A while back I put into my diary the item “blog about a selection of great digital/digitally influenced stuff that people are doing”. Back then, it seemed like a totally reasonable thing to do, right now, there are so many exciting things happening all over the country it just feels kind of impossible to pick out a few. For that reason, you should just go to the map to find out what’s happening near you. And what you’re about to read should be considered a very gross simplifiedd super-cut highlight of the many and varied and brilliant things happening.
In Portstewart NI BigTelly are working with Alan Hook to run a workshop for 6-11 year olds on physical computing that involves building an electric piano out of bananas.
Across several countries, All Change Festival (at the Lyric in the UK, in New York, with Bluespots Productions in Germany, and Vinnslan in Iceland) Firehouse Productions are holding lo-fi teleportation moments – where they invite people in the street to describe what the world around them feels, smells, sounds and looks like, and then anyone can close their eyes and listen to the recordings.
In Walthamstow, The Mill are building a huge elephant with anyone who comes along, and capturing a time-lapse of the process.
In Greenwich, Borough Hall Fun Palace are developing a physical game that allows you to explore memories they collect about and around the building.
In Kent, on the Isle of Sheppey, The Kent Baton are building Things That Fly (any thing) and sending them sailing over the Isle.
In Bristol, at Watershed’s sci fi Fun Palace they have a whole host of contraptions built at the Bristol Hackspace, as well as friendly robots, a musical dance floor, and a ‘tune on a stick’ that plays a different tune depending on where the audience stand
The Leeds Fun Palace will have a whole host of pick up and play pervasive games for people to have a go at as part of their great big birthday party for Joan.
And Brockwell Lido have a trail of podcasts about local folklore attached to trees in Brockwell park.
Such SUCH a great mix of physical and digital, game and play. And there’s still time for you to do something too! You can read through this blog post on the kind of process I take people through as Digital Champion (many of the above are not Fun Palaces that worked directly with me!) and also download this toolkit into into arts/digital/play for Fun Palaces. There’s plenty of time yet, and I’m still here, too. Just email me on hn@funpalaces.co.uk