logo

Blog

red sign with yellow text reads The Lincoln Imporium. Images of imps and wheels on background of an oriental rug design

The Lincoln Imporium

Explore the wonders of the Lincoln Imporium: Where earthly wonders meet otherworldly curiosities, but beware the allure of mischief lurking in this interactive street spectacle, 4-6 May at Lincoln Festival of History....

person with long red hair and blue jacket wearing a VR headset whilst swinging on a swing in Cornhill Lincoln

We’re hiring for two key positions

We're looking for exceptional individuals to join our passionate and enthusiastic team. Currently, we're in search of candidates for two key positions: Director of Operations and Growth, and Assistant Producer....

New beginnings for Threshold Studios

Our co-founder and CEO Uzma Johal MBE is moving on after 25 amazing years at the helm of our organisation to take up a role with arts agency Counterculture. Samantha Lindley becomes Chief Executive and will lead our agency through the ne...

Frequency Festival is hiring!

Behind every good festival is a great team who are committed to creating the very best experience for visitors. If you are passionate about live events, are creative, digitally savvy and experienced, and can commit to us from June to...

black woman with long white hair wearing a VR headset and holding a controller in a workshop space

Digital Democracies: Voices, Practices, Stories, Futures

We have commissioned a series of articles, collated by Donna Close and Prof Helen Kennedy, that explores diverse perspectives on the Metaverse through a series of conversations with women working in the immersive technology space....

virtual reality world

TALENT DEVELOPMENT VR CO-COMMISSION

As part of Digital Democracies Talent Development programme, students from Grimsby Institute of Technology worked with Inkibit Immersive on a Virtual Reality co-commission. The collaborative co-commission, St James in VR, was inspired...

WALK THIS WAY – ARTIST INTERVIEW ADRIAN RILEY

Developed to be a digital extension of the public artworks by the artists, Walk This Way by Annabel McCourt and Adrian Riley bridges the gap between the physical and digital, and tests new ways to involve and animate people in the...

WALK THIS WAY

Investing in research and development, and creating a space for new and experimental work to be tested publicly, is crucial for innovation and creativity to thrive. So, we’re pleased to be supporting the development of this new work,...

VR HACKJAM WITH INKIBIT

As part of Industry Week at University of Lincoln in February 2021, Threshold Studios introduced School of Film & Media students to Inkibit Immersive, a female-led creative collective exploring immersive technologies. Supported by...

person conducting a choir in front of a digital screen

WE-HOPE CANTASTORIA

As part of the WE-Hope project and supported by Digital Democracies, Threshold Studios commissioned artists to work with living testimonies from survivors of conflict, migration and trauma, collected through testimony and interviews...

People with their heads in large boxes

Artists and Creatives Survey 2022

We are conducting a national Artists and Creatives Survey to help us better understand the practice, needs and barriers of UK based artists. If you're a UK based artist or creative please fill in the survey and share with your...

search engine screen text saying DEPRESSED SEARCH ENGINE, there isn't point looking for what you want, don't touch me

UNINSTALLING NORMALITY – DOLLY SEN

Reality may never be an inclusive design, but virtual reality can be. In fact, artificial intelligence can never be sentient, if it cannot go mad. Artist, writer, performer and filmmaker, Dolly Sen, infects normal systems with...

White man standing at a lecturn

Digital Democracies Editorial Project

As part of Digital Democracies we invited curator and researcher, Laurence Hill, to commission some short pieces of writing on how digital technology and digital thinking have impacted us and our public spaces....

8 distorted faces in two rows of four boxes

ZIZI: QUEERING DATASETS AND LATENT SPACES – JAKE ELWES

Zizi – Queering the Database by Jake Elwes aims to tackle the lack of representation and diversity in training image datasets of people’s faces used by facial recognition systems. These datasets often have a bias towards...

field with people standing in it and a mobile phone screen overlay with a red shape on a map

GRINDR UBER AIRBNB – JONATHAN CHOMKO

We reach into software, and it reaches back into us, shaping how we engage with the world. In www.grindruberairbnb.exposed (GUA), artist Jonathan Chomko explores this relationship between user and interface, through a series of...

hundreds of white lights hanging from a metal frame with a red hue

Only the impossible is worth achieving

2021 marks the tenth anniversary of Frequency Festival, an ambition we at Threshold aspired to back in 2011 without knowing quite how we would pull that off. Co-Founder of Threshold Studios and Ex-Festival Co-Director, Barry Hale,...

avatar of a black woman with pink hair wearing a cowboy hat

SPACE COWGIRL – JUDITH RICKETTS

The embodied ‘raced’ self, transposed into online space as avatar carries with it interminable questions related to the nuances of identity, representation and Blackness. Judith Ricketts explores this in her commissioned article for...

