The University has launched a virtual museum! The Uncertain Space will host a programme of unique exhibitions and is a new way to experience artefacts from the University’s cultural collections.

How to visit

A smartphone, web browser or Virtual Reality headset can all act as windows onto the museum. The easiest way to visit is to click here.

If you want to use a VR headset, you can access the Uncertain Space by visiting the Theatre Collection or the University Special Collections in person, where VR headsets are available for anyone to reserve.

University staff and students can also book out a Quest 2 VR headset from the library, please email us to book.

Current Exhibition

The first exhibition Secret Gardens: Exploring pathways through our collections was curated by a group of secondary students from across Bristol, who worked in partnership with curators and exhibition designers to explore the University’s collections during a 12 month project.

Secret Gardens brings together public artworks and artefacts from the Theatre Collection, Special Collections and Earth Sciences amongst others.

An exhibition of art co-produced with young people in Cornwall, Bristol and Amazonia.

Opening Event

Friday 21 April, 18:00 – 20:00
Earth Art Gallery, Wills Memorial Building, Queens Road

Waves of Change is a series of research projects based at the University and led by Professor Daniela Schmidt (climate scientist), Dr Camilla Morelli (anthropologist) and Sophie Marsh (animation director). The team work with children & young people in Bristol, Cornwall and the Amazon rainforest to engage them in conversations on climate hope and sustainable futures through co-production of animated films.

This exhibition showcases some of the co-produced artwork and animated films, amplifying the voices of children & youth from different communities and parts of the world.

This free opening event will feature a film screening plus a Q&A with the Waves of Change team and Kirsty Hammond (Heart of BS13), chaired by Dr Alix Dietzel. The event will be followed by a drinks reception and gallery viewing.

Artist RTiiiKA has produced a colourful, dynamic centre piece for the lower atrium inside the University’s Merchant Venturers Building on Woodland Rd.  

The artist spoke to people with a minority experience* in engineering, to find out how they got into engineering, what working / studying in the field is like, and if there are tension points between their work and their identity. The conversations informed an abstract design that looks at what a ‘queer’ perspective can offer engineering.

RTiiiKA (pronounced ah-teeka) is Rosa ter Kuile, a queer Bristol-based artist working in illustration, mural and street art.

*The artist uses the term minority experience to describe anyone who feels ‘outsider’ – someone who has to navigate through unfamiliar contexts, institutions, norms, structures and systems. You could be non-binary, a woman, working class, from outside of the Global North, LGBTQ+, a person of colour, or from a religious background.

Former Vice-Chancellor celebrated with official photo portrait

A photographic portrait has been unveiled of the University of Bristol’s recently departed Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Hugh Brady. Professor Brady led the University from 2015 to 2022 and is the latest Vice-Chancellor to be captured for posterity at the end of their tenure.

Un/Stuck: Creative Explorations of Negative Thinking is a curated exhibition that showcases creative outputs from a series of workshops (co-produced with young people) to explore everyday experiences of repetitive negative thinking. Artworks are presented in the form of large-scale photographic prints and smaller-scale physical objects. Together, these pieces bring to life young people’s experiences of worry and rumination and suggest positive strategies to support wellbeing.

At the heart of this event is a focus on young people’s mental health and wellbeing, and the potential for creative, participatory research approaches to “give voice” to young people’s everyday mental health experiences.

This project is a collaboration between researchers from the School of Psychological Science (University of Bristol), Chris Jarrold and Meg Attwood; artist/researcher, Catherine Lamont-Robinson (Bristol Medical School); and project partners, OTR (Off the Record) and the McPin Foundation.

Acknowledgements

This event is part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022 and was made possible thanks to funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The work that informed this event was supported by the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research, University of Bristol and the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund. If you have any questions about this event, please contact Meg on meg.attwood@bristol.ac.uk

Injurious Effect, a public artwork by Bristol-based artist Ellie Shipman has been unveiled. The work was commissioned by the University of Bristol’s Bristol Digital Futures Institute for permanent display in the new innovation hub housed in the Victorian Gas Works on Avon Street. The sculpture was fabricated by Jack Stiling of Stiling’s Workshop.

Listen to the sound piece via this link.

The artwork explores the relationship between innovation and societal change prompted by the history of the gas works. Fear of the new, of change and hidden or unseen implications have always gone hand in hand with socio-technical innovation. The artwork invites reflection on the past, present and future of innovation in Bristol through the symbol of a Wardian Case, a terrarium-like wooden crate used for transporting plants in protected environments across the British Empire during the 1800s. The Wardian Case represents innovation and all the wondrous possibilities and harmful impacts it can bring. It inspired the artwork through the history of the gas works researched by Dr James Watts who writes:

“It was recommended by some horticultural experts to give plants the protection of a Wardian case (used for transporting plants from across the globe) if there was a gaslight in the room. Gas was associated with air pollution which posed a constant threat to horticultural activities. “The fumes, or products of combustion, of coal-gas have a more injurious effect upon plant-life than anything else,” wrote B. C. Ravenscroft in his handbook Town Gardening (1883).”21”

Avon Street Gasworks and Bristol’s Gas Industry

A Bristolian history of innovation with lessons for our digital future

Local memories, artefacts and photographs as well as a BDFI report, ‘Avon Street Gasworks and Bristol Gas Industry’ informed the work.

