Bees in a Tin is a gathering for people who make or are interested in unique interfaces for the world around them.

“...one of those unexpected treasures I could recommend to pretty much everyone I know, regardless of their usual interests.”
Verity McIntosh, Producer, Pervasive Media Studio

“...easily one of the best events I attended in 2014. A lovely crowd of clever, curious and friendly people and a really interesting and inspiring spread of speakers and workshops.”
Henry Cooke, technologist, East London Kinetics

Listen to presentations, watch demos and take part in workshops with us as we spend a day in the company of people who operate across disciplines, often designing and making their own tools because they don’t already exist:

• Aste Amundsen/Apocalypse Gameshow’s responsive storylines that react to theatre audiences’ decisions
• Swoomptheeng’s wooden sculptures that control music
• George Buckenham’s blending of physical and digital game experiences (may contain traces of custard-punching)

This year’s event is brought to you in partnership with Supersonic Festival, so there are plenty of audio treats:

• Keynote from Owl Project about their use of basic materials and electronics to craft instruments and interfaces
• Robert Curgenven’s explorations of the perceptual psychology of colour and light
• Farmer Glitch’s hand-built/salvaged musical-instruments and sound-making devices

As ever, we like our interfaces to relate to the wider world, so there are also plenty of opportunities to think about things on a city scale:

• Rebecca Taylor’s mass-collaborative, co-designed community rooftop project
• Simon Park’s tour of the urban microbiology around Millennium Point
• Simon Farid’s invitation for you to go undercover and impersonate a plain clothes police officer
• Bill Aitchison’s virtual tour of guided tours
• Duncan Speakman unfolding myths of interactivity

Is that everything? No it is not!

Clare Reddington, Creative Director of Watershed in Bristol, will be chairing some questions and answers for us, and we (Katie Day, director of The Other Way Works, and Nikki Pugh, artist) will share something of our practices too.

After the conference, Circumstance will be running A Folded Path, an hour-long “pedestrian speaker symphony” involving portable speakers and GPS-triggered compositions as you walk through the city and become the orchestra.

Full information about the presenters is available here: http://manyandvaried.org.uk/projects/bees2015/about_the_speakers

Fancy a whole weekend of experimental music and art? Check out the Supersonic festival line-up.

The ticket price includes a simple lunch - we'll add more details once they're confirmed.

The venue is wheelchair accessible and we have a bit of budget set aside for sign language interpreters or similar support if you need it - get in touch with us if this is relevant to you.