It has been a busy week in the Studio as the Recife: The Playable City workshop participants sprint through their last week and prepare for their showcase. Read on to find out more:

The Recife: The Playable City project is in full swing, and ideas are ricocheting off the walls. A number of mysterious prototypes have made their way into the Studio. The group of participating creatives, technologists and producers from the UK and Perambuco region of Brazil are investigating the theme of the playable city. Many of the projects that are being discussed seek to re-animate unloved urban areas, and to help re-connect residents of these areas with play. The ideas being explored range from creating interactive telescopes to discover a beautiful city, a series of freestanding doorways installed around the city, that tell the story of the city, and furnishing thousands of individuals with interactive lights, as an investigation into crowd decision making and play. The workshop culminates in a showcase, which is taking place today in our Lunchtime Talk slot. We can’t wait to see what has emerged from these collaborations and the wonderful theme they are exploring when the sprint continues in Brazil in April.

The Studio was featured, alongside resident companies, nu desine and Calvium in Observer Tech Monthly’s feature on Bristol and Bath’s leading tech startups. The article was about the flourishing of new-generation tech companies, and Clare spoke about why it makes so much sense for this kind of creative technology community to be based in Bristol: "Partly because of its size, in that it's highly connected, not too massive, and you're able to find other people to collaborate with," says Reddington. "I think not being in London is a very big plus if you're doing experimental projects." Read the whole article here.

Applicants have been shortlisted for interview for REACT’s Objects Sandbox. The scheme invites creatives, technologists and researchers to collaborate, exploring the possibilities of new design for objects connected to the internet. As well as Objects, the theme of Future Documentary is also being explored as part of a Sandbox scheme. Visit the Objects and Future Documentary micro-sites to find out more.

There are three opportunities for 18-24 year olds to work with Bristol Youth Links, designing, creating and choosing online content about what’s on and what’s important to young people in Bristol. The Deadline for applications is 5pm on Monday 20 January, so If you are interested or if you know someone who might be, get in there quick. Find out more here.

Watershed is holding its quarterly TimeBank sessions on 19 February. The scheme invites creatives, technologists and cultural organisations who are exploring the use of digital technologies in their work to meet with the Watershed team to share thoughts, learn from mistakes and give examples of related work. If you’re interested, you can book a half an hour session between 10:00 and 15:30 to discuss specific questions/areas of interest. Find out more here.

We’re all looking forward to next week’s Lunchtime Talk, where we’ll be joined by Sam Phippen, who’ll be explaining the benefits of Bitcoin in his talk: Forget the economy, acquire Cryptocurrency. Sam will explain what makes this controversial currency so robust, and tell us what he thinks its future holds. Find out more about the other talks we have lined up here.