ALONELY
Performance space designed for academic research project looking at social isolation and loneliness
We were asked to join the Alonely team to design and build an installation and performance space for the Utopia Fair at Somerset House in London.
As part of the Productive Margins: Regulating for Engagement research programme, a group of community researchers, in collaboration with the Universities of Bristol and Cardiff, and with the Southville Community Development Association and the 3Gs Development Trust, have been exploring loneliness for older people in their local communities.
Research has been co-produced with community organisations and with community researchers and artists in the Greater Bedminster area of Bristol and in the North Merthyr Tydfil area of South Wales.
Alonely is a collection of diverse stories based on the research. The aim is to make the experiences of older people more visible as a way of encouraging dialogue between communities, professionals, academics and artists. The installation and performances are designed to provide a space for considering utopian futures where alternative understandings of social isolation and loneliness in later life may emerge.
During the fair visitors were invited into the space to watch and hear live monologues performed. These monologues were also available to listen to through headphones on the exterior of the installation, along with iPads that displayed some of the research material collected during the project. On one wall was a space for visitors feedback, where people finished the sentence 'Loneliness is...'
Collaborators
University of Bristol
Cardiff University
Southville Community Centre
Jo Lathwood - fabricator
Adam Peck - writer and dramaturg
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