Background
Climate change is the biggest challenge humankind faces. We’re at a tipping point – so action is critical. We believe that Bristol Culture & Creative Industries has an important role to play in influencing change, empowering Bristol people to make a difference to the future wellbeing of our city.
From 25 June – 30 October 2022, M Shed will be hosting Think Global Act Bristol, an exhibition exploring the past, present and future of climate change. The gallery space at M Shed will bring together collections objects, creative responses and visualisations and a lab space for dialogue and collaboration, bringing in multiple voices. Collections objects will be combined and presented in surprising and arresting ways to shed new light on pivot points, hidden stories and less known possibilities. Creatives and community groups will be invited to respond to these to help populate the Present and Future layers.
Our working strapline is: Learn: disrupt: reimagine. We will work with partners to explore the impact of climate and ecological change in Bristol past, present and future, and how as Bristol residents we can all make a difference, whatever our personal circumstances.
Digital video/animation artwork commission
For the Future part of the exhibition we want to present a vision of how Bristol could be; something to convey hope and inspire visitors as they come to the end of the exhibition. However we don’t want the visitor to leave believing that the work has been done.
By this point visitors will have reflected on 6 themes that are central to the exhibition: Power, Technology, Consumption, Health, Nature and Justice. They will hopefully have gathered (physically or mentally) a range of resources and actions to take away and share and discuss with others, put into practice and unpack further.
This digital vision of the future Bristol will offer the visitors a glimpse at the potential outcome of these actions – a vision to consider or challenge and a space to unlock the imagination. We’d also like to give them an opportunity to see the outcome of inactivity and the option to shift between the two.
Using the view from M Shed terrace as the starting point, the digital artwork will transform the skyline. It may take inspiration from other cities or spaces around the globe or new and future technological advancements. It may demonstrate the outcomes of social and climate justice action. You may feel that this view doesn’t represent ‘your Bristol’ and find a way to include depictions of the future that you want to see in the area where you live. It may demonstrate the change that could happen in the city centre in order to regain a sense of ownership. You might surprise us with something completely unexpected.
At the other end of this spectrum will be the negative outcomes, a depiction of the further harm that’s possible if action isn’t taken.
We want a range of perspectives to come through the work and a variety of visual approaches. These could include (but aren’t limited to):
- An animated overlay (hand-drawn or digital)
- Digital manipulation of the footage
- Overlaid drawings, sketches or collage (or other visual outputs)
- Annotated sketches
The work will be presented as a view through a window looking out onto the harbour positioned on the gallery wall that faces this direction (see images at the end of the document).
Requirements of the work
Essential:
- Respond to the view of Bristol from M Shed terrace – you will be provided with a high-res, looping video clip of the view (15 seconds long)
- Meet the technical specifications outlined at the bottom of the brief
- Present either a positive vision, a negative vision or one of each (in two separate video files)
- Present a vision that is based in reality – the response can be ambitious and creative however we don’t want it to stray into fantasy/sci-fi
Desirable:
- Demonstrate some understanding of sustainable technologies and their potential for change
- Motion/animation
The work will need to be completed and uploaded by Monday 2 May
All students involved in the project will be invited to an informal sharing session hosted at the museum where they can talk through the concept behind their response with each other and members of the exhibition team.
Schedule:
Deadline for expressions of interest: 28/03/2022
Successful applicants informed: 30/03/2022
Footage of view supplied: 31/03/2022
Final artwork uploaded by 02/05/2022
Informal sharing session: TBC (depending on availability of students)
Fee (please note, this opportunity is for Bristol students):
£150 – One vision (positive or negative)
£300 – Two visions
To be paid on completion of the work
How to apply:
Application is by expression of interest.
Please email emma.brown@bristol.gov.uk with a short statement of up to 400 words outlining the reason for your interest and an indication of how you would approach the commission, including whether you would like to depict a positive or negative vision (or both). Please include links to 2 or 3 relevant examples of your recent work.
If you have any questions, please do get in touch.
Closing date for expressions of interest: Monday 28 March 2022 23:59pm
Technical specifications:
Video Codec: H.264
Resolution: 4096x2160x60p
Color Depth: 4K video encoded at 4:2:0 subsampling with 10 bits (Main 10 Profile) of depth.
HDR: HDR10
Container Format: mp4
Bitrate: 25-30 mbps
File size: under 4GB
