May 2013
3 posts
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Dancing lampshades, singing memory boxes and...
Welcome to the world of Craft + Tech Residencies supported by the Crafts Council and developed at the Pervasive Media Studios at Watershed, in Bristol.
The Flying Skirt Lampshade, created by Patrick Laing, is responsive to movement and touch, a first in what will no doubt emerge as a future trend in tactitle and malleable furniture accessories, in particular for public spaces.
Your browser...
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Roma Boys - tale of love and prejudice in the...
Tonight at 9pm on Community Channel, sees the UK premier of Roma Boys – an inventive, 30min film following the love story of two young men living in Czech Republic, who face the dual prejudice that comes with identifying as Gay and Gypsy.
David, a Prague university student and Roma Rights activist meets online and falls in love with Marek, a young Roma man living in the country. When a Roma...
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Tune in, clue up: The Real Gypsy, Roma and...
This May and June, Community Channel is taking its viewers on a journey to discover the real lives and cultures, hopes and aspirations, problems and challenges of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities around UK and Europe.
The Community Channel, Britain’s only national channel dedicated to giving a voice to marginalised and underrepresented communities, is screening over forty documentaries...
April 2013
3 posts
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One mother's personal journey to The White House
Jo Yirrell is a Special Ambassador for UK Charity Malaria No More UK - she has dedicated her life to raising awareness about the unnecessary and deadly disease since losing her son to malaria in 2005.
Harry was on a gap year in Ghana and selflessly gave away his malaria pills to the children in the village as he felt they needed them more than he did, a decision that cost him his life. Just...
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Help shape the future of creative industries in...
Results just published from a pilot industry panel reveal the top priorities for film and games industry professionals.
Employers from the film industry joined Creative Skillset’s influential online industry panels and took part in its pilot survey in February.
Following the success of the pilot, the first of three annual surveys will take place in the summer and Creative Skillset is...
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Oxford Street to get a rebrand
Yes, that Oxford Street, world famous for world famous shops, home to Selfridges, the flagship Top Shop, and top visiting attraction for millions of shoppers world wide, will get a brand makeover, courtesy of Goosebumps Brand Consultancy and commissioned by the New West End Company.
“With the coming of Cross Rail and the launch of new flagship sites, the physical development of Oxford Street...
March 2013
1 post
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Choreographer and Strictly Come Dancing legend...
Arlene Phillips has had a glittering career in the world of British dance, becoming a household name in the 1970s with her dance troupe Hot Gossip, before going on to choreograph the 1982 film hit Annie, and most recently, winning the public’s hearts as celebrity judge on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.
This year, she will be taking on an altogether different challenge, as she dedicates a full...
February 2013
3 posts
5 tags
Education in the Republic of Korea and the UK:...
Rebecca Boyle Suh, founder of Artis, a social business dedicated to transforming education through the arts, posted a blog to Huffington Post UK exploring the education values in the Republic of Korea, where her company was recently invited. Although Korean students do remarkably well in rankings, it seems that they are looking towards more creative and rounded approaches to learning, which would...
8 tags
Time to switch: new activity for primary schools...
In this activity children copy the teacher’s sequence of four actions, tapping different parts of the body and keeping a steady rhythm. To make the activity more challenging the teacher says “switch”, so that children drop out and join back in but one step behind. They will have to use their memory to recall the sequence and this makes them concentrate even more and also helps...
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Burrowing our way through the future
We’ve had a few exciting updates from the ever growing games indie Remode who are currently working on a new game concept called “Burrow.” Inspired by 1990s retro games, Burrow aims to be the definitive digging game in the history of mankind.
Set in the future following a global disaster, the game requires strategic thinking, as players have the option of cooperating with others...
January 2013
8 posts
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Film + Music = Filmic Festival 2013
We all know that music can be at its most powerful when it’s cinematic - think Bristol stalwarts Massive Attack and Portishead - and that cinema soundtracks produce some of the most poignant pieces of music known to man.
Imagine our excitement then, when we heard about some of the line-up for this year’s Filmic Festival at Watershed and St George’s in Bristol. Starting the...
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A robot that draws and a choir that sings for a...
Step into the current Studio Residencies at Bristol’s Watershed and you may be greeted by a robot that draws or stumble upon part of an instrument that dates back to the nineteenth century but promises to play for another one hundred years. Here, anything goes and the artists are busy getting their projects ready to be showcased on 31 January.
The Pervasive Media Studio is Watershed’s city centre...
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Has the time come for Smart Cities to evolve? Say...
