 IDST! are helping with http://www.prisonbreak.org.uk/ Part gritty immersive performance / part escape game! It will be a charity event, bringing games makers, artists and performers together. Don't miss it... You can follow Prisoner 819 on tweeter  Some of the massive cast of guards, performers & prisoners gather at the gates of the main prison. photo thanks: Lisa Furness ...Some Sort of Something.....Friday, 9 March 2012 Easton Community Centre, Kilburn Street, Bristol 02/11/2014
...Some Sort of Something..... иoω иoω, ωheяe ωeяe ωє? Ah Yes! On the 9th of March 2012, between the hours of 6pm and 2am, there will be something rather special occurring in Easton.. With the ideas of ㄕlay, G>a>m>e<s and Ĩи₮∑Я∆ς₮ⅰ√ⅰ₮ㄚ at the core, we're seeking to round up all playful miscreants, dreamers, mentalists, and divine fools of Bristol into one place at one time. We will then combine this lovely mix of people with a plethora of things, stuff, oddity, alcohol, ideas, suggestions, whisperings, nudgings, alcohol, lots & lots of music, more stuff. We will document the ensuing processes and reactions through the platform of upside down video loops, finger painted faces, balloon fights, etc. What will be the result of this study? That would be hard to predict. Intense fun? Eardrums that have died and gone to heaven? Everything in between? Definitely Some Sort of Something.. Contributions we welcome - toys, game suggestions, performances, displays, ideas for experiments in Play - get in touch! Join on facebook £3 on the door All resultant monetary proceeds are off to a lovely charity who do lovely things, we just need to check with them to see if they're happy to be publicly associated with us! Leap Frog on Leap Day! 03/11/2013
We leapt for our lives on 28th February - Leap Day - in Queen's Square, Bristol. Photo thanks: Zara Bird-Wood  Open Fire! 12/24/2012
 People from many fields used the fire, the atmosphere and each other to create something else... http://stvitusdans.tumblr.com/ On Wednesday the 3th of May in a secret location on the outskirts of Bristol more than 70 people gathered at dusk for an impromptu series of performances and play happenings, based around a fire. People from many fields used the fire, the atmosphere and each other to create something else... Here was a chance to try using fire as a theme and as a focus, as the only light source and as the galvanising point for performances. It was also a chance for performers to undertake unusual cross-collaborations and show other work out of context. It was an unparalleled opportunity for practitioners extremely familiar with the outdoors such as play rangers and fire performers to contact artists and writers and merge practice to bring the inside out. Open Fire! was also an experiment in creating a seamless set of performances – without interuption or introduction – without a compere. Like a quaker’s meeting (with no fixed or scheduled beginning or end) the fire investigated whether chain reactions could begin and asked the question ‘when is the right time to perform?’ In some cases the unfixed nature of it meant that performances had to fight for attention, at other times it meant that they were barely noticed at all. The moments of shock and surprise and discovery that this caused were palpable in exhilirated exclamations. There were, at moments, uncomfortable silences or moments when a speaker appeared to be hogging the attention of the mass of people against their will. There was a lot of heckling and a lot of joining in. Musician, Xenia Randle astounded those around her who realised that she no longer had any clothes on . Dancer, Carly Etherington transformed the fire into a television in an invisble performance set right under everyone’s noses. It was refreshing that they did not claim agency from an audience but worked within what was happening on the ground around them. On the other hand, philosopher of aesthetics Luke Blake brashly grabbed the attention of the whole gathering to begin a monologue (which diffused into a multi-logue with people standing up and questioning him). He deliberately encountered derision and anger from a suddenly captive audience to talk about universal truthes – to build a debate about the fleeting ownership of words – to try to lose hold of the conversation he was at first having with himself. There was a lot freedom. Paradoxically, too, there was the feeling of many invisible lines and rules at work. IDST! auto-theatre cards were distributed – with instructions to involve new arrivals at the fire to engage in performative acts, swap shoes, start a mexican wave, laugh loudly, hold a staring contest. IDST! Have previously used these in proto-type works (they are at play in Eleven Missing Days, A Series of Fortunate Events & Sint Vitus Dans – all with the aim of building involvement, interest and ecstatic encounter). Some people were asked to be ‘stooges’ – undercover performers waiting for a cue to join in and keep the ball rolling. At other times people started impromptu performances of their