As we get ready to revel in birthday celebrations, we gear up for the 3rd year of the Playable City Award, welcome new residents to the Studio and see David, our Creative Technologist getting stuck into a lot of exciting project-tinkering.

Hello Lamp Post went live in Austin Texas yesterday. Pan Studio were the inaugural winners of the Playable City Award in 2013, and have re-created their Hello Lamp Post project for South by South West 2015. The project allows people to text street furniture, and in doing so, have a conversation with the whole city. The Playable City Award 2015 call out is fast upon us, and will be live by the end of the month. Follow @PlayableCity to stay in the loop.


A good number of residents and residents’ works are touring this month… nu desine’s Diego will set off to Hong Kong next Monday. He will be joining founder Adam Place to stay near the AlphaSphere production line as they launch their crowdfunding campaign for the new, entry-level AlphaSphere Me. Although we are sad to see him go, and the Studio won’t be the same without his cheeky sense of humour, we are really excited for nu desine as they continue to move from strength to strength.

Artwork from Sabrina Shirazi’s vibrant Cuisine + Colour experience is being shown at the Nave Gallery in Sommerville Massachusetts as part of their Food as Art exhibition. Sabrina’s other project, Affix will be live at Strike a Light festival in Gloucester this March. Local Cuisine + Colour events are in the pipeline, so keep an eye on upcoming dates here.

Anagram have just been commissioned to develop a night-time audio experience for the Tower of London. The project is very much in its early stages, but Amy and May are looking into using wearables (‘iridescent cloaks’ have been mentioned...!) to trigger narrative.

Exciting developments are underway for two of our resident app companies, Nth Screen and Daredevil Project. Daredevil project have beta launched their competitive photo sharing app, Duel, and it is available to download. We have been having a lot of fun testing it out at the Studio. The Daredevil team have been playing up to their reputation using the app to challenge each other with office pranks…

Nth Screen is due to beta launch next week. The app will allow for synchronised filming across multiple devices, creating a rich texture of multi-angle footage that can be collected into an editable montage. Tim is excited to see what kinds of contexts the app can be used in, and is eager to work with anyone from skydivers to artists to protestors to try it out. If you have an idea, make sure you get hold of the app and have a play. Follow @Nthscreen for updates.

We welcomed two new Studio residents into the fold this week. Mike O’Connor has joined to work on the high performance computer programming for danceroom Spectroscopy. He has been working on the project for years, but his work for the company has now become more regular, as he is playing a large part in the danceroom Spectroscopy tour (next stop Butan).

Satragni Sarkar has joined Strange Thoughts to train Homer 2.0 (here is a video of the prototype model) to be the best mind-controlled, beer-pouring robot you have ever seen... Sato is currently studying an MSC in Advanced computing at the University of Bristol. We are really delighted to have them both here. Since they have arrived, we have already heard some brilliant new project ideas being bounced about at the back of the Studio.

Our Creative Technologist David has been working with residents, tinkering with teacups and tables on a few exciting projects that are being developed in the Studio at the moment. He and Sarah Angliss have been working on simple, unobtrusive methods of capturing the motion of a teacup when people drink from it for Sarah’s residency project, Trace. They have fashioned a motion capture method using fadecandy, neopixel LED rings and a frosted glass table. Attaching the LED ring to the bottom of the cup and filming it from underneath the table means they can track its distance, tilt and rotation.

David has also been working with Katie Day, developing a follow on from her 2008 production, Black Tonic. This new production will be touring to Bristol, Birmingham and Bradford at the end of September, and Watershed will be its Bristol Partner. David has specifically been helping with the development of a magic card table, which will trigger layers of a soundscape while people play, imparting a narrative.