Jo Lansdowne
Pervasive Media Studio
Jo is Executive Producer of Pervasive Media Studio; supporting research activity, artist development and the resident community to deliver brilliant work.
![Jo sits in a chair in a Bristol street](/studio/sites/default/files/styles/pmstudio_feature_block_main/public/studio_resident/2017-03-09/Jo%20on%20chair%20copy%202.jpg?itok=3aFvh0bU)
![Three people stand in the Studio, posing in costume as part of a game](/studio/sites/default/files/styles/pmstudio_feature_block/public/opportunity/image/2022-05-11/f1ba47d6-6882-482e-80b7-17e158000f64.jpeg?itok=1a5XEsbQ)
Projects
![A laptop with green slime moold oozing onto the keboard.](/studio/sites/default/files/styles/pmstudio_feature_block/public/project/image/2024-04-10/More%20Than%20AI%20Sandbox%20Glory%20Mold%20.jpg?h=3f173464&itok=bOTcnenW)
More Than AI Sandbox
Sandbox is a tried-and-tested methodology to bring together teams of brilliant people to test new ideas with generosity and rigour in a three month R&D.Worked on
![An image of the inside of a domed house with curved iron ribs onto which white canvas has been tautly wrapped around. Traditional Somali prints on the outside of the canvas are also visible from the inside of the house. We can see the backs of two women facing various colourful small woven structures, and a potted plant, all hanging from the ribs of the house. A microphone and lights are also visible inside the space.](/studio/sites/default/files/styles/pmstudio_feature_block/public/project/image/2024-02-21/House%20of%20Weaving%20Songs%20-%20Playable%20City%20Bristol%20Jul23%20%C2%A9%20Luke%20O%27Donovan%20%28mid%20res%29%20%2827%20of%2036%29_1.jpg?h=4031aa77&itok=zR07rrE-)
Alternative Technologies: A Just Transition
This workshop series examines technologies and their past, present, and future role in climate justice (and breakdown) and explores what the alternatives could be, through a process of carefully facilitated design thinking![Garden Lab Whispers Grow, Knowle West Media Centre. Mud battery workshops. Photography by Ibi Feher.](/studio/sites/default/files/styles/pmstudio_feature_block/public/project/image/2024-05-30/untitled-6830copy-2048x1365.jpg?itok=feYihh7E)
Grounding Technologies
Grounding Technologies is a pilot project exploring how creative technology can be used to support climate action.![A person wearing a yellow raincoat with the hood up holding a silver shark balloon. The person is standing in front of green trees with many tall buildings in the background. To the right of the image is a path going in the city, it has a number of people walking.](/studio/sites/default/files/styles/pmstudio_feature_block/public/project/image/2023-02-06/PC%20Weekend_Seoul_JonAitken.jpg?h=ad237cca&itok=oRSCDYfV)
Playable City Sandbox
Playable City Sandbox is a creative research and development programme providing facilitated space to transform an experimental idea to a working prototype over three months of rapid R+D.![Three white arrows following each other in a circle with the word MyWorld in the middle of it overlaying a black background with multicoloured smoke trails.](/studio/sites/default/files/styles/pmstudio_feature_block/public/project/image/2024-03-15/MW%20Logo%20on%20smoke%20background.png?itok=xsngikcB)
MyWorld - Strength in Places
Watershed is excited to be a partner in MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol that will celebrate the West of England's reputation as an international trailblazer in creative technology and screen-based media.Connecting Through Culture As We Age
Established in 2021, this three year UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge funded project is exploring how and why we take part in arts and culture as we get older.![Light Grafitti by Tine Bech](/studio/sites/default/files/styles/pmstudio_feature_block/public/LightGraffiti3.jpg?h=89d37d55&itok=3hp5xEZq)
Towards Equitable Futures (2020)
We live in capitalism, its power can often seem inescapable - but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Ursula K. Le Guin, National Book Foundation Medal speech 2014 Towards Equitable…![Paul Blakemore](/studio/sites/default/files/styles/pmstudio_feature_block/public/project/2019-06-03/Paul_Blakemore_treatment_green4.jpg?h=5df4432c&itok=GEAMvJoC)
Bristol+Bath Creative R+D
Bristol+Bath Creative R+D was a £6.8 million collaboration aimed at taking the Bristol and Bath cluster to the next level by forging connections, sharing knowledge and creating new opportunities.I lead Watershed's creative technology team; supporting research partnerships, artist development and our community of studio residents. I am also a Visiting Professor at UWE Bristol's Digital Cultures Research Centre.
I believe that technology describes the collection of ideas, tools, practices and systems which humans use to shape the world around us. Creative technology means that the way we do this is not inevitable, but can be re-imagined.
I am particularly interested in methodologies that bring people together in collaborative rather than competitive forms of production. Because knowledge, power, culture and commerce might be more evenly distributed if developed through caring and critically engaged processes and networks.