Alex Carter
Alex is a third year Gold Scholar at the University of Bath, studying computer science and mathematics. He spends most of his free time writing short (and several not so short) stories, as well as coding projects ranging from a website to a political argument bot, and has recently been working on building a pyramid scheme simulator.
Alison Bown
Alison is a sound designer, writer and interactive narrative designer. With a background in cinema, literature and games, she develops immersive interactive stories in game engines and is moving increasingly into XR. She is particularly interested in combining language and spatial sound to direct attention and create presence within interactive experiences. This was the subject of her recently submitted practice-based PhD.
In terms of AI within stories, Alison is interested in ways that conversational aspects of digital stories can achieve the fluidity needed for comedy and for revealing character in subtle and compelling ways. She is also interested in the use of AI within character design to explore behavioural psychology and reveal hidden motivation.
Constance Fleuriot
Constance is a writer, artist and gamemaker in Bristol. Alongside her own creative practice she has worked in creative technology research since the early 1990s and is a founding member of the Pervasive Media Studio. Constance makes personal and commercial games projects at her company, pretty digital, as well as writing for others. She especially enjoys co-developing projects that encourage people of all ages to be creative with or without technology. Constance also runs a grrrlgames meetup in Bristol for women of all ages who want to make games. Twitter - @prettydigi Insta - @prettydigital
Lucy Telling
Lucy Telling is Co-Director of Stand + Stare, an interactive design studio that she runs with her brother, Barney Heywood. She has always sought innovative ways to tell stories, initially through immersive theatre and playwriting and then through the distributed narratives and interactive work that Stand + Stare create now.
Marnie Forbes Elridge
Marnie Forbes Eldridge is a freelance Writer and Theatre Practitioner and an Associate Director for Prime Theatre Company. She is a specialist in Drama and Theatre for education and has developed innovative curriculums. Having worked in professional theatre for over twenty years as an actor, director, producer and writer, she is a specialist in storytelling, creating theatre for and with young people, has taught in a wide arena of education establishments from schools to universities, and has developed theatre companies, educational courses, departments, and facilitated the learning of practitioners, students and teachers.
Marnie has created board games and interactive learning products. She has a MA in Theatre Studies, specializing in Japanese and Chinese theatre with actor training and an MA in Writing for Young people. She has written three novels for young people and many plays.
Matthew Thorpe-Coles
Matthew Thorpe-Coles is a poet and MA Creative Writing student at Bath Spa University, interested in environment, interactive storytelling and social justice. He also writes flash fiction and short stories, and in the past has written for gaming websites, too.
Ralph Hoyte
Ralph Hoyte is a Bristol/UK-based poet, writer and mobile immersive media producer (with his 3-man artists’ collective, Satsymph: Marc Yeats, classical contemporary composer, Ralph Hoyte, poet and writer, Phill Phelps, coder, audio-engineer and audio-acoustic musician).
Hoyte writes in the first instance for the voice, his poetic practice ranging from performance poetry thru’ live-art poetry to spatial poetry (graphic and sculptural poetry). Hoyte has held numerous writing commissions and artistic residencies, including residencies with the Quantocks AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty).
In 2018 he self-published ‘Something Needs To Be Done About The Humans’, a novel about AI futures (eBook and POD). As Satsymph, Hoyte and partners use spatial audio technologies to sonically augment land- and cityscapes with soundart, contemporary classical music and poetry fusions, and dramatized heritage scenarios, discoverable through mobile digital devices such as the smartphone. Ralphhoyte.com satsymph.co.uk
Suzanna Cardash
An ex-actor and copywriter, Suzanna's working towards a Masters in Scriptwriting at Bath Spa University and enjoys experimenting with genres and voices. Her gender-neutral play, 'Caged Bird', is currently in development, and her latest screenplay, 'Voyeuse', recently won Best Pilot Screenwriting category at the Olympus Film Festival in LA, Best TV Series Pilot Screenplay at the New Renaissance Film Festival in Amsterdam, and was a finalist in the Hollywood Just For Shorts Festival and Out Of The Can International Film Festival.
Suzanna also runs Scriptwriters Bath & Co, a networking group for writers, actors, playwrights and filmmakers, and loves travel, music, dogs, monologues, chocolate, family, friends, and wine – though not necessarily together or in that order.
Jasmine Richards
Jasmine Richards was born in London, grew up in a library, and was the first in her family to go to university. She has written over a dozen books for children including: Keeper of Myths, Secrets of Valhalla, and The Book of Wonders, of which School Library Journal said, “Swiftly paced writing, appealing characters, and action-packed; will appeal to fans of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson books.” She is passionate about creating stories that are inclusive and exploring opportunities to connect with readers in new and innovative ways.
Kerry Harrison
Kerry is a creative technologist who's exploring how artificial intelligence can augment the creative process and inspire new ways to tackle marketing problems. In 2018, after 18 years as an advertising copywriter, Kerry co-founded Tiny Giant, a creative tech agency that helps pioneering businesses to harness the power of emerging technologies.
She’s a podcast host, a university guest lecturer, and the co-organiser of I'll Be Back South West – the monthly meet-up exploring the intersection between AI, creativity and advertising. Over the last 18 months with Tiny Giant, Kerry has designed an AI curator for the Cheltenham Science Festival, built a donkey chatbot, created the world’s first AI gin – and used machine learning to generate weird and wonderful cocktail recipes.