Hello there,

I am Ellie, Coney's Playful Communications Officer. It might just be the coolest job title I ever have.

Just under a year ago, I put the finishing touches to my application for a job with the most mysterious of arts organisations, Coney. I'd tried, with what little information I had about them, to do something a bit different, something that they would enjoy. My application consisted of CV, a covering letter, and a special online treasure-trail featuring a four page comic, that I drew and coloured by hand.

After two rounds of interviews - one in real life, one on Skype, and lots of intriguing tasks and questions, not to mention the usual few days of waiting for a decision, I received a phone call from an unfamiliar number. A man by the name of Agent Smoki Vitch had got in touch with a message from Rabbit, asking if I thought I was Coney's new Playful Communications Officer. He then gave me a number to call to find out the answer, which turned out to be the number of Annette, one of the three Coney co-directors, who confirmed that I was their choice for the role.

I find that explaining my recruitment process gives people some idea of what Coney is like. Coney currently describes itself as an 'agency of adventure and play', and when people ask me what that means, I normally explain that we are a theatre company that makes a range of work: live performance, experiences, installations, digital stuff, games and play. Oh, and we also do lots of educational work, consultancy and research. If I'm feeling brave I also tell them that we make work based on three principles: Loveliness, Adventure and Curiosity. If their head hasn't exploded by this point, I sometimes add in that we are all members of the (not very) secret Society of Coney, which anyone can join if they are game.

As you can imagine, working for Coney is not straightforward, but it is a very exciting place to be. My role is similarly (and delightfully) un-straightforward. I spent the first few months trying to get a handle on what Coney's work comprises, and how many projects are running / about to happen / are in the pipeline, and realised that the thing that links all the projects together is the Playful Communications that feature at the heart of them all: fun, mischievous, magical messages of all kinds, delivered via a variety of digital and non-digital platforms. Once I'd figured this out, I could start to develop my plans for putting my arts and marketing experience to good use for Coney.

My every day duties would likely be familiar to any arts marketer (marketing projects, writing and editing copy, social networking, writing newsletters, blogs, managing mailing lists and press enquiries), but there is often an added playful dimension to my work, as my title suggests. I regularly find myself communicating with audience members as a character rather than myself, making postcards and clues, facilitating or participating in Coney's regular Playdays, reverse pick-pocketing people, drawing out giant maps and charts, devising and playtesting games and theatrical happenings, hunting down and sharing interesting art and theatre pieces, researching people and places, managing a Twitter dedicated to Coney's love of tea and other fun things.

I've also been project-managing a new website for Coney, and planning new marketing and communications strategies to put into action. Much more serious, but still really fun.

Since I started, I have watched Coney shift from an informal group of artists and makers towards a more structured company and network, with projects happening all over the world. It has been, and continues to be, an incredibly interesting journey – one that has characterised my time here so far. I've been extremely lucky to be part of an organisation with a non-hierarchical, collaborative culture, where I've been encouraged to get involved with every aspect of Coney's creative work. I've helped on a creative consultancy, co-created real world games, performed in live pieces and led workshops. I am grateful that my opinion has been valued by my colleagues, and I have been able to help shape what Coney's communications look like now and in the future.

My position is currently made possible by DCMS Jerwood Creative Bursaries Scheme, a scheme to help launch the careers of young arts graduates who were not in the position to work for free upon finishing their studies. The scheme has been invaluable to me, providing me with a great, creative job, a mentor to guide me in my professional development and networking events where I have been lucky enough to connect with the other bursary holders and explore the projects they have been working on.

@followellie

Tom and Ruth, looking sharp

For those unfamiliar with Adventures in Learning, it’s a core strand of Coney’s work that creates adventures in the classroom to motivate formal learning. A Cat Escapes was the first adventure we created, and was the main project we spoke about at the conference. It's an interactive narrative for KS2, where the pupils have to help Jasmine - a character from S. F. Said’s Varjak Paw books- escapes from misguided catnappers. The adventure is delivered to the classroom through the Royal Mail, email and a live theatrrical finale. One lovely teacher declared it 'the most exciting and motivating project that I've done in 22 years of teaching!'.

Over two days at the TES Show we spoke to hundreds of teachers who were passionate about creative ways to teach the National Curriculum and incorporating storytelling and gameplay in their teaching. Some interesting conversations were had, particularly about a new Adventure for 2-5 year olds which is in the Coney pipeline... More soon!

Alex and Tom

There's a Playday happening in Melbourne this Saturday 29th October. It's centered around the National Gallery Victoria Studio but also out in Federation Square and beyond. It's being co-hosted by Freeplay, Pop Up Playground, and the Society of Coney.

