Staying Ahead
June 28, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Watershed | Innovation | Ideas | Add a commentStaying ahead: the economic performance of the UK’s creative industries was published this week by The Work Foundation. Commissioned by the Department of Culture Media and Sport, the independent report analyses the nature, role and scope of the creative industries in Britain.
Discussing networks as a driver of the creative industries, Watershed is mentioned:
"These arguments are embraced by the Cox Review and the Infrastructure Working Group in their recommendations for Creativity and Innovation Centres and a Creative Grid
respectively. Both point to the role of places like the Watershed in Bristol, Cornerhouse in Manchester, the Showroom in Sheffield and the Lighthouse in Glasgow and their integration
with larger concentrations of cultural infrastructure and activity."
Creative Technology Network
June 15, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Events | Watershed | Innovation | Technology | Add a comment
iShed today announced the launch of the Creative Technology Network with a special event on 19 July, featuring guest speaker Michael B. Johnson of Pixar Animation Studios.
Initiated by iShed and 3C Research, the Creative Technology Network (CTN) is a new Bristol-based initiative to create a vibrant ecosystem of collaboration, innovation, research and knowledge exchange across computing, communications and the creative industries.
Virtually Anywhere
June 14, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Events | Gaming | Add a commentHazel Grian and John Williams of Licorice Film, and Darius Pocha of Enable interactive joined Dan Glaiser of the Wellcome Trust last week at the Cheltenham Festival of Science for a discussion on virtual worlds.
Hazel gave an overview of her game MeiGeist (commissioned by Watershed, Arts Council England and HP Labs), noting the personal relationships that had been key to its success. John talked about the future of gaming, showing HP Labs' brilliant Roku's Reward Video and pointing towards the power of collaboration and the combination of ARG with more physically located gaming as the development potential he is most excited about.
Dan closed the talk with a reference to Dunbar's number, which refers to the theoretical maximum number of 150 individuals with whom a set of people can maintain a quality social
relationship. Does this hold true for virtual worlds too?
Artist placement report published
June 6, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Watershed | Innovation | Technology | Gaming | Evaluation | Mobile | Add a comment“Bringing together the arts, technology and social sciences has given us an opportunity to explore how emerging and online and mobile communication technologies can be used to create engaging new experiences outside their original purpose. The work has been inspirational and thought provoking for us and its influence will extend further than the current project.”
Kenton O’Hara, HP Labs, Artist Placement Host, 2007
In 2006, Hazel Grian spent six months in HP Labs in Bristol in the Mobile and Media Systems Lab. With an open brief to collaborate with Labs researchers around video on mobile devices, Hazel focussed on Alternative Reality Games, which use interactive narrative across many different platforms to tell a story.
Ere be Dragons
June 1, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Innovation | Technology | Gaming | Mobile | Add a comment
I met with Active Ingredient and Polar Produce today to discuss hosting AI's Ere Be Dragons at Watershed during the Offload Festival. I saw AI present the game at a conference at HP Labs last year and am particularly excited, not only because it fits with iShed's plans for commissions arounnd pervasive computing, but also because the idea for the game was originally conceived for a funding call for Mobile Bristol, and this will be the first time it is shown here.
Using HP Labs, Bristol's Mscapers technology, Ere Be Dragons takes the form of a multi-player game controlled by the participant’s heart rate. The focus of ’Ere be Dragons is the relationship between art, technology and health.
It playfully recasts players’ relationship both with the space they inhabit and with the unseen space within their bodies. The player’s own body becomes an engaging new companion, a soft machine whose physical response to their exertions they can sense and understand as they walk along.
They will hopefully be in Watershed between 13 - 14 September 2007 where the public and schools groups will get a chance to play.
