Make Shift Meetups are a space for early career creatives to come together in the Pervasive Media Studio on the first Tuesday evening of each month.

This is an opportunity to meet other creatives in the city, learn from established practitioners, exchange ideas and think about next steps in your creative career in a welcoming environment.

Each month we have a guest who works professionally in the creative industries who will speak about their work and can give advice. Guest speakers will be experts in their field, from VR filmmakers to finance managers, through to researchers and designers.

In May we are joined by:

Harmeet Chagger-Khan, Creative Director and Founder of Surfing Light Beams who create immersive experiences and playable adventures.  Applying research with new technology, across stories and games, Harmeet creates positive behaviour change through socially engaged practice, by placing communities and people at the heart of the process.

Helen Brown, a Behaviourial Scientist with a varied background in psychology, research and digital product design. For several years, Helen has worked in industry as a content and user-experience designer, specialising in apps that support behaviour change. Helen holds a PhD in psychology and human-computer interaction and is interested in how AI has the potential to impact our relationship to information and sense of connection.

Sharon Clark, an award-winning writer/dramaturge for stage and film and Creative Director of Raucous, a site responsive theatre company that fuses performance, music, film, AR, AI and creative technology. Sharon’s explorations into writing/directing for theatre with digital technology/AR/AI have led to fellowships with the RSC and Magic Leap, SWCTN and Bristol+Bath Creative Clusters. Sharon is also a senior lecturer at UWE in the fields of writing for performance and writing for immersion.

In this workshop style session, Harmeet, Helen and Sharon will introduce Kinship Wayfinder, a multi-user playable experience they are collaboratively developing, that uses Artificial Intelligence to foster connections between disconnected people. They will guide us through an exploration of themes and questions around the dynamics of building trust, kindness and creating friendships, and using AI to bring people together to enable that.

Benefits of Make Shift

  • Find out about Watershed, the Pervasive Media Studio and what we offer to South West based creatives
  • A chilled space where you can meet and chat with other creatives
  • Talks from creative practitioners on anything from finding funds for your project to how to do your tax return

Timings

5:30pm - Drop in and get to see the space

6:00pm - Check in

6:30pm-8:30pm - Session with Harmeet, Helen and Sharon

Don't worry if you can't make it for the beginning of the session or stay for the whole session.

Accessibility

  • The Pervasive Media Studio is wheelchair accessible and there is an accessible and gender neutral toilet.
  • There is a baby change area.
  • We have a dedicated quiet room where there is low lighting, sofas, bean bags and space to lie down. This is away from the general open space of the Studio.

If drop in events aren't accessible for you, please email studio@watershed.co.uk to book in. When you book in, we will link you up with a member of our team who will reach out to find out where you would like them to meet you and what time you will arrive. That team member can also arrange a time for you to visit the Studio for a 1-2-1 tour so you can familiarise yourself with our space before attending. We have a dedicated quiet space and dedicated quiet desks area, which all visitors are welcome to use.

About Pervasive Media Studio

The Pervasive Media Studio hosts an international community of over 100 artists, companies, technologists, and academics exploring experience design and creative technology. We are a space for risk taking and early ideas; for the kind of projects and questions that inhabit the meeting points of art, technology, and society.