Week commencing 10 September:

After a weekend of zombies, miniature turtles and lots of very messy powder paint at Igfest, we’ve all returned to the Studio with a renewed energy! This week we’ve welcomed a brilliant new games company into our mist and have been working on launching some very exciting residencies in the Studio...  

Our search for an unusual and inspiring start up company is now over. On Monday the fantastic Opposable Games joined us in the Studio. Made up of seven game designers, Opposable Games build connected & multi-screen games for mobile devices and smart TV’s. They are currently nearing completion of their first game ‘clockwork racers’ a multiplayer race game for connected televisions, PCs or tablets, you can see an early version in action here.

The Opposable Games team recently took part in ‘Gamify you PhD’ event at the Wellcome Trust. The two-day hack event brought together PhD science researchers and games developers from across the UK. The aim was to create new games that could explore and explain the latest developments in biomedicine. The games look amazing, you can take a sneak peak and read about the game jam here. In its infancy, the Opposable team actually hotdesked with us for a short while, holding meetings/sprints in the Studio so we’re very pleased to welcome them back!

Talking of welcoming people back, Verity has now returned from honeymoon in Cuba with a change of name, formerly Verity Alexander she is now Verity McIntosh, we think it’s much more fitting!  This week she’s been catching up with three weeks worth of emails and has been busy finalising our new very exciting Graduate and New Talent Residency: Communicating Science. The Studio and the Institute of Physics Publishing are pleased to offer an open call for a Studio residency. We are offering a new graduate, early stage researcher or startup company the opportunity to spend supported time in the Studio, to research a new project at the intersection of art, technology and science. It’s a unique opportunity to explore process and practice within a collaborative environment so find out more here and please pass it on to anyone you know who might be interested.

Vic has also been busy preparing a new residency scheme in partnership with the Crafts Council. It  was officially launched yesterday at the Assemble 2012 conference by Ed Vaisey, Minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries. It is a new opportunity to support contemporary craft practitioners and technologists. You can find details including how to apply here.

Tim Kindberg has been gearing up for African Interactive: The Moving Image, an Encounters Film Festival session led by Tim and Zimbabwean filmmaker Simon Bright of AfrikaEye. The session took place last night and drew together an inspiring group of filmmakers, cinephiles and community leaders who shared their experiences and thoughts about the film industries in Africa, more specifically the opportunities presented by digital and mobile technologies for film-making, distribution and exhibition. You can find out more here.

Dan Dixon has been preparing for London Design festival next week where he will give an insight into journalism and design ethnology for a Punchdrunk project.

On Wednesday the studio hosted the Bristol community – university engagement forum. The forum invited discussion around the various ways in which the institutions can better engage with the city. Looking specially STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) the day was a great chance to think about the how to keep engaged with the community.

Calvium have blogged on the AppFurnance site about how to update your apps for when the iPhone 5 comes out, you can see it here, and Jo has been in Plymouth and Falmouth to run more App workshops with cultural organisations. Visit their website for more information and to see all the workshops they offer here.  

On Friday Tine Bech gave a fantastic talk about her recent projects and creating and researching playful experiences. After the talk we were treated to a demo of her latest project with Tom Mitchell called Tracking You. Tracking You is showcasing at the V&A’s Digital Design Weekend on the 22 & 23 September. There will be superhero noises and capes so make sure you get yourself down there and have a play!

Lastly, don’t forget that today we have a corker of a Lunchtime Talk introducing our new artist in residence Juneau Projects, Timothy X Atack and MrUnderwood. Come along at 1pm to join us and find out more about their plans to create sculpture with artificial intelligence and to embed secret audio narratives in the urban environment.