Inspiring and supporting collaboration between artists and academics to increase public impact and opportunities for innovation
Collusion is working with the University of Cambridge to support collaboration between artists and academics in the arts and humanities, facilitating R&D to develop ideas that increase public impact with academic research through the creation of novel artworks. As defined by the British Academy, SHAPE is a collective name for Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy, “developed as a tool to tell the story of these subjects, which help us to make sense of the human world, to value and express the complexity of life and culture, and to understand and solve global issues”.
In the first phase of the project (2023-24), Collusion ran workshops for Cambridge academics exploring the potential of art/tech projects to engage the public. Somewhat tongue in cheek, we proposed that artists are the unicorns of public engagement – products of a public funding environment that, over years, has honed public engagement practices and skills in ways that are exceptional and can overcome the barriers that are often faced by other disciplines, including around consultation fatigue and representing information in entertaining and digestible ways.
This led to a series of academics receiving R&D funding during the second phase, supporting them to work with Collusion and other freelance artists to develop a project proposal. Artists and arts/humanities researchers have a common R&D based practice and curiosity led focus, with many shared research concerns. Collusion brokers and supports these collaborations, helping to translate differences in languages and circumstances to reach common, fertile ground from which exciting opportunities can emerge.
The R&D phase projects included:
- Working with the Cambridge Archeological Unit to recruit an artist who could support public engagement by Fenland communities with the bronze Age Must Farm finds. As result, Guy Schofield has been commissioned to create Fen to Fire, a generative AI installation that will be co-created with young people in March and Whittlesea before being installed in local libraries. The Collusion team will be supporting Guy by facilitating the workshops. We’ll update you on this project soon.
- Professor of Architecture and Environmental Policy Minna Sunnikka-Blank has been working with artist Anna Brownsted, with support from ARU’s David Pearson, Professor of Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience, to explore walking as a research method for consulting communities about the future of where they live. The method uses wearable technology to capture personal moments and involuntary responses within an unpredictable urban green space. More on the initial outcomes here.
- PhD Student Myesha Jemison worked with artist Karen Frances Eng to develop a digital prototype of a virtual space as a new concept for showcasing near contemporary African America design. In addition, Collusion’s chair Sherry Dobbin supported Myesha to make connections with US cultural institutions to acquire scans of objects for the prototype.
- Collusion is supporting electroacoustic composer and Assistant Professor of Composition, Dr Marta Gentilluci to extend her practice through collaboration with dancers Bar Groisman and Jenna Unwin, and poet David Cain. Her project will lead to the creation of new work inspired by decommissioned mines from across the UK.
- We supported ethnohistorian Dr Joshua Fitzgerald and his creative team with R&D on a concept to turn a historic Mexican board game into an interactive, immersive experience. We helped the team to focus on the best tech solution by considering who the audience for the project was, how they would engage with it, and who would support any tech issues.
- Artist Anna Brownsted is also collaborating with Professor of Music History, Bettina Varwig. Bettina is exploring how an immersive, walk-through experience could showcase her research into the powerful and visceral lived experiences of composers, performed, and audiences in the 17th century.
- With Dr Zoe Zvendsen, a Lecturer in Drama and Performance, we’ve supported the development of plans for new artwork exploring migration, climate and AI.
