University of Newcastle   2008/2009

Katy Merrington

Katy maintains a diverse practice in various fields including photography, spoken audio, video animation, installation and live performance. Working with audio and visual narrative, she often explores her relationship with everyday objects and situations, recently beginning to collaborate with her brother Peter.

In 2008 Katy and Peter inherited the Compal Galaxie model 870, a rare, top-of-the-range, computerised, talking, sewing machine that was produced in the late 1970’s.

Katy and Peter set up an ongoing collaborative research project to explore their relationship with this unusual piece of discontinued technology, and developed a performance work about the machine.

AA2A allowed the artists to continue the project by producing a web-based work about the Compal Galaxie, and working in Newcastle University’s print department to make posters and graphics about the research.

In April 2009 they were invited to perform their lecture-style demonstration of the machine’s ‘epoch-making features’ in the University’s Fine Art department.