own volition. There was of course lots of confusion (and arguably purposeful entropy) – a willingness to let go of the many variables at play. The experience was not total – people could choose to come or go, play on the outskirts – neon pollock painting, finding the wood for the trees, or starting their own poetry reading. After the Chimaera troupe circus had appeared in the distance and performed, the show transformed into a party, before quietly, like the fire itself, petering out. / instigators Andrew Gillan / Carly Etherington / Julia Vita / Xenia Randle / Luke Blake / Neil Puttick / Jess Robins / Maria Alejandra Lujan Escalante / Seb / Chimaera Circus Thomas Bryan / Lydia Coen Mason special thanks Tim Chown / Oli Sargeant / Sandy McClure / James Crotty / Phil Turner and a big thanks goes out to everyone who came We’ve already received some great ideas and been approached from several sources about the next event. Exceedingly Normal Fire ? -If you’d like to be involvedmake contact- ring the partyline for details of location and time. We put our summertime game 'Doppelganger' on Ludocity for people to see. Ludocity is a wonderful encyclopaedia of games that can be played by anyone. At IDST! we want people to play our games: this one is particularly good for a special event (like a wedding), but it could be adapted to be played in the schoolyard or at a youth club. If you want us to organise it for you get in touch. We can also make the objects/items for you too (but we'll need to cover costs). http://ludocity.org/wiki/Doppelganger 11 Missing Days 11/24/2012
   CATNAP October 2010 02/14/2012
    A Street Game / Promenade Performance, organised as a series of co-ordinated flashmobs beginning outside Cabot Circus, and leading down the M32 Motorway. On 24th October 2010, we ran the full event.  CAPTCHA Workshops 02/13/2012
 Everyone is invited to a stooge workshop on: Mondays from 6 pm (beginning March 2012) at The Parlour, on College Green Bristol FREE We are building scenarios for invisible happenings across the city, and are looking for people to join. Whether you are an experienced performer, artist, flash-mobber,player or are just interested to see what’s happening, come along. Meetings will be in small groups or one-to-one with co-ordinators. Participants do not need to commit to every week. We will be looking at the mechanisms for these games, as well as making objects and writing the details. Please contact us (below) first if you would like to come and join us. When you become involved we can provide you with resources: information and tools to help build the event. All the best IDST! A Series of Fortunate Events 12/22/2011
After a luck explosion at the Municipal Factory of Luck contaminated Stoke's Croft Festival, IDST! were called in to help A luck explosion crisis centre and decontamination booth were set up, and with the help of festival goers and factory workers, unlucky charms and fortune balloons were swiftly handed out to deal with the luck exposure and all escaped chimney sweeps were contained. However despite the best work of festival goers, young and old (and valiant support from the police) a rift in the Luck-Time Continuum occurred and strange characters were found roaming the festival district, including juggling oompa lumpas, a rabbit who was chasing a hunter that had tried to steal his (lucky) foot, game show hosts playing "the wheel of misfortune", gamblers taking bets on unlikely events and fortune tellers. (Un)luckily the rift was sealed before the next day. If you encounter a luck explosion at your festival or event please call IDST! for help. Now, Now, Play Nice at 491 Leytonstone 11/24/2011
 IDST! took to London in October 2011 to deliver an elaborate playful experiment, long discussed and meticulously planned. The idea, a night with music, and tons of stuff to play and interact with - All at the 491 Gallery in Leytonstone, London. Simple! Well... Lots of ideas were to be tested and trialled to see if they would work with adults playing - a truly ridiculous number of balloons were inflated, paint and bubble mixture prepped, massive cobwebs spun, cushions placed in strategic places, materials strewn. The results.. Not as we imagined! Such is the nature of play! Some ideas didn't work, and some ideas far exceeded our expectations, spinning off into elaborate new ideas that we had never thought of. People went a little crazy. People laughed like they hadn't done in ages. People had mad mad looks in their eyes. It was really really unusual, and it was AMAZING We're going to do it again. More experimentations, more festivity making, MORE POWER IGOR!! | 
The State of Play
Events:All We work specifically with organisers to create bespoke environments and experiences, involving hands-on everything. We work with organisers to change the atmospheres and let people play! Whilst working with other communities we are creating our own community.
Sometimes it gets messy - but what is important is people are having fun: TagsAll 
TagsAll |
RSS Feed
The State of Play