About DShed

Welcome to DShed, Watershed’s online showcase and archive. DShed embodies the creativity seeded at the very heart of Watershed and demonstrates our mission to continuously create opportunities for people to come together to make, view and discuss new work. Most of the content you will find on or through DShed has been made in partnership with artists, creative companies, schools, universities and passionate individuals.

Set up in 2001 as a virtual exhibition space for Watershed’s digital development and practice DShed contains a wealth of fascinating work, including short films, artists’ journals and recordings of events and talks, that traces Watershed’s online publishing output as it has evolved over the last ten years.

Thanks to the Arts Council England Thrive programme we have been working on representing the wealth of material that can be found on or through DShed in what we hope is a clear, concise and interesting way. Thrive has given us the amazing opportunity to dig into the depths of DShed to rediscover many of the fascinating items of original work, redescribe them, put them into context of the time they were created and to represent them afresh. This voyage of discovery has been a bit like going down into the basement of a museum or art gallery and finding hidden treasures that have not been on display for many years. We have devised new ways to bring these artefacts and artworks to light.

We want the work that can be found in and through DShed to be as accessible as our building on the Harbourside and as dynamically presented as our monthly cultural programme, making meaningful connections and bringing the liveliness and sociability of the real to the online experience.

Here on DShed you can watch short films, listen to podcasts, read artists’ and commentators’ diaries and catch up on events and talks. It’s an invaluable collection of creative digital work that has been produced in the region over the last decade. You can also disappear into a myriad of other creative sites on your journey of discovery.

Please let us know what your experience of visiting DShed has been, your feedback and comments will help inform the ongoing development of the site and any new work that we will be publishing. This is just the beginning, here at Watershed we will be continuing to produce features and articles that celebrate the work and link it to current practice.

DShed aims to give you a taste of the lively and rich creativity which Watershed is involved with both online and in the real world!