White man standing at a lecturn

DIGITAL DEMOCRACIES EDITORIAL PROJECT – LAURENCE HILL

Commissioned by Threshold Studios through Digital Democracies, curator and researcher, Laurence Hill has brought together a selection of writers and contributors exploring how we interact with existing digital technologies and how they...

Brighton festival logo over a pink and blue background with faces

BRIGHTON DIGITAL FESTIVAL – TOWN HALL

Preparation for Brighton Digital Festival 2021 kicks off with a Town Hall Meeting. Excitingly, this events programme will be complemented by a collaboration with Hull’s ?Freedom Festival? and Lincoln’s ?Frequency Festival? on a new...

Brighton street with three colourful circles on a railing featuring an image of a black woman and text

COMMISSIONS ARE A HIT AT BRIGHTON FESTIVAL

Digital Democracies commissions by Kaleider and Arch468 have been warmly received by audiences and critics alike at the recent Brighton Festival. Both projects provided a creative outlet and a sense of connection, each using digital...

Job Vacancy: Marketing and Social Media Assistant

We have an exciting opportunity for a dynamic and enthusiastic Marketing and Social Media Assistant, who is passionate about digital culture and the arts, to help us reach new audiences and raise the profile of our change-making work....

CAN COVID CREATE A MORE INCLUSIVE CULTURAL SECTOR?

As we adjusted to a post-lockdown world, Threshold’s Creative Director, Samantha Lindley reflected on how COVID could be a catalyst for change in the cultural sector.  How can creative organisations adapt their approach to create “an...

Digital Democracies Masterclass #2: The Art of Sound

We are pleased to announce the second Artist Development event as part of the Digital Democracies project, Digital Democracies Masterclass #2: The Art of Sound. This free online Masterclass on Wednesday 21 July, 1pm-4pm (BST) is led...

We-Hope and Digital Democracies announce Artist Call Out

WE-Hope and Digital Democracies have announced a Call-Out for Artists to use testimonials collected from survivors of conflict to create an interactive digital animation.  The commissioned work will be shown in public outdoor space and...

ELEOS, Ashley James Brown, Threshold Studios and Bernadette Russell. Photo courtesy of Frequency Festival 2019. Photo credit Electric Egg

Job Vacancy: Event Producer – Frequency Festival 2021

Threshold is seeking an experienced Event Producer to lead on the delivery of Frequency International Festival of Digital Culture in Lincoln in October 2021. You will be responsible for ensuring all the works are installed to high specif...

Image show a craft project space rocket coloured orange, blue and silve with a small tin of paint, card, glue and foil next to it

Prepare for Launch

Threshold Studios founder and director on his decision to leave and pursue his own creative practice...

Black Lives Matter

As an organisation and as individuals we stand in full support of the Black Lives Matter movement.  We need to build and empower industries, institutions, audiences, sectors and a society that are truly representative and equal....

PHOTO COURTESY OF: goodwill_painting (instagram)

Culture is about to reopen

As UK lockdown eases, what has been the impact on our cultural sector and where do we go from here? We need to consider how we will bring audiences back. What post-pandemic cultural experience and practice will look like. It’s not...

alchemist looking at potion

It’s Time for Cultural Alchemy

We writers, artists and musicians need to seize this opportunity that enforced social distancing now offers us before it evaporates. It's time to switch into hermit mode, put aside our anxieties of the factors over which we have no...

tree with wooden hand holding up a leaning branch

Critical Friend Micro-Surgeries

We're pleased to be offering remote artist micro-surgeries, a mini version of our Critical Friend Programme, during the present crisis for isolated artists, writers and filmmakers. So if you’re embarking on a creative project, mid-way...

