What will your future look like? Student puts the pieces together Published on: 1 August 2018 Invention by Â鶹´«Ã½ student helps find the answers Visual and audio record Visitors to the exhibition at are being asked: What will your future look like? And they’ll be answering with an invention designed by a Â鶹´«Ã½ doctoral researcher.Zander Wilson has developed . Made up of jigsaw pieces or tiles which have a chip embedded into them, people can draw or write on the tiles and then record their ideas with their voice. It creates a visual and audio record of ideas which can later be uploaded to the internet to create a presentation of the results. So far, suggestions at Idea of North include flying cars, buses running on hybrid energy, becoming a scientist and saving the environment Zander Wilson with JigsAudio at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art Communicating ideas “JigsAudio has proved just as popular with adults as it has with children”, says Zander, a Digital Civics planning student based in the University’s. “And the reason for that, I think, is because it’s fun to use and it does what it’s supposed to well. Some people are better at putting their ideas verbally, while others are better at writing or drawing and JigsAudio captures both methods in a new way.“It also gives you extra insight into what people are thinking. Sometimes the images on their own doesn’t make much sense but using two ways of communicating ideas gives them more meaning. You can really see this when you put it all together on a website.” Zander was inspired to create JigsAudio by his town planning studies. “I found that a lot of feedback in town planning was using methods that have been around for a long time and that have failed to keep pace with contemporary developments in technology,” he said. “That got me thinking about whether there might be better ways to do it.” OpenLab colleagues Andy Dow, Samantha Finnigan, Gerry Wilkinson, Rob Anderson and Dan Jackson helped Zander develop it. It was first designed for a national drawing event at Seve It has since been used by public transport coordinator Nexus and was picked up by organisations including North Tyneside Council. JigsAudio has even gone global, with devices used at events in Colombia and Italy. Zander is now looking at creating kits so schools can build their own JigsAudio devices. Â鶹´«Ã½ City Futures JigsAudio is just one way Â鶹´«Ã½ is involved with Idea of North through its Â鶹´«Ã½ City Futures (NCF) project. Idea of North celebrates Northern identity through architecture, photography, music, design and culture.A key part of the exhibition is a model of the Tyne Deck, an idea which was floated in the 1960s to build a platform on the Tyne which would feature an opera house. The plans were almost forgotten until the University’s , held in 2014, unveiled them again to the public.Professor Mark Tewdwr-Jones, the driving force behind NCF provided information for exhibition boards at Idea of North and features in a 20 minute . NCF also organised two fringe events, one a screening of a documentary about T Dan Smith, the former leader of Â鶹´«Ã½ City Council who was a visionary, maverick but corrupt former leader of Â鶹´«Ã½ City Council in the 1960s. A talk and screening about the work of architects Ryder and Yates in Â鶹´«Ã½, including the proposal for the Tyne Deck was also held. JigsAudio will be at Baltic until 30 September. If you want to use JigsAudio for your project or are a school interested in receiving a JigsAudio kit, contact alexander.wilson@ncl.ac.uk. Share: Latest News Scientists unlock hidden driver of inflammatory bowel disease Scientists have linked a key genetic signal in inflammatory bowel disease to an immune response that shuts down inflammation control, enabling faster diagnosis and targeted treatments. published on: 15 June 2026 Funding system risks limiting genuine community collaboration A new policy paper written by researchers at Â鶹´«Ã½ warns that the way UK research is funded may be undermining efforts to create genuinely collaborative partnerships with communities. published on: 15 June 2026 Volunteers help turn Whitley Bay beach into maths experiment Members of the public joined mathematicians from Â鶹´«Ã½ to create what organisers believe is the largest aperiodic tiling ever attempted on Whitley Bay beach. published on: 15 June 2026 Facts and figures
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