A playday is an open space to play and make play. Whether you're a player or a maker (or a wannabe playful secret agent) you can drop in any time from 10am til late and find something playful happening, from games to guerrilla art challenges to scratch making sessions to missions on the streets to chatting over drinks (yes, that is playful too).

Some things to wet your whistle...
• from 1pm to 3pm: games including Earpiece and Lose The Tail (and we hope the fabulous Checkpoint) out in Federation Square
• from 3pm to 5pm: playful secret agent missions out on the streets, run by a representative of the Society of Coney (text 0435740476 for rendezvous)
• 8pm: a Show and Tell Salon in NGV Studio with demipecha presentations from all kinds of quite interesting people.

There will be playful stuff happening from morning to night. It's open to all, and bring whoever you like. You can just turn up on the day for as long or as short as you like. Look for lemons - yes, lemons - around the NGV Studio or in Fed Square itself.

We're delighted that The Astronautical Challenge, the adventure-in-learning that we made in a co-production with our good friends Unlimited Theatre and Radiowaves, helped win a National Charity Award for Unlimited last night, collected by Jon and Liz from Unlimited. You can read Jon about it here (yes, that's him in the bowtie).

The Astronautical Challenge ran originally as an advance experience to Unlimited's Mission To Mars. Classes of primary school children in London, Northampton, Leicester and Leeds were recruited by the Unlimited Space Agency to prove they had what it took to be the next generation of astronauts, mentored by older astronaut trainees Gail and Stefan. But Gail and Stefan then run into trouble on a simulation mission in Kazakhstan, and only the class, the Mission Control like Houston in Apollo 13, can help the search plane rescue them. Over the six episodes of the adventure, the class is actually tackling cross-curricular challenges about science and personal social development, facilitated by their teacher, their responses uploaded then to the class station on Radiowaves. It was all about inspiring kids about science through their agency in an inspiring story, how even they can help tackle the hugest challenges in the universe.

It was brilliant making this with Unlimited and Radiowaves, and we're planning to run The Astronautical Challenge together at scale in the near future. We're chuffed about our part in this award-winning project, demonstrating the impact of the adventure-in-learning model. A Cat Escapes, the first adventure-in-learning inspired by this book we made in co-production with BAC (that you can see a couple of us talking about here), is also going to be rolling out at scale soon, and we're developing another adventure-in-learning inspired by this book with the State Library Victoria in Melbourne. More on this front soon.

A Small Town Anywhere ran very successfully in 2009 in a co-production with BAC, but the beautifully spooky townspace that the playing audience inhabited was anything but small. This makes it much harder to tour than we’d like for a piece we still care about very much. So we’re back in a development room not only exploring how we can strip the Town down to fit into a much smaller container than the current cargo ship – ideally a transit van, or even a suitcase – but also how we might open it out to become more responsive to the place where it lands, even how a smaller operating team travelling might recruit local assistance to remake the show.

This development is being supported by BAC and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation as part of a bigger exploration of how Coney’s play best travels responsively and responsibly, how it might be the same and different from traditional models of touring theatre.

There was a small scratch at BAC recently that broke open the old Town good and proper, demolishing it down to its sparest foundations so that we can see how to build it back up again. Even broken, it was still reassuringly fun and immensely useful, thanks to a most game audience for both their play and an hour-long discussion with team afterwards. Here’s exclusive CCTV footage of “Monday night in the Town” which you can see is very small indeed.

For this scratch, four of the original co-authoring team – Tom Bowtell, Annette Mees, Ben Pacey, and Tassos Stevens – were joined by Simon Katan. It was fed by learning from a new game-engine run in a Playday in Melbourne, and by ongoing research interviewing Melbournites about their small-town-like communities.

There may be more under-the-radar scratches forthcoming – keep peeled to @agencyofconey on Twitter, or Brer Haas or Henri Georges on Facebook if you want to hear about these first. We hope that the Town will be travelling later this year or early next.

Tassos Stevens

Over the last bank holiday weekend, Coney was present at Bristol's marvellous Interesting Games Festival, aka 'igfest'.

Tassos Stevens and Ellie Robinson were there to represent Coney, with the game 'Mustang VS Mosaic' designed by them with online input from Ken Eklund, Pippa Johnson, Steve Mills, Andrew Hiskens, Annette Mees, Rachael Smith and Rhiannon Armstrong.

