So Boho have just been in Stockholm for the last five weeks, from the last warm burst of summer through to the first winter snow. We've been working with Swedish NGO Miljöverkstan, on the second phase of our collaborative project Democratic Nature.
Democratic Nature is a development of the model we developed at University College London over 2011-12, and tested out for the first time with Best Festival Ever. The format of the work is based on the methodology of 'participatory co-modelling' - a practice whereby scientists work with community members to map and model a social-ecological system, and then use that model to help facilitate discussions and conversations about that system.
Our goal was to try to bring some of the skills we've developed making interactive experiences to bear on this process. Best Festival Ever was our first full exploration in this area - building a playable model of a fictional music festival. Democratic Nature is the next step for us - using these same skills to map and model the real world system of Flaten.
Flaten is a nature reserve just south of Stockholm. It's a beautiful lake, surrounded by a forest of oak, pine and spruce trees, right on the edge of Stockholm city. In the 1930s, it became a hub for young Stockholmers learning to swim, and it's still a major recreational destination. It's been a space for various groups to set up camp and live in, legally or illegally. It's the home of various endangered species, insects and birds. And it's coming under increasing pressure as Stockholm suffers a housing crisis in the wake of increasing migration and asylum seekers.
In January - February this year, we undertook the first phase of this new process: research, meeting with experts, mapping, making new game devices and talking about possible structures for the new work. This month, our focus was on building a prototype. Over the month, we constructed a full working version of the show, which we tested with three scratch audiences this last week.
Democratic Nature consists of a few key games: a sequence we call 'Worldbuilding', in which the audience play through the history of the region, from the end of the last ice age through to the modern day. There's a game looking at the competition between oaks and spruce in Flaten forest, a game looking at the algal blooms that impacted the lake in the late 1990s, a game about Flaten beach on a summer day, and our collective favourite; a game we call 'Governance' about managing the nature reserve.
We're really fond of the Governance game - it's a nice mechanism that we haven't used before, in which the audience undertake a number of different projects scattered throughout the room simultaneously. It's a nice mix of cooperation and competition, and it's generated some interesting discussions in the scratch shows.
We were lucky enough to be joined this time by two of our favourite collaborators: sound designer Nick McCorriston, who produced a soundtrack based on field recordings from the Flaten area, and designer Gillian Schwab, who constructed an incredible array of set and props.
Following three scratch showings of the prototype, we've now wrapped up this phase of the work, and we're heading out of Sweden on to the next thing. We're planning to be back in Sweden in mid-2017 (Scandinavian summer!) to undertake the final development; tightening and calibrating the work, and then working with local artists to translate it into Swedish.
So the Best Festival Ever team is in Melbourne this week, currently doing some script tweaks and prop fixes, and tightening the screws on the work in preparation for 
Tuesday 5 July - Mark BurgmanMark Burgman is head of the school of BioSciences at the University of Melbourne, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Conservation Biology. He works on ecological modelling, conservation biology and risk assessment.Wednesday 6 July - Dave WinklerCSIRO scientist Dave Winkler works across radioastronomy and compututational molecular design. He’s published on nanotechnology and regenerative medicine, and his work is often concerned with applying the tools of small molecule research to complex biological systems.Thursday 7 July - Anne-Marie GrisogonoJoining us from Adelade is physicist Anne-Marie Grisogono, currently an adjunct professor in the Engineering Faculty of Flinders University. Anne-Marie worked for more than 20 years with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, applying complex systems science to the defence problems faced by Australian troops during the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars.Friday 8 July - Lauren Rickards and Kevin GroveResilience experts Lauren Rickards and Kevin Grove join us from RMIT and Florida International University, respectively. Both have worked applying resilience thinking to disaster governance and emergency management in areas such as the Caribbean, and cases such as the Hazelwood Mine fire in Victoria.Sunday 10 July - David BattenCSIRO systems analyst David Batten works with computer models to tackle real world problems such as Australia’s electricity, transport and water systems. He’s written ten books exploring how modelling and simulation can help us get to grips with real world complexity.These discussions unpack some of the ways scientists use systems thinking to get to grips with the complex challenges facing us today. For us as artists, Best Festival Ever was always intended to provide the platform for these sorts of conversations, and it’s pretty exciting for us to be able to bring on board scientists and thinkers of this calibre.If you’re keen to come along, you can head to 
It's February, and we're writing this from the shores of a frozen lake south of Stockholm.It’s been a busy 2016 so far, starting with 
Right now we're undertaking a month-long development in Sweden. Working with Stockholm NGO 
Miljöverkstan want to try to capture some of the complexity of the region in an interactive format, so they’ve invited us over to map the system with them and turn it into a game experience, a platform for learning and conversation.This month we’re building a systems map and putting together a rough prototype of the show. We’ll be returning to Sweden in August and October to finish off the game, and present it for the first time to a Swedish audience.This is a big project, with a short timeframe, but it’s exciting to be applying the tools we developed through Best Festival Ever to a real-world system.Feel free to check out 
This is David, writing this at the end of our two week season of Best Festival Ever at the Street Theatre in Canberra. We are all pretty stoked with the last fortnight, feeling exhausted but energised at the same time. It's been a pretty delightful way to bring the show home to Australia.Back in 2008, the Street Theatre presented the first Canberra season of Boho's first show, 
The response from audiences was pretty lovely, and we had some really nice reviews, 
Myself, Nikki, Nathan, David and Rachel are all really delighted with the experience, and we're now looking for other opportunities to present the work in Australia.We're looking for any groups or organisations who might be interested in hosting a session of the work - festivals, museums, conferences, schools, universities, businesses and workplaces. If you have a room with a table and you think that Best Festival Ever might be a good fit for your event, please 
Okay so we are excited to announce that we will be bringing Boho's 
Following the conclusion of Big Day Out, Harvest, Future Music, Stereosonic, the Great Escape and Parklife Festivals, this might be your last chance to experience a music festival in Australia: jump on board.