Audience agency & AI: Insights from Nick on lessons in Rider Spoke

By Macy Byfield
Photo: Alex Kershaw

To me, the stand out Blast Theory projects are those that nest authentic, undeniably human narratives within innovative, carefully crafted digital interfaces.

Blast Theory announced as embedded artist for responsible AI project

By Jonny Goode
Cat Royale by Blast Theory. Image Credit Stephen Daly.

Blast Theory have been announced as the embedded artists in residence for an ongoing research project that will help define the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI).

Where were you in 1997?

By Nick Tandavanitj
A performer interviewing a member of the public in Safehouse

“It’s not ‘natural’ to speak well, eloquently, in an interesting, articulate way.

Holding audiences to account

By Nick Tandavanitj
A woman in the city at night is about to record a message on a headset

“Questions and answers depend on a game – a game that is at once pleasant and difficult – in which each of the two partners takes pains to use only the rights given him by the other and by the accepted form of dialogue.

A message from Ju

By Ju Row Farr

I am turning my tanker around and I don’t know where I will be heading exactly or even what my tanker might look like.

I could ask you anything

By Nick Tandavanitj

Ju has been at the heart of Blast Theory since the very beginning, so with Ju’s move to creating work independently, it seemed like a good time to think about how Blast Theory ticks.

Cat Royale’s Audience Advisory Panel

By Ju Row Farr

As a part of Cat Royale, we have engaged an Audience Advisory Panel who are coming along with us on this journey, as we try to work out and develop the complex nest of subjects that is the project.

The things that made us: Streaming

By Nick Tandavanitj
kidnap

In 1998, we created our first project available online: Kidnap.

The things that made us: The Red Dot

By Ju Row Farr
Uncle Roy 2

Many of our works have high thresholds to entry: sometimes novel structures or difficult ideas; sometimes ways of using everyday devices just a little ‘off’ from what we mostly use them for.

The things that made us: Front of House

By Nick Tandavanitj

Our first project using mobile devices with audiences was Uncle Roy All Around You in 2003.

The things that made us: A tech run with no tech

By Ju Row Farr
Performers Nikki Jewitt and Ju Row Farr

In 1992 we made Chemical Wedding, our second piece of work.

The things that made us: the pre-mortem

By Matt Adams
words on a whiteboard that describe all the risks for the art project

We often make risky projects.

The things that made us: spontaneous participation

By Ju Row Farr

Disobedient participants, or rather people who find their own way into our work, have become a strength of some of our work: a heart that is largely invisible to the outside, which we cherish greatly.

The things that made us: learning to back it up

By Nick Tandavanitj

After an early incident where the first year and a half of all of Blast Theory’s files were accidentally deleted in an Amstrad floppy drive, we thought that for a long time we had our shit together with archiving and backups.

The things that made us: Kidnap

By Matt Adams

We kidnapped two people in 1998.

Blast Theory at 30: How we started

By Matt Adams

When you’re young you occasionally take unwise risks and we were no exception.

December Artist in Residence: Maja Spasova

By Jonny Goode

So you’re here because you want to take part in my latest project HUNGER – thank you!

The latest part of HUNGER is THE WORLD’s DINING TABLE.

Blast Theory turns 30

By Matt Adams
Gunmen Kill Three

So, Blast Theory is 30 years old.

Creative Fortnight: Week Two

By Ju Row Farr

We looked at quite a lot last week – still focusing on Cat Royale but also, more generally, what we enjoy or not creatively, and the platforms and spaces we may want to work in in the future.

Creative Fortnight: Week One

By Ju Row Farr

 

The creative fortnight is something we three artists try to do at least every year.

Support for artists: Mentoring and virtual residencies

By Guest Blogger
A still from the performance of Circles Of Fire: The Amphitheatre. Image courtesy of the artist.

https://vimeo.

BLOG: Pandemics and Public Health

By Guest Blogger
Pandemics and Public Health

Watch:  WHO expert Dr Mike Ryan is leading the fight against COVID-19
 

12th March 2020

In the current climate of fear and uncertainty around COVID-19 and the misinformation and fake news which can distort our understanding of the spread of the virus, we wanted to share our work on infectious disease, in the hope that it can offer some insight into past cases of infection; the way public health officials respond and the personal stories at the heart of such tragedies.

Blast Theory video

By Guest Blogger
Blast Theory Video | A Moment of Possibility

Blast Theory has a long history of making social and political work, drawing on popular culture, performance, technology and games.

Don’t be afraid of the label

By Guest Blogger
Artist James Shreeve

Plastic Tiger Factory: James Shreeve
 

While 2019 felt like a tough year across the globe, one thing that filled us with pure joy was having James Shreeve intern with us for three months.

2051: What if Nature Had Rights?

By Guest Blogger
Violeta Marchenkova trials a prototype mirrored helmet in the woods.

Early in 2019, artist and Blast Theory resident Marina Wainer ran a project with the students of the Product Design course at the University of Sussex.