After sifting through 93 applications from around the world and much anticipation, the judges for the Playable City Award produced by Watershed, have finally announced the winner. The successful project to receive £30,000 to create a playful urban environment is “Hello Lamp Post!” submitted by London-based PAN Studio in association wth Gyorgyi Galik and Tom Armitage.
Bristol residents will soon...
7 tags
Uplifted - the new happiness game from Channel 4...
Uplifted, a new iOS and Android app about happiness, commissioned by Channel 4 Education and created by digital creative agency Kanoti is set in the faraway land of Happ, a place filled with joy, wonder and delight – or least it used to be before the Viroids arrived and brought doom, gloom and destruction.
The game’s protagonist - the Happ - can restore happiness, but only with the player’s help....
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Contemporary craft makers to explore the Internet...
Press note - A Music Memory Box for people with dementia, a flying lampshade that communicates feeling, and coins that trigger invaluable experiences: these are all part of Watershed’s new Craft + Technology Residencies January - March 2013. Funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and supported by the Crafts Council, the Craft + Technology Residencies bring together makers Heidi Hinder, Chloe...
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D-pixing: the new Sudoku?
If you prefer playing Scrabble or Sudoku to Angry Birds on your phone, then you’ll love D-Pixing. Inspired by ancient hieroglyphics and based on Rebus puzzles popular in Victorian times, D-Pixing is a fee iPhone and iPad game created by renowned (think Private Eye, The Times, The Guardian…) media cartoonist Aidan Potts and Plymouth based indie games studio Remode.
Rebus puzzles were...
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Is the future of Books & Print here?
If you’re wondering what the future holds for books, look no further than the Books & Print REACT Sandbox programme. REACT, a recently formed Bristol based hub of creative knowledge, are funding unique partnerships between academics and economy partners to create ground-breaking to write, read and love books. Eight ideas are announced today, and include a bi-hacked book, a book specific to a...
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Hand orchestra by Artis: teamwork and topic...
In a useful new teaching resource from Artis, Children create sounds following the small hand gestures of their partners, which are then developed into full body movements. In this example children work with the subject of fireworks (which may be fresh in their memory through New Year’s Eve celebrations), but the principle can be applied to different topics or subject areas throughout the year....
December 2012
3 posts
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Playable City Shortlist, which one would you vote...
If your daily commute is ocassionaly peppered with wishes that the city you live in could be more fun, then you may feel a glimmer of hope to discover Bristol’s Watershed has published a shortlist of international creatives that have been busy thinking up ways to make the city you’re in, that little bit more “playable.” Each creative has submitted projects for the international Playable...
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WatchLast week, the Turner Prize was announced and both the presenter, Jude Law, and winner Elizabeth Price, took the opportunity to raise the issue of proposed changes to the UK secondary school curriculum as outlined by education secretary Michael Gove, which could see arts subjects left out of the timetable for many students. Tate Kids have put together a short film, which features primary...
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Behind the headlines with Pavla Kopecna
Pavla Kopecna joined Ladbury PR two years ago to develop the agency with Rebecca Ladbury, following stints on digital media projects with Channel 4, freelance film and photography commissions and a fashion editor role at Clash Magazine.
She has since immersed herself in the world of communications and media strategy, becoming a key member of the Ladbury family and a respected public relations...
November 2012
4 posts
5 tags
A film advent calendar? Get ready for Electric...
If you’re a little bored of the usual milk chocolate version, the Electric December film advent calendar from Watershed may be just the thing for you. Available from Saturday 1st December at www.electricdecember.org, we’ll be treated to a short film a day, from young film mikalers across the UK and Europe. Now in its fourteenth year, Electric December is Watershed’s annual short...
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I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! supports...
You may have thought this year’s I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! was all about celebrities having it out with cockroaches and scorpions in the Australian jungle but did you know that 15p from every vote helps to save lives from malaria? A preventable disease that claims the life of a child every single minute, malaria is still a problem in a number of countries around the world,...
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Channel 4 Education tackles bullying with...
Viewers of Hollyoaks will be already be aware of the current storyline focussing on sixth form student Ester who is suffer bullying at the hands of her group of friends. When fellow student Dylan innocently decides to create a bespoke micro-blogging site, ‘DocYou’ to enter a filmmaking competition, the other sixth formers misuse it and it becomes a public forum to broadcast humiliating content...
October 2012
8 posts
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Tomorrow on Channel 4: The Human Mannequin
Commissioned by Channel 4 Education and on Channel 4 tomorrow night, the inspiring story of teenager Louise Wedderburn who has a rare genetic condition called FOP which is causing each of her joints to lock, as her muscle turns into bone. In spite of this she is determined to build a career in fashion. Will the notoriously image conscious fashion industry accept her, or will her extraordinary...