Dancer in Upload Unplug, a performance by Pell Ensemble at Frequency 2019

This will make us stronger

It's heartening to see the positivity that is coming out in this challenging and uncertain time, with people across all sectors and walks of life keeping it together and stepping up to support each other as we navigate this situation...

CreativeXR returns for its third year

Digital Catapult and Arts Council England’s CreativeXR is looking for creative teams working with virtual, augmented or mixed reality | Applications close 17 April...

Traveller in a strange land

In partnership with British Council and Into Film, Threshold and Suited and Booted in Bath have created four community-based media hubs in Venezuela, eleven or more in Cuba, and now, with Hafsah from Working Class in Manchester and...

Upload Unplug, Pell Ensemble at Frequency Festival 2019. Photo credit Electric Egg.

FREQUENCY RETURNED TO LINCOLN FOR FIFTH EDITION

FREQUENCY International Festival of Digital Culture – a digital festival for everyone – returned to Lincoln in October 2019, transforming the city’s rhythm over four days with a festival programme that captured imaginations, challenged...

Burning Down the House

20 years ago I rescued from a skip the video archives of a community arts organisation here in Northampton that I used to volunteer for.  It had closed its doors after 19 years of service to the town and there was no one left but me to...

Photo credit: (NASA photo/Aubrey Gemignani)

Commander Loveless; First Man on Mars

Six months ago I met my good friend of 35 years, writer Stephen Loveless, for our usual weekly coffee and a chat. It was just before I went away on holiday for a couple of weeks. I didn’t know then that would be the last time I’d eve...

Camara Chica

Camara Chica: Life has a way of sobering you up

We were preparing for the next phase of our Camara Chica project in Cuba, loading the filmmaking software onto five more iPads for the ten media hubs we’ve set up across the island in partnership with IntoFilm, British Council and Suit...

What’s your Resolution?

I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions.  I gave them up some time ago – we all know why; they tend to be based on some mild guilt about something we do and shouldn’t or something we’re not doing and should.  How many New Year gy...

Child holding up hand with palm painted bronze

Art and Social Activism

There’s been a huge increase in events, exhibitions and engagement projects around art and activism in visual arts galleries, major institutions and independent spaces.  In fact there is now a new phrase; Activism, or Socially Engaged ...

mans face in bank note

We Need to Talk About Money!

No-one in their right minds goes into the arts for the money, but so many artists remain in the dark about the financial aspects of the arts – whether they can ask to be paid, whether they can sell their work and, if so, for how much.  ...

We are the Future

TS20: First Light

“Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine.”   – Alan Turing    From our very first project, Threshold had a commitment to reinvesting our skills back into the community.  W...

Darklight poster

TS20: Darklight

“Aim high, for every arrow feels the pull of the earth.” – Dr Tahir Choudhry Once a year, usually in April/May, Threshold gets away from the office for a long weekend. We spend 3 days reviewing the past year, planning out the next twelve...

Sergio Cruz, Exotica

TS20: Critical Mass

In many ways the coming of the UK Film Council in 2002 was a positive thing, however, for many of the artists we knew who worked with the moving image, it seemed the hand-over of responsibility for film from Arts Council to UK Film...

Dog in a basket in Cuba

TS20: Camera Chica

“I’ve been a farmer all my life; I have nothing, but when I see my daughter standing in the centre of our village with the camera in her hand I know what it means for her future and I just want to thank you for the opportunity you bring to...

TS20: Opening Up Access

When I first started working with the organisation, my very first project role was supporting as a Production Assistant on a First Light project, Dark Reels.  5 groups of young people making their own short films with support from profe...

Photo of a crowd of people surrounded by strings of blue lights

Opportunity: Commercial Engagement Manager Tender

We are recruiting a Commercial Engagement Manager to support our development of commercial relationships and sponsorship opportunities linked to our Frequency Festival of Digital Culture, in order to take Threshold into the next phase of...

ashok mistry

Who’s your Critical Friend?

