It’s been a busy week in the Studio with lots of fantastic events and the launch of the Bristol Games Hub just up the road. Read on to find out what’s been happening in the Studio:

As of Monday Studio resident Mandy Rose, the producer of award-winning digital media initiatives including the BBC’s ground-breaking Video Nation project has been appointed as director of UWE Bristol’s Digital Cultures Research Centre (DCRC). The centre embedded in the Studio brings together art and design, computer science, cultural and media studies to explore how people make culture through their use of digital communications. Mandy has been involved in the DCRC through her research project ‘Are You Happy?’ which recently launched at The Festival Of Ideas. You can find out more about Mandy’s project on her website.

On Tuesday Clare, Verity and lots of Studio residents headed over to Stokes Croft for the exciting launch of the Games Hub. Bristol Games Hub has been set up by Studio alumni Auroch Design and Opposable Games and, like us, is based on an open and collaborative model of participation, which means residency in the Hub is about being part of the wider gaming community. They run workshops, events and knowledge share sessuions to help strengthen the South West gaming community. You can find out more about the hub on their website.  

Wednesday was a super exciting day for Studio resident Will Luton as the first physical copy of his book was delivered to the Studio. Over the last six months games designer and consultant Will has been in the Studio writing ‘Free-to-Play: Making Money From Games You Give Away.’ In the book Will explains how to use the business model that has revolutionized the video games industry, creating huge hits, multi-billion dollar start-ups and a new deal for players: Play for free, spend on what you like. You can order a copy here.

On Thursday afternoon we hosted the Best Of British Indie games network meet up, founded by Will. They had a number of brilliant people speaking including Will himself and indie games developer Alistair Aitcheson, Jake Birkett from Grey Alien Games and Cas Prince from Puppy Games. They then headed over to the bar for some networking. If you interested in getting involved or want to find out more drop them an email on info@bestofbritishgames.com

Then in the evening we were excited to host The Games hub Kickstarter and Crowd Funding Knowledge Share. The turnout was really good and it was great to hear from people with personal experience about running successful and unsuccessful kickstarter campaigns. You can find out more about their Knowledge share sessions on the games hub website here.

Victoria Forrest has published ‘Thames Trail’ an audio and visual history photo walk app of the Greenwich riverside. You can find out more and download it here.  

This week Vanessa also created an awesome storify about the project she produced at Mayfest, The Memory Dealer. Somewhere between theatre, game and out-of-body-experience, the audience enter that world and become part of a story, which is revealed by headphone audio, media installations and encounters with live performers. You can check out tweets, pictures and reviews of the show here.

As you may now know, Watershed and the University of Bristol are disrupting normal residency service and inviting a magician, artist, illusionist or designer to join them for a spell of exploration into creative ideas that blend technology, interaction design, magic and illusion. This is your last weekend to get your applications in so don’t delay as applications close on Monday!

Today we published a write-up of last Friday’s fantastic Lunchtime Talk by two of our Studio Residents, Tim Kindberg and Charlotte Crofts about their REACT funded project The Nth Screen. The Nth Screen is a multi-device, multi-segment film is for people to enjoy and discuss together in social, co-located groups. Each participant unlocks part of the film by connecting their device. The other devices respond to their presence, to reveal further film segments. If you want to find out more check out the talk write-up here.

Finally next Friday we’re very excited to have Studio resident Nello Cristianini, professor of Artificial Intelligence within the Intelligent Systems Laboratory of the University of Bristol. He will introduce his work on, amongst other things, using the content of social media services such as twitter to reveal the mood of a nation. To find out what talks are upcoming check out our events page.