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Another brilliant resource from Artis ahead of...
Replace the word: pulse internalisation and literacy from Artis on Vimeo.
Bonfire night is a popular themed event with primary school children, so the team at creative learning company Artis have put together a fun and simple activity for teachers to try in the classroom.
In this activity children learn the poem ‘Remember, remember the fifth of November’, concentrating on...
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Watershed launches £30,000 Playable City Award
Calling all artists, techies, designers, playmakers and all round mavericks. There’s a new award in town and it’s not afraid to push boundaries. Criss-crossing the intersections between art, technology, play and culture, the Playable City Award is looking for imaginative, interactive and accessible interpreations of what it means to have fun in public urban spaces. Internationally...
7 tags
Always thought you had what it takes to be an agent in the British Secret Service but the opportunity to prove your mettle never arose? Well, that chance is finally at hand: to promote the new James Bond film, Skyfall, Sony and W+K Portland have collaborated with Hide&Seek and development partner Existor to bring you the British Intelligence Officers Exam. The exam puts you in the role of...
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Alex Fleetwood and Robert Briscoe at ExPlay 2012
The organisers of this year’s ExPlay Festival announced the two keynote speakers for the 1 – 2 November: Hide&Seek’s founding director Alex Fleetwood and artist Robert Briscoe.
Fleetwood’s and his studio are passionate advocate’s of public play, integrating games with performance art in public spaces. His talk ‘As Fun To Watch As It Is To Play: How Games With...
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MirriAd and Repucom in world first for brand...
MirriAd and Repucom have partnered to infuse the former’s brand placement software with the latter’s analysis platform. The marriage is excellent news for those using MirriAd’s technology - among them, Channel 4’s Deal or No Deal – as it means they can now see how effective their advertising placement is likely to be. Repucom’s analysis platform scans the footage,...
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What will your London of 2022 look like?
Six months ago, as John Lanchester published Capital – his epic tale of post-crash London published by Faber and Faber. Media storyteller Storythings launched its online companion PepysRd.com, an interactive website to find out what Capital’s readers and the public at large, feel about the future. Those who signed up to the website were invited to reflect and answer a new question each day for...
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Bristol to Brooklyn: BEAM Exchange of Art & Music
Bristol Exchange of Arts & Music and Watershed present
BRISTOL TO BROOKLYN // TUESDAY 16TH OCTOBER 2012
The Knitting Factory, 361 Metropolitan Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11211
2pm – Free // 7pm - $ 10 // Get tickets
On 16th October 2012, BEAM// (Bristol Exchange of Arts & Music) are bringing a slice of Bristol’s burgeoning street level art, music and film to Brooklyn. BEAM// will be running a...
September 2012
5 posts
4 tags
FilmWorks 2012 Participants Announced
Whittled down from over 150 applications, the organisers of Filmworks have announced that this year’s workshop series will have 48 participants.
Supported by National Lottery funding, managed by Watershed in Bristol and co-produced by ShowroomWorkstation in Sheffield and Broadway in Nottingham, FilmWorks connects promising British filmmakers with prominent figures in the industry to take part...
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New York New York! Hide&Seek expands in USA
In case you haven’t heard yet, last week brought the news that games studio Hide&Seek, our friends behind The Building Is… and the recent Hide&Seek Weekender, are opening a new office in Soho, New York. The game studio already has commissions lined up but pssst…they will be revealed later in the autumn.
Margaret Robertson flew over to head the new States-side...
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Meet Senegalese 'Hendrix of The Kora' Seckou Keita
They say the sound of kora - a West African harp instrument traditionally made with cow skin - is magical. Today, no one can play it with more warmth than Seckou Keita, a Senegalese music hero, whose song ‘Rewmi’ swept the country earlier this year on the eve of the historic Presidential election in Senegal, serving as a backdrop to the fall of the incumbent Abduwale Wade and...
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Heritage Sandbox projects unveiled 28 September in...
Tweeting dead people? Listening to ghosts? Digitally layered cities? The Heritage Sandbox scheme is modernising historical sites and exhibitions into something you won’t have seen before.
With technology changing the way people travel, work, communicate and spend their leisure time, for the heritage sector to remain relevant and sustainable, it must make sure it remains at the forefront of this...
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Jo Twist to deliver ExPlay VIP keynote
ExPlay Festival 2012 organisers have announced this year’s keynote will be UKIE’s CEO Jo Twist.
Taking on the role earlier this year, JoTwist has been working to make the UKIE trade body relevant to modern games development by giving its members access to the latest platforms, experts, and technology they need to grow as a company, and providing them with advice on fundraising, building...
