Seven years on from our 5G showcase Layered Realities, we return to Millennium Square with the University of Bristol’s Smart Internet Lab to explore the next generation of connectivity –6G.  This festival invites audiences to play, experience, and question how technology will reimagine the future. Over the next few months, we are supporting several curious artists from our brilliant community and local schools to creatively push the possibilities of 6G. 

These artists have been asked to push the creative potential of 6G technology. They will be exploring latency and their works, how this technology enables us to take the computer out into the world, how and if 6G alters our relationship with technology and each other, and much more. 

The Connected Futures Festival will be a free, public event taking place at Millennium Square and We The Curious on Wed 26 Mar 2025 from 9:00 - 17:30. Alongside these installations, the festival will feature panel discussions, networking opportunities, and school engagement activities designed to introduce young people to the potential of emerging technologies.  

What is 6G and why now?  

3G, 4G and most recently 5G are wireless infrastructures with increasing capacity for data transfer (upload, download etc.) with an ultimate aim of providing reliable and fast connectivity between devices and networks.  Technology growth in recent years like artificial intelligence, machine learning, real-time processing, edge computing etc. are fuelling a need for more powerful and robust infrastructures. 6G is the next generation of wireless technology that intends to meet the growing needs by adding more capacity, improving connectivity, reducing latency and more.  

Creative Commissions 

Watershed has commissioned three teams to expand existing projects using 6G to produce three public installations for the festival, these are:

Latency Luma by Air Giants 

Air Giants will create a teleoperation demo with the iconic Luma, a huge (10m long) soft robot snail. Audiences will be given the opportunity to control Luma by manipulating a soft scale model, with the full-size Luma imitating the movements of the model. Alongside little Luma there will a ‘latency lever’ that introduces more or less latency in the control signal, so that participants can feel for themselves how much harder teleoperation is when there’s latency in the signal path. 

Holographic Metaverse by Vincent Baidoo 

Vincent Baidoo will lead a holographic presentation in the metaverse; this will be an immersive, experience that demonstrates 6G’s role in the metaverse, engaging audiences with the future potential of shared virtual environments. A Looking Glass 32-inch display will be set up to simulate a metaverse environment, featuring real-time rendered 3D avatars and environments. Step up and create a character and see the transported into the metaverse! 

Cybernetic Tortoises by Studio Playfool 

Studio Playfool will place their cybernetic tortoises in the urban environment, inviting a dialogue between the both human and non-human beings of Bristol. The cybernetic tortoises will have the capacity to visualise their thought process, supported by AI. Combining Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) and software like Unreal Engine they will scan and generate an immersive environment reflective of how the tortoises sense and respond to our world. This interactive visual will allow visitors to engage with the “inner mind” of the cybernetic tortoises in a dynamic and groundbreaking way. 

Curiosity Residency

Curiosity will be series of micro residencies supporting local practitioners from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the creative technology industries. We have invited four practitioners with ideas that explore possibilities at the intersection of creativity and 6G. Practitioners would be embedded within the Pervasive Media Studio community and receive support from Watershed to develop their ideas. 
Eleanor Edwards - Exploring 6G and play
What happens when high-speed, real-time connectivity meets physical play, movement, and materials? Eleanor will explore how 6G – a future generation of wireless technology – could influence playful, tangible, real world interactive experiences. 
Kate Sim Reed - Embodied Wayfinding
Thire practice looks at how animal intelligence influences human movement patterns. They will explore future forms of navigation, specifically the use of wearable technology to guide people to each other, focusing on navigation to a person rather than a place. ​
Olamipose Ayorinde - AI for everyone: Breaking Barriers to Access​
Exploring AI assisted technologies, and decentralised creative networks consider how, coupled with 6G technologies, they might enhance accessibility and autonomy for underrepresented communities. 
Sara Zaltash -  A Seance of Mobile Devices​
Sara will explore the implications of animist spiritual frameworks for unaccounted-for telepathy-like properties of mobile tech devices. They will frame this research through a series of questions that ask what we can learn from indigenous cultures, stories about the materials in our devices, and how might machines linked to 6G network, participate in divinity in 2035.

Schools Workshops 

We are working with creative practitioner, educator and Pervasive Media Studio Resident Frazer Meakin to develop a series of playful, 6G inspired workshops that engage the next generation with the possibilities of creative technologies. Students from four schools are taking part in a series of workshops exploring 6G and the future of connectivity.  

Workshop 1: An introduction to 6G and creative technology, giving students an understanding of how future networks could shape their lives. 

Workshop 2: Working in teams alongside creative technologists, students will design and build their own responses to the question: What will the future of connectivity look like? 

Festival Day: Students will showcase their work, present their ideas, and take part in an immersive experience exploring future technology. 
These workshops provide space for young people to think creatively about the role of technology in their future and develop key skills of problem solving and teamwork. 

About Connected Futures Festival

The Connected Futures Festival and 6G research project is led by the University of Bristol, alongside three core partners who represent each of the Future Telecoms Hubs — CHEDDAR, HASC, and TITAN. Along with JOINER, these three projects create the Federated Telecoms Hubs. JOINER connects the research labs of each of these partners, and extends to include seven other centres of excellence — or nodes. Drawing together research leaders and test networks from across the UK, each bringing their own unique specialisations and capabilities. 

The Festival delivery partners are Watershed, We The Curious Innovate comms and ZiaBai. 

Studio themes

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