Collective Wisdom & Co-Creation | Watershed
This talk will be held in the building and online!
This talk is presented in partnership with iDocs and will be chaired by Mandy Rose - Professor - Documentary & Digital Cultures, UWE Bristol and Co-Convenor of the i-Docs Symposium.
Meet some of the authors/coauthors of COLLECTIVE WISDOM: CoCreating Media for Equity and Justice, a new book published by MIT Press. The book argues that Co-creation is everywhere: c Co-creation offers alternatives to the idea of the solitary author privileged by top-down media. But co-creation is easy to miss, as individuals often take credit for—and profit from—collective forms of authorship, erasing whole cultures and narratives as they do so. Collective Wisdom offers the first guide to co-creation as a concept and as a practice, tracing co-creation in a media-making that ranges from collaborative journalism to human–AI partnerships.
Why co-create—and why now? The many coauthors, drawing on a remarkable array of professional and personal experience, focus on the radical, sustained practices of co-creating media within communities and with social movements. They explore the urgent need for co-creation across disciplines and organization, and the latest methods for collaborating with nonhuman systems in biology and technology. The idea of “collective intelligence” is not new, and has been applied to such disparate phenomena as decision making by consensus and hived insects. Collective wisdom goes further. With conceptual explanation and practical examples, this book shows that co-creation only becomes wise when it is grounded in equity and justice.
Katerina Cizek is a Peabody-and two-time Emmy-winning documentarian and the artistic director of the Co-Creation Studio at the MIT Open Documentary Lab. For over a decade at the National Film Board of Canada, she helped redefine the organization as a digital storytelling hub through her long-form, co-creative documentary projects Filmmaker in Residence and HIGHRISE. She is th
Soma VR | Designing Inclusive VR Experiences | Watershed
This talk will be held in the building and online!
Soma is an hour-long participatory multi-sensory experience, which draws from a dance-based approach to using VR technology. The project has been developed by an interdisciplinary team of researchers, choreographers, artists, and technologists, including visually impaired collaborators. In this talk, we discuss participants’ experiences over a 3-day run of Soma performances at the Bloomsbury Theatre in May 2022. We address themes of sensorial awareness and participatory agency, the practices of care undertaken by the Soma dancer-guides, and the residual, often transformative effects of the experience for participants.
A weakness of VR is the marginalisation of certain senses, and its exclusivity towards normative bodies. We ask, can Soma be developed as a model for VR experience design, which responds to these issues? We are also interested in the wider use of Soma beyond a performative context and outline some possible approaches for next steps in the project’s development.
Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 18th November 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the Q and A discussion afterwards.
The lunchtime talks are partly supported by MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol to support creative industries in the region.
Lucia Cipolina-Kun | New Trends in Generative Art | Watershed
This talk will be held in the building and online!
n this talk, University of Bristol PhD student Lucia Cipolina-Kun speaks about the intersection between Artificial Intelligence and art. The talk will cover the latest advances in Artificial Intelligence applied to artistic mediums such as video and paintings providing an introduction to the generative art landscape. In particular, the focus will be on Lucia’s use of Artificial Intelligence in restoring emblematic paintings from Escher, Cezanne, and the famous Ecce Homo from Borja.
Lucia Cipolina-Kun is a PhD student in the University of Bristol specialising in Artificial Intelligence and art restoration. Her work has been selected in the Jean Golding Institute's Beauty of Data Competition, The Cardiff Visions Research Colloquium and has won several international awards.
Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the Q and A discussion afterwards.
The lunchtime talks are partly supported by MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol to support creative industries in the region.
The Residents Season 2 | Live Podcast Launch | Watershed
The second instalment of The Residents Podcast is here! A series of conversations exploring tech, arts, the economy and health through the lens of community and creativity.
