Call for applications – Artists & Creative Facilitators to run community workshops

We are inviting interest from artists and creative practitioners to deliver arts-led workshops in collaboration with UCL Researchers. These workshops will create space for a discussion about the use of robotics, artificial intelligence, and data in surgery with Community groups.

About our project

UCL and The Liminal Space have partnered on a project to better understand the public’s awareness and concerns around robotics and artificial intelligence in surgery. The aim is to ensure that the public is included in the development of surgical technology and research.

The first stage of this project will be a series of Workshops to start this conversation with Community groups in Tower Hamlets. We are looking for four artists or creative practitioners to help us devise and facilitate these sessions. Each artist will be paired with a UCL Researcher (e.g., engineer, clinician, or scientist) who will advise on what they wish to learn from the public about their research field. We have partners with several community groups for this project, therefore artists will not be responsible for sourcing an audience for the workshops.

Topics we want to explore in our workshops:

• The relationship between patients, surgeons, and AI
• The challenge of keeping patients engaged and informed as surgical technology becomes increasingly sophisticated
• Ensuring underserved communities are involved in research
• The ethical implications of new surgical technologies & how policy makers could address these

We are looking to work with artists who have experience using creative methods to facilitate and encourage conversation, as the dialogue within the group is just as important as the art created for our project. We expect the workshops will involve creative activities but we’re also asking for the artist to produce a piece of work as a response post-workshop.

Fee and time commitment

We are offering £3,000 per artist/creative practitioner to deliver one Community Workshop. This fee covers workshop preparation, materials (for facilitator and attendees), expenses and producing a final creative piece of work and VAT.

Workshops will take place in March 2022, following preparation and planning in February.

How to apply

Please fill in this application form by Monday 24 January 2021 (10:00am). 

The application form will ask you for:

• A description of your artistic/creative practice and what experience you could bring to the workshop
• Your experience of facilitating sessions with members of the public or community groups
• Your experience of using arts practice to facilitate conversations and explore complex topics
• If you have an interest in AI or big data (desirable but not essential)

If you have any questions, please contact Phil Wiles (p.wiles@ucl.ac.uk)