Our first experiment in crowd funding, undertaken with artist Melissa Gordon, has been a success! With the support of 58 generous backers, we not only reached but exceeded our goal of £4000, ending with a final total of £4,478.  The money raised will contribute towards Melissa's residency at Spike Print Studio, starting next week and running through the end of May. The funds will cover materials as well as travel and ... read on →

We’re excited to share with you a new experiment in crowd funding that we’re undertaking with artist Melissa Gordon ahead of her exhibition Material Evidence, which opens here at Spike Island on 5 July. If you’re not familiar with Melissa’s work, she’s an American-born, London-based artist who has exhibited widely in Europe and the United States. Her work as a painter and printmaker follows the cyclical relationship between surface and ... read on →

Members of Spike Associates have been invited to undertake a series of residencies in the Curfew Tower, a unique location in Cushendall, Northern Ireland. Read more about the residencies. Holly Corfield Carr – author, Spike Associate and 2013 writer-in-residence at Spike Island – was the first to take up residence in the tower. She has just returned to Bristol after three ... read on →

Each year Spike Island works with the University of the West of England and the University of Falmouth to identify and support promising graduates through an open call to their students. Joining us this month to begin their 2012 Spike Island Graduate Fellowships are Elisa Juncosa Umaran from Falmouth for three months and Sebastian Jefford and Menna Cominetti from UWE for a full year.  Each receives working space in our ... read on →

Between April and June this year Spike Island was one of three arts organisations across the country that hosted a pair of creative technologists for 12 weeks as part of Happenstance, one of the ACE, NESTA and AHRC ‘Digital R&D for Arts and Culture Fund’ projects. During their time here Kevin ... read on →

As part of her contribution to Pull Everything Out, artist Ciara Phillips set up a working studio in the front gallery where she was based throughout July. Though Phillips has now returned to Glasgow, the workshop remains as it was during the residency, with inspiration and source materials pinned to the walls and ink and screens set out on the tables. → Read more about Phillips’ workshop and ... read on →

Each year, the University of the West of England and Spike Island offer two outstanding graduates from the Fine Art BA and Art and Visual Cultures BA programmes a residency fellowship. Two artists, selected from an open call to students, are offered studio space at Spike Island and access to facilities at UWE’s Bower Ashton campus for a year. This opportunity aims to support and encourage young artists in Bristol ... read on →

Anybody who would like to practice their research, brainstorming or collaboration skills is invited to attend a Design Jam here on Saturday 16 June initiated by our current Happenstance creative technology resident Linda Sandvik. All are welcome, whether you’re an experienced design practitioner, a student or just curious about exploring User Experience (UX) – the way in which people use products, systems and services and how they feel ... read on →

As part of the Happenstance project, current creative technologist in residence Kevin Walker invited Spike Island artists, designers and staff to contribute a postcard design to Wish You Were Here, an interactive installation for the Spike Island Open. Within just a few days, we had the following beautiful cards with drawings, prints, photos and digital designs. Amy Mason, former Spike Island writer in residence, then wrote a non-linear ... read on →

After an exciting start to the project last week, things really took off on Monday as Happenstance residents Kevin Walker and Linda Sandvik brought in a whole load of gadgets and spread them across the Associates Space. Linda shares what they're working on, including two experiments that you can see at next weekend's Spike Island Open: We continued to play around with sensors and collecting data. Arduinos, ... read on →

We’ve come to the end of our first week of the Happenstance project and residents Kevin Walker and Linda Sandvik have had a burst of ideas about how to collect data from around the building and use it to make exciting, intriguing and maybe even beautiful visualisations and objects. Happenstance is an experiment to see what happens when creative technologists are embedded in arts organisations. Already we’ve been ... read on →