Blink designed and delivered award-winning creative technology initiatives | participatory art installations | interactive mobile phone platforms | site-specific collaborations | community engagement| commissioned and showcased short films, photography and poetry. With technologist Daniel Blackburn, we explored the creative potential of SMS, MMS, RFID and Bluetooth.
City Poems – A text message biography of Leeds 2003 and 2005, delivered from a network of Poem Points around the city. In 2004 City Poems and Stadschromosomen used mobile phones and text messages to twin the cities of Leeds and Antwerp for UNESCO’s World Book Capital celebrations.City Poems archived here http://studiofor.co/city-poems
We Love Technology – 2008-10 coordinated with Abby Dix. WLT ‘unconference’ events presented the latest adventures in the creative misuse of emerging technologies. Informal presentations by pioneering artists, designers and technologists exploring the theme of digital craft. Speakers included – Troika, The Owl Project, Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Universal Everything, Tobie Kerridge, Jonah Bucker Cohen, William Ngan, Tim Hunkin, Matt Webb, Usman Haque. Compares included Matt Locke from Storythings. and Steve Manthorp. https://vimeo.com/9828499
Podcamp and Family Tree Trail with GrizeDale Arts, Forestry Commission and Folly.
Blueloci Bluetooth guides prototype tested in James Turell’s Deer Shelter at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Blink participated in Intel and Microsoft’s workshop at Chi2008, the international conference in computer science in Florence. In 2009 I participated in Nokias’ CoCreation day and Maemo Summit in Amsterdam and ISEA 2006
FutureSonic 2008 Festival Programme Manager at Future Everything
Mobile Museum : Leeds City Museums and Art Galleries 2008 ( Leeds Art Gallery, Royal Armouries, Leeds Industrial Museum, Abbey House Museum)
LifeSize was an urban design initiative delivered as part of Yorkshire Forward’s Renaissance programme in Bridlington, East Yorkshire. The week long intensive project enabled young people to map out their town centre using mobile phones, sms and flickr. Later in the year participants presented their ideas about the future of Bridlington to the Renaissance Town Team.
Standing On Ceremony was a street scene to urban screen event commissioned as part of Bradford’s Stir arts festival in 2007. Members of the public were invited to write their own accolade and strike a pose on the S.O.C plinth. Their image and chosen title were then projected onto the BBC’s Big Screen creating an alternative census for the city.
Echo : Butlins and the Institute of Physics Story telling and learning for kids and screens at the holiday resort.
Viewpoint – heritage project with Fenland District Council
Areacode – FutureSonic Festival, Manchester 2004. An SMS mapping system designed with artist Jen Southern for Mobile Connections.
SurfacePatterns and Audio Tours with Jen Southern. A year long sms site tagging project which enabled mobile phone users to read and write about significant events which had taken place in 10 places in Huddersfield. Surface Patterns: Audio Tours used a Global positioning System [GPS] device to explore how memory is linked to urban and domestic place. The installation uses contributions of unwanted wallpaper, pasted on the gallery walls and threaded or punctuated with GPS patterns of ten walks. Traces of audio recordings made in conversation with the walkers are played back through speakers embedded in the walls behind the wallpaper. Reflecting different perspectives on the town the walkers include members of the artist’s family who grew up in Huddersfield in the 1940’s and ’50’s, as well as a previous Artist in Residence who lived in the town for three months.
Leeds International Film Festival – Short Film Festival coordinator
G8WAY was a two-year project led by Fenland District Council’s arts officer Vicky Thompson. New ways to engage and connect young people of Fenland using mobile phones for writing, photo-documentary, dance and a picture messaging project called Postcards from Fenland.
Pocket Shorts & Pocket Shorts Scotland funded by NESTA. Some of the earliest examples of short films made for mobile. Andy Sykes was one of the commissioned film-makers and animators. Hexjibber.
Bluevend is a wall-mounted, Bluetooth touch screen kiosk designed for sharing 60 second short films with smart phone users at festivals including Edinburgh International Film Festival, Film and Video Umbrella, Rotterdam Film Festival
Archaeology of Mobile Film: Blink, Bluevend, and the Pocket Shorts Kim Louise Walden. Academic paper-pdf
Low Budget Lottery Award : Yorkshire Arts and Movies Short Film Production Fund : Screen Yorkshire supported short film production across the region.
Short Circuits 1999-2008 Short Circuits Low Budget Film-Making Awards and Short Circuits Film Screenings. All design by Rob Chiu. Monthly screenings across bars and other community spaces in Yorkshire.
