First Friday is a monthly social event open to anyone. These events are somewhere between the last meeting of the week and the first event of your weekend. You might meet an artist or an engineer, a school teacher or a city leader. It is a place to connect with someone you might not otherwise meet, and hear about stuff you didn’t already know. All are welcome - from inside and outside the city, online or in the Watershed building.

May's Event

May's event is part of the opening night of Diverse Artists Network’s (DAN) DIASPORA! Festival.

People joining us in person will have the opportunity to have a look around Pervasive Media Studio and to find out more about some of the work that happens here. There will also be some equipment set up to chat with people joining the event remotely.

As well as the chance to socialise in the Studio, attendees joining the event in person will also get to see a selection of work by some of our Studio Residents. Residents sharing work include:

• Tanuja Amarasuriya & Timothy X Atack (Sleepdogs)
• Michael Jenkins (8th Sense Media)
• Compass Presents

Check back here later for more information on the work being shared.

People joining online can participate in short speed networking conversations, facilitated by our chat roulette style software. You will be paired up at random for a series of five minute conversations, one-to-one with other guests. There is an option to take a break between each chat and you are welcome to pop in and out whenever you like. It's fine to join the event late and leave the event early.

The hosted element of the event will finish at 18:00. After that, in person attendees are welcome to continue conversations in the Café & Bar.

About the 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. It's 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.

Projects span play, robotics, location-based media, food, connected objects, interactive documentary, new forms of performance and more.

It's an open plan studio with a culture if generosity, curiosity, and interruptibility. We believe that by clustering people together from a broad range of backgrounds, with differing skills, experience, and opinions, all of our ideas become better.

Join the First Friday mailing list here.

First Friday aims to provide a space for artists to share their work. This is an act of vulnerability and openness and we ask you to meet it with respectful communication and constructive feedback, in keeping with the Watershed's values.

This event is supported by MyWorld.