PM Studio is looking for an adventurous, collaborative, creative technologist
February 23, 2010
Posted by Shirin in: Watershed | Innovation | Recruitment | Bristol | pervasive | Add a commentCreative Technology Research Associate (one year fixed term)
Grade: 2 £27,000
"Everyone at Watershed has a passion for doing a job properly. Often doing a job properly involves creativity, innovation and a lot of thought: being encouraged to do those things, and working with others who do too, every day, is what makes Watershed both a great place and a great place to work." Oliver Humpage, Watershed ICT Coordinator
The Role:
This one year research post will play a key role in developing collaborative, publicly-facing projects and ideas in The Pervasive Media Studio.
The role will provide residents and collaborators with technical inspiration, collaboration and support. It has a broad remit: sometimes you will be exploring cutting-edge research, sometimes you will be coding an artist's project, sometimes (but less so) you will be re-setting the router.
About you:
You will have the ability to understand and inspire, listen and communicate and then make brilliant ideas happen. You need to know your stuff and have a flexible, adventurous and collaborative approach to work.
About us:
The Studio is part of Watershed. We have a formal partnership with UWE's Digital Cultures Research Centre. We are a multi-disciplinary lab exploring and producing pervasive media content, applications and services. We work within a brilliant community of artists, creative companies, technologists and academics. Our projects include gaming, projections, location-based media, digital displays and new forms of performance. Some are commercial, some are cultural. We test our projects as early as possible and iterate. We have a great workspace, an open ethos and a can-do attitude.
This research associate post is supported by funding from the South West Regional Development Agency.
How to apply:
To visit the Studio Website to download the job description and application form click: here.
Talk: Living in the Internet of Things
February 10, 2010
Posted by victoria in: Innovation | Add a commentCities across the world are about to enter the next phase of development. A near invisible network of radio frequency identification tags (RFID) is being deployed on many consumer items. These chips can connect to the Internet in an instant, creating a global network of physical objects or the ‘internet of things’. Is this the ultimate convenience in supply-chain management, the ultimate tool in future surveillance, or the real enabler for a grassroot local new politics?
During this talk, Rob van Kranenburg will examine the impact these systems could have on our cities and wider societies; and what alternative technologies could safeguard privacy and empower citizens.
The talk will take place at Watershed, Thursday 4 March at 6.30pm. Book now at Watershed Box office or online here.
Rob van Kranenburg is an innovation and media theorist involved with negotiability strategies of new technologies and artistic practice, predominantly ubicomp and RFID, the relationship between the formal and informal in cultural and economic policy, and the requirements for a sustainable cultural economy.
This is a DCRC event, supported by the Pervasive Media Studio and Watershed.
Where did January go?
February 1, 2010
Posted by Clare in: Watershed | Ideas | Bristol | Add a commentOver the last few months the Watershed team has spent a lot of time thinking about how we can a) be more joined up and b) communicate the thinking behind the ideas and people we work with, rather than just the end results. The process was started through the re-development of DShed (and how to represent a wide breadth of projects, artists and content), but also fits into the thinking being done as part of Watershed's Sustain funding. My new year's resolution then is to spend more time capturing what I am up to, as much for myself (maybe it will help me manage my diary better?) as for a wider audience to see what might be coming up.
So, highlights of last week:
Ed Cookson of The Sancho Plan emailed to ask if we would be interested in the large scale augmented reality installation they are producing. The meeting with Ed (and Phil Stenton and Tarim) was exactly the kind of meeting I like - clear ideas, a good reason to collaborate and lots of mutual value all round. The turn-around is a bit quick and I was obviously ignoring my 'no new projects post-it' but looks like we are going to make something together in early March. Hopefully this project will also bring all of Tarim's hard work to fruition and finally get some interactive work on Bristol's BBC Big Screen (in advance of The Pervasive Media Studio artists residencies in April).
Quite a lot of my time is spent showing people around the Studio, a role I refer to as Dancing Monkey. We host these visits for many reasons (to remain open to new ideas/contacts, to profile projects, to please funders). Whilst sometimes they feel like they are taking me away from 'real work' they often bring valuable and serendipitous contacts and Friday's visits were particularly good, especially as the studio was buzzing with Mobile Pie's Global Games Jam. First came Caroline Thomson, Chief Operating Officer of the BBC and then Paul Gough and Guy Orpen, Vice Chancellors of Research at UWE and University of Bristol respectively. Residents informally presented their projects and fed back on the value of the studio with sincerity and generosity. I am hopeful that UWE, University of Bristol and BBC will all become more involved in the Studio over the forthcoming months and the tour certainly helped establish some common interests.
A couple of years ago we started some interesting work (with Demos) on the public spaces around Watershed but a changed economy forced us to put this work on hold. This week it was really exciting to re-visit this thinking and get together a team from across Watershed to plan a series of Light Graffiti Workshops with Tine Bech. I met Tine when she was taking part in Method (Cultural Leadership Programme) and last year she secured a PhD place with UWE's DCRC. She is now partly based at the Studio and is researching the creation of interactive installations which enhance our engagement with our environment. With DCRC funding we are working with Tine to produce three light drawing workshops to explore how staff, audience and people who don't come to Watershed feel about the space outside of our building. The results will feed in to the eventual creation of a new installation by Tine for this space. Details of how to get involved will be posted soon on the Watershed website.
Other good things: Seeing the footage of AntiVJ's latest work (will post when it's online), Studio advisory group (two years in!), more Theatre Sandbox planning, interviewing for the DCRC Knowledge Transfer associate and catching up with Luke Jerram on his Aeolus project.
The bad bits - having to pull out of assessing for EPSRC's Research in the Wild Call and the Bristol Media digital dinner due to sporting a terrible cough and having to retire to bed.
Meanwhile this week brings a Watershed board meeting in which Mark, Louise and I will present the work we have done towards re-presenting our curatorial policy, and my final interview for the UK Young Interactive Entrepreneur award (which weirdly British Council seem to have taken down the website for).
Arts & Business Research digital case study
February 1, 2010
Posted by Clare in: Watershed | Innovation | Bristol | Add a comment
Back in November I was contacted by Arts&Business as they wanted to feature Watershed as a case study in some research they were doing on how digital technology is affecting the way cultural organisations engage with their audiences.
Today they published a really nice overview of some of the ways Watershed and The Pervasive Media Studio has engaged with digital technologies, through DShed and projects like The Extended Theatre Experience:
"Watershed embodies the future of audiovisual literacy, exploiting the shift towards conversation and participation (rather than mere didactic presentation) that digital technologies enable…. The second aspect is to recognise the entrepreneurial and innovative possibilities that digital technologies afford around a closer working relationship between the cultural and commercial sectors."
Read the full case study (as well as overviews of some other organisations doing great digital work) here.