Blog: How we created GIFT – making noise in museums

By Nick Tandavanitj
Creating a virtual museum: digital gifting app Gift

Stepping into the main gallery at Brighton Museum is like entering an oasis of calm.

Digital gifting at the Munch Museum, Oslo

By Guest Blogger

Gift will be available to try at the Munch Museum until March 2020.

Ask the Artists

By Ju Row Farr
Japanese street view

We have been inviting you all to ask the artists and team here questions (absolutely anything!) relating to our practice, and have been sharing these in our monthly mailouts.

Guest blog by resident artist Marina Wainer

By Guest Blogger
Collage image courtesy of the artist.

I arrived at 20 Wellington Road with the intention of writing a new project.

Meet our new pvi and Australia Council resident

By Guest Blogger
PVI Cat Jones

We’re thrilled to welcome our new resident Cat Jones who joins us as part of the international residency program from pvi collective and in partnership with the Australia Council.

A Serious Game

By Matt Adams
Operation Black Antler by Blast Theory

Operation Black Antler is an immersive theatre piece in which the audience are tasked with infiltrating a protest group.

Games Can Help Us Understand Power

By Guest Blogger
Kidnap 1998 by Blast Theory

– Matt Locke is Director of Storythings, Deputy Chair of British Science Association and also runs The Story.

Going undercover: what is Operation Black Antler?

By Matt Adams
Operation Black Antler Safehouse

 
With our collaborators Hydrocracker, we have just launched Operation Black Antler – an immersive theatre work in which members of the public are invited to go undercover at a protest meeting on the fringes of British society.

20 years of Blast Theory and Mixed Reality Lab

By Guest Blogger
Promotional image for Desert Rain (1999). A white woman standing in a big parka coat. Behind them is a projector featuring a image of a desert. CGI numbers overlay the image.

From VR warfare installations, to interrogations at the Venice Biennale about political violence, our work with the University of Nottingham’s Mixed Reality Lab has produced 12 new works since the nineties.

Blast Theory and Mixed Reality Lab in conversation

By Dan Lamont
Uncle Roy 2

 

 

Our development as a group of artists working with technology has been made possible by, to our knowledge, the longest and deepest collaboration between an artists’ group and a university in the world.

Teddy Freeman on interning with Blast Theory

By Guest Blogger
Bloodyminded

Like every charity we rely on volunteers.

126,000 tune in to watch Bloodyminded

By Guest Blogger
Bloodyminded

 

On October 14th, Europe’s first ever interactive feature film Bloodyminded was broadcast live from an army base to cinemas and online.

Read the knockout reviews for Operation Black Antler in Manchester

By Guest Blogger

…like a shot of adrenaline straight to your moral compass.

Welcome to the World of Serious Games

By Guest Blogger

– A guest blog by Caleb Lewis

It starts with a text message.

Pushing Boundaries and Transforming Spaces through Play

By Guest Blogger

– A guest blog by Sofia Romualdo

As a former art curator turned PhD researcher, who studies the use of videogames and gameful design as interpretation and engagement tools in museums, one of my main interests is play.

‘We saw fascists as the poison and ourselves as the antidote’

By Guest Blogger
Entering an underpass

The thought of seeing a production with audience participation – my participation – would have been bad enough, but the word “immersive” really set me on edge.

Through a wall

By Guest Blogger

– a guest blog by Alinah Azadeh

For many years I have made work – installations, sculptures, performances –  which have been sparked by my own personal narratives  – as a bridge for the public to bring their own stories to the work, through objects or texts and latterly, by performing them with me.

Another person’s shoes

By Guest Blogger
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

– a guest blog by Sarah-Jayne Butler, cast member for Operation Black Antler 
As an actor a huge draw to this project was the opportunity to work collaboratively, creating a piece of work that seeks to challenge and question our own perceptions and understanding rather than to offer answers.

Everybody Is Perfect

By Nick Tandavanitj

Here’s a few images from my whirlwind introduction to Indonesia courtesy of the British Council.

Prematurely Stunned

By Ju Row Farr

Tomorrow I am going for 10 days to the world’s second-largest and second-most-populous continent in the world, according to Wikipedia, I am going to Africa.

Why we are making Operation Black Antler

By Matt Adams

We have just launched our next project, Operation Black Antler – an immersive theatre work in which members of the public are invited to go undercover at a protest meeting.

Blast Theory 25 Years

By Ju Row Farr

 

Blast Theory will be exactly 25 on the 10th April this year.

How to make your own tools

By Guest Blogger

– a guest blog by Rachel Henson

I like finding ways through an unfamiliar place.

A little bit about workshops

By Ju Row Farr
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

We run workshops and smaller projects quite a lot and I think they sometimes go unnoticed amongst Blast Theory’s bigger projects.

Operatic Tradition vs. an approach toward an “Interactive Music Theatre”

By Guest Blogger

– a guest blog by Thanos Polymeneas Liontris

This short text is a reflection on contemporary approaches to Music Theatre.

