Introduction
Body Brain Bingo is an exciting and unusual yearlong project, testing ideas of performance and methods of collaboration. The project brings together researchers, artists and community groups to form cooperative partnerships. At the end of the project, the partnerships will demonstrate what they’ve developed, and we will reflect on methods and ideas of collaboration. The project itself is a collaboration between UCL Culture and ZU-UK (an award winning independent theatre and digital arts company based in East London and Rio de Janeiro).
Brain Body Bingo – what’s it all about?
Brain Body Bingo is about building relationships, experimenting and performance. The project attempts to disrupt hierarchies and concepts of engagement by experimenting with different methods of performance and collaboration. By creating a cohort of researchers, artists and community groups, we will query what collaboration means, while at the same time testing performance methods as a means of engagement with research.
The aims of the project are:
- To develop processes for engagement between non-academic communities in London, UCL researchers, and performance and theatre practitioners and networks
- To establish new creative partnerships between UCL researchers in the School of Life and Medical Sciences, and beyond, UCL Culture, theatre and performance practitioners and London’s diverse communities
- To develop and expand existing performance and engagement expertise within UCL’s research community
- To contribute to UCL Culture’s ‘Performance=Knowledge’ theme and programming
- To create a framework for engagement and performance collaborations at UCL
Underlying this, the project asks participants questions like “What does collaboration mean to you?”, “What are your positive and negative experiences of collaboration?” and “Is collaboration always worthwhile?”.
Upcoming events and activities
The cohort is currently being established and selected collaborations will be awarded small amounts of seed funding to develop further their ideas. This will culminate in further showcases that highlight the progress and learning from the partnerships.
House of Healing
House of Healing was a conference day highlighting some of the collaborations emerging from Body Brain Bingo and creating dialogue about research, art and activism. Researchers and artists worked together over the course of the previous week, culminating in the public House of Healing event on 27th May 2017. The aim of the day-long conference was to showcase the collaborations and explorations that have come out of previous Body Brain Bingo sessions, and the day was packed with talks by guest speakers (including Deborah Pearson of Forest Fringe, artist/researcher Clare Qualmann and ‘Mental Spaghetti’), performances by invited artists (presenting a wide range of activity including walks, games and project prototypes), as well as workshops.
How to get involved
We’re interested in your thoughts and any experience you may want to contribute to this exciting, experimental project. For more information on the project and to get involved, get in touch with Tadhg Caffrey (Public Engagement Coordinator SLMS), sign up to the project’s mailing list or join the project’s Facebook group.
External links
ZU-UK website: http://zu-uk.com/
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1211669288953512/?ref=br_rs
Mailing list: https://my.sendinblue.com/users/subscribe/js_id/2mu8s/id/1
Project evaluation report: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/sites/culture/files/brain_body_bingo_evaluation.pdf