This creative writing group led by author Amy Mason concentrates on writing exercises inspired by visual art and conversations with Spike Island studio holders. These encounters are designed to provide ideas for new writing or new ways of presenting work.  As always, supportive peer critique is central to the group’s activity.

February's meeting features a conversation with artist and Spike Island studio holder Katy Connor whose practice includes video, film and installation. She says about her work, "I am interested in the capacity of the moving image to visualise patterns of thought and physical sensation - especially those at the edge of articulation, on the periphery of vision, behind closed eyes." 

Katy Connor

Katy Connor (1973) graduated from the Centre for Cultural Studies at Birmingham University (1994) and gained her MA in Contemporary Arts Practice from Dartington College of Arts (2009). She currently lives in Bristol and has been at Spike Island since 2010. 

Connor's practice explores how media technologies infuse our senses, frame our perception and structure our contemporary view. She says about her work, "I am interested in the capacity of the moving image to visualise patterns of thought and physical sensation - especially those at the edge of articulation, on the periphery of vision, behind closed eyes." 

Recent solo shows include Permanent Gallery, Brighton (2011) and Plymouth Arts Centre (2011) and group shows in Utrecht (2011) Berlin (2010) and London (MRA Video Salon, 2010). Connor is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Experimental Media Research, Bournemouth University.

Katy Connor's website

Amy Mason

Amy Mason, an author based in Bristol, was writer in residence at Spike Island from April to December 2011. For the last five years Mason has concentrated on short stories and work for performance. She used her time here to complete her first novel, Ida. As part of her residency she initiated Write Club, a monthly creative writing group for anyone with an interest in prose, poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction.

Mason's story 'To the Bridge' was published in the Tindal Street Press anthology Roads Ahead in 2009, and later that year two more of her stories were published in Markings magazine. In 2010 she received commissions from theatre companies Show of Strength and Travelling Light to write short plays as well as a commission from Bristol City Council to write for the Bristol Audio Stories project. Mason has read her work at Green Man and Port Eliot Festivals and has worked with The House of Fairytales, the artist-led project established by Deborah Curtis and Gavin Turk, as a storyteller and workshop facilitator.

Amy Mason on Twitter