In this series Prince Taylor (FKA Will) sits down with more of the Pervasive Media Studio community to dig a little deeper into what the Pervasive Media Studio does and how it does it. We'll hear from guests who have very different relationships with the Studio, explore what the community means to them and discuss how they go about creating incredible experiences for their audiences.
THE CHANGELINGS
In this episode Prince Taylor will be joined by previous Inclusion Producer Zahra Ash Harper to explore the essence of community spirit. We ask ourselves what it means when you work selflessly and how to manage your ambitions and expectations against reality.
Thanks to Jo Kimber for their support in developing and writing the podcast.
Get a full rundown of all our future episodes, launching every two weeks from the 27th of October: https://www.watershed.co.uk/studio/news
Control Shift | Feeling Machines…into the mess! | Watershed
This talk will be held in the building and online!
Control Shift develop digital arts programmes that question and celebrate the messy spaces in-between humans, nature and machines. Through dialogue and arts they bring people together to re-imagine our relationships with technology.
In this talk the Control Shift team will introduce their new programme of 'Feeling Machines’ as well as unpacking Control Shifts' playful, critical approach to technology. They’ll share how participatory methods can open new productive spaces to imagine and create together and discuss why it is important now to question our relationships with technologies.
Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 21st October 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the Q and A discussion afterwards.
The lunchtime talks are partly supported by MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol to support creative industries in the region.
Prince Taylor | Equitable Leadership | Watershed
This talk will be held in the building and online!
"Leadership" - what is it?
"Leaders" - who are they?
***Enter cheesy self help line here***
Our ideas of leadership have taken an absolute battering in the last few years.
Having spent the last 3 years delivering an Arts Council: Transforming Leadership Funded programme. Primarily with Roseanna Dias during Rising Arts Agency's Directorial transition, and then with the team at East London Dance, Prince has spent a lot of time up close and personal with all of the ideas that signify leadership and success
in a Western Country.
In this Lunchtime Talk we'll be uncovering some learning from the Leadership research along with some of the methodology that underpinned his time as a Digital Placemaking Fellow.
About Prince
I'm a creative producer and project manager. My favourite thing in life is growth and seeing what happens when we create environments that improve the possibility of the desired outcome. It turns out that this lends itself to loads of different creative disciplines (which I absolutely love). Equity is at the heart of everything I do. Making space for people is like pure joy in my work! I didn't know this until this year, but now that I do know it, I have not only a better understanding, but also a deeper appreciation for the role my community has played in my work and my life. You'll find out about what I do during the talk, but for now check out some of the amazing organisations I've learned from.
Rising Arts Agency
Cargo Movement
The Pervasive Media Studio
The RWA
Arnolfini
No Bindings
Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 14th October 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the Q and A discussion afterwards.
The lunchtime talks are partly supported by MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol to support creative industries in the region.
The lunchtime talks are partly supported by MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol to support cr
Graham MacLeod Johnson | Making Wellbeing Radical | Watershed
This talk will be BSL Interpreted and will be held in the building and online!
In this talk Studio Resident Graham MacLeod Johnson speaks about poor wellbeing in the arts and culture sectors, and what we can do about it.
Poor wellbeing in arts and culture sectors is something of an open secret - we laugh together about short contracts, out-of-hours work and perform a collective shrug at the thought of fixing it. It's simple to suggest strategies and tools - textbook techniques for self care, telling each other to set boundaries. But when we exist within a context of a sector that's developed a culture of working 'til we drop, it takes more than a nice bath to help.
When our ways of working are responding to inflexible funding practices and a political context that pressures us to deliver more for less with every passing year, we need to acknowledge the landscape we're working in if we want to look after each other. In this talk Graham Johnson explores how we can acknowledge we all bring different baggage to a landscape we may not be in a position to change.
