You may remember us telling you about Tim’s upcoming trip to Nairobi, to run Culture Shift II Kenya for the British Council, a four-day creative sprint on the theme of the digital moving image. Well he has now returned from Kenya and written a fantastic blog post documenting his trip, which you can read here. He’s also been busy setting up his Android app for playing synchronised videos across an installation of mobile phones is currently touring in Fevered Sleep’s It’s the Skin You’re Living In.  It’s the Skin You’re Living is In is a multi-format film project that explores and challenges images of climate change. You can catch it in the Foyer of the Bristol Old Vic on the 19-23 March, as well as a whole host of other places around the country – tour dates can be found on Fevered Sleep’s website.  

On Sunday resident Mandy Rose spoke on a panel at Between the Lines, a conference looking at the changing landscape in documentary, reporting, broadcast and new media. The panel she spoke on was Storytelling in the New Landscape – The Medium of the message. It looked at how technological change in filmmaking has influenced the way stories are crafted - the first films shot with handheld cameras allowed unprecedented access to events, and later, digital cameras made it cheaper to produce films. Now, stories can be told in a non-linear fashion through different platforms, or made interactive. You can find out more about Mandy’s collaborative documentary project ‘Are you Happy?’ on her website here.  

On Wednesday REACT held their second Books&Print Sandbox workshop, which went brilliantly. The enthusiasm, energy and real engagement of the teams and advisors was fantastic. They tweaked the format a bit this time, in response to some super helpful feedback from everyone, and invited adviser Kim Plowright to lead the afternoon with a focus on stories and endings. Book Kernel ran their first test at the workshop, they have loads to work out with further dates planned, but the culmination was pretty special. After the afternoon coffee break a flushed and slightly baffled cycle courier arrived and (to a spontaneous round of applause) produced a bound book of their morning session from his bag - complete with context, blog posts, photos, tweets and discussion. You can read more about the day on the Books&Print microsite.

If you have been avidly following the REACT updates, and wish you were involved then you’re in luck as they’re looking for a sparky, independent and experienced producer to manage and support a dynamic portfolio of collaborative digital projects. REACT currently runs three funding programmes, and are looking for additional producer support for two of these - the development (up to £15k) and prototyping (up to £30k) funds. The successful applicant will join the team to manage a number of these projects (the portfolio is expected to be up to 10 projects) – working with the funding recipients to ensure they are as innovative and well produced as they can be. You can find out more about the post on the REACT website here.

At the start of this year Watershed commissioned makers Heidi Hinder, Chloe Meineck and Patrick Laing to research new projects at the intersection of craft, technology and culture. This week Grace (Watershed’s Online Publishing Assistant) caught up with Heidi to find out more about her project and her progress. You can read an interview with Heidi about her project Money No Object, and experimenting with wearable RFID,via tap dancing and hugging on the Watershed site here.
 
Helen White our communicating science resident has blogged about balancing art and science communication on the iShed site here. She posted that as ‘Science and art have very different objectives, how can I find the equilibrium between communicating science and making an experience for an audience?’ You can read the whole post here.

Will Luton was on the Jury for the Bafta Game Awards Mobile & Handheld category 2013, which The Walking Dead by Dan Connors, Kevin Bruner, Kevin Boyle won. You can find out more about the awards, winners and nominations on the Bafta Games website here. Will also had his article ‘What Magic: The Gathering can teach game developers’ published in USA magazine, Game Developer. You can also read the article online on Gamasutra.

Calvium are working away on a number of projects and developments. Jo is preparing for an AppFurnance workshop in London, and they are busy planning an exciting sound walk in Copenhagen. You can stay up to date with the latest Calvium news on their website and on twitter.

nu desine have had a busy few weeks getting ready to send the first of their Elite AlphaSphere’s, and will be shipping this week. They’re also preparing for the UK release this summer. To find out the latest updates and exclusive videos check out their website here.

Finally don’t forget to join us today at 1pm as Studio alumni Slingshot will be giving a free Lunchtime Talk. With 2.8 now established and touring the UK, Slingshot and technology appear to be rekindling their romance. Simon Evans will be joining us to talk about some new and recent projects that reach deep into the pervasive media toolkit, from bio-sensing to robot spider cars, as they develop the next generation of their games.