life.turns.update

Hello people, Joe here.

Back in May, we told you about life.turns. - a big, ambitious event the Blipfoto community's been invited to put on at this year's Edinburgh Art Festival. It's a huge opportunity for us, both as a group and individuals, to be a part of the world's biggest arts festival - whether or not you're in Edinburgh during August.

The life.turns. idea spun out of the success of the Together project we had so much fun with in January. Everyone was amazed at what we managed to create collectively in such a short period of time, and I wondered what we'd be able to achieve with more time and the proper resources behind it.

With just four weeks to go until the official launch of life.turns. (more on that in a mo) I wanted to tantalise you with a bit more information and get you behind the project. I know this has the potential to result in one of the most wonderful things ever and the journey there will be a blast, but it will only be so with a massive joint creative effort from the Blip community.

The idea is simple: to make an animated film, one frame at a time. The film will be of a human figure walking, and that human figure will be all of us, our friends, family, and people we meet (we're drawing the line at pets), uploaded to our Blipfoto journals using some tools we're preparing especially for the event. You'll have access to a new upload tool on blipfoto.com, a dedicated life.turns. iPhone app, and a custom-built touchscreen photo studio at Inspace.

By the power of Blip, we'll combine all the still images you've uploaded into a fully animated movie, with a worldwide premiere on 26 August. The final film will be as long as we collectively make it.

From the launch to the premier, Blipcentral moves into Inspace five days a week, from where we'll be managing the project and encouraging every festival-goer to join in too. If you're visiting Edinburgh during the festival, you'll be able to drop by (Wednesday to Sunday, midday to 8pm), view some of the uploaded images in real mechanical zoetropes, blip from the touchscreen studio and see yours and others' stuff animated on screen.

As if that wasn't enough, if you've got an iPhone you'll be able to visit Inspace after dark, build your own digital zoetrope from the street outside and project it on one of six giant screens.

It's all getting very exciting and we've loads more to give and tell you before the 29th. Here's a quick run down on what to expect:

Mid July: We'll give you access to a dedicated life.turns. area on Blipfoto, explaining all the technical stuff in full detail - how to submit images to the project, plus tips and tricks for making sure your material makes the final cut. You'll be able to start uploading at the same time. If you have any questions or comments about life.turns. before then, please visit this forum thread.

(Oh, and we have another festival announcement to make around the same time - keep an eye on the Blipblog for that too!)

29 July: The grand, official life.turns. opening at Inspace, Edinburgh, 6 to 8pm. Because of the nature of the event, we need to be careful about numbers on launch night. There's a restricted number of places which we're giving to blippers on a first come, first served basis. If you want one of those places and are sure you can make it, please leave a comment below (max. two adults per blipper - kids don't count). We'll let you know once the event's full up and close the comments.

19 August: UPDATE - THIS HAS BEEN CHANGED TO 13 AUGUST: A top-secret Blipfoto evening event, kicking off at Inspace at 6pm sharp. You'll need a camera and a pair of running shoes.

26 August: The worldwide premiere of the finished life.turns. film at Inspace at 7pm, and around the world at local events organised by you. There's no restriction on numbers at Inspace for this event - if we can't squeeze everyone in for the first showing, we'll play it again later in the evening.

life.turns. really does have the potential to be one of the most incredible things people have ever created over the internet and I hope you're looking forward to taking part and seeing the results as much as I am. While the project will be driven from Edinburgh, there's nothing stopping everyone else in the world taking part in every aspect of it. Indeed, if it's as much of a success as I hope, it may come to a city near you later...