Shedonism Annual Lab
Shedonism is one of our longest running labs. A whole weekend maker's jam and social.
In the height of January 2021’s lockdown, we couldn’t run our annual Shedonism Lab for makers in the outdoor arts. Instead we ran an online session as a vital chance to reconnect and share ideas.
The Shedonism Lab is usually a three night gathering of the brilliant minds behind the inventions and sculptures that make UK Outdoor Arts so exciting. Taking place for five years, Shedonism is one of our longest running labs. At the height the pandemic’s uncertainties for artists, it felt vital to find an alternative way to bring this longstanding supportive group together.
In this online session, makers took it in turns to give each other a virtual tour of their workspaces. Participants took their phones and screens for a walk around vans, sheds and indoor workshops. Each maker showed something they’d made previously that the group hadn’t already seen.
In an online ‘scavenger hunt,’ participants had a series of quirky challenges: to find their most obscure tool; something in their workshop that was leaking; the drawer they’re most proud of, the one that's most organised; their favourite mug stain; and their favourite toy or tool.
Next, they had to find an object that people might struggle to recognise. The winner of this challenge was a doll’s arm with a tiny spoon gaffer-taped to it – people couldn’t guess what was taped on.
Jess Kay, Maker, Filmmaker and Writer.
“It was fun. The feel of Shedonism usually is a whole group of people who get together and get stuck in, help each other on projects. Suddenly we didn’t have that. We’re hoping that later in the year we’ll be able to get together in real life, but this was a good catch up of what we’d been doing with ourselves in the past year.”
Jess Kay Maker, Filmmaker and Writer
Read more about Shedonism
To read more about Shedonism, visit our special Shedonism page.