Graham MacLeod Johnson is a Bristol based producer specialising in wellbeing, access and talent development. Currently they are delivering Tobacco Factory Theatre's BLUEPRINT Producer Training Programme, Online Producer at Visual Arts South West and their Radical Wellbeing consultancy. He is on the board of The Bristol Improv Theatre and has previously worked on Kid Carpet's Epic Fail and Noisy TV, Trigger's The Hatchling and more. He is occasionally an illustrator, sometimes known as Mr G Johnson.
www.grahammacleodjohnson.com
Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 23rd September 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the Q and A discussion afterwards.
The lunchtime talks are partly supported by MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol to support creative industries in the region.
Antonio Roberts | (Algo|Afro) Futures | Watershed
In this talk Antonio will reflect on two years of the (Algo|Afro) Futures programme, detailing the inspirations for developing the programme, technical and social challenges faced, and considering what more needs to be done to achieve the aims of democratising and diversifying digital art and music.
Antonio Roberts is an artist, curator and musician based in Birmingham. In 2021 he cofounded the (Algo|Afro) Futures artist development programme.
(Algo|Afro) Futures is a mentoring programme for early career Black artists who want to explore the creative potential of live coding.
Live coding is a performative practice where artists and musicians use code to create live music and live visuals. This is often done at electronic dance music events called Algoraves, but live coding is a technique rather than a genre, and has also been applied to noise music, choreography, live cinema, and many other time-based artforms.
Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 23rd September 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the Q and A discussion afterwards.
The lunchtime talks are partly supported by MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol to support creative industries in the region.
Ella Good and Nicki Kent | Building a Martian House: interiors | Watershed
Artists Ella Good and Nicki Kent have created a Martian House that currently sits in M Shed Square, co-designed with architects, scientists and the general public. It is a prototype of a house that could be lived in on Mars. It is also a public artwork and a research centre. The interiors are being made with a group of Bristolians re-imagining what the objects of everyday living in a zero-waste environment might look like, filling the inside of the house with inventions, ideas and colour. Join this mid-point talk with the artists discussing what has been made so far.
Ella Good and Nicki Kent are Bristol-based artists who are working on an ambitious series about Mars, Earth and the future. Their work is framed around space science as a subject that widens perspective and imagination about how we live here and now on Earth, and provokes conversation about complex, timely topics surrounding our human-planetary relationship: climate, sustainability, community, future cities. They have presented work throughout the UK and internationally, working with local authorities, universities, schools, public parks, science centres, theatres and festivals.
Ella Good and Nicki Kent are Residents at the Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol, UK. Building A Martian House was developed there. The Studio is a creative technologies collaboration with Watershed, University of the West of England and University of Bristol.
Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 16th September 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the Q and A discussion afterwards.
The lunchtime talks are partly supported by MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol to support creative industries in the region.
Daryl Hutchings and Benediktas Gylys | Should Bristol install a Portal to the world? | Watershed
In this talk Daryl Hutchings and Benediktas Gylys talk about The Portal Unity Network, a global community aiming to build the largest artwork in the world to unite humanity.
Each Portal is an 11-ton 10ft tall circular art sculpture that connects live video 24/7/365 between cities worldwide. The first two Portal's were installed in Lithuania and Poland in 2021 and the next two will be installed in two major yet-to-be-announced cities in North America and Asia in December 2022 These sculptures promote unity across physical boundaries and are designed to connect and unite humanity.
The question the speakers pose is, should Bristol install a Portal and join the global network?
About the speakers
Daryl Hutchings - CEO and Co-Founder at Collaboration Squared - the makers of Video Window https://videowindow.com/
Benediktas Gylys - Angel Investor & Founder of Portal Unity Network https://portalunitynetwork.io/
Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 9th September 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the Q and A discussion afterwards.
The lunchtime talks are partly supported by MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol to support creative industries in the region.
Liz Roberts | Supporting Fair Creative Economies (in Bristol and Bath) | Watershed
Dr Liz Roberts is a Research Fellow in the Creative Economies Lab, UWE, working on the Bristol+Bath Creative R+D Cluster and MyWorld programme. Liz is a cultural geographer who has worked at the intersection of social science and arts and humanities across a range of interdisciplinary projects. Liz will be presenting work on the Alternatives at Scale project. This project aims to identify opportunities for change and dialogue within the creative sector in the South West UK to create a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable creative economy.
