Background

The Bristol Digital Futures Institute (BDFI) is a university research institute with a mission to transform digital innovation for more inclusive, prosperous and sustainable futures. The Institute will move to its new home (‘The Sheds’) at 65 Avon Street, Temple Quarter, in June. The new research facilities were the former headquarters of the Bristol Gas Company, and since, a Vauxhall Drive Garage. Both have links to social and technical innovation and change in Bristol, shaping the lives of local people, economy and environment. We want to consider our role as stewards of this site to ensure that its histories are shared, represented and embedded into the renovations, restorations and the Institute’s current ethos and practices. 

Extensive archival research has been undertaken on the history of the Gasworks and its influence on the city of Bristol in the nineteenth century and as the project moves into its second phase, these findings will be enriched by the collection of oral and written living histories from those who have, themselves or through family memory, have connection to the site in a working or residential capacity.  

Project overview 

We are looking for a creative partner (either an individual or a team) to showcase the histories we have (and continue to) uncover in connection with the site. You will be supported by the project’s researchers and the BDFI to delve into the archival and living history findings and connect it to the space of the new building and the BDFI’s mission. As an Institute committed to using sociotechnical digital innovation to provide inclusive, sustainable, and prosperous futures for all, we are keen to explore if and how the social, economic and environmental concerns of the past still play out today. 

The researchers have created a report on the archival findings of the project. A draft copy of this report is available under embargo for bidding artists at avon-street-project@bristol.ac.uk. If shortlisted, you will also be introduced to the range of archival material we have to work with, and the plans for the oral history project phase will be discussed with you in more detail.  

The output created may take any artistic forms, including physical displays, mounted on walls inside the Institute’s new building*, screening of digital content, the use of virtual and augmented reality experiences in our facilities, poetry, or other forms of creative expression. 

Most importantly, the output must be accessible to the communities whose histories and presence lie at the heart of the site and its surroundings. In order to showcase the site’s history to the communities involved, your output will need to be suitable for a wide-ranging audience, from the general public – including those associated with and unaware of the site’s histories – through to students, academics and university stakeholders. 

In order to hold the public at the core of the artistic output, there will be room to hold workshops with members of the community alongside working with the histories generated in our living history research. The ability to facilitate workshops with the project’s researchers and local communities is thus desirable.  

The BDFI will manage the marketing and communications for this project, but you will be expected to support this process with interviews and assisting in documentation. A willingness for you and your work to be photographed and shared via social media, local media and web channels is desirable. The Institute and project leads have a strong track record of facilitating co-produced research involving academic, creative and community partners.  

Expectations of creative partner