The audio piece reflects on the impact of gas across Bristol and beyond: from local memories of children being sent to collect ‘coke’ (coal) in prams and homemade Go-Karts for their families’ fires; to the historic industrial development of the Feeder Canal, Barton Hill and East Bristol; the Gas Workers Strikes of 1889 and the domestic and societal implications of gas as an innovation.

Bristol Digital Futures Institute commissioned the installation for their newly renovated home to illustrate the history of innovation on the site from the last 200 years. The work asks the question, how can innovation protect what already exists, be used for good and mitigate harm?

More information about this public art commission on the BFDI website here 

Modernisms: Decolonising art’s history

This year’s Autumn Art Lectures will challenge the concept of modernism as a monolithic entity. Paying particular attention to ‘black-ness’, Asian-ness, difference and decolonisation, this series aims to expose diversity at the heart of the Modern. The series includes an in-conversation with Turner Prize-winning artist and cultural activist Lubaina Himid, known for her innovative approaches to painting and to social engagement. For information about the full lecture series and to book your free ticket, follow this link.

The Autumn Art Lecture series is hosted by the University of Bristol’s Faculty of Arts with support from the Centre for Black Humanities and Bristol Ideas.

We Shouldn’t Have To Shout To Be Heard Campaign: October 10 – 29 2022

Amplifying the experiences and voices of families most affected by the pandemic and now facing the cost of living crisis

In November 2021 and March 2022 thirty mothers from families impacted by low income, living with a disability, single parenting or from a minority ethnic community, took part in a specially designed creative programme, funded by the AHRC, and led by Wellspring Settlement with the University of Bristol. The project asked the following questions:

• what do we need to know about parenting before and during the pandemic?
• What does your family need to thrive in the future?

Now the #ShouldntHaveToShout campaign generated by this project is here!

Between 10 – 24 October billboards and posters designed by Lucy Turner and Rising Arts Agency will be exhibited across Bristol featuring quotes describing the struggles and triumphs of these mothers.  Check the map to find the posters and billboards nearest to you!

Alongside, the art campaign, a policy paper ‘Shouldn’t Have To Shout – Valuing Parents As Experts’ co-written with the University of Bristol and the Wellspring Settlement’s team of Art Researchers will be circulated to local decision makers, councillors and agencies. The policy paper focuses on the need to value parents as experts, contains recommendations to make it easier for parents to communicate with schools, support children with SEND, share experiences with other parents, and find suitable childcare.

Martian House, an artwork and research site from Bristol artists Nicki Kent and Ella Good, is now open to the public.  It is located next to the M-Shed on the waterfront in Bristol, with a programme of workshops running until the end of October.  If you would like to visit or take part in any of the workshops take a look at the project website Take Part – Building A Martian House . Nicki Good has said:

“Located on M Shed Square, Bristol, Building a Martian House is not an exhibition or a Martian simulation experience, rather it is a research site and artwork to help us think about the future. 

The exterior of our Martian House is being built as an empty shell. From August to October 2022 we will be filling it with inventions, colours and responses to what a future resourceful community could look like. We are working with a group of volunteers from Bristol who are going to help fill the house with colours, designs, inventions and ideas for future living”.

Some of the reviews already out:

Martian house on Bristol’s harbourside unveiled – BBC News

Building a Martian House review – will this be your tiny gold-foil room on Mars? | Architecture | The Guardian

‘There’s no final answer’: public let in to help furnish Bristol’s Martian House / The Guardian

Space scientists from the University of Bristol have consulted on a pioneering public art project to build a ‘Martian House’ at Harbourside – and now the people of Bristol are invited to create the interior.

5th July 2022, Bristol, UK: A full-scale house designed for future life on Mars is being built on
M Shed Square in Bristol, UK as part of ongoing public art project, Building a Martian House.
Originally conceived by local artists and Watershed Pervasive Media Studio residents Ella
Good and Nicki Kent, the project has so far brought together space scientists, architects,
engineers, designers and the public to explore how we live today and stimulate visions for
new ways of living here on Earth and on Mars.

The house will open from 17th August 2022 with a three-month programme of workshops,
talks and events for all ages. As construction begins, applications are sought from members of the public who are keen to help create the interior of the house. No experience or prior knowledge is necessary! The interiors team will work alongside the artists to design and make prototype objects to go inside. 

