IAS Waste: Hide & Seek: the bug and the city

Participants will work collaboratively in cross-disciplinary teams to research, plan, rehearse and present short plays or walking events based on healthcare science, and in relation to Urban Lab / IAS current research theme of Waste, leading to a performance.

Inspired by Nosocomial, a science-fiction drama by Nicola Baldwin and Dr Elaine Cloutman-Green, which uses parallel narratives to depict the inner experience of a patient, and work of scientists battling to save her, the workshop will challenge participants to research contemporary healthcare science / urban waste topics and interpret them creatively using found or waste spaces at UCL.

Most importantly – isn’t having scientists, developers, designers and creatives in the same physical space but working in different silos on the same complex problems, a waste?

By combining creative and scientific disciplines, we hope to explore how information can affect attitudes, and encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration between the micro and the macro. ‘Hide and Seek: the bug in the city’ looks for solutions to complex urban problems such as sustainability, fake news, public health, in unexpected places. The project will draw on science fiction, microbial fact, site-specific performance, urban planning; it will develop skills in project management public engagement, and science / arts collaboration.

The week will end with a public promenade sharing, and performance of the new short plays at UCL on Friday 8th November. Participants will be encouraged to upload work in progress and the completed short plays may be further developed for performance, podcasts or short films. Anyone from any department interested to continue cross-disciplinary collaboration can be involved in the 2019- 2020 ‘City Dionysius’ project at Urban Lab; a new theatre of the city.

Please find the schedule here.

For more info contact n.baldwin@ucl.ac.uk

• Dr Elaine Cloutman-Green, HCPC Registered Clinical Scientist
• Lead Healthcare Scientist, Great Ormond Street Hospital & UCL Honorary Lecturer
• Nicola Baldwin, Playwright and Scriptwriter, UCL Urban Lab Creative Fellow 2019-2020
• Hannah Jones, Theatre Director, Nosocomial, and Knot Productions
• Dr Lena Ciric, Senior Lecturer CEGE
• Dr Melisa Canales, Environmental and Biological Safety Officer, CEGE
• Jordan Rowe, Centre Manager UCL Urban Lab
• Anthony De Souza, HCS GOSH
• Victoria Heath, HCS GOSH, COWISE2019
• This project is supported by UCL IAS, and Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath)
• Nosocomial education resources supported by the Society for Applied Microbiology (SfAM)