Week commencing 3 September:

It’s been a busy week as usual in the Studio as our wonderful community of residents have been preparing for some fantastic events coming up later this month. September is jam-packed full of exciting things to get involved with; from the return of our Lunchtime Talks, to app workshops, and brilliant games festivals, there really is something for everyone...  

This week Tim Kindberg has been organising a discussion session called ‘African Interactive: The Moving Image.’ Led by Tim and Zimbabwean film maker Simon Bright the session is for anyone interested in sharing their experiences and thoughts about the film industries in Africa, looking specifically at the opportunities presented by digital and mobile technologies for filmmaking, distribution and exhibition. If you’re interested in finding out more or attending ‘African Interactive: The Moving Image’ visit their website here.

Jo from Calvium has been preparing for their App development workshops, which give arts organisations, the chance to explore how to develop compelling, content-rich mobile phone applications. The sessions taking place in Bristol, Falmouth and Plymouth aim to provide knowledge and practical skills to enhance the digital capacity of each organization. You can find out more about the workshops Calvium offer here.

Vanessa’s been blogging about ‘Uninvited Guests’ and Duncan Speakman’s upcoming trip to Guimarães, Portugal. Later this month they will be heading out to Portugal to run auditions for their new mobile performance ‘Give Me Back My Broken Night’. You can read Vanessa’s blog, and find out more about the project on the Open City website here.

Meanwhile Laura Kriefman, founder of Guerilla Dance Project has been preparing to take her pervasive sound machines ‘The Rolling Stones,’ to Hide & Seek’s amazing games Weekender. The Rolling Stones are Henry Moore-esque sculptures, developed through her residency in the Studio, that make music, when you spin, stroke or lift the sculptures up. You can catch them, along with Splash and Ripple’s awesome game Incitement in London on Saturday 15 September. To top it all off Clare will be giving a talk on ‘Technology for Public Spaces – an insider’s guide’ during the Playing in Public conference which rounds off the Weekender on Monday 17 September. Find out more about the Hide & Seek Weekender here.    

It’s been a super week for nu desine as they celebrated their 2nd birthday by watching Materia, one of their beta testers, playing a gig with the AlphaSphere at the Grain Barge on Friday night. If you’d like to see the ‘Sphere in action check out their list of testers here. Lastly don’t forget to vote for the AlphaSphere for design of the year in Stuff Magazine here.

On Friday we kicked off our Lunchtime Talk program after the August break, with a really great talk from Simon from Slingshot. He spoke about Slingshot’s developments as a company, Igfest, and their controversial decision to make this the last year that 2.8 Hours will be in Bristol! Look out for a write-up of the talk early next week.

Luckily on Saturday the sun came out just in time for the igfest fringe, which saw hundreds gather together to play some brilliant mini-games in Castle Park, from Quidditch to the very messy Rainbow Rain, there really was a game for everyone!   

Finally don’t forget to join us today (14 September) at 1pm for a fantastic Lunchtime Talk from visual artist and researcher Tine Bech, she’ll be talking about her previous interactive installations, creating pervasive media superhero capes and ‘Playful experiences for curious visitors.’