Mustang VS Mosaic tells the tale of a loveliness-spreading collective that have split into two factions: Mustangs, intent on anonymous loveliness for the individual, stealthily cover the streets with post-its containing handwritten messages of loveliness to be enjoyed by unsuspecting members of the public; Mosaics, who believe loveliness should be a public spectacle to be consumed en-masse, have heard about this operation and are trying to collect these post-its - and the Mustangs - to create a giant symbol of loveliness for all to see. It's reverse-pickpocketing the world and tailing combined.

Without any prior playtesting (eek), the game ran on Saturday and Sunday evening, with many brilliantly enthusiastic players. Two delightful banners of loveliness were produced -  pictures attached for your viewing pleasure!

Saturday's banner of loveliness

Sunday's banner of loveliness

And here's a picture of our Silver Squid - Coney's prize for designing a game that was really fun to play. Thanks to all the players who voted for us!

Whilst we were there we played and observed lots of other cool games, especially the immense 2.8 Hours Later: few things can beat running with friends and strangers through a deserted shopping centre crawling with zombies late at night. It was great, but unfortunately, Ellie was lost to the zombies. Zombification aside, a huge pleasure to hang out with friends, especially the gang from Come Out & Play, who we enjoyed playing the unofficial drinking game 'from dusk til dawn' with.

Finally we'd like to say thanks to our friends Simon Johnson and Simon Evans at Slingshot Effect, who produced the festival, and to everyone else who was involved in producing and playing. Awesome.

Tassos and Ellie :)

Coney's been playing in Melbourne recently. I'd visited in January to speak at Transmedia Victoria, a conference organised by Christy Dena. The reception from various people and organisations to that presentation and the adventure-making workshop also ran, and the general feeling I had being in this place encouraged me to think about returning, not just to pick up conversations with the likes of the State Library Victoria - with whom we are now brilliantly co-developing an adventure-in-learning aimed at disadvantaged schools all over Victoria - but also to leap into a line of investigation about how Coney and its work might travel.

If a piece is responsive, shouldn't it remake itself in every place in which it finds itself? This is certainly true for The Loveliness Principle, which pervades a.n.other event or place and which necessarily has to be rebuilt to fit, but processes might be discovered (or a wheel reinvented) to apply to other pieces like A Small Town Anywhere. And Coney itself actively recruits anyone who is game but especially artists, makers and players to join its Secret Society (or secret-ish, given that I just let it slip here;) making play, so how would it work to seed a chapter here that might - if we were lucky - identify a few people who could later become part of teams helping remake stuff to happen over there. Given that teams on our projects often work online when not in the same time and same place, could we set things up to later facilitate remotely? If that means fewer people travelling, that's more sustainable. But what then is the relationship between what remote teams make and the originally co-authored version and its team, indeed what does that co-authored material look like to make responsive remaking most possible?

All of this has bubbled into research and development over here now superbly supported by The Jerwood Charitable Foundation.

But in the meantime to Melbourne. The British Council generously supported my travel. And so posted to a very few people in advance with a request to circulate was this fictional classified advert...

Which even made it into an online magazine (although understandably given Coney's somewhat elusive profile, they didn't get everything right about is)

The programme was a repeated series of workshops that did what it said on the tin, training anyone game in the ways of being a playful secret agent, some indoors being theory through gameplay, and some out on the streets of central Melbourne putting it into practice. Amazingly, everything having been wrangled by email from 10,500 miles distance, there were more offers of space than needed from very many generous places; sessions ended up being hosted by Arts House, the State Library Victoria, Headquarters,, and the Uniting Church in Australia. Even more amazingly, 53 people from quite diverse backgrounds took part over the week, and blew my expectations and any pretence at expertise out the water with their enthusiasm and brilliance. Some personal highlights include the tournament game of Lemon Jousting (two wooden spoons, a lemon on one of them, don't lose your lemon), the proliferating quality of lovely things reverse pickpocketed whether on the streets or in the room (or in my bag, every single session ;), and a leafy display by an anonymous agent that another agent photographed on the streets.

And resulting in a thriving chapter of the Secret Society. For my final weekend as a farewell, I helped organise a Playday - an open space to play and make through play that Coney runs in the UK as a gathering of the Society - mirroring another happening in London later that day. And this has now kicked off as a locally-organised event for the first weekend of every month (mail melbourne@youhavefoundconey.net if you're over there and interested), one happening yesterday with a few contributions delivered from us in London. All this reflecting how things may generally develop for the Society everywhere.

