News

At 2gether08 next Wednesday (3rd July 08) TimW has agreed to drive a session about radio and the rise in what he’s calling ‘ambulatory audio’:

“I’m interested in talking to people about how radio broadcasters might work with audio-centric audiences to produce more timely, context-sensitive, responsive and portable news & entertainment services.

Context sensitive audio - stuff that’s designed to play in specific places or at specific times - is a powerful way of both telling stories and putting people in touch with their local surroundings. Capturing and broadcasting audience voices, converting text into audio, and associating audio outputs with other trusted information sources: these are all effective, low-cost and lightweight ways of empowering, engaging and enlightening the general public.

Ultimately, I’m hoping to come away from 2gether08 with a clearer idea of what a truly interactive spoken-word radio station might look and sound like. So if you have any ideas on that score, please come and join me.

HOW I’LL BE WORKING

Since I’m getting more and more antipathetic towards the traditional idea of one person standing up and talking, I thought I’d try something a bit different in terms of presenting my thoughts at this event.

So next Wednesday, I’m going to broadcast my talk using an iTripped ipod and publish my frequency on my T-shirt. As long as you stick fairly close to me you should be able to pick up my talk at any time.

I’ll bring a couple of small portable radios along for people who don’t have a FM radio player on their phone. And I’ll use Twitter regularly throughout the day to tell you where I am.

I’ll also make the talk available as a podcast on my blog, and allow people to copy an mp3 file from my phone via Bluetooth. There’s also a number of links on my delicious account to sites and services that I think might help us talk up a few specific ideas for new audio-based interactive applications. Or perhaps we could map out how audiences might like to get to grips with portable audio - and even participate in the making of interactive radio content.

Any examples of podcasting or location-based audio that people can bring to the party will be very welcome.”

“WRITERS: Don’t lose control of your characters and narrative when interactive elements get introduced. Learn to write to the approved formats and deliver the correct piece of writing for Interactivity.”

Digital writer Tim Wright will share a range of ideas and techniques that can empower writers to adapt and develop their creative output successfully in an increasingly complex cross-platform marketplace. Who is it for? 6 Freelance writers in the Broadcast industry. The course is funded by the Skillset TV Freelance Fund and is offered at a greatly discounted rate.
See http://www.01zero-one.co.uk/MultiplatformStorytelling.htm

After nearly four years of continuous service, XPT’s BAFTA nominated teen physics drama ‘Planet Jemma’ has been taken offline whilst the company looks for a new hosting solution. The online holiday resort of ‘Mount Kristos’ is also disappearing for a while. Demos of these two projects are still available on request.

Tim Wright is taking part in a panel at B.Tween 07 at at the National Media Museum, Bradford UK on 14 - 15 June 2007.

“The panel brings together three award winning creative mavericks: Hazel Grian, Alex Mayhew & Tim Wright. Tim and Alex are no strangers to the creative opportunities offered by emerging media platforms. They have built long and successful careers around bending, stretching and pushing creative boundaries. Hazel has only recently made her first foray into the wonderful world of interaction design from a background of comedy screenwriting

In their groundbreaking projects, the line between the real and the imaginary blurs. Users are integrated into developing narratives, rather than skimming along the surface. The panellists have fluid and playful processes that challenge and learn from audiences and collaborators. They are not driven by technology but pick and choose from the enormous media toybox as and when a story needs it. Together, they will tell a tale of perseverance, frustration, compromise, playfulness, spontaneity and evolution. They will explain how they have satisfied their creative sparks while keeping the wolf from the door.”

XPT’s Rob Bevan has been responsible for delivering together.com, the web site that lies at the heart of the ‘We’re in this together’campaign, launched today by Tony Blair and eight major UK companies.

‘We’re in this together’ will provide both ideas for behavioural change and practical solutions to help consumers reduce their household CO2 emissions by one tonne over three years.

In an unprecedented demonstration of support, retailers, banking, media and service providers from across the UK (B&Q, Barclaycard, British Gas, Marks & Spencer, O2, Royal & SunAlliance, BSkyB & Tesco) have all united behind this initiative, with more brands set to join throughout 2007 including HSBC and National Express. The coalition also reaches outside business with active support coming from the Energy Saving Trust, Defra, the National Consumer Council and The Church of England.

