'RELAYS at Watershed' 2009

Do you want to find out what is going on at the Pervasive Media Studio? Are you interested in meeting our residents, talking about a specific project or curious about pervasive media? Why not pack a sandwich and join us for one of our Lunchtime Talks and Open Studio Friday. Lunchtime Talks are informal presentations by Studio residents and associates. They normally take place at 1pm on Friday, are free and open to everybody who’s interested in what we do. For a list of upcoming events, click here.

After the Talk, we also invite you to stay with us for the afternoon to continue the conversation or work on your own projects. We provide chairs, tables, wireless and a great space. You bring what you need to work with (laptop/mobile). Our open afternoons close at 5pm, usually with a trip to the bar. Let us know if you haven’t been to the Studio before and we'll be happy to show you around. Send an email to Shirin@pmstudio.co.uk and we will meet you at 12.30pm for a quick tour. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - 12:46 by Liz

Prizewinning team representative at Be Active screening day

During the summer and autumn of 2009 Watershed delivered three events as part of the SW's RELAYS project (Regional Education Legacy in Arts and Youth Sport, a regional Cultural Olympiad initiative by HERDA: Higher Education Regional Development Association). ‘RELAYS at Watershed' developed its own website for the project and to mark the beginning of our involvement with the RELAYS project, in June the ‘Let the Games Begin' season of films, talks and events reflected on sport's cultural and social significance, which included a series of Media Literacy workshops for schools with writer, broadcaster and football devotee David Goldblatt and BBC volunteers, as well as - a taster session for Igfest 09 (see below), the Iglympics! See photos here.

A special film Premiere screening day took place on July 10th for 5 schools who had taken part in the ‘Be Active' Films project. Pupils who had been working on the films for several months with professional filmmakers attended a workshop session in the morning where they prepared presentations to introduce their films, completed a mystery challenge on how they would market them, and had their production budgets closely scrutinised by a team of experts! In the afternoon, each group presented their films to a panel of judges from media and sporting backgrounds and an audience of invited guests including their own their families and friends, representatives from Cultural Olympiad projects and Watershed staff, with prizes being awarded for a range of categories - see photographs of the day here, and to see some of the films, click here.

In September (11th - 13th), Watershed teamed up with Simon Games to offer some family-focused games for the Sunday morning of Igfest 09. First off was 60 Second Zoo where everyone had 60 seconds to create clay sculptures of various animals - but with their hands behind their backs.

Free Bristol's Monsters invited participants to find the six invisible monsters that were hiding around Bristol by following the clues on their Monster Spotter's Guide. Then they had to use the Magical Monstervision Machine to spot the monsters, collect scientific information and prove their Monstrology skills by inventing new theories.

The most energetic game was Tri Catch where three teams chased and were chased by each other - kind of simple but each team member had to do this with a plastic plate between the knees, or tied to a partner with ribbon, or balancing a beanbag on their backs.

See photos of the these great activities here.

Plans for next year's ‘RELAYS at Watershed' are now underway with a similar menu of diverse activity that may include a writer in residence, a relay race across and between some of Bristol's new and revamped parks, further film-making and media literacy workshops for schools - and another season of sport-related films.

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