Control Shift, Feel Machines Weekender

Hosted in Mill, Pulp, Paper & Kiln Room

March 2023

Feeling Machines, an arts programme exploring how we live with technology and asking how digital technologies intertwine with the most intimate aspects of lives held a daylong event across hireable rooms at St Anne’s House. The event was part of a wider programme over several months in venues and online.

They hosted two workshops, four drop-in activities, and a number of exhibited artworks. There were two artist walks around the area and into the St Anne’s woods, working with Woodcroft community orchard.

Control Shift

Control Shift is a Bristol based arts organisation. They develop programmes of computational arts that question and celebrate the messy spaces in-between humans, nature and machines. They bring people together to re-imagine our relationships with technology through dialogue and arts.

We asked the team some questions after the event, here are their responses:  

How did you find the space?

We noticed that the space with sofa’s (paper room) worked really well for families – they were able to relax, spread out, and spent several hours at a time engaging in simple zine making activities. We also thought that the exhibition space (pulp room) was lovely and light, and it was spacious enough for people to form groups around the work shown, and stay to have conversations. 

The accessible entrance and toilets are really helpful for us, as we can only work in venues that have this.

We had a food truck for the afternoon which felt important, and it was well used by artists and people working on the event (funded by Control Shift), as well as people from the public wanting lunch.

How do you think the attendance was at St Anne’s House?

Considering the rain we had in the morning we had a steady flow of visitors through the day. We had families with young children arrive when we opened at 11am, as well as participants that had signed up for timed events. We then had a steady flow of people throughout the day. We had a few less visitors than we had anticipated – we wondered if this was due to the wet weather in the morning, or perhaps the out of town venue.

How did you find working with Bricks and the SAH team?

Working with Bricks and the St Anne’s House team was brilliant. It was clear that you have a commitment to access embedded into the way you work and run the building, and we really appreciated all of the time you took to help us plan the event. We also loved your marketing campaign and how you included our work in your programme – which really made us feel very welcome and part of your space.

Here is some of the feedback they got from attendees of the day event:

“I only attended the one workshop but was happy it was within the larger exhibition space so that I could see and interact with more of the festival.”

“I really liked the workshops and simultaneous arts installations, it created a nice environment where multiple kinds of participation were welcomed. I wished the install could have been up for longer so those who couldn’t make it on the one day were also able to visit.”

We thoroughly enjoyed working with the team at Control Shift, and hope to partner with them again on an arts and community programme! 

Visit their website and socials to follow their story:

www.control-shift.network/index.html

@control___shift