The campaign, building over 3 years, aims to reach every UK household by continuing to increase the number of brands in the partnership, and the number of initiatives offered to consumers. Should every UK household take up the campaign initiatives, there is a potential saving of 25million tonnes of CO2; more than the combined emissions of Scotland and Wales.

Partners will provide either products, services or advice for consumers to actively facilitate the reduction of their household emissions. These initiatives will be brought together on www.together.com where the collective reduction in emissions will be calculated, intermediate targets established, and people given access to information on how they can take part.

Dr Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group says, “Today marks an unprecedented commitment from some of the UK’s favourite brands to help their customers tackle climate change. These brands have come up with new and innovative ways to make it easier to save energy, from watching TV, insulating roofs and insuring cars, to washing our clothes and lighting our homes.”

Dr Howard continues, “People need to feel that these companies have developed solutions which allow consumers to make do their bit. It’s a case of leading by example and all our partners are committed to making dealing with climate change more accessible to their customers. The success of the campaign will rest on reaching as many people as possible, not just the usual audience for green initiatives.”

The nominations for the radio industry’s big awards, the Sony Awards, were announced in London last night and we’re delighted to reveal that Tim Wright’s radio play based on the web fiction ‘In Search of Oldton‘ has received a nomination in the Drama category.

The BBC reality series Castaway finally got under way at the week-end. TimW been working on some of the interactive elements for a few months now.

Chiefly, Tim helped to devise the ‘Remote Control’ feature that allows people to unleash some ‘unexpected events’ on the Castaway island directly from the web. Right now you can choose to remove half the chickens in the island coop, or hatch out a few extra chicks overnight. Will the audience be nasty or nice?

Tim also helped to devise a treasure hunt game that involves spotting odd symbols and signs in the BBC1 Sunday shows, collecting them on the web and then using them to identify a secret location. The ultimate prize is a holiday for two in New Zealand.

XPT’s Tim Wright has helped to devise, develop and script an ambitious GoogleMaps puzzle game based on the new Penguin novel ‘The Malice Box’ by Martin Langfield.

“Work out a series of puzzles over 30 days in order to find the location of the mysterious Red Gold and stop the Malice Box from detonating and unleashing an unimaginable evil (as well as having a chance at winning a bunch of prizes).” http://www.maliceboxquest.com

To celebrate the success of the PlayTime event and continue Tim Wright’s mission to play golf on the moon (with David Bowie), XPT is offering a iPod Shuffle to the person who comes up with the best photographic simulation of a particular aspect of the the 30-year plan.

As Rob Bevan has already commented: ‘Simulation=Solution”.

By concretising events and situations in a series of manipulated images, we are making the whole project more real, more achievable. Remember - don’t leave space to the professionals.

XPT are heavily involved in a day of serious and not-so serious digital play on October 4th 2006, part of the London Games Festival Fringe.

The event takes place at 01zero-one, Hopkins Street, Soho, London W1F 0HS (off Peter Street) and is free of charge, as long as you pre-register by mailing insync [at] 01zero-one [dot] co [dot] uk

Throughout the day there will be opportunities to learn about how web and mobile technologies are changing the way people can participate in playful experiences - from posting a simple image into a shared moblog, right through to losing yourself in an augmented reality game.

Confirmed speakers include Pat Kane, author of ‘The Play Ethic’, Stuart Nolan, Serious Play Lego expert and magician, Jamie Cason of BBC Interactive, and digital writer and poet Gavin Stewart - plus leading players from digital innovators such as Mind Candy, Future Platforms, Rabbit and XPT.

Throughout the day, event curator Tim Wright will also be developing a new collaborative narrative project using text, image and performance contributions from attendees to help him in his mission to - one day - play golf on the moon with David Bowie.

Tim Wright’s radio play ‘In Search of Oldton’, inspired by the web site http://www.oldton.com, has a confirmed broadcast date on Radio 4 of 2.15pm, Monday 24th July 2006.

It’s being featured as part of a major BBC season abount memory - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/memory - and should also be available online for seven days after broadcast.

