Cultural cinema and digital creativity centre in Bristol UK

At the showcase event last night we presented all three tapping machines responding to live GPS data from three volunteer walkers infront of a live audience for the first time. It was great to hear the feedback from people about the sound and the experience of walking with the space metronome app. The walkers described how it felt to know that they were creating a performance at a distance, tapping away at an audience through their own movement.

There was a great moment as the audience was arriving when we noticed all the tapping machines speed up, and later heard that the walkers had met up and decided to run together.

This is a video clip that we shot just before the audience arrived. The machines are set up to tap on the furniture and objects that would be used during the talk. In future installations the intention is that the movements of people through the city will tap out rhythms on the infrastructure of a building.

Laura Sillars asked really inciteful questions about the work, that helped to get into the what, who, where and why of the project. A video of the showcase will be on the Dshed website shortly.

The project is going to continue, and we were experimenting with the devices right up to the last minute,  this is a stacked version in the studio:

In the short-term future we will be finishing a set of 6 tapping machines that can be exhibited at festivals. In the long term I will develop a set of up to 20 tapping machines for gallery exhibition. Some of the machines will be controlled by participants coming to the exhibition, while others will be carried by people who regularly travel around the city, bus drivers, cycle couriers, ferries etc.

Its been a great experience to spend time working here, to work with the network of people involved in the studio and to research and produce a working prototype of a new work. In retrospect it seemed like a very fast process, but we've achieved an incredible amount, thanks to the hard work of Dan Williams who has made the mobile app and the tapping machines and producer Victoria Tillotson who made everything else happen!

A huge thanks to everyone here, I hope I’ll be back in the future!