Studio resident Victoria Forrest will be introducing her latest project Apps for the Arts. A custom arts festival app could cost c. £20,000 in today's market,
making them out of budget for many grant funded festivals. Much of this cost, however, falls within the programme development and user testing stages. To open up this market, Apps for the Arts has developed a template which allows these costs to be shared within a commercial arts environment.

Sue Jones, Director of the Whitstable Biennale says "As a festival with multiple venues and sites all over town, the App will be a great tool for our audiences, linking artists and venues up with GPS maps. We'll also be able to update programme information in an instant. We'll be able to detect visiting patterns that are far more sophisticated our current evaluation can map and this detailed information will enable us to make more informed applications to funders, and to better plan future festivals. Sharing statistics with other festivals could help us to benchmark and develop strategies to develop our own festival."

Designed to slash the cost of developing iPhone app, we hope to allow Arts organizations to share the development cost of an app therefore making it eminently affordable. Aimed at multi-venue arts events such as festivals, biennials, triennials and fairs of all sizes and places, Apps for the Arts hopes to encourage a co-operative approach to app development. By clubbing together with other festivals or like minded institutions, festivals can reduce their overheads, but will also have the ability to gather sophisticated statistics, share promotions, and instantly learn more about your visitor demographic.

Victoria will be talking about the development of the project to date and her plans for the future. She has been developing two app designs for the project and will also be presenting these at the talk on iPhones for the purpose of user testing.

This Lunchtime Talk is part of Open Studio Friday, which takes place at the Studio every week.

Do you want to find out what is going on at the Pervasive Media Studio? Are you interested in meeting our residents, talking about a specific project or curious about pervasive media? Why not pack a sandwich and join us for one of our Lunchtime Talks and Open Studio Friday.

Lunchtime Talks are informal presentations by Studio residents and associates. They normally take place at 1pm on Friday, are free and open to everybody who’s interested in what we do.

After the Talk, we also invite you to stay with us for the afternoon to continue the conversation or work on your own projects. We provide chairs, tables, wireless and a great space. You bring what you need to work with (laptop/mobile). Our open afternoons close at 5pm.

Let us know if you’d like a tour of the space and we'll be happy to show you around. Send an email to admin@pmstudio.co.uk