Cultural cinema and digital creativity centre in Bristol UK

In February 2012, the British Council and Watershed brought together twelve artists and designers from across East Asia and the UK, for a five-day sprint at Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio around the theme of The Playable City.

Play is a compelling and powerful tool. It can change behaviour; transform perceptions of space; and inspire audiences to participate and contribute, rather than simply observe. For this sprint, participants will work together to experiment and prototype playful interventions that use creative technologies to rethink public space.

Drawn from across cultures and disciplines, participants from the UK were installation artist Tine Bech, designer Julian Sykes, sound artist Kathy Hinde, visual artist Mathew Trivett and product designer Vahakn Matossian. International guests included Australian theatre makers Leticia Cáceres and Angela Betzien of RealTV, Japanese product designer/sound artist Yuri Suzuki, also from Japan visual artist Megumi Matsubara, Korean duo Bang & Lee, and Malaysian composer Ng Chor Guan.

Setting out to catalyse an active community of peer learning and development, this five-day Sprint formed a platform for critical and technical investigation of ideas through a process of discussion, sharing, making and testing; and allowed participants to make valuable connections that will last well beyond the end of the project.

Watch the project film here

Read updates from the week below; project journals here; and see images that Manami Yuasa from the British Council took here.

The Playable City Sprint is a Watershed initiative delivered in collaboration with the British Council.