Dr Andrew Richardson

Assistant Professor

School: Design Arts and Creative Industries

I have a background in design, interactive technology and creative coding. I have extensive experience of a range of creative coding enviroments for creating novel interactive visualisations and experiences. My practice-based research centres around the exploration and use of creative technologies, especially open source environments, within the context of creative data visualisation. I explore the use of code as a way of making and have particular interest in the application of creative technologies, especially open source environments, for creating novel visual expressions and encounters from a wide range of cultural data sources.

I take an exploratory approach towards use of digital technologies (AR and VR), as well as a wide range of other open source interactive technologies.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

My research focuses on the design and development of exploratory data visualisation tools for the digital humanities and cultural heritage sectors. I create interactive visual interfaces that enable historians, curators and researchers to analyse complex cultural and historical datasets in new ways. My practice integrates creative coding, interface design and collaborative, design-led methods to produce digital research instruments that support interpretive analysis and sector innovation.

I have worked with national partners, including the Science Museum Group, as Data Visualisation Co-Lead for the AHRC-funded Congruence Engine project. My visualisation tools have supported research into industrial history, scientific-instrument networks, oral-history collections and linked-heritage datasets.

My work spans visualisation, digital storytelling and exploratory interfaces across 2D and 3D environments. Previous projects include Chronotopic Cartographies (AHRC), developing spatial visualisations of literary texts, alongside practice-based explorations of immersive and locative media.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
‘Flow Filter’: Introducing an upstream exploratory visualisation and filtering of large and detailed datasets, Richardson, A., Butterworth, A. 15 Jul 2025, Digital Humanities 2025
Flow States: Designing Visually Fluid Visualisation Tools for Humanistic Enquiry, Richardson, A., Butterworth, A. 16 Nov 2025, Information+
Interactive Visualisation Prototypes for Cultural Heritage Collections: Demonstration of Exploratory Visualisation Tools for Cultural Heritage Collections, Richardson, A. 20 Nov 2024, Towards A National Collection Conference 2024
New Digital Practice for Science and Technology Collections: Technologies and Generative AI for Social-Historical Data Artefacts, Kasthuri Arachch, N., Butterworth, A., Kent, J., Richardson, A. 14 Oct 2024, Artefacts XXIX, 2024
Oral Histories Timeline Visualisation, Butterworth, A., Richardson, A., Zardini, S., de Sabbata, S., Needham-Simpson, F. Nov 2024
Saltaire Census Visualisation, Butterworth, A., Richardson, A., Coates, C., Kasthuri Arachch, N., Kent, J. Nov 2024
Tools for Knowledge: A suite of manipulable data graphics to explore maker and business identity in the historical knowledge graph of the communities of the scientific instrument trade in Britain, 1550–1914, Butterworth, A., Richardson, A. 20 Jul 2023, GrapHNR 2023
Visualising Time and Space in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Magician’s Nephew, Hay, D., Richardson, A. 31 Mar 2023, In: Literary Geographies
A dynamic topography for visualizing time and space in fictional literary texts, Richardson, A., Hay, D. 7 Nov 2022, In: Information Design Journal
Augmented Literary Landscapes: A pilot using locative AR, Richardson, A., Alves, D. 30 Aug 2021, RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2020

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Other: Science Museum Group Research & Public History Annual Report (2023–24) 2024
Invited talk: New Digital Interfaces to Explore Oral Histories. 2024
Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: Mapping, Counting, Recovering Humanities through the Digital Lens. 2024
Invited talk: Augmented Literary Landscapes: A Pilot Using Locative Augmented Reality 2020
Invited talk: The Word Made Visible: Digital Visualisation of Scripture. 2014
Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: Walking Poet's Symposium 2014

PGR Supervision

Stacey Rossouw Growth of a Poet's Mind: Communicating the Temporal Layers within a Literary Archive Start Date: 01/10/2022
Stacey Rossouw Growth of a Poet's Mind: Communicating the Temporal Layers within a Literary Archive Start Date: 01/10/2022 End Date: 17/10/2025