First Friday is a monthly social event open to anyone. These events are somewhere between the last meeting of the week and the first event of your weekend. You might meet an artist or an engineer, a school teacher or a city leader. It is a place to connect with someone you might not otherwise meet, and hear about stuff you didn’t already know. All are welcome - from inside and outside the city, online or in the Watershed building.

March 2024 event

The next First Friday will take place both in Pervasive Media Studio and online on Fri 1 Mar 17:00-18:00.

People joining us in person will have the opportunity to have a look around Pervasive Media Studio and to find out more about some of the work that happens here. There will also be some equipment set up to chat with people joining the event remotely.

As well as the chance to socialise in the Studio, attendees joining the event in person will also get to see  informal sharings of works from the research project Connecting Through Culture as We Age. The project commissioned teams, including disabled older adults and those that identify as socioeconomically and racially minoritised, to co-design a range of prototypes for new arts and cultural experiences to support healthy ageing. 

In person attendees can see work from:

Retirement Reloaded: This female led project has focused on reimagining the narrative for older women by reinforcing and invigorating the message of vibrancy and value that older women hold in society. 

Anyone Remember the Washhouse?: Through animations, objects, sayings, stain-removing recipes, improvised hand clapping and folk song, Anyone remember the washhouse? invites you to remember and reflect on the bygone 'wash-house world'. 

Recycle City: Recycle City is a speculative city founded on the values of creativity, community, opportunity, human and animal welfare, healing, connection, conversation, love, joy and celebration. 

Expressive Pockets: Embellishing fabrics as a medium to express identity as we age; the Expressive Pockets team have devised a way to relate to life stories through making. Join them to explore the theme of 'Age Rebellion".

Murmurations: Murmurations seeks to share the hidden experiences of older people, queer people and the crip community - the highs, the lows, and the strategies we use to navigate the world. They have worked closely with groups spanning these communities, listening, talking, and finding out what must be heard. 

University of Bristol: With older adult co-researchers, creative and project partners, they've been co-designing new arts and cultural experiences that aim to support wellbeing and social connection in later life. Follow their journey as they move away from traditional approaches to design and digital innovation for ageing by embedding design in the everyday, as a response to older adults' diverse live, creative interest and passions. 

Videos and more information for the above projects are available here.

The hosted element of the event will finish at 6pm. After that, in person attendees are welcome to continue conversations in Watershed's cafe bar area.

People joining online can participate in short speed networking conversations, facilitated by our chat roulette style software. You will be paired up at random for a series of five minute conversations, one-to-one with other guests. There is an option to take a break between each chat and you are welcome to pop in and out whenever you like. It's fine to join the event late and leave the event early.

Join the First Friday mailing list here.

This event is supported by MyWorld.

 

Booking info

To join us online sign up here. You will be asked for your email address so we can send you your personal link. Please try and use either Chrome or Firefox on your computer (rather than a mobile device).

If you are attending in person, there is no need to pre-book. Head to our main bar area, buy a drink if you want to, and then follow directions down to Pervasive Media Studio.

 

About Pervasive Media Studio

The Pervasive Media Studio hosts an international community of over 150 artists, companies, technologists, and academics exploring experience design and creative technology. We are a space for risk taking and early ideas; for the kind of projects and questions that inhabit the meeting points of art, technology, and society.

Our projects span play, robotics, location-based media, food, connected objects, interactive documentary, new forms of performance and more.

We have an open plan studio with a culture if generosity, curiosity, and interruptibility. We believe that by clustering people together from a broad range of backgrounds, with differing skills, experience, and opinions, all of our ideas become better.

 

Access

Pervasive Media Studio is wheelchair accessible and there is an accessible and gender neutral toilet. There is also a baby changing area.

We have a dedicated quiet room where there is low lighting, sofas, bean bags and space to lie down. This is away from the general open space of the Studio.

If drop in events aren't accessible for you, please email studio@watershed.co.uk to book in. When you book in, we will link you up with a member of our team who will reach out to find out where you would like them to meet you and what time you will arrive. That team member can also arrange a time for you to visit the Studio for a 1-2-1 tour so you can familiarise yourself with our space before attending.