Of all the Knowledge Sharing services we provide at Threshold, from Continuing Professional Development, Trouble-shooting, Life-coaching, Training Linked to Production initiatives and Mentoring to Consultancy, my favourite is the Critica...

Group of young people filming in Cuba

An update on Cámara Chica, from our man (recently) in Havana

There’s something happening here… I’ve been back from Cuba for about two months now and it’s taken that long to process all that went on in the three weeks I was there. I am still not sure I understand fully what our time there represent...

Blue LED lights glowing

Vacancy: Digital Resource Developer – This Is Us

We are currently looking to commission a Digital Advert and ident for our forthcoming HLF-funded community engagement project This is Us. The purpose of the advert is to create a living active resource from archive materials and assets...

Photo of a young boy in a window in Cuba

Threshold returns to Cuba

As one of the creators of the Cámara Chica project we were pleased to recently be invited back to Cuba to expand on its incredible work. Threshold Director, Barry Hale previously helped set up filmmaking and media hubs with the project...

Photo of a waterside art installation at night

Vacancy: Programme Assistant (deadline closed)

We are looking for an enthusiastic, dedicated and dynamic Programme Assistant. This is a new role that will support the day to day running of the organisation as well as delivery of projects and initiatives to a high standard. You will w...

Daisy’s story – RADAR Graduate

RADAR is an accelerator scheme devised in collaboration with the University of Lincoln for graduates looking for a head start after University. Through a paid internship, we give graduates first-hand experience and a chance to put their...

Vacancy: Marketing Assistant for Frequency Festival

Frequency Festival Directors, Threshold Studios are looking for a dynamic Marketing Assistant to work in a fast-paced environment, with the festival team and partners. Frequency Festival of Digital Culture is a biennial festival hosted i...

Arts Council NPO Funding Success

Threshold Studios are delighted to announce that we are part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio of organisations for 2018-22. At a time when the funding environment is increasingly complex, we are honoured that Arts Council E...

Vacancy: Marketing, Digital and Communications Manager

We are looking for an enthusiastic, dedicated and dynamic Marketing, Digital and Communications Manager to work with the team to deliver social media, audience development communications and marketing activity across our range of project...

Flow Observatorium

This World Autism Awareness Week, we are delighted to share the news of the launch of Flow Observatorium (FlOb), a new national project funded by Arts Council England and based at New Theatre Royal Portsmouth as part of their Creative L...

Exploring Milton Keynes

I spent about 7 hours yesterday exploring Milton Keynes with artist and mythographer Phil Smith. We set out to orient ourselves in the city in preparation for our Digitalis project, working with the Libraries network there and the Counci...

We Are Neurodiverse

On 17 January we held the first Collider Conversation of the year, bringing ‘diversity’ forward, at Attenborough Arts Centre in Leicester discussing Neurodiversity. Chaired by Susan Jones, published writer and researcher, with Jon Adams,...

Threshold Studios Co-Founder Uzma Johal receives MBE

Threshold Studios are thrilled to announce that Co-Founder and Director Uzma Johal has been awarded an MBE in the 2017 New Year’s Honours List for services to the Digital Economy in the East Midlands. The award recognises Uzma’s sign...

Sound Art Radio Interview

The brilliant Ariane Delaunois of Sound Art Radio yet again produced some great coverage of Frequency. Check out this interview Barry gave, discussing Frequency’s ethos and vision, current debates surrounding digital culture, and the cha...

It’s ‘game on’ for GAME ON

28 participants, two days, three workshop stations. How will the young generation of today cope when thrown into the world of coding and creative tech? “It’s so important to learn the skill of coding because of how much technology is...

Game On Launch 2015

We are now living in the digital age, with thousands of people relying on technology in their everyday lives. However, it is so easy to use this smart technology without thinking of what it takes to make it work. For many years creative ...

Frequency 2015 Internships

As part of RADAR, our Creative Graduate Accelerator Scheme in partnership with the University of Lincoln, we have an exciting set of internship opportunities available to recent graduates of the College of the Arts to work on Frequenc...

Frequency Festival Call Out for Artists: Futurology

FUTUROLOGY: Hybrid and digital works, experimental tech, public performative, interactive works and beta demonstrators Introduction Frequency 2015 represents the third iteration of Lincoln’s Festival of Digital Culture. For ten days in ...

