Giles Bailey is an artist and lecturer at Newcastle University. Giles works with performance, often using texts, video fragments and choreographies composed as live collages of material. At the heart of this is Giles' interest in how knowledge and meaning are generated through relationships with others. Giles' work is often collaborative and influenced by creative approaches to working together from experimental theatre, contemporary dance and music. 

Giles presented his seminar, 'I am afraid of the beautiful things that are going to be created: Performance scores, domestic rituals and how to see into the future'  after having found himself the custodian of a collection of performance scores written by over 70 workshop participants during the lockdown in early 2021. The presentation will share material from the collection and consider its legacy.

"I have found myself the custodian of a collection of performance scores written by over 70 workshop participants during the lockdown in early 2021. The presentation will share material from the collection and consider its legacy."

Chaired by Ruth Raynor

About Giles Bailey

Since 2016, Giles has self-published the zine TALKER for which he interviews performance-makers about their process. In order to present these discussions in a structurally innovative way that reflects the nimble, performative exchange of verbal discourse, he ensures they keep the fluid movement of conversation once edited and printed. Issue #1 featured artist, curator, writer and educator Ian White and subsequent issues publish interviews with Kate Valk of the Wooster Group, playwright Richard Maxwell, artists Sue Tompkins, Dora García, Paul Maheke, and choreographer Jo Fong. GIles has also produced an issue that published an in-conversation event between Spalding Gray and Kathy Acker from 1987. The most recent issue features a conversation with artist Clifford Owens.

Exhibitions and performances have been presented at CCA Glasgow, Kunsthalle Basel, The Hepworth (Wakefield), The Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (Sunderland), The Chisenhale Gallery (London), OUTPOST Gallery (Norwich), Tramway (Glasgow) and Kunst Werke (Berlin). To find out more infomration go to gilesbailey.com

About Giles Bailey, in his own words.

"Since 2016, I have self-published the zine TALKER for which I interview performance- makers about their process. In order to present these discussions in a structurally innovative way that reflects the nimble, performative exchange of verbal discourse, I ensure they keep the fluid movement of conversation once edited and printed. Issue #1 featured artist, curator, writer and educator Ian White and subsequent issues publish interviews with Kate Valk of the Wooster Group, playwright Richard Maxwell, artists Sue Tompkins, Dora García, Paul Maheke, and choreographer Jo Fong. I have also produced an issue that published an in-conversation event between Spalding Gray and Kathy Acker from 1987. The most recent issue features a conversation with artist Clifford Owens. Exhibitions and performances have been presented at CCA Glasgow, Kunsthalle Basel, The Hepworth (Wakefield), The Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (Sunderland), The Chisenhale Gallery (London), OUTPOST Gallery (Norwich), Tramway (Glasgow) and Kunst Werke (Berlin)."

My website is gilesbailey.com

Dr Kate Craddock is a Research Associate in the School of English at Newcastle University, and Founder and Festival Director of GIFT, (Gateshead International Festival of Theatre). 

Kate presented 'Circle Time - considerations for a returning audience' to discuss the considerations and decisions that were made in the curation of GIFT in 2022 to welcome back in-person audiences following two years of delivering the festival solely online.

This included discussions on how the design and rhythm of GIFT 2022 provided a range of experiences for audiences who were ready to return in different ways and at varying paces. Kate highlights the importance of not losing sight of all that came to light since the ongoing global pandemic began.

GIFT 2022 took place between 29^th April and 1^st May, and the programme is still available to view here: https://www.giftfestival.co.uk/gift-2022-programme 

In the talk, Kate discussed the considerations and decisions that were made in the curation of GIFT (Gateshead International Festival of Theatre) in 2022 to welcome back in-person audiences following two years of delivering the festival solely online. Kate discussed how the design and rhythm of GIFT 2022 provided a range of experiences for audiences who were ready to return in different ways and at varying paces. The talk highlighted the importance of not losing sight of all that came to light since the ongoing global pandemic began.

Bridget Kennedy is a lecturer in the Fine Art department at Newcastle University, a co-convenor of MATCH, a Newcastle university research group and a member of the Nuclear Culture Research Group at Goldsmiths.

As part of ongoing research into walking as a means of performing a landscape Bridget Kennedy shares some documentation and insights gained from the first of three planned walks with companions in the vicinity of the nuclear installation at Sellafield, West Cumbria.

The execution and documentation of these walks creates opportunities for discussing and experiencing connections between the pre historical monuments of West Cumbria, the geography and geology of the landscape, and the nuclear industrial legacies of this area. 

Moving through the landscape on foot creates a vulnerability and openness to the non-human forces at play. Participation in simple acts of divination that took place in specific locations adjacent to this high security nuclear industrial complex created opportunities for Bridget and her companion to explore the performance of the invisible presence of radioactivity. Raising tongue twisting questions such as : how does being present bring into presence an absence?   

This event has ended and was part of the Performance Research Network's seminar programme for 2021-2.

James Davoll is an award winning film maker and artist working across creative digital media, video installation, film, photography and sound. 

Based in Culture Lab, Newcastle University, UK. His practice explores specific landscapes asking questions of their contemporary role, relevance and our emotive response to them. He seeks to investigate our complex and contradictory relationship with the natural world. 

As part of an ongoing project exploring the shipwreck of the SS Zephyros James discusses how he is undertaking a one-off performance to celebrate the wrecks 75 years as a relic. 

This exploration is driven by the combination of traditional and experimental ethnographic film and field recording techniques alongside improvisation and non-linear composition. James' performance seeks to explore this interdisciplinary practice by producing a live film edit using his collection of recordings made with/ on and from the wreck. 

This event has ended and was part of the Performance Research Network's seminar programme for 2021-2.

Eva Masterman is an artist working primarily with clay. She has an MA in Ceramics and Glass from the Royal College of Art, and is currently a PhD student at Newcastle University, where she recently completed the Norma Lipman Ceramic Fellowship. She has exhibited widely, including at the 2017 British Ceramics Biennial; and is a co-founder of social outreach art collective Collective Matter. Her podcast, Clay Commons, launched earlier this month, investigating community ceramics and clay as a force for good. 

For this talk, Eva will reflect on her work as Norma Lipman Fellow in ceramics, looking at the intersections of clay sculpture and staging, including a collaboration with the music department on the opera Dido and Aeneas, and will also introduce her new PhD research on clay studios, community and the performative natures of teaching and making with clay.

Please join us for the first Performance Research Network seminar of the academic year. All are welcome.