Two review papers will be outlined in this talk: A literature review on alternative economies (post-capitalism, degrowth, diverse economies, doughnut economies, sustainable prosperity) to understand core concepts and lessons that might be learnt for the creative economy, and a review of local economic, cultural and post-pandemic strategies from city council to regional level across Bristol and Bath exploring how the creative economy is positioned alongside economic and sustainability agendas. She will be outlining key findings from these reviews and introducing the forthcoming Fair Creative Economies project running to 2026 (within the MyWorld programme).
Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 2nd September 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the Q and A discussion afterwards.
The lunchtime talks are partly supported by MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol to support creative industries in the region.
The last talk of every month is BSL interpreted.
Brian Gibson | Reworking Technology | Watershed
Just what is it that makes todays technologies so different, so appealing? As an artist, I find myself increasingly asking the following questions;
How can I engage with developing technologies, in ways outside of the norm of entrepreneurial tech design and coding frameworks, that are meaningful to me?
Do we as individuals have the power and resources to step outside of our roles as passive users, a role which the artist Kin describes as a position of “speaking and not being heard", to find agency and ultimately, a voice that is heard?
My own creative response to such questions has been to work with and rework the physical material of digital technologies which can be found within todays domestic environment. (Laptops, mobile phones, game stations and so forth). In deconstructing such non-functioning objects I have been able explore the concealed architecture of tech through a process of assemblage, print and photography, developing new narratives which switch back and forth between the analogue and digital.
This lunchtime talk is presented by Container - Container is an online magazine about creative technology. Focusing on the human side of technology, it is a home for stories beyond the mainstream. For years, technology in the media has been largely limited to “techno-heroic” stories of the successful individual, big technology and corporate gain. Container seeks to redress the balance and raise up a messy multiplicity of voices - ones that question, dissent and explore. Based in Bristol, Container is born out of a long-term collaboration between Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio - the heart of creative technology R&D in the city - and UWE Bristol’s Creative Economies Lab.
Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 15th July 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the Q and A discussion afterwards.
The lunchtime talks are partly supported by MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol to support creative industri
Sacha Wares | Emotional Engagement in Virtual and Mixed Reality | Watershed
Chaired by Mandy Rose, Professor in Documentary and Digital Cultures, UWE, this talk will be held in the building and online.
Director Sacha Wares shares some thoughts-in-progress about crafting emotional engagement in virtual and mixed reality, with reference to two recent pieces: VR drama Adult Children (Donmar/ ETT/ScanLAB/ Trial & Error) and the mixed reality exhibition Museum of Austerity (ETT/NT/Trial & Error).
Adult Children: Staged in a virtual replica of the Donmar Warehouse, this poignant virtual reality play examines the fragility of relationships in a time of social distance. Co-created by Ella Hickson, Sacha Wares and ScanLAB Projects. Produced by Donmar Warehouse with ETT, ScanLAB Projects and Trial & Error Studio
Museum of Austerity: Winner of IDFA DocLab Immersive Non-Fiction Award 2022, Museum of Austerity is a mixed reality exhibition that preserves the memory of disabled British benefit claimants who died between 2010-2020, inviting audiences to contemplate close up what happens when state safety nets fail.
Co-created with John Pring, editor of Disability News Service. Produced by ETT, NT, Trial & Error Studio. Partners: All Seeing Eye, Dimension Studio
Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 17th June 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the discussion afterwards.
The lunchtime talks are partly supported by MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol to support creative industries in the region.
The last talk of every month is BSL interpreted.
