We are thrilled to announce the selection of six early career creatives who will participate in our first Make Shift Camp  to explore the intersection of art and creative technology. Make Shift Camp has been made possible with support from Arts Council England, BFI Film Academy, UWE Bristol and University of Bristol.

Over the next ten days, our six Make Shift Campers will bring their individual practices together to make new artworks and in the process smash their ideas together and work with uncertainty. The Campers will receive financial support and will also receive technical and production support from Watershed and the Pervasive Media Studio community.

Inspired by the work of the late David Graeber, we’re asking Campers to explore the theme of 'Making the World Differently', to think about how we collectively make the world we live in, and how we might choose to make something better.

“The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.” David Graeber, 2015

Make Shift Camp is a response to feedback from early-career creatives, who asked for more supported time to work collaboratively across disciplines. The Camp offers an opportunity to spend five days with other practitioners. It is designed for aspiring creatives interested in the intersection of creative technology and art, providing a platform for them to create new work and develop and combine their artistic skills.

Meet our Make Shift Campers:

Archie Hollyfield

In 2019, Archie Hollyfield embarked on his journey as a multidisciplinary creative technologist exploring sound and visuals. Before then, he enjoyed tinkering with various gadgets and tools but was unfamiliar with the concept of 'Creative Technology'. As he pursued his studies, he discovered a passion for developing entertaining interactive experiences that utilise computer vision to detect users. Archie has a keen interest in discovering different tools that can engage the audience and bring about feelings of joy and delight, this is what he is most enthusiastic about. However he is also not opposed to taking on projects with more serious themes.

Archie Hollyfield says:

“I'm really looking forward to coming up with ideas and making something new, as well as collaborating with the other creative technologists and artists to see what ideas they come up with and how we can all learn from each other.

Jessie Parker

Jessie’s writing journey started as a child, handcrafting storybooks. Now twenty-something, she’s put the crayons down to focus fully on the written word. 

During the day, Jessie writes across Reach plc's digital publications, and at night, she writes some more. Her personal work ranges from essays discussing identity to fiction that explores singledom, homelessness and the urge to fit in, even when it's detrimental to our sanity.  

Going forward, she hopes to create content that inspires and empowers others in the fight for climate justice and to engage people of all genders in feminism.

Jessie Parker  says:

“As a writer, you often spend a lot of time sitting alone in an empty room, scribbling in a ragged notebook or staring at your laptop. The five day camp is really going to mix this up for me and I can’t wait to collaborate with a group of people with an array of skills. What’s exciting to me is that we’re entering the unknown and we will create something that’s not even entered our minds yet.”

Lucy J Turner

Lucy J Turner is a Bristol-based Artist and Digital Illustrator. As a Digital Illustrator, her work makes use of bold, bright, colourful designs and shapes. Her main inspirations are Black bodies, in particular, Black women and that is the main focus in her digital work. 

Lucy uses art as a way to heal from trauma after being diagnosed with cancer in her 20s and she is passionate about teaching others how art can help to heal.

Lucy J Turner says:

“As a Digital Illustrator I use tech every day in my practise but I feel I'm only at the beginning of my creative journey in finding out what I can do with creative tech. I'm looking forward to gaining confidence from the Make Shift Camp and exploring and learning how I can take my work further!”

Simone Einfalt

Simone is an Austrian filmmaker and visual artist based in Bristol, UK. With film, she explores liminal spaces between fiction and documentary, portraying the features of individual and collective memory. Her latest piece Blue Hour - shot on Dartmoor and in Bristol - continues to encircle this core theme, shedding light on our sense of place, identity and the archiving of phenomenological fragments.

Simone also works as an arts and heritage content producer and project manager for the innovative AR/VR studio Zubr which places her at the forefront of immersive tech use to complement her research of virtual and corporeal spaces.

Simone Einfalt says:

“My filmmaking practice and working within a team in general taught me how precious these moments are in which you can exchange ideas, support each other and play to your individual strengths. Our Make Shift Camp will be a grand opportunity to explore new technologies and methods of expression in a collaborative way and further develop my research and body of work in the field of memory formation and preservation.

Connor Hamilton

Connor Hamilton is a recent graduate from the University of Bristol, having just completed a Master's in Computer Science. Connor’s final year research project explored the huggability of giant inflatable robots. Throughout his degree, he also investigated how Chat GPT can be used as an end-of-life companion, how machine learning relates to learning in the brain and the performance of deep neural networks for audio genre classification. Connor has created various Pixar-style CGI clips, namely, ‘What would happen if Game of Thrones took over cricket’. He went on to develop ‘Birdgang’, a browser-based game where players collaboratively explored an island city and wreaked havoc on the city’s inhabitants.

Connor Hamilton says:

“I’m really excited about the Make Shift Camp. It's an amazing opportunity to collaborate on a blue sky project."

Jake Smith

Jake Smith is a creative technologist with an engineering background and professional music production. He has spent the past 10 years developing a range of electronic tools for music performance and production that primarily focus on the link between sound and human movement. Recently, Jake has been working to develop a system named ‘SONiFY’, combining motion tracking technologies and generative music creation techniques backed by sonification research. SONiFY allows individuals to create and interact with music through movement and dance. Alongside this, Jake also teaches software Arduino and Max and acts as a consultant for various music technology-based projects and assembles synthesiser modules.

Jake Smith says:

“I’m excited to meet and work alongside new individuals from a range of creative backgrounds. I think this will be a fantastic opportunity for us all to inspire and hopefully challenge each other to explore new ideas.“

The Camp will take place over five days between 1 and 10 Aug 2023. The campers who participate will each receive financial, technical and production support from Watershed and the Pervasive Media Studio community.

To make it easier for people who spend a lot of time applying for opportunities without pay, the selection process for candidates used a process of partial random selection. You can read more about our thoughts on random selection in recruitment processes here.

Make Shift is made possible with support from Arts Council England,and BFI Film Academy. Make Shift Camp is additionally supported by our partners in Pervasive Media Studio, UWE Bristol and University of Bristol.

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