Take Me To The Bridgewater is a site-specific artwork along the Bridgewater Canal created with seven young people from the Salford area. This work is a journey into the minds of these young locals, who are taking our histories and making their own futures. Winding along the canal, this work places unfamiliar stories in new… Read more »
Visit the 2097: We Made Ourselves Over site to watch the films and learn more about the research process. 2097: We Made Ourselves Over explores the belief that everyone has the power to act and influence the future – uncovering the unnerving and exhilarating idea that anything is possible. Inspired by the respective histories of communities… Read more »
Download Karen now by searching ‘Karen’ in your app store. Karen is a system that gets to know you. She/it uses data about your behaviour – whether freely given or obtained by monitoring – to give you an experience that is personalised, adaptive and intriguing. You have calls with Karen once or twice a day…. Read more »
Too Much Information is an audio walk around the streets of Manchester, based on a series of frank and funny conversations between two groups of people at very different stages of their lives – a group of young adults and a group of over 60s. Posing some seemingly awkward questions, Blast Theory Artist Ju Row… Read more »
DIVO: Digital Voices unites three European organisations Blast Theory (UK), The Patchingzone (NL) and Translocal (FI) working at the leading edge of digital and interactive media to investigate new ways of working with young people and mobile media. Through research and practical public outcomes, DIVO: Digital Voices provided a platform for meaningful exchange and created… Read more »
Ghostwriter is a commission for the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter as part of the relaunch of the renovated building in November 2011. The work springs from the saying that “A million objects give rise to a million thoughts” which the museum uses as a concept for their collection. Each object in the collection… Read more »
As you hear about the progression into violence and death you stare at the everyday surroundings. Find a vantage point, linger near a doorway or to find a nearby bus shelter then use your keypad to make your choices. You hear about TV appearances, the firebombing of a supermarket and the night that Benno was… Read more »
Later a crane lifts the boat onto a lorry at the Nagoya Port and it is driven into the city centre at midnight. Crowds gather to watch along the route and as the lorry arrives at the park, the boats’ final resting place. People bring food and drink, make videos, photos, hang out, worry and… Read more »
The second part of the project was a deeper investigation into the nature of the site with a travelogue/questionnaire on audio cassette. Members of the public walked through the site wearing a personal stereo with given instructions and questions. The questions were imaginatively constructed to encourage the user to think about their built environment in… Read more »
Each poster shows a photograph from in and around various cities: some with people in the shot and some deserted. In each of the four pictures a different question was asked, for example “ What do you fantasise about on the bus?” or “Describe a stranger you once saw and have never forgotten”. This is… Read more »
This project was the second major collaboration with the Mixed Reality Lab at the University of Nottingham after Desert Rain. It was developed during a long period of research and development in London and Nottingham exploring Global Positioning Systems and wireless networking. Can You See Me Now? takes the fabric of the city and makes… Read more »
The city is an arena where the unfamiliar flourishes, where the disjointed and the disrupted are constantly threatening to overwhelm us. It is also a zone of possibility; new encounters. Building on Can You See Me Now? the game investigates some of the social changes brought about by ubiquitous mobile devices, persistent access to a… Read more »
The game invites players to search for Frank through the streets of Adelaide. Online Players move through a virtual model of the city, opening location specific photos. One photo reveals the location of a hidden object. Online Players then enlist a Street Player to go to that location and retrieve it. In the Exeter Hotel,… Read more »
The conversations use the intermittent, slow motion nature of the interview to explore the things that are rarely said and rarely heard. Most importantly, we hear the voices of people alone, confessing, contemplating, opening up to the absent interviewer. The programme explores the ways in which radio and telephones lend themselves to a certain kind… Read more »
The goal of the game is to ‘help other people’ but it is not necessarily clear how to do this. From the Gasometer to Product Barn, the Canal to the Rat Research Institute, up to 1,000 players roam the streets, defining themselves through their interactions. Day Of The Figurines continues Blast Theory’s enquiry into the… Read more »
Rider Spoke continues our fascination with how games and new communication technologies create novel social spaces where the private and the public intertwine. To cycle alone, in the evening, with no particular destination offers a rare freedom. In Rider Spoke this is combined with an opportunity to think about the people in your life and… Read more »
Prof appears as a small graphical character. He speaks through speech bubbles; inviting players to respond to instructions, select answers from multiple choice questions or enter text into forms to interact. He combines serious questions with playful ones; showing interest in your opinions about film stars and facial hair as well as energy use. Over… Read more »
A description of the work The development of the work was supported by Caitlin Newton Broad who visited a huge range of community groups, colleges and arts organisations in the East End to invite young people to a series of workshops at the Urban Adventure Base over the summer of 2008. Eight people were chosen… Read more »
To begin you select a small plastic figurine from a purpose built metal table, choosing from names such as Cutty Hugh, Edible Jenks or Meat Buttons. Your figurine is then moved onto the game table and you are given a badge to wear which shows your figurine’s name. As you join the game your character… Read more »
Introduction Ivy4Evr uses SMS to go places that other dramas can’t go – onto your phone and into your pocket. Ivy wriggles into your life, sending you messages on the way to school, college or last thing at night. Ivy’s life is parallel to yours: she sends boozy updates late on Saturday night and sarcastic… Read more »
A Machine To See With is a Locative Cinema commission from the Sundance Film Festival, 01 San Jose Biennial and the Banff New Media Institute. It was created between January and September 2010 and premiered in San Jose on 16th September. It is a film where you play the lead. You sign up online and… Read more »
Fixing Point is an audio walk about Seamus Ruddy made in collaboration with electronic musician Clark. This work was first shown at Snape Maltings in Suffolk. The Maltings focus on a programme of classical music in an idyllic rural setting. However the area has a strong military history with experimental installations at Orford Ness and an American nuclear base… Read more »
A description of the work in Venice The work starts in Palazzo Zenobio where you enter a wooden room, which has air holes drilled into it, and pick up a mobile phone. There is a screen on the wall showing video of an interview – the interview is live and you can faintly hear the… Read more »
I’d Hide You originates from a research project into Outside Broadcasting funded by the Technology Strategy Board. We worked with London TV company Somethin’ Else and the University of Nottingham to develop a low cost interactive platform for Outside Broadcasting. At the end of the twelve months we wanted to create a simple game that… Read more »