News

We aim to update you every couple of weeks on the happenings of the Studio. The pace of projects is fast and there are always new exciting things to share. However, you may have noticed a slight delay to our regular update, due to myself (Rosie Cooke), settling into my new role as new Studio Assistant. Now in my second week in the Studio, I am able to share some of what I’ve experienced since my arrival. 

I was pleased to discover that I wasn’t the only new face in the studio. Creative coder and sound artist, Ashley James Brown, has recently commenced his stint as Artist in Residence, which will run throughout the summer. Ashley has swiftly made himself at home and been adopted into the Pervasive family, meeting with other residents, exploring concepts and process with producer Verity and creative technologist David, and starting to experiment with a number of ideas. One of Ashley’s first endeavours was, quite brilliantly, syncing his snack collection up to a security system so that he would receive a tweet should anyone steal his biscuits! Beyond these quick, fun hacks, Ashley is keen to take advantage of the time the residency affords him to explore and reflect on his own practice. Yesterday, he held a ‘work in progress’ event in which he gave an invited group of residents and friends an update on where he is so far, and invited feedback and suggestions on what to develop as he goes into the second half of this residency. At this moment Ashley is focussing on two distinct avenues – one making personal synths, which would hone in on his existing knowledge of sound, and another sea-shell-like objects that allow you to listen in to specially composed sounds of the sea. This project would call for him to develop new skills, and may perhaps be more routed in personal experiences. You can keep up to date with Ashley’s progress by reading his blog.

Also new to the Studio are our three New and Emerging Talent residents, using their three-month residency with us to explore three very different topics. Roz Dean will be piloting new ways of creating ‘sociable play’, Thomas Williams is fusing light and sound to create immersive musical experiences, and Vitória Maurício is exploring the potential for multi-functional, design-led prosthetics, which she hopes to develop into a customisable robotic hand. Now two weeks in, they have attended workshops and talks, swapped skills with each other, undertaken research and engaged with mentors and the wider Studio community. Roz, Thomas and Vitória have been writing a weekly blog, you can track their progress here.

With this year’s Playable City project in full-swing, we have welcomed back Anna and Sebastian from LAX, who are based here for a couple of weeks whilst we work together to develop some of the technical aspects of their project Urbanimals. This week we had a sneaky glimpse into how the individual animals, that will pop up around Bristol in the Autumn, will look and behave. This has added another dimension of beauty and depth to an already technically innovative project. Definitely one for Bristol to look out for.      

The excitement surrounding food has not waned since our last post, as James Wheale of Understory and fellow resident Tim Senior return to James’ kitchen – this time joined by DJ Yoda. The well-renowned DJ performed an exclusive set for test subject Annie, who had her brain scanned by Professor Chris Alford (UWE) and Tim throughout. The experiment was designed to explore the interplay between culture, music and flavour. To set control conditions, the latter was supplied by James who cooked up a twice-cooked Steak Bavette with smoked roasted garlic butter andbasil and orange zest, which DJ Yoda paired with a random assortment of musical treats to establish how an unrelated pairing of food and music reads on an EEG brain-scanner. New pairings were then offered - jerk monkfish with sweet potato, orange, home pickled red onion, cashew nut and spinach salad with Reggae and Dancehall; 12 hour slow cooked pulled pork with Understory smoked chocolate BBQ sauce with Dirty South Hip Hop; and traditional style chicken tikka, marinated for 24 hours, which was served alongside a mashup of Punjabi MC, Bhangra and Bollywood classics. The data is now being collected and compared. We look forward to hearing the results of the experiment, as well as DJ Yoda’s exclusive Kitchen Mix coming soon.                                                                                                              

Resident immersive theatre-makers Raucous are putting the finishing touches on their next production The Stick House, which will be running from 7 September – 17 October in the incredible Lo-co club in the tunnels under Bristol Temple Meads station. In the Studio we have been blown away by the (top secret) model set designs gracing Raucous’ desk, and we would strongly recommend purchasing your ticket before they run out.

The Stick House Trailer (Feb 2015) v1 from Maggie Dunning on Vimeo.

For those interested in the indie game scene, we would also recommend the latest publication from The Digital Cultures Research Centre’s Patrick Crogan. The Good Hubbing Guide is the major takeaway from the AHRC network on indie game collaboration that Patrick was leading in 2014-15. The Guide draws on work with the Bristol Games Hub and other indie game collectives in Europe, and is available to read online. 

With International Youth Day looming on the 12th August, residents Nth Screen have been busy developing an app for the coinciding global video event Time for Rights, celebrating the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. It has recently launched and is available for download on iPhone and Android. 

It has certainly been a whirlwind induction into the Pervasive world, and I feel so fortunate to be a part of the family. I look forward to what the next fortnight will bring – and will be armed with a camera to catch it and share with you when I blog again in two weeks.