This week, in the heat of it all, we have carried on shouting from the rooftops about Play Sandbox and this year's Artist Residency, we hosted some brilliant talks given by Studio Residents, and we announced the launch of graphic novel, Indigo Babies.

Last Friday, Studio residents Tom Metcalfe, Simon Moreton and Tim Senior shared their insights into collaboration and user experience within the Internet of Things. The talk prompted an interesting discussion about what the ‘internet of things’ actually means, and the ethical issues surrounding the theme, which will be written about in the talk write-up, to be published next week. Have a look at the Objects Sandbox site to find out more about all of the six projects exploring ‘connected objects’ in surprising new ways, and make sure to read the journal entries, documenting the projects’ progress.

REACT are still open to expressions of interest for their forthcoming Play Sandbox. If you are a creative company or individual and are interested in working with children to develop toys, games, connected objects or immersive experiences, email joanna.lansdown@watershed.co.uk , and if you’re quick you might still get a place.

We are also still calling out for wonderful people who are interested in exploring ideas at the point where art, culture and technology meet to apply for this year’s Studio Artist Residency, so if you’re Rodin with a Raspberry Pi or Malevich with MIDI, apply here.

Our current artist in residence, Sarah Angliss, gave a work-in-progress talk this afternoon about her current project, Trace. Sarah is a wonderful blend of musician, puppeteer, and roboticist. She has been working with David, our creative technologist to combine 20th Century motion capture techniques with 18th Century CAM technology, to heighten the uncanny in automata. We'll be featuring a write-up of the talk on this site in more detail next week, so keep your eyes peeled. To find out more about Sarah, visit her website or the Trace project page.

This week saw the launch of Indigo Babies, a graphic novel following the story of a group of youngsters in Bristol, aka the Purple City. Indigo Babies has been published by Creative Youth Network and UWE research partners, South Blessed. The project emerged out of the AHRC and EPSRC funded Creative Citizens research project, involving the DCRC, looking into how people involved in everyday informal, creative activities add value to their communities. The Indigo Babies story is the creation of South Blessed founder, Vince Baidoo, a 25-year old transmedia producer and budding social entrepreneur, who has built an impressive online platform for young creative talent in the South West. Vince worked with renowned Bristol street artist Wei Ong, aka Silent Hobo, to create a richly illustrated comic book about a group of tech-savvy, eco-aware and socially enterprising young people aspiring to create a better world. As part of the launch, taking place at street art gallery, Weapon of Choice at 18:00 today, Grafitti artist decorated the wall just underneath the famous Park Street Banksy with some of his designs.