Watershed’s groundbreaking immersive exhibition space, Undershed opens its doors on 26 October

Undershed programme kicks off with ‘Sing The Body Electric,’ an exhibition of interactive & immersive work exploring our experience of the world.
 
Bristol, 2 October 2024: On Saturday 26 October 2024, Undershed in Bristol will open its harbourside doors for the first time, offering a programme of interactive artworks curated by Amy Rose, acclaimed director, maker and Resident of Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio, renowned for creating award-winning sensory stories that experiment with new technologies.
 
Bringing together Watershed’s work from across cinema and creative technology, Undershed will be one of only a handful of places in the UK dedicated to showcasing new and globally award-winning immersive work.
 
Undershed’s opening exhibition – Sing The Body Electric – is presented in two collections. The first is all about the body. What is it like to experience the world through our senses - moving, touching, seeing and feeling - rather than through our minds? How might this alter how we see things? The second explores the unseen parts of that world - revealed through unusual ways of encountering a story.
 
With artists from Canada, Belgium, Korea, the UK and more, Sing The Body Electric offers a brand-new way of experiencing immersive stories, exploring deep and personal questions and using a broad range of new technologies.
 
Undershed curator Amy Rose says,

“I am so proud to be the first curator of Watershed’s groundbreaking immersive exhibition space and to showcase the extraordinary artists who play with immersion, both home-grown and from all over the world. One of my aims for the space is to experiment with what interactivity and participation can mean in this new kind of gallery and I believe the work of these first four artists will do just that. Inviting audiences to step more intimately into a story can change how (and where) stories really happen – and inspire dialogue where there might otherwise be silence.”
 
Sing The Body Electric Collection 1 (Sat 26 Oct – Sun 24 Nov 2024), is made up of four artworks:
 
VAST BODY by Vincent Morrissett / AATOAA from Canada, an award-winning interactive installation. By moving in front of a ‘magic mirror’ your physical body is connected with the digital incarnation of many others, offering the chance to briefly inhabit alternative bodies through movement.
 
INVISIBLE SCULPTURES by Yeseul Song from Korea, is a series of sculptures that can be only seen by senses other than vision. The project explores a more sensory inclusive view of the world while questioning the meaning of “the art object” by challenging sighted people's dependence on vision through immersive multi-sensory experiences.
 
TURBULENCE / JAMAIS VU by Ben Andrews and Emma Roberts from Australia, is a mixed-reality work which uses a VR headset and a depth camera to explore the phenomenon of vestibular migraine in an intimate, interactive docu-essay, asking audiences to reflect on the fragility of perception and the beauty of our ever-moving world.
 
I YOU WE ME US by Margaret Salmon from the UK is a two-channel, 16 mm silent film presented on two stacked monitors that focuses on the intimacy of showing affection with our touch. It portrays visual representations of warmth, empathy, care, kinship and growth.
 
Undershed has been made possible thanks to multiple partners. Jo Lansdowne, Watershed’s Executive Producer, said:

“We are hugely grateful to our brilliant partners at UWE Bristol, Bristol+Bath Creative R+D and MyWorld for their trust and financial support transforming Undershed into a new space for Bristol’s artists and audiences.
 
“It means such a lot that Watershed’s long standing creative technology work will now be much more available for everyone to engage with. And we are delighted to announce that Sing the Body Electric and other upcoming exhibitions have been enabled thanks to the support of the BFI Audience Projects Fund and Arts Council England’s Nationally Significant Projects awarding funds from the National Lottery.
 
This support will ensure that Undershed’s programme is ambitious in its breadth and depth as we seek to develop cross-artform culture for the future, bringing new audiences of all backgrounds to immersive work.”
  
LINK TO UNDERSHED PROGRAMME HERE
LINK TO DOWNLOAD AUDIOVISUAL ASSETS HERE