Objects With Objectives TaPRA Interim Event, Belfast 

Lecturer in Drama at Queen's University, Belfast and Principal Investigator, 'The Object with Objectives' AHRC Research network into Applied Puppetry

David Grant, Queen's University Belfast for the TaPRA Applied and Social Theatre Working Group

‘Objects with Objectives: Puppetry and Vibrant Materiality within Applied Theatre’
The TaPRA Applied and Social Theatre working group would like to call for contributions to an Interim Event on puppetry and materiality, hosted at Queens University Belfast Saturday 24th  February 2018 (10am-5pm), in association with the ‘Objects with Objectives’ AHRC Research Network, which will also hold an open meeting to share the group’s finding on Friday 23rd February from 3-6pm which all participants in the Interim Meeting are welcome to attend. Proposals are welcome for small-scale performance, workshop-demonstrations, research papers, provocations and short provocations as part of a long table discussion. 
Applied and Social Theatre practice has often used performing objects, puppets and scenographic elements, so perhaps it is time to pay more attention to these ‘actants’ (Latour, 1993) in our field. Recently the ‘object turn’ (Graham Harman, 2010, Bill Brown, 2001, and Ian Bogost, 2012) in critical thinking has offered analytics and frames to consider the object in practice alongside participants. The reconsideration of the object in relation to the aesthetics of Applied and Social Theatre provokes the field to reconsider affectivity, witnessing and the anthropocentric. Considering New Materialism in relation to established ideas around care, agency and reciprocal practice in applied theatre presents opportunities for re-engagement with practice and research. New Materialism is not a unified philosophy as it draws from a number of disciplines, but what does seem to be a common concern is the way objects and things have been overlooked by critical attention around the subject and image which is often highly textualist (Brown, 2015:373), and the claim that materiality can be understood as ‘vibrant’ (Bennett, 2009). The vibrant object reconsidered through practice troubles practitioner and participant roles by repositioning them within ‘networks of actants’. Perhaps the object in this context, and our relationship to objects, changes more than we tend to assume. This attention to the ‘assemblage of things’, as Jane Bennett discusses in Vibrant Matter (2009), is a new way of considering the political ecologies we navigate in applied practices. 
The Applied and Social Theatre working group would like to explore the complications, possibilities and importance of vibrant materiality and Applied Puppetry. The theme invites consideration of puppetry, object theatre, scenography and theatre materiality as part of practice, and the resulting implications of these emerging forms. Explorations could include for example: stage properties, costumes, design, object-based memory, and objects as a stimulus for narrative.
PROGRAMME
Friday 23rd February, 3-6pm, Syndic Rooms 5 &amp; 6, Wellington Park Hotel, 21 Malone Rd, Belfast BT9 6RU
AHRC ‘Objectives with Objectives’ Network open session (Chair: David Grant, Queen’s University)
A look back over the work of the Network since our meetings in Cape Town as part of the ASSITEJ Festival in May 2017. This will include the screening of training videos and a discussion about how best to disseminate and utilise these exciting new Applied Puppetry resources. These include:
Essential ‘Direct Manipulation’ Puppetry Techniques: Focus, Breath and Gravity (Dr David Morton, Artistic Director, Dead Puppet Society, Brisbane, Australia)
Making Puppets from Found Materials (Karen Torley, Banyan Puppet Theatre, Northern Ireland)
Making a Life-Size Paper Puppets and using these to explore the use of the Rasa with Puppets (Dr Aja Marneweck, University of Western Cape and Dr Sara Matchett, University of Cape Town)
Applied Puppetry and Sympathetic Presence in medical simulation and Nursing pedagogy (Dr Matt Jennings and Karl Tizzard-Kleister, Ulster University and Karen Torley, Banyan Puppet Theatre)
Brown Paper Puppetry and the Celebration of Imperfection (Dr Laura Purcell-Gates, Bath Spa University)
Embodying the Puppet Experience as a Training Strategy (Dr Matt Smith, University of Portsmouth)
 
Friday 23rd February, 8-9pm, Brian Friel Theatre, 20 University Square, Belfast
Tinderbox Theatre Company (Belfast) 
There's a Bishop in my Bedroom by Richard O’Leary
Richard relives the experience of growing up gay in Ireland with the help of a powerful series of real and resonant objects from his own past. Vibrantly material!
CLOSED PERFORMANCE FOR SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS AND INVITED GUESTS ONLY
 
Saturday 24th February, Brian Friel Theatre, 20 University Sq., 10am-5pm
10.00-10.45am A Demonstration of Applied Puppetry in medical simulation for Nursing students (led by Dr Matt Jennings and Pat Deeny, Ulster University, with the assistance of Karl Tizzard-Kleister, Karen Torley and UU Nursing colleagues and students).
10.45-11am         How to Access the ‘Objects with Objectives’ Training videos (David Grant, Queen’s University)
11-11.45am         Panel 1 (Chair: Dr Zoe Zontou)
Anthropomorphizing in the Anthropocene: can a medical mannequin become a human patient? (Karl Tizzard-Kleister, PhD Researcher at Ulster University)
The ‘pin’ and the ‘spoon’: Affective inter-relation with the objects of addiction in applied theatre-making (Cathy Sloane, PhD Researcher at RCSSD)
11.45-12.15 COFFEE/TEA
12.15-1.00         Panel 2 (Chair: Dr Michael Carklin)
Quintessence of Dust: a material approach to art with people with dementia (Dr Kay Hepplewhite, Senior Lecturer, Northumbria University)
Pupa: engaging with new materialism to tell an anthropocentric tale of my identifying as disabled (Emma Fisher, PhD Researcher, Mary Immaculate College Limerick)
 
1-1.45pm             LUNCH (foyer)
 
1.45-2.45            Panel 3 (Chair: Dr Laura Purcell-Gates)
Applied Theatre and Puppetry in child healthcare: objects, care and training (Dr Persephone Sextou, Newman University)
Staging applied-ness: grappling with a social mess through traditional puppetry (and Dr Cariad Astles, RCSSD)
Followed by a discussion about publication priorities and opportunities in the field of Applied Puppetry
2.45-3.45 –        Keynote (Chair: Dr Matt Jennings)
Puppetry and Vibrant Materiality within Applied Theatre (Dr Matt Smith, University of Portsmouth)
3.45-4.15              COFFEE/TEA
4.15-5pm           Long Table (Chair: David Grant)
An opportunity for a fluid exchange of responses to the ideas explored during the day
 
References
Bennett, J. (2009). Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham.N.C: Duke University 
Bogost, Ian. (2012) Alien Phenomenology or, What it's Like to be a Thing. London: University of Minnesota Press.
Brown, Bill. “Thing Theory.” Critical Inquiry. 28.1 (2001): 1-22.
Brown, Bill. (2015). Other Things. London: University of Chicago Press.
Latour, B. (1993). We Have Never Been Modern. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Harman, G. (2010). Towards Speculative Realism: Essays and Lectures. Winchester: John Hunt Publishing.
Marlis Schweitzer, Joanne Zerdy. (2014) Performing Objects and Theatrical Things. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Brian Friel Theatre

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