For more detailed information about the role and what volunteers will be doing, see the project website

Applications are via this form and close at midnight on 30^th July 2022.

A team led by world experts in extreme architecture, Hugh Broughton Architects,
working in partnership with design studio Pearce+, developed the design of the house. They
have created a lightweight prototype building which could be easily transported to Mars
whilst withstanding its inhospitable conditions and the real environmental challenges you
would face there – such as average temperatures of -63C and exposure to galactic and
cosmic radiation. The team worked alongside scientific and engineering experts Professor
Lucy Berthoud, Dr Bob Myhill and Professor James Norman from University of Bristol. A
cohort of construction companies led by SCF Construct have generously donated their time
and expertise to bring the project to life and funding has been provided by the Edward
Marshall Trust.

The design ideas were developed over several years, initially through public workshops with
a diverse range of participants ranging from undergraduates and school children to retirees.

Ella Good and Nicki Kent said: “Considering how we might live on Mars helps us re-think
every aspect of our lives here on Earth. Mars is a place where you’d have to live carefully
and sustainably and so helps bring sharp focus on how we live today, and in particular our
relationship with consumerism. Our ‘Martian House’ has been a real collaborative effort and
it’s been incredible to see what we can make when all sorts of people use their imaginations
and skills to work together. We are now thrilled to invite audiences to get involved for a
second time and join our interiors team to practically imagine how things might work in a
zero-waste environment. This might be creating fabrics, colours, art on the walls, or
inventions for pedal powered washing machines, as well as all the little objects of everyday
living. We hope our project shows that we can all have input into how we think about the
future”.

For further information see the full press release here.

This powerful exhibition is the result of a culmination of a photo project run as part of a PhD in Social Policy and a SWDTP – funded placement at a local refugee and third sector organisation.

Ten asylum seekers/refugees took part by taking photographs of what makes their lives easier and happy, or what makes their lives harder and unhappy. The images and meanings behind them were shared as part of a group discussion.

The projects tests the use of image mixed with narrative as both a data collection tool and a form of political advocacy.

More information and online exhibition of Being_Human here

Visit The Decision Machine on 2 or 3 June, at The Vestibules (Park Street side) City Hall, College Green, Bristol BS1 5TR 

Thurs 2nd June 10:00 – 19:30 and Fri 3rd June 10:00 – 18:00

FREE ENTRY

The Decision Machine is an interactive installation as the result of an artist residency by Ellie Shipman with Jean Golding Institute at the University of Bristol from June 2021 – February 2022. Ellie is a participatory artist and illustrator living in Bristol and working around the world, spending a year in Vietnam in 2019. Ellie regularly collaborates with researchers and universities to create installations, exhibitions and illustrations as part of public engagement projects.  

Ellie worked with researcher Dr Ben Shreeve to explore his research on decision making in industrial control systems and big data, using a table-top game called Decisions & Disruptions (decisions-disruptions.org). Ellie became particularly interested in the notion of human fallibility in these unfathomably large scale decisions. 

The Decision Machine was created as a playful response to this incredibly vital research – a machine adapted from a vintage writing bureau, inspired just as much by Victoriana steampunk as contraptions invented by Wallace and Gromit. The piece was wonderfully fabricated by Jack Stiling of Stiling’s Workshop. 

The installation invites viewers to reflect on a decision they need to make in their own lives, write it on a card and insert it into the machine then crank the handle to reveal its answer. The machine will give a simple yes or no response, reflecting the binary 0-1 foundations of digital technology as well as highlighting the almost flippant simplicity of potentially huge decisions prompting reflection on the scale and impact of decision making we undertake every day. 

What will The Decision Machine tell you?

Find out more: eleanorshipman.com / ellie@ellieshipman.com / IG: @ellieshipman
Find the event on Facebook: bit.ly/decisionmachine

The Decision Machine was commissioned by Create React, funded by Jean Golding Institute. It will also be exhibited alongside the Decisions & Disruptions game at the Jean Golding Institute’s Bristol Data & AI Showcase 2022 on Tuesday 7th June from 10:00 – 17:00 at the M Shed. Find out more and book tickets at bristol.ac.uk/golding/get-involved/showcase

The Little Library is a new project run from the University’s micro-campus in Barton Hill. It is a small multi-lingual library service co-developed with local residents, open to all every Tuesday 10-5pm.

As part of the Little Library project we are offering a free lunchtime workshop each month that brings academics and artists together with local residents to creatively explore aspects of libraries, archives or literacy. On May 19 we hosted a hands-on workshop with book historian Rhiannon Daniels from the Centre for Material Texts and printmaker Barbara Disney, exploring the materiality of books.