But in this cornucopia... quite a few opportunities to remake The Loveliness Principle out there in various settings (including a ferry) and a plethora of agents interested in helping remake it, a truly lovely new piece A Moment In Yarn (made by Sayraphim Lothian representing Coney here) inspired by the principle of loveliness, some excellent interviews with diverse locals about their experiences of community conducted by Maia Tarrell which are helping illuminate how Small Town may develop, a cheekily but brilliantly created Small Town Game run by Harry Lee in a suburban house, endless conversations about interesting stuff with interesting people. And teams across two hemispheres for Coney and the State Library Victoria now developing our adventure-in-learning based on this beauteous book. Plenty learning to digest for the ongoing travelling question. A great four weeks in a lovely city.

[Coney here represented by Tassos Stevens]

A message from Rabbit that was requested by one of the organisers of one of the demonstrations today in London, to be read out amongst many other messages from those who are not present.

This message got pushed underneath our door this morning in response to that request, a note that was a little difficult to read, so hope we've transcribed it right.

If you'd like to be present at the demonstrations, then visit http://ukuncut.org.uk/blog for more information.

Or more London-wide information at http://london.indymedia.org/events/7176

And/or have a go at the undemonstration Rabbit suggests, whenever and wherever is right.

Hello, this is Rabbit

You are all here. This is a brilliant thing. You are demonstrating what you care about, what's important. You are one big mass of people assembled to make one big important point. You are demonstrators, and with you, big things will happen.

But there are other people present here I am sure, only one step away from the demonstration, but who are not a part of it. Or not a part of it... yet. Other people on the streets or people working for these companies - who might be curious, moved, bewildered, scared, any or all of the things that people feel when they see a crowd that they are not a part of, yet. And some other people who are here to keep you in check: police, security, even possibly the odd secret agent. They are paid to do this, although of course not enough and even that might be cut, and some of them may soon be realising that they have more in common with you than they now think.

"This is water". Remember that phrase, google it, and it will lead you to a beautiful speech by the writer David Foster Wallace. "This is water". It's partly about recognising the connections between all of us people, which are more important than the roles we are currently occupying, because roles can always change.

And if you'd like a challenge from me (but don't worry if you don't) then I'd ask one simple thing of you the next time you have opportunity (but don't worry if you don't). Here or anywhere you choose later. A challenge to make a connection with someone who is not like you, or at least you don't think is like you. And do this with no agenda but to make that connection and then be open to whatever happens next and have fun wherever it takes you. This is an undemonstration that I am occupied with now, designed to be one complement to this here demonstration of yours, something anyone can do wherever and whenever they happen to be. Just like water, it might flow wherever it needs to, powered by the connections between individual drops of society. Just as you are all here, one brilliant sea of people.

To all of us, all the best wishes.

Highlight from a remarkable David Foster Wallace address, which you can read here if you haven't already. Rather inspiring for what's coming up soon.

Again, please don't think that I'm giving you moral advice, or that I'm saying you're "supposed to" think this way, or that anyone expects you to just automatically do it, because it's hard, it takes will and mental effort, and if you're like me, some days you won't be able to do it, or you just flat-out won't want to. But most days, if you're aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her little child in the checkout line - maybe she's not usually like this; maybe she's been up three straight nights holding the hand of her husband who's dying of bone cancer, or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the Motor Vehicles Dept who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a nightmarish red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it's also not impossible - it just depends on what you want to consider. If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is and who and what is really important - if you want to operate on your default setting - then you, like me, will not consider possibilities that aren't pointless and annoying. But if you've really learned how to think, how to pay attention, then you will know you have other options. It will be within your power to experience a crowded, loud, slow, consumer-hell-type situation as not only meaningful but sacred, on fire with the same force that lit the stars - compassion, love, the sub-surface unity of all things. Not that that mystical stuff's necessarily true: the only thing that's capital-T True is that you get to decide how you're going to try to see it. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship.

come here <webaddress>: My friends!
I have ordered a laptop from online
Quality is great!Price is low!
Thousands of electronic products are waiting for you!
Best wishes for you!

A 'little scary adventure' (in both senses) that spread in between times of the screening of the Twin Peaks marathon at the Lynch Lock In at BAC, via recurring owls, staring into a mirror in a darkened room, a sprint to the attic and standing facing a wall waiting for someone to come to you. Can't reveal much more...

Rumours can be confirmed of Coney’s embroilment in the unfolding story and play of The Legend of the Blind Monkey, a game played out online through www.blindmonkey.co.uk and three mobster family pages in Facebook, and soon to burst onto the streets before a huge party finale, the final whirl of the play.

