Playable City Bristol (3-9 July 2023)

A large read banner listing the 6 playable city sandbox projects, available in Bristol between 3rd to 9th July 2023.
Playable City Bristol 3 – 9 July

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 8QN5 – 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.