The First Team meeting in Brazil

By Ju Row Farr

Last night I met the team, a wonderful group of people on this independent Mesa, who have signed up to go on a journey into the unknown with Blast Theory with me at the helm.

Off To Change The Entire World – Starting in Sao Paulo

By Ju Row Farr

OK, so this is going to be more than just a workshop, let me explain a little.

Guest blog from resident artist Katie-Dale Everett

By Guest Blogger
Behind the scenes photo from the Digital Tattoo shoot, image courtesy of the artist. Image by RULER

It has been proposed that our digital information will last longer than we will ourselves in the flesh.

A Room of One’s Own..

By Guest Blogger
A model of an elephant on a window sill

It’s all about processes for me this month – I’ve just finished a months unexpected studio residency here at Blast Theory.

Cables, connectivity and Toronto.

By Ju Row Farr
Cast and crew of My One Demand

My One Demand may be our most ambitious project to date – I feel like I’ve said this before, but this is certainly pushing all of our boats way out.

Matt Adams on psychological profiling in Karen

By Anne Rupert
Artist Nick and Researcher Dr Kelly Page

Our latest work Karen is an app that uses psychological profiling techniques to adapt the story to you.

Matt Adams explains how Karen uses interactivity

By Anne Rupert

Our latest work Karen is a mixture of game play and storytelling.

Crowdfunding – A Guide by Blast Theory

By Anne Rupert

In October 2014 we ran a crowdfunding campaign to fund the minimum amount of development time needed to deliver our new artistic app Karen.

Operation Black Antler: collaborative project in development

By Matt Adams
Blast Theory and Hydrocracker planning in a top secret location

 

In 2012 we began collaborating with fellow Brighton based company Hydrocracker.

Playing Dead

By Guest Blogger
Film still from Auditorium. Image courtesy of the artist.

One of the romances of writing is in the simplicity of tools required.

One Year On – A Force Of Nature, By Force Of Will Power – The Thing I’ll Be Doing For The Rest Of My Life

By Ju Row Farr
The Thing I'll Be Doing For The Rest Of My Life, photo credit YAMAGUCHI Takayuki

A year ago Matt began editing the footage from Nagoya, of the trawler being moved onto the land, through the night and across the park – 5 days to edit, then straight back to Japan on the 5th of August, to install onto 40 tablets in Japanese and English, train invigilators, meet press, thank everyone involved and open to the public on 10th August 2013.

Krautrock R&D

By Matt Adams

Last week we spent five days doing research and development on a new project.

The Gift by Marcel Mauss

By Ju Row Farr

I am reading The Gift (Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Society) by Marcel Mauss at the moment, ongoing research for a yet undefined project and just wanted to share a quote from the introduction section.

Reflection on my time at Blast Theory’s residency studio

By Guest Blogger

In April and May this year I was lucky enough to once more be one of Blast Theory’s artists in residence.

We Whisper In Your Ear A Great Secret. 100th Anniversary of BLAST.

By Guest Blogger

Blast Theory are currently here at Cambridge Junction as we open Rider Spoke tonight, as part of the city’s Velo Festival, celebrating the Tour de France coming to Cambridge on Monday.

Long Live the Vortex! 100th Anniversary of BLAST

By Guest Blogger
Selected quotes from BLAST Publication.

On July 2nd 1914 BLAST, Wyndham Lewis’s Vorticist’s literary magazine, was first published.

From the bunker. .(hello hello)

By Guest Blogger
Still from a film by Becky Edmunds

Sometimes it’s good to go to a place where there are few distractions.

Assuming you’re not delusional. . .

By Matt Adams
One of our source's of inspiration.

We’ve just had Nina Reynolds and Kelly Page here for two days.

Cash money

By Matt Adams

This is an open letter in response to blogs by Bryony Kimmings and Andy Field about money.

Trip to Buffalo

By Ju Row Farr
Participants at workshop at University at Buffalo in September 2013

So we’ve been in Buffalo at University at Buffalo for about a week working with a fantastic and smart group of people in media studies, visual studies and theatre studies courtesy of the lovely Mark Shepard and Sarah Bay-Cheng.

Fixing Point at Brighton Festival

By Ju Row Farr
A metal fixing point

Fixing Point is sold out at this years’ Brighton Festival already, which is amazing, and so I wanted to let you know a few things about the work before I go into lock down mode.

Reality film

By Matt Adams
Film still form Alan Clarke's film Elephant

Today I’ve been watching some of Alan Clarke’s amazing films about Northern Ireland.

Disaster utopia

By Matt Adams
Daisuke Oono

The next day I did an interview with Daisuke Oono, a journalist with NHK who is from the Sendai area.

To Kesennuma: ships out of place and fishermen

By Matt Adams
A freighter washed inland by the tsunami

Up at 5am today to head north by car.

Trip to Sendai

By Matt Adams
A freighter pushed inland by the tsunami

Some days make me realise all over again what a privilege it is to be an artist.

Thinking about behavioural profiling

By Matt Adams

Today, I’m working on a new project for National Theatre Wales.