So it’s time to get our tech-hats on and work out which of your ideas will really make Coventry a more playable city!

We’ve been exploring ideas to see if they are viable, testing technology, hacking speakers, soldering electronic boards, chatting with super-smart software guys & gals – and even doing a tour of all the bins in Coventry City Centre (a very ‘interesting’ day for our hard-working intern!).

And, finally – we have it! A list of 4-5 really exciting tech-play installations that we’re going to work our little socks off, with the help of some tech-savvy friends & artists to bring to life in Coventry between the 16th-22nd of October…

But we’re not giving anything away just yet…so keep your eyes and ears peeled for more Open Citizens news coming your way soon!

We’ve had over a 20 prototypes on display that were designed and created by the people of Coventry in workshops with Ludic Rooms over the last few weeks. It was a hard task to whittle down the 100+ models/ideas that came out of the workshops, but in the end we have an exciting series of prospective tech-play installations, including:

• bikes that go faster the louder you shout
• a disco bus stop
• steps that light up in different colours depending on the time you stand on them
• a giant arm that jumps out of the river to keep you safe
• a massage bench that rewards communication
• a series of lamposts that light up in different colours as you run between them

And so many, many more…plus we’ve also been adding in new prototypes as the exhibition has progressed. Members of the public have had the chance to make their own models when they’ve been in to see the exhibition. We’ve also held some more workshops in the space that have produced even more exciting ideas (a whoopey cushion bench…)

We’ve had two evening events in the CET building whilst the exhibition has been open. The first was a really exciting event for Coventry, and something that we were particularly excited to be involved in; Ludic Rooms, together with IDP & Coventry University School of Art & Design held an Urban Room; an experimental event to explore how urbanists and artists can make the city more playable and rediscover some of its lost spaces. The event was an opportunity to discuss the potential for an Urban Room project in Coventry and included a talk by Claire Tymon; the founder of Urban Rooms Blackburn and Director of Placeshakers; a social enterprise to creatively bring about change in the built environment.

We also held a City of Culture 2021 bid sponsors event, which gave us a great opportunity to meet some of the lovely faces behind the range of companies that are supporting Coventry in its bid to City of Culture – we even put them through the ringer with an Open Citizens prototype workshop – and you could definitely spot the engineers! Such a great night!

The space is so exciting – there is a boardroom upstairs that’s clad in teak, printing machines the size of small houses and a print hall so big you could easily fit a swimming pool (or two!) in there – we’d definitely recommend getting yourself down here to take a look, self-guided tours available on Saturdays 11-4, with the added benefit of our awesome prototype exhibition in the foyer at the moment too…

We’re putting the final touches on the exhibition set up now, almost ready to open to the public in a few short days + EXCITING NEWS: we’ve added a workshop area to the space, so now you can drop by, take in the inspiration from the other prototypes and make one of your own!

See you here….

The idea generation is in full flow, from disco bus stops to information posts that give off scents, and everything else in between…we’ve got plenty of top notch ideas to go into our forthcoming prototype exhibition at the CET building next week. The creativity of both the ideas and designs are astonishing, it’s certainly going to be difficult to whittle the ideas down to the 3-5 live interactive installations that will be donning the streets of Coventry in October.

For now, we’re going into exhibition prep-mode – we’ve got to take all of your shiny models and curate them into an exhibition that will open at the CET building on Saturday the 1st of July. We’ll be hosting a variety of events and workshops throughout the two weeks that the exhibition is open – so make sure you pop in and take a look at what we’ve been up to…and of course, join in and let us know how you would make Coventry a more playable city!