We’ve had a thoroughly lively week at the Studio; the Sandbox projects are gathering momentum and the Family Arts Festival has prompted some surreal and magical entertainment from some of our residents. We’re getting ready for few days of round-the-clock captivation as Daniel Burwen comes to town to give his talk on Friday, followed by this weekend’s highly anticipated danceroom Spectroscopy Festival at the Passenger Shed. Read on to learn more about this week’s exciting news and events.

The danceroom Spectroscopy Festival is coming to The Passenger Shed in Bristol this weekend. Fusing 3D imagery, real molecular dynamics, music, dance, and art installation, danceroom Spectroscopy is a new interactive visualisation of the nano-world, but with a twist. Come and interact with the subtle beauty of the atomic world by dropping in for the family programme or by booking a ticket for the breath-taking dance performance, Hidden Fields. Find out more about the event here.

The Studio held the third workshop for Future Documentary Sandbox this week; all the participants met in the Studio to discuss the developments of their projects. From enlightening apps that contextualise music, crime and ethics to uncovering the truth about a mysterious performer and his fictional identity, the projects spearhead modern documentary making, and will lend us all an insight into the future of interactive factual storytelling. Ideas Labs for Objects Sandbox have been taking place in Cardiff, Exeter and Bristol. Collaborations are beginning to form among the participants and interesting ideas for projects are beginning to bubble up. Keep an eye on the website for updates on project ideas. Another piece of REACT news, is that Simon Moreton spoke on behalf of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) at the Business, Innovation and Skills workshop in London on Monday. His talk was on the importance of research to underpin growth in the creative economy, and how the next generation of research will help drive this growth. REACT’s workshops for strategic funds have been taking place alongside the Sandbox projects. The Feasibility and Prototype funding schemes are in place to support interesting collaborative projects between academics and creative companies. Find out more here.

Over the next few days, the Studio will be playing host to Daniel Burwen, game designer and graphic novelist, who is the brains behind Operation Ajax a Interactive Graphic Novel for iPads. Daniel will be giving this week’s lunchtime talk, on 25 October, where he’ll be sharing his thoughts and insight into interactive narrative and story-driven media, and exploring how lessons learnt in the games world can be applied to digital storytelling. Book your free tickets here.

In other news our musical innovators nu desine’s intuitive and extensively programmable software for the AlphaSphere, AlphaLive, is now live and ready to download on their website here. Their application allows you to program each individual touch pad on the Alphasphere; you can control different sounds, effects, to loop or even to control lighting rigs while you play. You can find out more on their website.

Jonathan and Hannah have been working on No Boundaries, an open symposium on the role of culture in 21st Century society, taking place in February 2014 at Watershed, Bristol Old Vic and Guildhall in York. Help to shape the debate by saying what issue you want to see being discussed on twitter by mentioning @nbd2014 or the No Boundaries site here.   

If you haven’t heard about/seen matter2media’s Nth Screen technology, Tim has posted a video of Nth Bird, a multi-segment, multi-screen film created by Hazel Grian of numerous birds singing in the same tree and flying from branch to branch. It recently featured at Encounters Film Festival. Have a look at the video here.

Last week’s Down the Rabbit Hole event as part of Family Arts Festival saw kids shrinking like Alice to watch an awe inspiring magic short films in the miniature Cinema, developed by residents Charlotte Crofts and Tarim. The event also saw Kieron, our magician in residence, entertain. This Saturday, we are carrying on the theme of Alice in Wonderland with the electrifying Alice and the Big Draw Magic Ink workshop, where a screening of Svankmajer’s Alice will be followed up by a workshop in which children will learn to draw circuits into pictures using magical conductive ink. Book tickets here.

More magic is on its way as we prepare for the world’s first ever Magic Hack. The hack, taking place on 12 +13 November, will bring together magicians and technologists who will use their skills, enthusiasm and open minds to experiment and collaborate on new ideas and prototypes. Have a closer look at the project on the iShed website.

Today the DCRC were delighted to be hosting a visit from Hanna Wirman, who leads the Game Development stream of the M.Sc. in Multimedia & Entertainment Technology at the School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Hanna spoke about her recent Orangutan Game Jams where secondary school students created games for orangutans.

Finally the Daredevil Project team are busy organising a series of events dotted over the UK for Movember, which will culminate in a party in Bristol on 22 November. Have a look at Paul Archer’s new video promoting the events, and visit the Daredevil website to find out more about the project.