This week, we had dancing, play, workshops, a beautiful trailer and a tearful goodbye:

It is time to announce, with a heavy heart, that this is Calvium’s last week in the Studio. Our wonderful app developing residents have been a part of the Studio since the very beginning. They have been an incredible asset to the Studio, particularly in making mobile technologies accessible to other residents. While expanding their own practise, Calvium collaborated on projects such as Charlotte Crofts’ award winning Curzon Memories app, and ANAGRAM’s ground breaking immersive documentary, Door Into the Dark. Their DIY development tool, AppFurnace has become an essential prototyping tool for Studio residents, and they have contributed hours upon hours of their time in expertise and advice to the Studio community. The truth is, Calvium have outgrown the nest. The team have doubled in size in the last few months, and so they are hopping across the river to an office of their own, where they can continue to grow. Luckily for us, when we say river, we don’t mean the Atlantic, the Channel or the Severn. Calvium will remain a stones throw away, on the other side of the floating harbour, and will continue to be an important part of the Studio community.

On Tuesday, the Studio rang with the voices of many excited 7-12 year olds, as REACT hosted the Young Coaches here for a Play Sandbox workshop. The group visited the Wallace and Gromit exhibition at MShed before making their way to the Aardman Studios to watch animations and sculpt their own Morphs. They then came to the Studio to talk about memorable playful experiences they have had this Summer, and what ingredients are needed to create a fun, playful experience. On Monday, the children are going to feed into the decision making process for which proposed Play Sandbox projects get funding. This has never been done before, and REACT are keen to make sure that every young coach has a chance to express their thoughts. They have been helping the young coaches to devise their own ways of sharing their opinions on the projects.

Choreographer, technologist and performer Laura Kriefman has been working with composer Lee J Malcolm on their new performance, Kicking the Mic. The project fuses tap dance, looping, live Midi manipulation of sound and wearable tech. They are half way through rehearsals, and have been testing the material with different audiences. On Wednesday, they set up a test performance in the Studio to gather feedback from Studio residents and to fine-tune some of the different elements of the show. They are heading up to Leeds next week to do another performance. The project is really taking shape, and Laura plans to add some interactive elements to her performance, possibly opening up the reactive dance floor for people to dance on themselves.

We are very excited to announce that REACT is partnering with London Design Festival and Brompton Design District to Showcase Objects Sandbox at Christie's in late September. The exhibit will showcase brand new products, which explore possible experiences in the Internet of Things. Each product has been developed by teams of globally renowned designers and academics including Uniform, BioBeats, Kinneir Dufort & Play Nicely, as part of this year’s REACT Objects Sandbox scheme. REACT will also be running a parallel event at the V&A Digital Design Weekend, where they will present prototypes of the Objects Sandbox products.

If you want to catch a glimpse of what might happen under a street lamp near you this autumn, watch the new Shadowing trailer. The project will be installed in a scattering of locations across the city this autumn, and will be launching at the end of the Making the City Playable Conference. Speaking of which, if you are interested in attending the conference, book your tickets now, as we are down to the last few. Studio Residents Circumstance are bringing unique performance, A Folded Path to Bristol for the evening before the conference. The performance invites the audience to become the city’s orchestra, creating soundscapes while walking on a choreographed journey through the streets. Read more about the project and book your tickets here.

Professor Alex Bentley, the Head of Archaeology & Anthropology Department at Bristol University, held a workshop in the Studio this week. The workshop was focussed around how social sciences can cope with advances in human-computer interaction, intelligent information processing, data analytics, information and knowledge sharing. Alex has a few links with the Studio; he is a collaborator on one of the Objects Sandbox projects, Reflector, and he gave a fascinating talk about his research into collective decision making in the Studio last year.