About the London Multimedia Lab

Founded in London 2001 by Patrick Humphreys, Head of the Social Psychology Department at the London School of Economics and Carol Lorac, Head of the Media Arts department at Royal Holloway London, the London Multimedia Lab for Audiovisual Composition and Communication iprovides a proven and highly respected research basis with initiatives and projects in three sectors:

Innovation, Creativity, Mediation and Facilitation in Organizations
Creative Education
Development, Health and Community Enhancement

Within the brief of the LML, the definition of audiovisual composition and multimedia communication is quite specific. Audiovisual composing is seen as paralleling, and complementary to, written composing. Authoring and communicating in multimedia integrates these distinctive composing processes.

What is special within the LML is that both audiovisual and multimedia composition are seen as universal modes of communication available to everyone: focussed on the notion that intelligent development and extension of multimedia communication will depend upon a society where all kinds of people (not just “media professionals”, or “educators”) are capable of generating multimedia texts and using the new electronic communication technologies for one-to-one communication as well as one to many.

The common focus, of the research and development activity, within these three sectors is the use of multimedia communication technologies for generating, as well as communicating, knowledge. Audiovisual composition, whatever the form – transaction record, report, documentary, diary, drama, testimony, case-study - provides ways of explaining by enhancing telling with showing. Through the interplay of different modes of composing (textual and audiovisual) people become empowered. However, such activities require developing universal competencies in audiovisual and multimedia composition.



The intention of the research and development programme of the LML is to extend the power and application of audiovisual composition and multimedia communication in areas where the applications are immense.

The areas are identified in “Innovative, creative and sustainable decision making in changing contexts”, written by LML members Patrick Humphreys and Amy Luk for Now Publishers’ series “Foundation and tends in Information Systems” . The activities within the LML's research and Development Programme provide support in acceded with the four key Sustainable Developments Enabling factor described there, i.e.

  • supporting safe direct trading systems for both private and public goods (e.g., through lee provenance certification to fro transacted good)

  • • communication facilities for provenance exploration, authentication and demonstration;

  • • promoting and advertising transaction-based sustainable tourism supporting social innovation within the local community;

  • • Makeig and publishing audio-visual stories about the activities of, and the bespoke products created within, entrepreneurial innovation clusters


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The LML is a Member of the International Creative Industries Alliance (www.icia-net.com)