We are delighted to announce the recipients of Watershed’s Artists Residency 2011 programme, funded by Arts Council England. Earlier this year, we launched a call for ideas by South West artists, that set out to explore the intersection of art, pervasive technologies and culture. There were two residencies on offer: an Open Residency, available to artists from varied disciplines; and a Music and Sonic Art Residency, open to artists’ whose projects had a focus on sound.

The Open Residency has been awarded to The Stick House, a theatre piece inspired by the magical writing of Angela Carter. This new piece will fuse live performance, music and pervasive media into a darkly haunting, yet beautiful experience. Working in collaboration, writer Sharon Clark and creative technologist Tom Burton will not only set out to create an exciting piece of performance, but will research how psychological affectors, such as low-level noise, lighting, touch and feel, in combination with pervasive technologies, can create more immersive experiences.

The Music and Sonic Art Residency has been awarded to the Guerilla Dance Project (GDP) and is additionally supported by Sound and Music, and St George’s Bristol as part of their residency project with conductor Charles Hazlewood. The innovative dance company, led by choreographer Laura Kriefman, create works that explore our social interactions with objects within everyday environments. (Check out their great newspaper reading choreography at: http://vimeo.com/19380149). Working in collaboration with composer Tim Bamber and interactive experience designer Robin Ray, GDP will take the historical building of St George’s concert hall as a departure point for the project. They will explore how site-specific compositions played out through pervasive sound machines, combined with movement and interaction, can encourage us to reflect on the beauty that permeates our daily routines and the everyday spaces we inhabit.

Over the next two months, both collaborations will spend supported time at the Studio to develop their projects. We invite you to follow their progress online at www.pmstudio.co.uk/project/artists-residencies-2011 and share your opinions at a number of public events and happenings - details of these will be posted to the events section of the Pervasive Media Studio website shortly.

In the meantime, we’re pleased to invite you to our first event that will take place on Thursday 31 March, 3-5pm, at the Pervasive Media Studio. For more information visit: http://www.pmstudio.co.uk/events/thu-31032011-300pm