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

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).

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

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

So, Blast Theory is 30 years old.

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.

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

https://vimeo.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

 
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.

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.

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.

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

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

– A guest blog by Caleb Lewis

It starts with a text message.

– 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.

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.

– 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.

– 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.

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

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.

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

– a guest blog by Rachel Henson

I like finding ways through an unfamiliar place.

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

– a guest blog by Thanos Polymeneas Liontris

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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