As the deadline for the Craft + Technology Residencies approaches, Autonomatic's Katie Bunnell and Beatrice Mayfield of the Crafts Council, talk a bit more about the potential of this exciting professional development opportunity:

"Conceptually, the Internet of Things is an exciting area of product/object/artefact development where craft skills and approaches to making are potentially highly relevant.

A number of makers have begun to engage with technologies for creative, narrative, poetic and business development ends, but there are only a very few who have actually begun to make objects that fall more specifically into the category of the “Internet of Things”.

Making and makers are fundamentally concerned with making meaningful objects developed through their individual visual vocabularies created by their active, personal engagement with materials, skills, technology and people. The formation of distinctive objects is based on risk and lateral thinking of an individual who is immersed in the process of making and responsible for bringing their good to people in their markets.

These residencies are about exploring the potential relationships between Craft practices and embedded technologies and/or pervasive media. Applicants are encouraged to consider the ways in which their existing practices might map onto the creation of objects that use technologies to extend and develop new forms of engagement between people, objects and making.
 
This is an exciting professional development opportunity. The residencies offer time and space to reflect in order to develop, experiment and push thinking and understanding of this very particular area, not only within participants’ own practice, but also of  that within the contemporary craft sector. Through the shared networks formed it is hoped future relationships are created to sustain these early explorations in defining and shaping what the “Internet of Things” could mean to makers.
 
This convergence of craft skill and pervasive media technologies may lead to, or simply be, a new genre of practice for participants. In respect of this applicants must have an open and experimental approach to developing and extending ideas and skills from their current practices into new ways of working."

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Some example projects that utilise the Internet of Things:

Theatre Jukebox: A Jukebox that plays stories instead of records and uses new technologies embedded in objects, to allow the audience to choose the chapters they want.

The Question: A piece of immersive theatre that focused on the senses of touch and hearing. Taking place entirely in the dark, audience members were given vibrating flowers that used robotics and infrared sensors to help them navigate.

Shelflife: Ever wondered about the stories behind items you find in charity shops? Oxfam’s Shelflife app allows you to attach stories to the objects you donate and find out more about what you might buy.

Glowcaps: Helping people who might forget to take their pills. Glowcaps medicine bottles are networked to the pharmacy, glowing gently to remind you to take your medicine and informing the right people if you don’t.

The Good Night Lamp: A family of lamps which allow people to communicate the act of coming back home to their loved ones, remotely.
 
Air Quality Egg: A community-led air quality sensing network that gives people a way to participate in the conversation about air quality.

Fishwick Digital Memory Box: a digitally crafted 'book' that enables people to record, playback and share their own stories.

For further reading and browsing we also suggest: Russell Davis on BBC.co.uk on Internet of Things 

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For more information on the programme and details on how to apply, visit: https://www.watershed.co.uk/get-involved/opportunities

Please note, the deadline for this opportunity has been extended to: 9am on Mon 29 Oct 2012