How do we know a river? Experimenting with the sociodigital futures of rivers
What would a more caring approach to environmental policies look like? This was the initial guiding question for this project on the sociodigital futures of rivers. We wanted to work with art-based methods, to explore embodied and emotional relationships to rivers. We wanted to do so with a transdisciplinary group of people, all interested in… Continue reading→
NIGHTWALKER: Creative essay on women walking at night, the night body and darkness in the city.
Preamble In the early 1800s a frenzy of street lighting completely rearranged England’s cities and our night. Overcome with the spectacle of engineering, street lighting was rolled out at a pace. An appropriate arrival point and symbol for the age of enlightenment. It also marks the strengthening of a nyctophobia that has persisted ever since…. Continue reading→
Wasting Time Zine
Welcome to the Wasting Time zine! Come with us on a journey that moves from deep history to the deep future, as we use speculative storytelling and creative practices to follow wastes and their processes, to bring different aspects of the Anthropocene into focus. Why the zine The three workshops of the Wasting Time project… Continue reading→
Co-constructing Commons
By Claudia Firth We, myself and Emilia Melville, two researchers at the University of Bristol, applied for the Brigstow Ideas Exchange fund to work closely with the Bristol Commons Network (BCN), a newly emerging grassroots organisation which we have both been involved with as participant observers. Our community partner was Coexist, the organisation that initiated… Continue reading→
Sex, Intimacy, Puppets and FGM
By Natasha Carver Talking about sexual intimacy with your partner – what you like, what you don’t like – can be embarrassing, shameful, awkward and/or frightening even within the best relationships. Talking about sexual intimacy with your partner when you have experienced Female Genital Cutting or Modification (FGMo) can make that conversation 100 times more… Continue reading→
Immersive Histories: Students as Interdisciplinary Researchers
‘Every night elderly dockers were in tears. Many in the audience had seldom or never been to a theatre. They shouted out in recognition, ignoring the shushing. It was recognition of the way of life they had known when there were still working ships in the heart of Bristol. Liverpool dockers on strike came down,… Continue reading→
The association of stitching to health and wellbeing
The Co-Stitch Initiative is a co-produced research project bringing together academics from across the University of Bristol with civic partners, groups, individuals and the creative industries to explore what stitching does in communities. As part of the initiative, facilitators are working with participants in different communities across the Bristol region and supporting them with stitching… Continue reading→
The Co-Stitch Initiative and what it’s taught me about stitching
By Kate Bowen-Viner, PhD candidate and Brigstow Co-Stitch Researcher When I was 15 years old, I was an avid stitcher and sewer. I even sewed a silk dress for my then two year old niece and hand embroidered the decorations (see picture below)! I’m not sure exactly why, but I stopped sewing/stitching regularly after that… Continue reading→
What the “Co-Stitch” initiative shows us about research impact.
By Kate Bowen- Viner, PhD Candidate and Brigstow Co-Stitch Researcher According to the UKRI, research impact is the effect that knowledge generated in research has beyond academia. As such, and as Śliwa and Kellard (2022) point out, in academia it is often assumed that research impact is quantifiably measurable and happens after a researcher has… Continue reading→
Cross-Fertilising Ideas about DIRT: Climate Change, Storytelling and the Underground Circus
By Rachel Hare, from the Brigstow funded project Engaging Multi-Generational Audiences on Climate Change through Storytelling and Physical Theatre Climate change is perhaps the most significant challenge of the twenty-first century, but how do we open up conversations and inspire people to take positive action? Funded by Brigstow, our ideas exchange brought creatives and academics… Continue reading→