In Golden City, three underworld families of monkey mobsters are warring to see which of their rank will rise to become the next Boss as the old Boss ‘Blind’ Monkey retires. There’s a series of simple challenges to level up mob reputation and more playful weekly missions for the families, with a story initially slow burning that is about to twist like a monkey’s tail before the climax at the Mobsters Ball at a secret location on Sat 4th December. Tickets to the Ball can only be gotten by being a good mobster. The new Boss will take the Golden Treasure, symbol of true power, its nature itself still a mystery...

The Legend of the Blind Monkey was commissioned from us and digital agency Purple by the whisky Monkey Shoulder. It's a romp we've enjoyed making, basically King Lear meets The Godfather on the Planet of the Apes. We can also reveal that the man from Monkey Shoulder played a blinder as La Journaliste in A Small Town Anywhere last year.

As ever, it’s what the players are doing to indulge their simian side that’s an absolute delight...

Annette Mees of Coney recently travelled to sunny California to make a commission for 01SJ Biennial. We created 'Zorop' - a collaboration with the brilliant San Jose based game designer Ken Eklund.

Coney and Ken decided to focus their collaboration on something worthwhile; world peace. Zorop (2010) was on a mission to try to give World Peace a go at the 01 SJ Biennial. Zorop (quixotically, perhaps) believes that World Peace is a meme that really just suffers from a visualization problem. In our research we encountered the beautiful idea that if everyone could see the attributes and experiences they share with others, world peace would follow. If people could see the connections, and how they weave our social fabric, would disagreement and conflict fade away?

We decided a grand experiment was needed. We gathered a gentle army of performers, the Zoropathians, to introduce strangers to each other and figure out what they had in common. These connections were relayed to ZOROP Prime in South Hall, and so ZOROP grew an ever more complex visualization of the 01SJ Biennial and the affinities its visitors share. A form of social fabric of the festival emerged and was shown on a tilty table (by the briliant Onomy)

The results were lovely. About 240 connections among strangers in 12 hours over a 24-hour span... making 01 a massively connected space. As we showed off the visualisation yesterday and today, the depth of the image that it created in people's minds – of 01, an and of the diversity of people in San Jose – really resonated with the viewers coming by. The theme of the 01SJ Biennial 2010 was "Build Your Own World" and thanks to our amazing volunteer performers, Zorop did just
that: creating a whole new world of connections and capturing its essence for all to see.

More about Zorop can be found on:

http://01sj.org/2010/artworks/zorop/

http://zorop.org/

http://gallery.me.com/keneklund#100057

A postcard received from Rabbit, leading you to downloading a short sound piece made by Rabbit with Scanner, in turn leading you wherever you are to get lost in search of a sound like a tree falling in a forest. The sounds gathered by people all over the country ended up inside a couple of pieces of Scanner's Forest at the Royal Opera House.

The Shanks Pony Transport left South Kensington Railway Station, taking visitors to the Island. After stopping for Haribo from Finlay's newsagents, the Transport swung through the backstreets of Chelsea, picking up an immigration waiver from Reginald of Liaisons Abroad as he worried imaginary ducks on the Kings Road, and then through customs on the Albert Bridge, still being built by the children of Interserve and into the Island (sited inside a warehouse in Battersea) with countless attractions - personal favourite the venerable game of Stoolball - before the main attraction, the musical set from the lads of the London Snorkelling Team with delirious hosting from Dr Inshiquin and the existentially-challenged magician Braeburn Valmont.

The Shanks Pony Transport was powered by feet and an audio playlist to take visitors from the tube to a fairly inaccessible island.

As the rubric runs, Coney can be any of many people making play... but here it was Chris Branch, Gemma Saunders and Tassos Stevens.

We worked with 15 amazing writers who went on a mini adventure made by us at the start of the day and were writing their own by the end. Looking forward to more work with Spread The Word in the future.

...of wrangling monkeys, robbing galleries, spotting owls (not what they seem), helping kids travel to Mars, and many more exciting developments we can’t relay just yet, as well as a stack of play done recently to catch up on.

Most curiously, rumours abounding of Rabbit: back, very soon...

Coney’s HQ has moved into the offices of Somethin’ Else. They are a brilliant digital production company, the largest radio indie in the UK and with a blossoming interactive division.

We’ve been hanging out there and collaborating on developments and projects like SuperMe and Papa Sangre, plus a couple more under wraps just yet…

We’re finding it a great relationship to help an adventure agency like us start many more interesting conversations, and we're paying the rent with our brain-power on various developments (but definitely buying our own milk).