people living with brain injury; Dr. Anne Marie Glynn, COO at the Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Dublin which houses the Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health program, offered a global perspective on dementia inclusion; two of many presentations that brought knowledge, creativity, and heart to our time together.

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After our workshop, where we corralled the group around the 360° camera, we ducked into the sound booth so Richard could turn the film around within the hour. While others headed to breakout sessions, Mike and I found ourselves talking about the arts as a catalyst for change. We spoke about Brian Lawler, GBHI’s visionary Founding Director, since recently retired, who championed this approach. I told Mike how much I’d learned about our community from my brief encounters with Brian, how, at an all-staff gathering, he chose not to lecture but instead invited staff to sing together.

We sang “A Beautiful Affair”, a song that felt uncannily right for that moment. I told Mike how I wept as I sang alongside colleagues, struck by the enormity and value of our mission and the realization that art and culture is central, a way to reach the root of everything, from brain health to racial justice to our shared human experience.

Then, at the Lexicon Theatre, as our 360° film neared completion, Mike, a member of the band Stockton’s Wing, turned to me, stunned. “Alice—that’s my song. I wrote that.”

I had no idea. The moment felt like pure magic, a testament to the genius and generosity of this community. Just then, participants began to return. Richard nodded; the film was exported. Together, we took the stage to experience the VR film as a group, stepping into the immersive world we had just created together.

That serendipitous moment with Mike captured the spirit of Creative Brainwaves, and, in many ways, the Atlantic Fellows community itself: a community of care that gather around culture, are open to unexpected encounters, willing to be moved and changed by one another’s work.

Together, we took the stage to experience the VR film as a group, stepping into the immersive world we had just created together.

- Alice Wroe