Guest Blog: Public Engagement & Kilter: The Story So Far

From Ellie Cripps & Mireia Bes,
Public Engagement Team,
University of Bristol.


Here in the public engagement team in the University of Bristol we are very happy to welcome Kilter back so more researchers can explore new ways of engaging communities.

Our collaboration with Kilter began in 2016. As part of a European project with a brilliantly
complicated name, Synenergene, we had to create a play aimed at young people about synthetic biology. This research aims to design or redesign biological systems for new and improved functions. It has many applications in areas like health, agriculture and technology.  We knew that we didn’t want to just teach young people about science. Instead we wanted to involve them in the conversation about the research and its applications with a focus on potential ethical and societal issues.

Kilter were recommended to us and we were compelled by their curiosity, open-minds and ability to create immersive experiences outside of formal theatre spaces.  Together with researchers from BrisSynBio (the University’s synthetic biology research group), Kilter created a play – Invincible –  that explored an imagined future where synthetic biology treatments were common. The play focused on a treatment for depression and featured three generations of women in one family, all connected to synthetic biology in some way. The researchers had supporting (non-speaking!) roles and took part in discussions with audience members. Invincible was staged for secondary school and adult audiences in Spring 2017, following 18 months of development with many conversations, cups of tea, lab visits and open rehearsals.

It was clear that by giving audiences a narrative to follow, characters to invest in and a setting to
immerse themselves in that this could spark in-depth conversations and truly engage people in a
topic with such a range of potential applications and possibilities.

Through the collaboration we learnt that the process of bringing artists and scientists together was particularly powerful. The researchers had the opportunity to discuss their work in new ways with each other, considering best case scenarios, worst case scenarios, potential future headlines and unintended consequences. Not only did this impact on researchers individually but as a research group it influenced the course of BrisSynBio’s plans for public engagement. After the success of the run of Invincible in 2017, we were really pleased to stage a second run in Spring 2018. New researchers and audiences were introduced to the world of Invincible.

What struck us was that many other research groups could benefit from collaborating with Kilter
to engage communities about their research and to reflect on their own research practice. It is very common across the University for researchers to be working on cutting-edge technology that has the potential to impact people’s lives in all sorts of ways. What is not so common is how these people are invited into the conversation around how the research develops and its possible applications.

For the current collaboration, we introduced Kilter to the Quantum Engineering and Virtual Reality research groups. Initial meetings showed there were many potential areas to be explored: how might Quantum Engineering affect our communications and privacy in the future? If VR can provide immersive experiences with the power to change our attitudes and behaviour, what does this mean for us?

After the excitement of these initial meetings, the more onerous task of applying for funding took
place and after several meetings and many application drafts, funding was secured from the
University. The funding was for a year-long “Artist in Residence” where Kilter would immerse
themselves in the world of Quantum and VR and collaborate with researchers to create new ways of engaging communities with these technologies by using performance.

Our hope for this new collaboration is that both Kilter and the researchers get to learn from each
other and create something engaging, thought-provoking and challenging together. As with BrisSynBio, we hope this has a lasting impact on the researchers and the way they engage
communities in the future.

Our collaborations with Kilter have showed that we also learn from Kilter both in the development process and in the final event or activity. We know that this will continue! Finally, by working with artists our aim is that people can be genuinely engaged and consulted about these technologies and that the technologies develop with the hopes and needs of the communities in mind.

Comments

  1. Thank you Ellie & Mireia. A really useful synopsis of our work with SynBio. I think it sets our current work in context nicely!

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