On Monday 2nd December, the Performance Research Hub hosted a networking session for performance researchers, artists, companies, and venues to hear about one another’s work and meet potential collaborators. We were lucky enough to have three minute introductions to a wonderful array of work, and the room was buzzing with connections between different speakers’ and attendees’ projects. We heard from:
Penny Boxall, a poet and children’s author whose work attends to ecological subjects, and brings poetry to academic research, as in Replaying the Tape.
John Terry, the artistic director of The Theatre Chipping Norton, in which capacity he has collaborated with a number of projects using performance both as a mode of research and as a way to disseminate research, and he is keen to continue this with new projects.
Lorena Briscoe, a performance artist, writer, and director, whose work engages with major social and political issues including sexual violence, housing, and migration, with an interest in the use of technology and the blending of live performance, cinema, and audience interaction.
Dan Holloway, who, as well as being Head of Administration & Finance in the Faculty of Linguistics, is an activist, multi-disciplinary creative, and the founder of Rogue Interrobang; Dan is keen to collaborate with people working at the intersections of creativity, accessibility, subjectivity/phenomenology, and wicked problems.
Sarah Mayhew, the deputy director of Oxford Contemporary Music, which brings together music, artists, and audiences; researchers are an important part of this process, including in the climate conscious way of work which is at the centre of OCM’s productions.
John Pfumojena, a composer, musician, theatre director, and actor, whose research is grounded in Intercultural Collaboration in the creative arts, drawing together research and practice. John is keen to work with others to bring their research to the stage to make it more accessible.
Betty Zhaoyi Yan, currently working towards a DPhil in Ethnomusicology on cross-gender performance in Chinese opera on the contemporary stage, as well as being a singer and performer herself.
Alexander Stavrou, a multidisciplinary artist; Alexander profiled his most recent project, Before the Dust Settles, a multisensory performance in a former warehouse, drawing on the techniques of shoemaking Alexander’s family have used for generations.
Clara Vaughan, CEO of the Old Fire Station, a unique venue that brings together Arts at the Old Fire Station with the homelessness charity Crisis; Clara would love to hear from anyone keen to collaborate with the Old Fire Station, particularly incorporating those seeking support from Crisis.
Donna Mann, a contemporary artist interested in how we define the human subject within legal or scientific frameworks, drawing on work with artificial intelligence, neurology, and the criminal court through her career as a Magistrate.
Roland Chen, an artist and doctoral student in the Oxford Internet Institute, whose research focuses on wearable technology, but who has wider interests in Cyborging, subverting the binary between performer and audience, breaking out of the visual, food art, ephemera, and Orientalism.
Thom Munden and Nathan Grassi of Everybody Panic, a company making theatre, film, and podcasts, with a focus on queer and working class perspectives; their current project is All of Them, Dead, a queer-led ‘cosy catastrophe’ play in the fens in the early 2000s.
Alison Humphrey, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Immersive Storytelling Lab and the Global Strategy Lab who works across drama, digital media, and education, exploring issues including climate action and antimicrobial resistance.
Teal Darkenwald, dancer, choreographer, and Associate Professor of dance and biomechanics at East Carolina University, who uses biomechanical technology, motion capture, and virtual reality in her dance practice and choreography.
Kirsten Gwyer, a lecturer in German at Oxford, who is interested in Black Quantum Performance: where Afrofuturism intersects with quantum physics, and how these intersections are explored in performance.
The pitches prompted an enthusiastic discussion over refreshments, with lots of new connections made and potential collaborations explored. We’re excited to hear how these develop – watch this space!
By Helen Dallas
