Last year Birmingham Museums took the decision to make images from its out-of-copyright collections freely available under a Creative Commons CC0 licence.

We will use these resources to create projection based interactive artworks which we'll display around Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG) on the day, “taking over” the gallery spaces in a playfully subversive act. These might be interactive slideshows, poetry, stories or even games.

Following on the Creative Commons theme we will use a variety of free software to manipulate these resources to produce our interactives .

The final results could be controlled either automatically or by manipulating real world objects - using interfaces such as Makey-Makey / Bare Conductive.

This workshop is open to all. We will be working in small groups, so having a mixture of skills is beneficial. No previous technical experience is needed, just a willingness to learn how to use simple tools and collaboratively produce a creative output / artwork.

There will also be an opportunity to showcase projections at a BMAG Late event later in the year.

This event forms part of Digital Cities Birmingham week 2019.

Keyword Inspiration for the Day

Projection, Creative Commons, Open Source, Interactive Artworks, Storytelling, Choose Your Own Adventure, Poetry, Real-world experiences, Subverting the Museum.

Outcomes

By the end of the day you will know how to use the tools to use digital assets to tell stories, build simple games / develop art, and turn your creations into projections.

The workshop will be led by John Sear & Linda Spurdle.

John Sear

John is a veteran game designer of 20+ years working in the game industry who now develops unique and magical experiences for public spaces. Originally starting out building games for console platforms, moving through mobile spaces he now develops games for cinemas, car-parks and other outdoor & indoor spaces. This had led him to work much closer with the GLAM (galleries, libraries archives & museums) sector. In addition to the bespoke high-end experiences for larger venues he also works with much smaller cultural institutes training them in the skills needed to develop their own interactives. Currently his immersive theatre piece ‘A Moment of Madness’ where players are on a live stake-out in a public car-park is on tour across the UK.

Linda Spurdle

Linda is Head of Digital at Birmingham Museums and is passionate about getting people to use, re-use, mix and create using Birmingham's digital resources.