Mathilde Petford | The Department of Dreams | Watershed
Mathilde Petford, Department of Dreams Lead shares some of the amazing thinking coming out of Civic Square Birmingham, where they are using creativity to enable communities to imagine and dream up the world they wish for themselves and future generations. Using play, imagination and story, the team at Civic Square tap into the minds of dreamers to explore regenerative futures and civic life.
Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 13th May 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the discussion afterwards.
The last talk of every month is BSL interpreted.
Furaha Asani, Tony Bhajam & Zoe Rasbash | Meet the Watershed Research Team | Watershed
Join Watershed’s research team as we tell you a little bit more about the kind of research we do in Pervasive Media Studio, where creative technology and arts & culture intersect. What paths led us to form our current professional motley crew? How did we settle on our three research themes of interest (which are inclusive innovation, hybrid products and experiences, and environmental emergencies)? Why are we so intentional about labelling the work we do as ‘research’? Who do we work with, and what opportunities are there for working with us? Find all this out, and more, as we launch our Research Team takeover of the lunchtime talk programme in May 2022.
Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 6th May 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the discussion afterwards.
The last talk of every month is BSL interpreted.
Carl Robertshaw | Polinations - the idea | Watershed
Carl Robertshaw is a transdisciplinary designer and artist with over 25 years of experience working at the intersection of performance, engineering and fine art. Working alongside Bristol based-arts organisation and Studio alumni Trigger, Carl was instrumental in developing The Hatchling - potentially the world's largest non-mechanical flying puppet, which will be leading the procession for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant this June.
As design director, Carl will be discussing PoliNations - Trigger Collective’s epic multi-artform project created in response to the toppling of Colston’s statue, greening cities, and gardening. This is an extra-ordinary visual arts installation, performance, light and sound experience. It involves mass participation, local voices, big ideas, nature, spectacle, and space to reflect and celebrate diversity. Stemming from the simple fact that around 80% of plants found in UK-city gardens originated overseas, this project will launch in Edinburgh and then take over Victoria Square in Birmingham this summer.
PoliNations will be in Victoria Square, Birmingham from Fri 2 – Sun 18 Sept. Find out more about the project and how to get involved at: www.polinations.com and follow them on social @Poli_Nations on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok and @PoliNations on Facebook, #PoliNations
Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 29th April 2022 at 1pm for this BSL Interpreted talk and to take part in the discussion afterwards. Please note that the speaker for this week's talk will be beaming in remotely, as they can no longer attend in person.
The last talk of every month is BSL interpreted.
Annette Mees | Connected Constellations | Watershed
Art can make a world worth living in. After shelter, equality, equity and a healthy planet, there is art. It is a place for imagination – to have collective experiences that ask us to imagine who we want to be and how we want to live together.
What can that look like in the 21st century in an increasingly digital age? Digital can connect across borders or isolate us in bubbles - it can help us see new worlds or just take us away from our own. So how does art keep contributing to the well-being of local and global communities and helping us all to imagine beautiful and powerful ways forward? How do we explore new affordances and reject what does not work for us, ethically, artistically or practically?
Using projects from across her career - from immersive theater to hyper reality operas - Annette Mees will explore how her work believes in the power of the collective imagination, working together & culture as a laboratory for the future.
Annette Mees is an award-winning immersive theatre director known for her innovative, interdisciplinary, experiential work that allows audiences to explore big ideas and meaningful change. She is the Artistic Director of Audience Labs; a hub for imagination exploring new forms of theatre and technology. It connects artists, technologists, researchers, experts, and communities to spark new thinking. Next she is the chair of FutureEverything, a co-host of global conversation around the Future of Art and Culture, an artist mentor for CPH:DOX and working on R&D exploring the “Future of Venues” with Substrakt.
Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 8th April 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the discussion afterwards.
Shrouk El-Attar & Alistair Gentry | Winter Residency Artist Showcase | Watershed
Join us for this free Artist Showcase event to experience the work in progress created by Watershed’s Winter Artists in Residence – Shrouk El-Attar and Alistair Gentry.