XPT’s Tim Wright will be taking part in a session at this year’s ContentLab in Birmingham on 1st-2nd December, using the digital writing project In Search of Oldton as an example of how audiences can contribute text, image, sound and moving image and collaborate creatively with the author in the making of interactive narratives.

Read the rest of this entry »

Channel 4 has launched a new web site entitled ‘Lost Generation’ as part of a major TV and online campaign to commemorate the First World War, mark the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme and create an online database of all the war memorials across the UK.

XPT’s Tim Wright contributed to this project by creating four fictional ‘bloggers’, who post their experiences of the war in the period between June and August 1916.

XPT’s Tim Wright was part of the development team that has produced a brand new set of mobile games based on the primetime BBC1 drama ‘Spooks’.

“Using real UK location maps and spy gadgets, become an MI5 operative and test your spy skills out in the field. You can download and keep the spy games as you work your way through your spy mission. Will you capture the suspect in time?”

Unleash Your Creativity, Rob and Tim’s “collection of practical but inspiring ideas about how to introduce more creative thinking into your professional and personal life” for Infinite Ideas’s Brilliant Ideas series is now available in Dutch published by Spectrum, one of the biggest publishers of Dutch language publications. Spectrum have also launched a special Brilliant Ideas website.

Unleash Your Creativity is also available in Spanish as ‘Despierta toda tu creatividad’ published by Nowtilus.

Tim is taking part in a panel discussion tonight at 01zero-one in Soho, London about the sad lack of laughter in the digital interactive space:

“Interaction with consoles and computers elicits a lot of responses, but laughter isn’t usually one of them. Why is this? Is it that we haven’t yet found the Buster Keaton of the medium? Or is there something inherent in the nature of interactive media that simply doesn’t lend itself to comedy?”

The event will feature speakers who produce, commission and write about interactive media, games and comedy. These include: Frank Boyd, David Green, Paul Bennun and Richard White.

More information here.

Tim Wright of XPT has signed up as a key speaker at the MAKING IT launch event in Newcastle on 3rd November 2005. The event is free and open to all.

Tim has also agreed to contribute to an ongoing development programme of workshops, technical support and professional consultancy that will be announced at the launch event. More details can be found on the Northern Film & Media web site.

Read the rest of this entry »

XPT’s fantasy island holiday Mount Kristos has been relaunched on a new server after a long lay-off. Old subscribers may well experience a flurry of activity in their email inboxes over the next few days as we test the system.

Some downtime is to be expected over the next couple of weeks as we iron out bugs and clean up the new server setup. You may also receive emails at odd times of day. Please bear with us.

If you have any problems or queries, you can either unsubscribe at the Kristos site, or contact us.

Rob and Tim will be appearing today in Halifax, Nova Scotia at the 25th anniversary Atlantic Film Festival in a New Media Gameshow in which they debate the pros and cons of new media in a gameshow-style setting, together with hosts Steve Comeau and Keith Clarkson.

Read the rest of this entry »

Packs of playing cards designed to support Tim Wright’s In Search of Oldton project are now available to buy directly from the site.

Read the rest of this entry »

XPT has been working again with The Climate Group, to create northsoutheastwest.org - a website for promoting and explaining the Group’s new book and exhibition tour.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tim Wright is currently acting as interactive consultant on a pilot study for the ‘StorySpinner’ project, funded by Creative Partnerships.

Read the rest of this entry »

As part of the 52 Brilliant Ideas book series, Tim and Rob have written ‘Unleash Your Creativity’, a collection of practical but inspiring ideas about how to introduce more creative thinking into your professional and personal life.

Read the rest of this entry »

XPT has been awarded €40,000 development funding through the EU MEDIA New Talent programme for its new entertainment project ‘The Nuuk’.

Read the rest of this entry »

As part of an ongoing relationship with The Climate Group, XPT has developed an engaging online profiler that invites you to confront your own attitudes and prejudices towards global warming.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tim Wright has concluded his time as Digital Writer In Residence for the NESTA-funded Writers for the Future programme with the launch of his “90% true” online narrative.

Read the rest of this entry »

XPT has become one of the founding members of the consortium developing FoodLab, a digital resource that seeks to explore science through food, with the main aim of inspiring young people to learn to cook and eat healthily.

Read the rest of this entry »