Image of two AI-powered robotic tortoises. — Mairi Eyres

Connecting Futures Festival Commissions

Event

Wed 26 March 09:00-19:00

This is a free event, no booking necessary.

Step into the future with three exciting, large-scale, interactive artworks from our brilliant studio community in Millennium Square and technical demos from the University of Bristol’s Smart Internet Lab. These installations explore how 6G technology could transform the way we connect, communicate, and experience the world. Get up close with Luma, a 10-metre-long robotic snail that reacts in real time, join some AI-powered tortoises on a walking tour, and journey through a holographic world.

As part of the Connected Futures Festival, these installations and demos are free, suitable for all ages, you can visit them throughout the day.

About Connected Futures Festival

The Connected Futures Festival and 6G research project is led by the University of Bristol, alongside three core partners who represent each of the Future Telecoms Hubs —CHEDDAR,HASC, andTITAN. The festival is delivered in partnership with We the Curious, Watershed, Innovate Comms and ZiaBai.

Image of Luma a multicoloured 9m long inflatable robotic snail.

Latency Luma

Multi-sensory

This installation will run until 21:00. You'll be able to move a small model to control Luma, a 10-metre long, emotionally expressive giant snail, and watch how she responds.

Come and meet Latency Luma, Air Giants’ 10-metre-long, emotionally expressive giant snail and watch how she responds to your movement. Using soft robotics and cutting-edge technology, this giant illuminated creature shows how faster, more responsive networks could transform and revolutionise the way we interact in real time.

Latency Luma will be located in Millennium Square which has level access throughout.

Image of robotic tortoise interacting with the artists in a dimly light room.

Tortoises Gone Wild

Multi-sensory

A guided walk with AI-powered tortoises. Come and see the world through their eyes, and explore how artificial intelligence thinks, senses, and moves in the real world.

Playfool’s Tortoises Gone Wild unleashes a group of curious, robotic tortoises into Millennium Square, where they roam freely and react to the people around them. With lifelike, organic movements, these AI-powered creatures challenge our expectations of robotics, inviting you to rethink how technology could blend into everyday life in surprising ways.

The Tortoises will be touring Millennium Square which has level access throughout. The visual display will be located in the Marquee with screens placed at accessible height.

Studio Playfool

Studio Playfool is an art-design unit by Daniel Coppen (UK) and Saki Maruyama (Japan). Their work intervenes in the relationships between society and technology through the medium of play. Their multidisciplinary and experimental practice comprises object making, installations and multimedia productions, which emphasise play's experimental, reflective and intimate qualities to create participatory spaces that engage critically yet whimsically with technology.

Studio Playfool

Studio Playfool Instagram

Image of Vincent Baidoo's holographic work that demonstrates 6G.

Holographic Metaverse

Create your own avatar and watch it come to life in a large-scale holographic display, exploring how 6G will shape the future of shared virtual worlds.

Vincent Baidoo invites you into a large-scale holographic experience where you see the metaverse come to life. Using a cutting-edge Looking Glass display, which can produce up to 100 views of a single 3D scene simultaneously, enabling multiple viewers to see 3D content without the need for glasses or eye tracking. This installation lets you create your own avatar and watch it appear in a real-time 3D world. Discover how 6G technology will power the next generation of immersive, shared virtual spaces.

The holographic metaverse will be located inside the main marquee on Millennium Square. This artwork uses screens which will be placed at an accessible height and on a level surface.

Vincent Baidoo

Vincent Baidoo is a seasoned creative technologist with a passion for crafting innovative and immersive experiences across multiple platforms and mediums. As both a storyteller and programmer, he specialises in classic transmedia—the creative forces that have shaped generations through captivating and boundary-pushing works of art. Inspired by the likes of Disney and Nintendo, Vincent explores how engaging experiences can captivate the imagination and transcend reality.

South Blessed Linktree

South Blessed Instagram