Melanie
Frances
art // play // tech // maths
who I AM
.jpg)
I'm Mel Frances, a game designer, digital storyteller and creative mathematician. I make interactive experiences - books, performances and games - that travel to unknown places, speculative futures and alternative realities. My work is for people who like adventures, probing rules, and finding hidden possibilities.
I am Joint Artistic Director of Produced Moon: a digital, interactive arts organisation based in Scotland. We create mixed reality experiences, live performance and participatory projects. Produced Moon are Associate Artists at Platform Glasgow. We've been mentored by Punchdrunk, Gob Squad and Coney.
I'm currently Creative Associate (Digital) with Modern Art Oxford creating a digital participatory artwork exploring the question ‘what if?’ through collaborative game play and interactive storytelling, Game Play Artist at the Place Theatre, Bedford making a live game about doughnut economies, and I'm co-writing a Sherlock Holmes escape book for Ammonite Press.
I'm proudly part of Coney's Guild.
Photo by Willy Corner
wHAT I DO
Creative
Mathematics
The Ex
Boyfriend
Yard Sale
By Hayley McGee
Photograph: Sophie le Roux
RECENT PROJECTS
COMMISIONS COLLABORATIONS
Playful Economics
Artist
Melanie is currently working on a series of works about playful economics and widening access to education on this often elitist subject.
Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Visiting Lecturer and Digital Consultant
with the Applied Theatre team working to explore and promote best practice in digital interactivity in applied theatre projects.
seer
Paper Nations - Beyond the Book
Beyond the Book is a new scheme that aims to develop innovative models for writing and publication, promoting dialogue between writers, technologists and new publishers.
Coney
Writer, Artist, Facilitator
Melanie has worked artistically on a variety of projects for Coney since 2017.
Escape Room Puzzle Book
Co-Author
Soon to be announced interactive writing project in collaboration with author Charles Phillips.
IMPRINT
Alternarration - Peshkar
Digital artwork exploring the tension between knowledge and fear. IMPRINT was commissioned as part of Alternarration which approached the sensitive issue of youth radicalisation with partners in Belgium and Macedonia on a project funded through the Erasmus+ programme.
The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale
by Haley McGee
Mathematics collaborator
The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale premiered in London at Camden People's Theatre in Nov-Dec 2018. This autobiographical work offers eight items “for sale” – all gifts from Haley’s exes – and introduces a brand new formula, developed with math expert Melanie Frances, to calculate the cost of love.
Ragnarok
Assistant Director - Tortoise in a Nutshell
A brand new piece of exciting, innovative visual theatre co-produced with Figurteatret i Nordland (Nordland Visual Theatre) and in association with Macrobert Arts Centre.
Algorithm for Deviance
Artist - Heather Barnett's
Crowd Control Festival
Crowd Control explored the mechanisms of collective behaviour through observation, simulation and experimentation. Connecting visual, digital and performance art practices with contemporary scientific research, law and urban design.
FOUND
Lead Artist & Producer, Brent Museum and Archives & Tricycle Theatre
A multi-stage community arts project with poet Simon Mole, local care homes, youth groups and individuals, gathering poems, stories and memories about Brent.
Ada
Creator and Director
EUTC Edinburgh Festival Fringe Production 2015. A devised piece on the life and work of Ada Lovelace.
Melanie is the Co-Artistic Director of interactive, digital theatre company Produced Moon.
Melanie has co-created and co-directed all of Produced Moon’s projects, including two sell-out Edinburgh Fringe runs.
Produced Moon are Associate Artists at Platform Glasgow, and were 2019 Accelerator Artists with Boundless Theatre.
CONTACT
If you'd like to get in touch for any reason please email