From a belly dancing robot to an augmented reality flying saucer, our artists have blended culture and creative technology to shine a light on lost futures, lost stories and the splendour of the unexpected.
In this celebratory event, Shrouk and Alistair will share some short project films and introduce their work and ideas. Come along to experience their ideas in progress and chat with them about their learning and process. Drinks and nibbles will be provided.
Join online here.
About Watershed:
Watershed is a three-screen cinema in Bristol UK showing independently produced films from Britain and beyond. We are also a centre for art and creative technology: home to the Pervasive Media Studio, where artists, technologists and academics work on projects and products at the cutting edge of art, science and digital.
Feeling inspired? Share your thoughts with us now @wshed
Subscribe to Watershed YouTube: http://wshd.to/youtube
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wshed
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wshed
Website: http://www.watershed.co.uk/
Tony Bhajam and Helen Jaffa | Reimagining recruitment; a tale of two departments | Watershed
Tony Bhajam is an Inclusion Producer at the Pervasive Media studio, part of the Watershed team. Helen Jaffa is Operations Manager at Watershed.
In December 2020, the PM studio was recruiting some new team members and there was an opportunity to bring together a host of conversations and learnings in the studio about how we could do this better, in a more 'human' way. The team tried out some new ideas and got some great feedback, they all felt great about it...
Fast forward to May 2021 and the Watershed Front of House teams were ready to recruit as the world opened up post-lockdown. Helen and the team were working to different scales, with different capacity, and with different timelines and all of a sudden this new process didn't feel so good
Join us for a honest chat about what works and what doesn't and to hear a bit about the future of recruitment at Watershed...
Join us online on YouTube Live or in the building on Friday 4th March 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the discussion afterwards.
About the Watershed and the Pervasive Media Studio
Watershed is a three-screen cinema in Bristol UK showing independently produced films from Britain and beyond. We are also a centre for art and creative technology: home to the Pervasive Media Studio, where artists, technologists and academics work on projects and products at the cutting edge of art, science and digital. The Studio is a collaboration between Watershed, The University of West England and Bristol University.
Share your thoughts with us now @PMStudioUK and @wshed
Subscribe to Watershed YouTube: http://wshd.to/youtube
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wshed
Website: https://www.watershed.co.uk/
Duncan Speakman | Composing Experiences | Watershed
This talk will be BSL Interpreted.
In this talk Duncan Speakman will present some new methods for understanding how people experience immersive artworks. Focusing on journeys through physical environments he will explain how ‘time geography’ can be really useful for anyone designing experiential works for audiences. Through sharing some of his own recent works Duncan will also offer some provocations around how sound and augmented reality might offer us new insights and responses to climate collapse.
Duncan Speakman is an artist and composer working with mobile audio and locative media, he creates narrative experiences that engage audiences emotionally and physically in uncontrolled spaces. From intimate in-ear stories to large scale performances, his award winning projects range from sound installations on Guangzhou tram networks and loudspeaker symphonies in Christchurch, to performative audio walks in Saitama and radio works for the BBC. His recent project ‘Only Expansion’ won the award for Best Immersive/XR at London Film Festival and the Special Jury award for immersive non-fiction at International Documentary Festival Amsterdam. He recently completed his PhD on the temporal composition of audio augmented reality.
Join us online, or in the building on Friday 25th February 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the discussion afterwards.
About the Watershed and the Pervasive Media Studio
Watershed is a three-screen cinema in Bristol UK showing independently produced films from Britain and beyond. We are also a centre for art and creative technology: home to the Pervasive Media Studio, where artists, technologists and academics work on projects and products at the cutting edge of art, science and digital. The Studio is a collaboration between Watershed, The University of West England and Bristol University.
Share your thoughts with us now @PMStudioUK and @wshed
Subscribe to Watershed YouTube: http://wshd.to/youtube
Facebook: https://www.fa
