MELISSA BLISS
| projects | awards & residencies | exhibitions | workshops | contact |
Profile
Her work is often created through participatory processes in live interactions, audience participation, conversations and collaborations. She has been commissioned by festivals throughout Britain and internationally including Tate Britain the Bluecoat, b-side in Portland, Beacon Art Projects in Lincolnshire, EASTinternational in Norwich, Peter Stuyvesant's Ghost in New York and Centre Pompidou in Paris. She has created cafés, guided walks, sound works, videos for mobile phones and computer-mediated installations. Her work has been shown in locations including trains, shop windows, village halls, canals, cafés and through telephones. She has recently joined the Media and Arts Technology PhD programme at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). She is also a director of the film production company Lemberg Films.
 
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Squatting and Common land in Hackney |
| London Fields, hackney | |
| 4 July 2012 | |
A walk which peeled away the layers of hidden social history around London Fields in Hackney and revealed how squatting and common land have played pivotal roles in the cultural and social life of this diverse neighbourhood. In conjunction with Andrew Stuck of Rethinking Cities |
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Wimbledon College of Art |
| University of the Arts London | |
| May 2012 | |
| I spoke about my 2010-11 residency at Chelsea College, Univeristy of the Arts London on a panel chaired by David Webster, Associate Dean at Wimbledon College of Art. | |
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Unofficial Histories conference |
| Bishopsgate Institute, London | |
| May 2012 | |
| I gave a talk presentation about Hidden Histories: Common land and squatting in Hackney (2011) at the Unofficial Histories conference. | |
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Doing It Our Way: a people's walking tour of Camberwell |
| Camberwell, London | |
| October 2011 | |
A collaborative walking tour of Camberwell, giving the experiences of people who live and work in the area, now and in the past. Voices included people living on the Peabody and Sceaux Gardens estates, Ratstar social centre (with a tour of their free shop, screenprinting workshop and bicycle repair workshop). Commissioned by ATD-Fourth World for 'Poverty 'Hear': Giving Poverty a Voice', a weekend of cultural activities for International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. |
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Nomad Café |
| Trinity Buoy Wharf, London | |
| September 2011 | |
| A local food café - of food foraged and grown locally between Trinity Buoy Wharf and Stratford in east London. Commissioned by the BR-116 Festival, a collaboration between Zecora Ura Theatre Network (BRAZIL) and Persis-Jade Maravala (UK). | |
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Millbank Guided Tour |
| Tate Britain | |
| September 2011 | |
| As part of September's Late at Tate Britain I led a guided tour of the Millbank area including behind the scenes at Tate. The tour told stories of people who lived and worked in Tate, the Millbank Estate, Queen Alexandria's Military Hospital and the Royal Army Medical College. | |
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Hidden Histories: Common land and squatting in Hackney |
| London Fields, Hackney | |
| July 2011 | |
A collaborative walking tour of the London Fields area of London telling stories about squatting from the 1970s to the present day. In collaboration with Past Tense. Part of the Hackney Fringe Festival 2011. I gave a presentation about the project at the Unofficial Histories conference at the Bishopsgate Institue on 19 May 2012. |
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 My
links on squatting in Hackney & wider |
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Snipe Hunting |
| Chelsea College of Art & Design, London | |
| June 2011 | |
I led a collaborative tour of Chelsea College and the local area, tracing histories of Millbank over the centuries to the present day and bringing out the stories of the people who lived, worked and studied here. The tour is part of my 2010-11 residency at Chelsea College, University of the Arts London. |
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Laptop Café for older people |
| Piccadilly Community Centre (Hauser & Wirth) | |
| June–July 2011 | |
A Laptop Café for older people providing drop-in support and chat The tour is part of my 2010-11 residency at Chelsea College, University of the Arts London. |
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>> More projects
OLDER PROJECTS
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Bed-in
for Esperanto Lito-En Por Esperanto |
| The Bluecoat, Liverpool | |
| November 20110 | |
I held an Esperanto day as part of the John and Yoko Bed-In re-enactment Bed-In at the Bluecoat |
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Bird-Song |
| b-side Festival, Portland, Dorset | |
| September 2010 | |
Bird-Song is sound installation made with people in Portland for Chiswell Walled Garden, a community garden on the edge of Chesil Beach. It is inspired by birds, birdsong and migration. I created a storycube to accompany the exhibition, using Bookleteer - you can also download it as a PDF. The storycube I created is featured on the StoryCube blog |
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Hinterland: A Scratch and Sniff Film |
| The Intercult North SEAS Festival, Lincolnshire | |
| 2009 | |
My scratch and sniff film Hinterland was made with people in Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire and shown at the Leicester Children's Holiday Centre in Mablethorpe on September 2009. Hinterland was part of the The Intercult North SEAS Festival. My residency was commissioned by Beacon Art Project in partnership with East Lindsey District Council. |
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>> More projects
WORKSHOPS
| Nightwatch | Tate Britain | 2010 |
I worked with young people from St Andrews Club in Westminster (the world's oldest youth club, founded in 1866) using long exposure photography and video to explore light and dark in the streets between the Club and Tate Britain. The resulting film Nightwatch was screened at Tate Britain's Millbank Movie Matinee in December 2011 and at the Curzon Millbank. |
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| Generations Together | FreqOUT!, London | 2010 |
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Community
mapping workshops with people from Hammersmith & Fulham
Action on Disability (>> More workshops
TALKS
| Snipe Hunting | Wimbledon College of Art | 2012 |
A talk about my 2010-11
residency at Chelsea College on a panel
chaired by David Webster, Associate Dean at Wimbledon College
of Art. in connection
with the <detour> exhibition
at Wimbledon Space. |
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| Hidden Histories: Common land and squatting in Hackney | Unoffical Histories conference | 2012 |
A paper about my 2011
project Hidden Histories: Common
land and squatting in Hackney |
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| Participation and Practice | Chelsea College of Art & Design | 2011 |
A seminar about my practice
to staff and students through my residency
at Chelsea College. |
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| Shooting Mobile | University Campus Suffolk | 2009 |
Lecture and workshop
on film making on mobile devices. |
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>> More talks