{"id":314993,"date":"2025-08-03T16:35:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/314993\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T16:35:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:35:22","slug":"magical-new-bristol-attraction-set-to-open-in-city-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/314993\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Magical’ new Bristol attraction set to open in city centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ‘interactive robot garden’ opens next week<\/p>\n

Kirstie McCrum<\/strong> Network Content Editor<\/p>\n

12:00, 03 Aug 2025<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Hothouse Laboratory will run from Thursday, August 7 \u2013 Monday, September 1(Image: Undershed\/Sandra Ebert)<\/p>\n

Giant cuddly robots are coming to a gallery in Bristol this summer. The Hothouse Laboratory opens next week at Undershed, Bristol\u2019s immersive art gallery from Watershed <\/a>in the city centre.<\/p>\n

Running from Thursday, August 7 \u2013 Monday, September 1, the exhibition from award-winning Bristol-based creative studio Air Giants promises to transform the space into a “magical, interactive garden” inhabited by two-metre-tall inflatable plant sculptures.<\/p>\n

They will be brought to life through pioneering ‘soft robotic technology’, organisers say. Seemingly abandoned in a deserted laboratory, the huge, brightly-coloured plants come alive when touched. Visitors <\/a>are invited to explore the origins of these otherworldly creations as they flex, wiggle and glow, playfully inviting further investigation.<\/p>\n

Designed to provoke instinctive reactions and emotions from everyone who meets them, The Hothouse Laboratory aims to take robots out of the lab to encourage interaction and hands-on exploration, sparking joy and curiosity in audiences of all ages.<\/p>\n

Air Giants claims to be the first studio in the world to make interactive soft robotics at this scale, combining cutting-edge approaches with traditional hand-crafting techniques. Using their signature tools – light, sound, movement and air – they specialise in bringing creatures of the imagination into the everyday, creating playful immersive experiences and inspiring tactile environments.<\/p>\n

This new installation will, for the first time, be accompanied by bespoke sound and light art from Chu-Li Shewring, a filmmaker, sound designer and sound artist, and Harriet Wallis, anarchitectural lighting designer who experiments with natural materials, in this unique presentation.<\/p>\n

Emma Powell, Air Giants’ creative director, said: \u201cIn a world dominated by screens, we’re excited about making work that allows touch and offers real physical interaction. Thisco-created presentation of The Hothouse Laboratory uses this motivation and adds layers of light and sound to build an intriguing story world for audiences to discover. We’re very excited to share it at Undershed this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Award-winningAward-winning Bristol-based creative studio Air Giants will transform the space into a magical, interactive garden(Image: Undershed\/TomHeuijerjans)<\/p>\n

Families will be invited to create their own story throughout their visit, exploring the behaviour and characteristics of the plants, checking out clues left across the laboratory, and building their own unique storyworlds. Visitors can also contribute to a model hothouse byadding their own miniature creations.<\/p>\n

Amy Rose, Undershed curator, said: \u201cWe\u2019re so excited to be collaborating with Air Giants on this special presentation of their beautiful piece Hothouse. I\u2019ve seen how audiences have responded to all their work before – the inflatable creatures are beautifully tactile andcharacterful, always inspiring gentle play and unusual encounters.<\/p>\n

“To have an opportunity to expand on the piece, and create a new and imaginative experience with some other incredible audiovisual artists is really an honour – and we\u2019re looking forward to hearing the stories and creations that come from audiences in response.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undershed is supported by Arts Council England, BFI, UWE Bristol, Bristol+Bath CreativeR+D and MyWorld.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ‘interactive robot garden’ opens next week Kirstie McCrum Network Content Editor 12:00, 03 Aug 2025 The Hothouse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,15125,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-314993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-things-to-do-in-bristol","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114965808636833259","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}