iShed

Hellos and Goodbyes
2009 saw some founding residents graduate from the Studio to continue their success. Mobile Pie have developed into an award-winning mobile content studio specialising in games and entertainment; Thought Den have extended their impressive portfolio with pervasive media training sessions for the BBC and Simon Games produced social street game Drom with London’s Soho Theatre, before taking over their own studio space in the city. Among those that have joined the Studio in recent months are start-up company Calvium, artist Luke Jerram and PhD researcher Tine Bech.

To see a full list of our Studio residents, click here.

Visits, Travels and Guests
2009 was a year of exciting visits, trips and festivals; the Guardian Technology podcast was recorded at the studio and featured interviews with many residents; Jim Knight, the Minister for the South West visited us in the context of the Digital Britain report and legendary music producer Jools Holland supported Media Sandbox commission Visual Voice Pro. Our favourite 2009 destinations include Glastonbury Festival where Studio Resident Tarim decorated the BBC village screen with his Instant Graffiti; Birds Eye View film festival where we provided a taste of pervasive media and SXSW Interactive Festival.

Read the visits and festivals blog.

Digital Cultures Research Centre
Finally, late in 2009, the University of the West of England became an official partner of the Pervasive Media Studio. The Digital Cultures Research Centre (DCRC) led by Professor Jon Dovey, is now permanently based within the Studio to represent and promote the work of a diverse network of researchers from the Faculty of Creative Arts and the Bristol Institute of Technology.

Visit us at: www.pmstudio.co.uk 

Media Sandbox April Newsletter

May 1, 2009

Our six Media Sandbox commissions have been striding forwards with their projects this month. The groups are researching the opportunities posed by multi-platform technologies and we are pleased to share their recent progress…

There’s exciting news from both Indie Mobile and HMC, Drake Music and bibic: After a month of head down planning, Indie Mobile have now appointed a technical partner, London agency Destar Limited. Destar are experienced mobile developers, and are excited to be working with Indie Mobile to tweak and trim 'The Generator' into an effective application; Things are also hurtling forwards for HMC, Drake Music and bibic. Legendary music producer Jools Holland will help launch a version of their 'Cyber-therapy' software called ‘Visual Voice Pro’. A high profile event will take place in early May at Rich Mix Studios, East London. It will be an excellent opportunity for the team to promote the project and give people the chance to try out the software first hand.

After weeks of research into game show formats, demographics, time-structures and interactivity, this week saw U-Soap Media begin the practical test phase for 'Viral Spiral'. Happily, they’ve gathered together a fantastic group of actors and directors, who have thrown themselves headlong into the project. With buzzers and prompt cards at the ready, the first session saw the play out of game scenarios and invaluable discussion around the findings. You can see pictures from this session in our Media Sandbox Flickr group.

Nomos Media have been on the road with Radio in Schools this month, promoting 'AudioEnable' to over 30,000 teachers and industry reps at the National Education Show in Birmingham. Despite a slightly shaky technical start, they attracted a non-stop flow of visitors and signed up an impressive number of schools. They also made valuable contact with a number of Brands, who were really excited about the potential of the project. Back at the office, the designs for ‘AudioEnable’ are almost complete, and they're really close to having the raw functionality up and running on a touch screen device.

Having an early beta release of 'Street Art Dealer' has helped a great deal in generating feedback and ideas for C6 and Steal from Work. They’ve identified a number of key issues to be addressed, and are now looking to raise awareness of both the project and the technology. This month will see them actively building a strong body of artists and artworks; planning a major project launch in Bristol; nurturing some high profile buyer case studies; and alongside all of this, ironing out the system’s technical and usability issues.

AntiVJ are immersed in the development phase of ‘Mapping Software 1.0’. Working with freelance developer George Crabtree, they’ve made huge leaps forward. The software engine is almost complete and they hope to post footage of the first experiments on their blog very soon. They’ve also met some interesting people this month, including Media Sandbox Advisor Nicole Yershon from Ogilvy. As well as receiving an inspirational tour of Ogilvy’s Digital Innovations Lab, Nicole offered valuable insight into the possibilities for ‘Mapping Software 1.0’ in the field of contemporary advertising.

An industrious month all round has led to significant progress in concepts, designs and development. The teams have moved forward at an incredible pace and we’re really excited by the tangible ideas that are beginning to manifest. To follow their progress, remember to check their Project Journals regularly.

Read the full newsletter, sign up for updates and learn how you can get involved here: Media Sandbox news feed.

Media Sandbox is managed by iShed working with South West Screen with support from South West Regional Development Agency and Watershed.

Pervasive Media Studio featured in New Scientist

August 13, 2008

Last week New Scientist Technology featured an article by Max Glaskin on the subject of Gaming using GPS technology, with mentions of the Pervasive Media Studio:

"While some location-aware games can be played anywhere, others may be strongly connected to a particular area, says Constance Fleuriot of the Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol, UK, those strongly connected to a particular area, say, Manhattan, and those that can be played anywhere….

Fellow resident Jon Dovey, says GPS gaming is likely to be the first application to introduce the masses to being connected digitally to their surroundings, something he calls "ambient connectivity".

Smoke Signals

September 24, 2007

Avant garde architects Minimaforms' SMS text message public sculpture ‘Smoke Signals’ at the Offload Festival which took place in Bristol on 13 - 16 September 2007. As a lead up to iShed's Pervasive Media commissioning fund (which will launch in November 2007), Watershed supported a range of located media activities as part of the Offload programme. more…

Offload: Systems for survival

August 9, 2007

Watershed will host a day of pervasive media projects on 15 September as part of the Offload Festival which take place across the city on 13 - 16 September 2007.

OFFLOAD SYSTEMS FOR SURVIVAL - is the UK’s first interdisciplinary network media and systems arts event on nature, sustainability and ecology. OFFLOAD brings together international, national and local artists and practitioners interested in creating socially engaged work that use new and existing media to address the core themes of ‘Trade, Network and Nomads’ and ‘Health, Wealth and Play’. more…