Fowler+Sumner are digital media artists Arron Fowler and Martin Sumner. Based in Shrewsbury, they have considerable experience as community arts practitioners as well as a broad range of skills in their own practice.

In 2007, after a number of years working in occasional collaboration, we pooled our resources as freelance practitioners, setting up F+S as an Unincorporated Informal Affiliation. Now we only work in partnership, developing a broad portfolio as well as strengthening ties with other artists and organisations.

Among our objectives we aim to develop joint working methodologies and philosophical approaches to creative practice, and in the medium term to develop into a formal incorporated organisation with a social and creative agenda.

Download our current constitution pdf by clicking here.

Most of our work is documented on this site, but a paper CV is available as a pdf by clicking here. (Latest version: January 2010).

We are collaborative artists who regularly work with and commission artists in other media to contribute to our projects. Some of our regular partners are listed as Friends & Family on the resources page of this site.

Digital Media

We are exploring ideas of fractured and layered narratives, and how creative technology can be used and subverted into recording, generating, telling, retelling and distorting narrative.

We work primarily with the moving image. Starting from linear works, our interest in usurping and reinterpreting narrative has moved us into interactive installation and performance pieces. This has included VJ work, which employs motion graphics, archive video and live video feeds, mixed live to music. Rhythm and movement are at the core of the art.

We are currently exploring the possibilities of game theory and interactive programming as the next steps forward for our digital media practice.

Creativity

We regularly work on community participation and education projects in media arts, often designing projects from the ground up and working in partnership with other arts organisations, agencies and local authorities.

We are excited by the creative potential of new communications and computing technologies, and in our community and education work we are exploring the ways in which the growing prevalence of domestic media tools like mobile phones, mp3 players, digital cameras and public web spaces can be best exploited in the creation of new narrative forms, and the manipulation of traditional narrrative forms.

Working with a range of artists we are exploring Creative Attitudes. We believe attitude rather than aptitude is the key to unlock learning, and we work to develop six core attitudes that will inspire and empower. More details can be found here.