Watershed and My World unveil six creative public art installations in Bristol, inviting people to play and engage with the city in new and exciting ways. These installations, part of Playable City Week from 3rd to 9th July, aim to animate the city, spark imagination, and ignite crucial conversations around inclusion, surveillance, climate change, and the kind of cities we want to live in.
The diverse range of installations will be located in various iconic spots across Bristol, offering unique experiences to participants. Brandon Hill Park will host gigantic inflatable robots, encouraging people to hug and engage with them. Lakota Nightclub will come alive with an interdimensional group of rebellious fireflies bursting out of a mural, inviting visitors to join their party. M Shed will challenge passers-by with a street-based game that aims to avoid detection by an AI-powered camera, highlighting issues of surveillance and inclusion.
Queen Square will witness urban trees transformed into stunning living sculptures that respond to the movements of individuals, creating an immersive experience. Trinity Community Garden will offer a calm oasis where visitors can immerse themselves in the beauty of traditional Somali weaving and songs, connecting with Somali culture and reflecting on collective climate anxieties. Lastly, Watershed itself will feature a magical interactive pavement that transforms urban spaces through light, sound, and play, encouraging visitors to engage in playful activities.
These installations have been developed by six teams who received £45,000 each from My World to create urban prototypes that prioritize connection, community, and play. As part of the Playable City Sandbox program, produced by Watershed, these installations bridge the realms of art, technology, and culture, offering innovative ways to reimagine cities and engage with their inhabitants.
Playable City has been a transformative movement since its inception in Bristol in 2012, reaching millions worldwide. Previous projects have included texting secrets to postboxes and dancing with one’s own shadow under lampposts. These new prototypes continue the Playable City journey, utilizing technology to repurpose city infrastructure and encourage dialogue between local communities and their surroundings.
The collaboration between Watershed and My World has provided a supportive environment for these creative teams to learn, build, and test their prototypes. With the guidance of industry advisors and collaboration among the teams themselves, this process has been challenging, playful, and exciting, culminating in the final projects that the public can now experience and enjoy.
These installations not only enhance the cultural fabric of Bristol but also foster a sense of playfulness, engagement, and reflection, transforming the way people interact with and perceive their city.
The six Playable City Sandbox commissions are:
HOW (NOT) TO GET HIT BY A SELF-DRIVING CAR
Where: M Shed
When: 3 – 7 July, 12 – 6pm
A street-based game that challenges anyone to avoid being detected as a pedestrian in the eye of an AI. With advanced image recognition systems becoming increasingly prevalent through surveillance cameras and self-driving cars, the cities we live in are starting to see us back. By exploring how these systems observe us, and where their blind spots lie, the game aims to foster dialogue about the potential issues they may present whilst contributing to a more inclusive future of AI.
Creators:Tomo Kihara & Playfool
Where: Brandon Hill Park
When: 4 – 6 July, 4 – 10pm; 7 – 8 July, 2 -10pm; 9 July, 2 – 6pm
Gigantic, inflatable and illuminated creatures will be wrapped around trees inviting passers-by to play by hugging, squeezing or poking them. Using pioneering soft robotic technology, the creatures will respond with shape-change, light and sound and influence the behaviour of other creatures nearby.
Creators: Air Giants
FIREFLIES, A GLITCH featuring ARCANE & SCREAMING COLOR
Where: Lakota Nightclub
When: 5-7 July, 2-6pm
An invitation to join Firefly Odyssey, a tour company specialising in the observation of inter-dimensional wildlife. Scan a QR code on your smartphone to experience the Moon Street mural (outside the legendary Lakota Nightclub) burst into life, becoming a portal to another dimension where a rebellious group of hard partying fireflies are on a mission to escape repression in their own land. A jungle-infused augmented reality show set to local artist Arcane’s track Curse of the Pharaohs (Rua Sound) and featuring awe-inspiring light show by award-winning virtual world builder Screaming Color. For the best experience bring headphones. No app required.
Creators: GlitchAR, Arcane& Screaming Color
Where: Trinity Community Garden
When: 7-8 July, 12-6pm; 9 July, 12-4pm
dhaqan collective, invites guests to step inside the House of Weaving Songs, a domed steel structure inspired by the Aqal, a nomadic Somali home. Once inside, become enveloped by a series of beautiful woven tapestries that when touched ignite a sonic patchwork of stories and sounds of Somali women’s traditional weaving songs. Offering the space as a sanctuary to reflect on the significance of Somali culture and our collective climate anxieties, dhaqan collective will also invite visitors to add their own voice, connecting the city to endangered ancestral cultural practices.
Creators: dhaqan collective
Where: Watershed
When: 6 – 7 July, 10am – 4pm
A magical interactive pavement that transforms urban spaces through light, sound and play. By simply stepping or rolling onto the Street Pixels, visitors will activate colourful lights and sound allowing them to play favourite childhood games like hopscotch or whack-a-mole, make music with street piano, or simply sit back and watch as the pavement becomes animated with joyful light and colour.
Creators: Biome Collective
Where: Queen Square
When: 5 – 6 July, 9pm – 11pm
In a work that asks us to consider our relationship with the natural world, night-time visitors will be invited to transform the trees in an urban square into living sculptures using only their own movements and light, seeming to enable these ‘lungs of the city’ to ‘breathe.’
Creators: Jack Wates & Thomas Blackburn
