Pulped Fiction was a project delivered for the Bloomsbury Festival in 2012 and funded by the Arts Council and the Wellcome Trust. The participation process involved a series of creative writing sessions based on fictional events and people in the Bloomsbury area. Once the residents finished their stories we pulped them and turned them into paper clay and clad them onto a pavilion for the Bloomsbury Festival. People came throughout the weekend to read the stories, find some peace amongst the noise of the festival, and simply get their hands busy by making clay sculptures to decorate the space.

In essence, this is the archetypal Parasite Ceramics project. Education, participation, collaboration, craft, design & architecture all fused together over a single weekend. People who take part in our projects often feel like they’re students again, and this seems to sum up our approach to public realm projects. We managed a large project team for this event and had high quality input from a creative writing tutor, Ruby Radburn, and also from an architect, retraining as a ceramicist, Patricia Mato-Mora. We were indebted to Colleen Rogers and Caroline Lister at the 1a Centre in Rosebery Avenue for there enthusiasm and support, and we also had help from ex-graduates of Central Saint Martins, as well as a set builder who straightened our pavilion when we needed it.