Come and play with Playable City Bristol! The six brilliant sandbox commissions will be open to the public between 3 – 9 July. This your invitation to explore and play with each of the early prototypes.
Playable City began in Bristol, and we are thrilled to return with a new series of commissions supported by MyWorld. Through Sandbox, Watershed has supported the six fantastic commissions from Bristol and beyond to develop new early-stage prototypes that place play at the heart of our city. From July the commissions will be open to the public across six different locations (times and dates for each vary).
During the week you can hug soft robots, dance with inter-dimensional creatures, be immersed in Somali weaving, fool the eye of an AI, move with pixels, and create dazzling light animations using movement.
These playable prototypes are not finished projects. Some of the works are testing concepts for much bigger projects and others are the first iterations of a design. Playable City is the first step in their journey, and over time we hope to see the prototypes develop, evolve and travel.
| Playable City Schedule | ||
| Prototypes | Where | When |
| “Squeeze Me” by Air Giants | Brandon Hill Park Park St, Bristol BS1 5RR | 4 – 6 July, 4pm – 10pm 7 – 8 July, 2pm – 10pm 9 July, 2pm – 6pm |
| “How (Not) to be Hit by a self-driving car” by Tomo Kihara and Playfool | Museum St, Bristol BS1 4RN (Next to Mshed) | 3 – 7 July 12pm – 6pm |
| “House of Weaving Songs” by dhaqan collective | Trinity Community Garden, Trinity Rd, St Jude’s, Bristol BS2 0NW | 7 – 8 July, 12pm – 6pm 9 July, 12pm – 4pm |
| “Fireflies” by GlitchAR | Lakota (Moon Street), 6 Upper York St, St Paul’s, Bristol BS2 8QN | 5 – 7 July 12pm – 6pm |
| “Street Pixel” by Biome Collective | Undershed at Watershed, 1 Canon Street, BS1 5TX | 6 July 11am – 4pm 7 July 10am – 4pm |
| “Zoomscape” by Jack Wates & Tom Blackburn | Queen Square, Bristol BS1 4LH | 5 – 6 July 9pm -11pm |
| *Timings approximate please check this page again | ||
Check out the map for locations
Read more about each the teams by visiting the Sandbox 2023 page.