The Studio is looking spritely in the sunshine, and we have reason to be in a good mood, as we receive exciting applications for this year’s Playable City Award, hear news from Brazil at the end of the Recife: The Playable City sprint, and celebrate man’s first space flight with an intergalactic disco and some cubesat cake. Read on to find out more...

The Recife: The Playable City cultural exchange cohort had their showcase in Brazil on Friday. iShed director Clare, Producer Victoria and Creative Technologist David have spent the last couple of weeks in Brazil running the lab. Participants of the lab include Studio residents Rosie, Phil and Laura, among a lively group of artists and technologists from both the UK and Brazil. A number of exciting and playful projects have emerged from the group’s exploration of the Playable City concept, involving musical pressure points installed on walls around the city, illuminated boats that change colour at different hotspots along Recife’s Capibaribe river, and a project to wake up legendary characters from the city’s history as part of a city-wide story-telling experience. Read the participants’ journal entries to find out more about the projects, and have a look at the Recife: The Playable City Storify to see some wonderful pictures of what they got up to over the course of the lab, and the monkey that they met over breakfast.

On the subject of Playable Cities, applications for this year’s Playable City Award have now closed. 78 projects, which seek to stage playful interventions on the streets of Bristol this summer, have been submitted from 26 countries, and the shortlisting process has now begun. The finalists will be announced at the end of April, and the winner will be announced in June. Follow @PlayableCity to be kept up to date with it all.

Studio-based app development company, Calvium are currently developing one of their AppTrails for an exciting new project by Pilot-Theatre; Cycle of Songs. Pilot and Historyworks will be gathering songs and stories from Cambridge locals to be used in a citywide sound walk app celebrating the launch of the Tour de France in Cambridge on July 7th.

REACT have published six Future Documentary Sandbox films, which share the stories of the six projects involved in the year-long scheme. If you missed the Showcase, or want to see the films again, watch them here. The six Objects Sandbox projects are well under way. Have a read of Objects Producer, Tom’s blog about what the participants are getting up to at the Studio Workshops, and have a look at this wonderful vine, summing up The God Article project in 7 seconds.

Last week, Studio Producer Verity spoke as part of the alumni at Bristol University’s Media Careers Conference. She spoke to the students about curating and producing projects, the way the Studio works, and the Playable City Award. Perhaps a few of the Students listening in the wings at the conference will become part of the Studio cohort a few years down the line.

Studio resident, Paul Archer is looking for a Mobile Developer to help prototype app of Daredevil Project’s new social photo challenge game. This peer-to-peer real-world game is based on the structure of Daredevil Project’s event games, but is designed to be played by individuals using their phone. Email paul@daredevilproject.com for more information.

Over the weekend, the Studio was host to Bristol’s Yuri’s Night World Space Party, where space enthusiasts gathered to celebrate Yuri Gagarin’s first space flight in 1961. Resident Helen White’s husband Andy Spaceland played intergalactic tunes, a platter of space food was put out (including CubeSat cake) and there was a showing and a recreation of Yuri Gagarin’s first orbit of the earth. The NASA Launch of KickSat mission, co-created by members of PocketSpacecraft.com is due to happen very soon, keep an eye out for the date and time by following @myspacecraft.