Or So Ben Thought…

This is where you get the best bits from my world of playful experiences and innovation for arts, culture and the climate.

A shortcut to the smart thinking and brilliant doing in the communities I call home. May feature occasional tangential wittering.

How did it come to this?

Three days into a round-the-world adventure, my naive but entrepreneurial 18-year old self fell head long into a glorious and elaborate Bangkok gem scam. I emerged alive but stone broke, so I took up street magic and funded the rest of the trip working tables with a pack of cards.

In 2008 I founded Thought Den, a small digital studio for arts and culture, driven by a philosophy of playful learning. I wrote about it in the Guardian and continue flying by the seat of my pants to bring artists, engineers and content experts together to play.

As an associate creative director for PRELOADED, I lead their BAFTA-winning team on projects for world class museums, global toy brands and medieval castles.

Artful Spark is an event series I host with @SamHoweyNunn about cross-artform collaboration. More specifically, magical gloves, musical barcodes, Bluetooth capes, binaural Björk, tasty art, time-travelling echo horns, mocap suits, invisible materials, smart boardgames, kinetic sculptures, data poems and Jupiter’s magnetic radiation.

The planet is in the midst of a climate crisis. #ArtStrike is a movement I helped create that invites museums and galleries around the world to put selected objects on strike. You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.

What happens next?

I’ll write some things and link to some things - sign up! Tell your friends! Perhaps we’ll make something playful together…?