Guest Post – John Doran (The Quietus)

Something magic(k)al happens every time I end up in Northampton. Last time it was hanging out with Alan Moore at Robert Godfrey’s Lodge Studios where I got lost in a haze of Unearthings and Dodgem Logic. This time round the NN Cafe shook...

Is Independent Publishing the new Punk?

So yes, I’m old enough to have been there at the dawning of the cultural revolution that was Punk and all the subsequent kaleidoscopic offshoots that blossomed from that defiant root, planted in the industrial ruins of what was Broken Br...

Game On

About Game On Women are currently under-represented in creative technology fields. These industries are growing quickly and as digital culture becomes a part of everyday life, it is vital that women are an equal part of the emerging gene...

Internship vacancies

As part of RADAR, our Creative Graduate Accelerator Scheme in partnership with the University of Lincoln, we have two exciting internship opportunities available to recent graduates of the College of the Arts. Get more information, a...

Back to Totality

March 20th offered us a rare chance to experience a partial solar eclipse – did you see it? Only 95% of Totality this time so no dip to darkness, nothing to scare the birds into silence, none of the corona or Baily’s Beads to see but sti...

Kristy Diaz in conversation with Steve Lawson

I’ve been working with Birmingham City University’s School of Media department for a few years now, usually as a panel member assessing their Music Industries students presentations on setting up record labels and PR companies. At the e...

Mallarmé Leads the Way

This month we’ve been focusing on the planning for October’s Frequency Festival of Digital Culture – sketching out possible sites and the artists who might suit those spaces. As always, the budgets are tight and the vision ambitious; the...

Communications and Marketing Assistant Internship

As part of RADAR, our Creative Graduate Accelerator Scheme in partnership with the University of Lincoln, we have an exciting internship opportunity available to recent graduates of the College of the Arts. Lincoln Drill Hall are looki...

Cuba Calling II

I can’t begin to explain how happy I feel for Cuba and the friends I’ve made there. The recent news that Raul Castro and Barack Obama have agreed to reinstate diplomatic links and the 50 year blockade is coming to an end is an exciting d...

When it all comes right

Yesterday was one of those days when you get a hefty reminder of why we do what we do. Sometimes you step into another person’s life, just for a short while, and try to have some impact on their future. Matt was one of those. Uzma and I ...

Radar

Creative student or graduate? RADAR is an accelerator scheme for creative graduates looking for a head start after University. It connects you with opportunities in creative media and the arts through a paid internship designed to get yo...

Cuba Calling

For the last three weeks I’ve been cataloguing all the media assets we gathered on our two visits to Cuba – the hours of documentary films made by TV Serrana that capture the traditional way of life in the mountains, the two dozen or mor...

Next Collider Creative Conversation Announced

Thursday 4th December // Antenna Media Centre, Nottingham // 6pm Threshold Studios, in collaboration with Dance4, invite you to a Collider Creative Conversation: Choreography, Technology and New Audience Experiences A chance for creative...

63|3D and Creative Collider Conversation at Kinetica Art Fair

We will be showing our JFK installation 63|3D at Kinetica Art Fair on the 16th – 19th of October. Kinetica Art Fair ‘provides a global platform for galleries, curatorial groups, design studios and artists working in the realm of inte...

A diary of a recent graduate.

“What’s your plan? What’s next?” The dreaded questions faced currently by zillions of graduates around the country. We’ve finished our degrees; hopefully we’ve done well. Three years of our life has built up to this moment. We’...

Namedropper!

So let me tell you about the time I met Stan Brakhage! Well, his name has cropped up a couple of times this week in conversations I’ve been having with people about the realm of digital in relationship to art and the sense that we may ha...

Thirty Years and Counting…

2014 is a pivotal year for me. In June of 1982 I was made redundant from the printer’s where I worked. With my small redundancy payment I bought a super 8 camera, a projector, all the editing gear and some film stock and decided my new c...

These Shattered Vessels

This week writer Steve Moore’s earthly remains were cast to the four winds beneath a Supermoon, during a meteor storm, while a comet whizzes past at the tail end of a hurricane (thanks for that image Amber Peachey-Moore). I only met Stev...

