Weekly Blog: 02/09/13 - 06/08/13

This week we saw Hello Lamp Post come to a close after a brilliant eight weeks, we’re on the hunt for a fantastic individual to be our new Creative Technologist and we have been preparing to present Submergence; a beautiful light installation by Squidsoup to Bristol. Read on to find out more:

This week saw Hello Lamp Post our first commission for the Playable City Award come to a close. Over the past eight weeks, the project has received wide recognition in national and international press and led to 25,674 texts messages being sent by participants to everyday street furniture. 3,956 individual players have taken part, with 70 new people joining the conversation every day on average. 1161 objects have been woken up by a text around the city, including over 200 lamp posts and 32 of the 80 Gromit Unleashed dogs, also introduced to Bristol this summer. People of all ages have taken part, from children to the elderly, in groups, and alone. You can find out more about the project here. Details of the second Playable City Award will be announced by Watershed later this year.

Birdsong has been echoing around the Studio as resident Tim Kindberg has just confirmed his Encounters session, where he’ll be premiering a short Nth screen film filmmaker Hazel Grain has made all about birds. On the 18 September Tim will talk about his REACT funded project The Nth Screen in collaboration with Charlotte Crofts and Hazel Grian. Nth Screen films are made up of individual videos that play simultaneously across collections of mobiles and tablets. Think multiscreen, but now in the hands of an audience who can play with the screens, moving them around to make their own juxtapositions as well as those imagined by the filmmaker. In the session there will be a chance to play and watch the Nth Screen together, and discuss the potential for this new form of short film. You can find out more on here. Charlotte Crofts and Tarim will also be installing a very exciting cinema installation in the window of The Parlour Showrooms during Encounters, so keep your eyes peeled for that.   

We’re now on the hunt for a brilliant Creative Technologist. Watershed’s Creative Technologist works on a constant and wide-ranging stream of projects: from remote controlling pico projectors to international sprints, tracking balloons across London to a storytelling jukebox, and combining magicians and technology to tweeting dead people. This role requires the ability to understand and inspire, listen and communicate and then make brilliant ideas happen. If you are interested in applying for this position, you should visit our websites - Watershed, iShed, DShed and PMStudio - and get acquainted with our projects and collaborators, and then have a look at the job specification and details of how to apply here. If you know someone who you think fits the bill please do pass on the information. The deadline is 5pm on Mon 7 Oct 2013.

Vanessa has been busy producing Squidsoup’s amazing light installation Submergence that is open to the public on the 13 September. Visitors will experience a virtual world, where pixels on a screen are replaced by thousands of points of light floating in space. Created by award-winning digital artists Squidsoup, who are resident artists in Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio, Submergence has never been seen before in the UK. With two successful international showings at the Geneva Mapping Festival and in Oslo, this remarkable creation is finally ready to land back in Bristol for its UK premiere. You can find Submergence in The Eye, beautifully placed overlooking the water on Glass Wharf, just over the bridge from the lively Creative Common and Temple Meads Station.. Submergence is open Fri 13 Sept - Sat 12 Oct from Tue - Fri 12:00 - 14:00 and 17:00 - 21:00 and Sat - Sun 12:00 - 21:00 and is completely free to visit. Want a sneak peak? Watch a video of the beautiful installation here. Submergence is part of a series of Bristol Temple Quarter commissions, coordinated by Watershed, Knowle West Media Centre and MAYK, with support from Bristol City Council and Arts Council England. Find out more.

We've also extended the deadline for our Robot Design Competition. We’re collaborating with the International Conference on Social Robotics 2013 to welcome conceptual or practical submissions to this year's robot design competition, held during the conference. From KITT and K9 to Scutters and Siri; robot friends, pets, helpers and even lovers have captured our Sci-fi imaginations for many years. The competition is open to all disciplines and centres on the theme of ‘companionship’ in social robotics. We are looking for ideas for creating future robots that people will want to spend time with in a social sense, and the benefits that such robots may give to society or individuals. We welcome applicants from any background and in whatever format best suits your idea and your practice. There’s even cash prizes with the winner awarded £400. You can find out more about submitting here.

Finally our lovely Studio resident James Wheale has had his first book published. The book inspired a show called Maskboy that James presented at Mayfest earlier this year and Splash and Ripple produced. The book is an autobiographical story of time machines, magical masks and loss. From reading tarot with a witchdoctor to going cold turkey on his past, Maskboy is a funny, brave and honest work that delves into the alter-egos we create to rescue, and ultimately become, ourselves. You can find out more and purchase one here.