August 2012
8 posts
Playing in Public at the Hide&Seek Weekender
Competitive sandwich making, satisfaction for the snail god, and giant birds in search of giant nests can all be found at this year’s Hide&Seek Weekender. Following successful events in 2009 and 2010, the Weekender is back to encourage drop-in play by people of all ages. Simply turn up at the London’s South Bank during the weekend of the 14th - 16th September and take part in...
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Let the Game Jam commence
This October, London’s Science Museum and The Pervasive Media Studios in Bristol are turning themselves over for 24 hours to the ExPlay Game Jam. Organised by this year’s ExPlay festival and led by bio-medical scientists from the Wellcome trust, game developers from all over the country will have one short day to design and build a playable game based on a theme revealed at the...
Even buildings have feelings
Say a polite bonjour, to La Gaite Lyrique, a beautiful Parisian building that can see, hear, smell and feel its visitors, courtesy of an experiment with games, lights, mirrors and buttons by London games studio Hide&Seek. LJ Rich from BBC Click pays La Gaite Lyrique a visit…
(go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9745164.stm to watch the full programme)
More...
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20 August is World Mosquito Day.
Malaria No More UK, the leading charity to help end malaria launched a new awareness campaign to mark World Mosquito Day, today, Monday 20 August called Mozzy Air. The campaign follows a spoof airline that flies to over 100 malaria destinations brought to life with compelling real life stories.
Check out the snazzy graphic at http://malarianomore.org.uk/mozzyair and help spread the word and...
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Channel 4's Battlefront Tackles Youth Unemployment
According to Government statistics, over 20% of the UK’s 16 – 24 year-olds are unemployed, amounting to more than a million young people. Our country’s youth is at the forefront of the current unemploment epidemic. To tackle the biggest issue facing young people today, Channel 4 announced this year’s Battlefront campaign will focus on youth unemployment and...
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Beautiful butterflies resurrected from an...
Fonmon Castle stands proudly in the Vale of Glamorgan on the coast of South Wales – one of the few remaining Welsh castles still lived in as a home, and currently a popular wedding venue. It was built by the St. John family in the early 13th century and has changed hands only once, in 1654, the current owner being the 16th Baronet, Sir Brooke Boothby. As part of a recent branding commission led...
Pleased to be playing with Hide&Seek on new...
We’re proud to be working with Hide&Seek…or should we say playing? The games studios love all things to do with play, which they believe will form an increasingly important part of cultural life in the 21st century, and is essential to our health and happiness.
We all remember the joy of playing when we were children, but why stop now that we are adults? Hide&Seek make games...
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Alex Cuba: the kind of Static In The System we...
New album Ruido En El Sistema out in September.
Live at Jazz Café 18 September.
Of all the songs on Alex Cuba’s forthcoming album, it’s the one about war that’s the closest to the Cuban Canadian’s heart. It is called ‘Unanime’ (‘Unanimous’ in English), and took the length of the Iraq War to compose, the first words penned as American troops set foot on Iraqi soil back in 2003, and the last...
July 2012
6 posts
4 tags
Updating the humble postcard for the Facebook...
Have traditional postcards had their day? Quite, the opposite, say creators of ‘Cards In The Post’, a project from tech start up Electric Animal, which launched last month.
“The problem with postcards is writing them, not receiving them, says Richard Neville from Electric Animal. “The old-fashioned way is too much effort and too little reward for the sender. Who wants to make...
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99 Tiny Games unleashed around London
Like mushrooms after rain, all manner of colourful circular shapes have sprung up over London. They come in a range of colours, are about a foot wide, and grow on the ground and walls for the duration of the London 2012 Olympic Games
Read the stickers, and you’ll discover a simple set of rules you can follow to have a game right there and then - whether you’re on your way from work on...
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If you can't join them, watch a film
The bumper Olympic Stylist Magazine issue have chosen twenty awe-inspiring things to do to celebrate The Olympics if you can’t be there. If you’re a film buff in Bristol, your best bet is to head over the Watershed for Film Relays - a cinematic look at the Olympics, past, present and future…
Read the full piece on Stylist.co.uk.
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(Not quite 99) Red balloons used to create aerial...
‘Walking the Sky’ is a project organised by the Watershed Arts Centre in Bristol and created by James Bridle, where participants walked around the Portuguese city of Guimarães sporting a bundle of massive red balloons each carrying a cameras attached to it, which will generate the imagery for the aerial maps of the city.
The mapping project is part of the Open City programme for Guimarães and its...