Lincoln Voices – Artist’s Research Residency

Here’s an exciting opportunity for artists to collaborate to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. The City of Lincoln and University of Lincoln have created a residency programme and are looking for artists to...

Liberty, Equality, Anonymity

I’ve been thinking a lot today about the theme for the next Frequency Festival in 2015 and about the word liberation in the context of the digital revolution. I’ve come to the conclusion that the most important aspect of digital liberati...

RSA Presentation July 3rd 2014

I recently presented at the RSA What Would William Shipley Do? mini-conference at New Art Exchange. It was a quickfire, 5-minute talk, but here’s my slides (minus me chatting over them). I talked about building social networks by being h...

An open letter to the internet.

Dear Internet, I’m sorry, Internet. It’s not you… it’s me. For too long now this relationship has been all too one sided – I just take, take, take. I know, I know, Internet – all the little things that you do for me that I neve...

Threshold remains part of Arts Council NPO for 2015-18

Dear colleagues, partners, supporters and friends, Threshold is proud to announce that we are part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio of organisations for 2015-18. At a time where investment in the arts is increasingly diffic...

Summer Round-up

It’s been a really busy year for us and it seems we’ve slightly neglected our blog. But fear not! Here’s a round up of some of the things we got up to: March 2013, Northampton: Electrickal Seances 2 at the Legendary Labour Club  We work...

Collider Round-up

March 2013: Northampton: Electrickal Seances at the Legendary Labour Club Nottingham: Mute Synth workshops at Antenna Northampton: Syzygy Live Cinema Sessions at The Victoria Inn There’s a creative quarter of Northampton where things are...

Emerging from the Aethyr

Behind the red door the management retains the right to refuse admission, but as long as you promise not to bother the cribbage club you’re fine. An informal queue call orders from zimmer frames and stools in a dark corner, as they wai...

Hibakusha Interview with Stephen Loveless

Here’s our very own Barry interviewing Stephen Loveless about his novella, Hibakusha. If this sounds like the sort of thing you’d be into, you can get the eBook from Amazon, or a signed paperback from Threshold’s eBay...

Secret Cages – Barry Hale

“beneath the waters of the river, trapped in the chains of the dancing weed, I listened to the rumble of my own escaping breath….” Reality disintegrates on the riot-torn streets of Paris. Hallucinations and distorted memories collide wit...

Hibakusha – Stephen Loveless

Shey has found a room to build her boat, a small boat big enough to hold a lot of pain and one symbolic passenger, herself. Through seeing historic film of the horror of the A-Bomb attack on Hiroshima an Anglo-Japanese schoolgirl at a Br...

Threshold hosts Business Secretary Vince Cable

Today we were visited at our Northampton offices by Secretary of State, Vince Cable, for an intimate conversation regarding Threshold’s future within a new and changing industry. Threshold welcomed the recommendations outlined within t...

Threshold Studios featured in Arts Professional

“Threshold originally set itself the challenge of taking unique voices from hard to reach communities out to an international audience. Today, it recognises that new digital tools have democratised production and offers open access to ...

Film Nation Shorts Nomination Update – WE WON!

Massive congratulations to the makers of “Our Journeys”, which won the Film Nation Shorts Best Animation (17-19) sponsored by Panasonic. The film was made by young film makers as part of Threshold’s “We are the Word” project in...

Intraference Screens at Frequency Festival 2011

As part of the upcoming Frequency Festival, Threshold Studios is screening ‘Intraference’ exclusively at the Usher Gallery in Lincoln. Intraference harnesses the chaos of simple video feedback loops or isolates the inherent noise ...

We Are On Television

Over the next two weeks, our We Are The Word films are going to be on television. If you have access to one of those telly boxes, you should turn your attention to The Community Channel (Sky 539, Virgin Media 233, Freeview 87 and BT Visi...

We are the Future – Exhibition and Publication Launch

In December 2010 The Phoenix Youth Centre in Daventry became the best new gallery in town. Young artists transformed the main hall into a slick exhibition space and set up a lounge cinema to launch the We Are The Future book and photogra...