This week has been jam packed with exciting award announcements, Encounters 0117 film showcase and planning for two fantastic Lunchtime Talks next week. Read on to find out more..

Last Friday saw the showcase of Encounters 0117 challenge, part of a series of Bristol Temple Quarter commissions. The 0117 Hour Digital Short Challenge invited filmmakers, animators, visual and sound artists from across the land to make digital shorts in just 117 hours, focused on the theme of 'Journeys' and exploring Bristol Temple Quarter. We were super impressed by all the films we’ve seen, but check out the awesome winning short documentary here.   

On Saturday Studio residents Tom Abba and Duncan Speakman from artists collective Circumstance, launched their an extraordinary new project These Pages Fall Like Ash. They have developed These Pages Fall Like Ash as part of the latest REACT Sandbox, exploring new ways of looking at Books and Print and the digital novel. The project runs until 8 May so it’s not to late to take part, you can find out more and book your tickets on the Watershed website here.

This week REACT announced the next round of projects that they are supporting through their Strategic & Pump Priming funds. Designed to support collaborations to take their first steps or to fund the development of a proto-type, the funds allows projects to work outside of the chosen themes and over longer time scales. One of the Strategic funded projects is The Shadow Within. This collaboration will work with the intensely personal work produced by photographer Léonie Hampton in her project In the Shadow of Things. The project documents Léonie's mother’s obsessive-compulsive disorder. Peter Metelerkamp from the University of Bristol and Studio resident Victoria Forrest will investigate immersive ways to explore and represent this multimedia archive via a photographic app/book. You can read more about the project on the REACT website.

Studio residents Tim Kindberg and Charlotte Crofts have also received REACT pump priming funding for their project The Nth Screen. The Nth Screen asks what happens when we reimagine film for groups. By turning a group of mobile phones and tablet computers into a set of co-ordinated screens for watching multi-segment films, Charlotte and Tim will explore how film viewing becomes social and communal. They will be holding a workshop with filmmakers in early May, and then working with Hazel Grian as director to make a short Nth Screen feature over the coming months. You can find out more on Tim’s blog here.

If the above projects have sparked your interest, then check out this awesome opportunity to work with the REACT team. They are looking for an experienced, curious, collaborative producer to join REACT to curate, produce and manage REACT’s Objects Sandbox scheme. You will have the ability to understand new ideas and where they need support. You will be a curator of people, understanding how to form collaborations and mobilize networks. You will have an interest in the Internet of Things and have a flexible, adventurous and collaborative approach to work. To read the job description and apply for the position visit the Watershed website here.

Studio residents Ben Gwalchmai & James Wheale have been awarded one of the Writing Platform Burseries awarding writer-technologist partnerships. They will work on a digital literature project for three months between April and June. At the end of this time they will present a piece of work or a prototype at Bath Spa’s Mix Day on 17th July and the work will be showcased on both The Writing Platform and The Literary Platform. You can find out more, and read about the other bursary recipients here.

On Wednesday tickets went on sale for Rik Lander’s project The Memory Dealer. The Memory Dealer is a play that takes place in several places across the city starting at Watershed. It is a form of interactive theatre where the audience becomes part of the story. Check our their website  to find out more information, watch the trailer and book tickets.  

On Thursday the DCRC published a blog about the first all-female games jam they funded in October of last year. The XX Games Jam, which was hosted by Helen Kennedy and produced by Debbie Rawlings of Auroch Digital, was a huge success and was even picked up by the BBC. Helen and Debbie are currently in conversation with XX Game Jams 2012 sponsors and supporters about where to host the next event – which will hopefully take place later in 2013. The DCRC will be running some XX workshops on 14/15 May and 21/22 May, so anyone interested should contact aurochdigital@gmail.com.

This Tuesday coming (30 April) we are super excited to be to be presenting a very special, one-off lunchtime talk in collaboration with UWEs Digital Cultures Research Centre with Ken Eklund. Game and experience designer Ken Eklund has long been interested in the positive social effects of collaborative experiences and open-ended, creative play. In work such as WORLD WITHOUT OIL, GISKIN ANOMALY and ED ZED OMEGA he explores how contributing to "authentic fictions" ( real-seeming yet fictional stories) engage people directly in real-world issues and have fun collaborating on storymaking, positive solutions and action. This lunchtime talk is free and available to all. Booking is not required but we recommend that you arrive a little early to avoid disappointment as seats will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Then on Friday join us for a Lunchtime Talk from Studio resident Ruth Farrar. Ruth will be talking about her project From Bristol to Brooklyn: In Search of Soundmarks' (an audio equivalent of landmarks). In New York, she recently launched two sound art interactive websites where listeners can create and send audio postcards and now is bringing them back to Bristol. Come along to find out more about an alternative, audio method of sharing impressions of places.