A Plea for Transgenerational Research in Live Art

Abstract

For 15 years Theatre of Research (Hamburg) has been bringing together artists, scientists, citizens and children to collaborate as researchers. Working through more than a dozen projects ToR developed a methodology of how to organize this kind of process, using means, practices and formats of Live Art and participatory theatre. The article presents principles of this work as a plea for transgenerational research in performance and Live Art. This includes:

1. The interplay of generations embracing the performative recreation of citizenship, a common future, as well as future commons.

2. The perspective of Live Art and its potential to foster, as well as to be informed by transgenerational encounters and cooperation.

3. The perspective of research as a crucial cultural strategy in its own right, and how the much-needed move towards participatory research practices can be accelerated by including children through the means of Live Art.

Notes

1 For more information visit www.fundus-theater.de.

2 A toolkit with details about the performative research methods of Theatre of Research is available for download on the website of the Live Art Development Agency: http://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/uploads/documents/SYBILLE_TOOLKIT_WEB.pdf.

3 For other examples of this kind of work see Peters (2017).

4 The research was undertaken during a Live Art Development Agency (LADA) residency as part of LADA’s Restock Rethink Reflect Four On Live Art and Cultural Privilege and the EU-funded Collaborative Arts Partnership Programme (CAPP).

5 PLAYING UP is a collaboration between Theatre of Research, Live Art Development Agency (LADA) and Tate Early Years and Family Programme. More information on PLAYING UP, including video interviews with the kids from Wapping High School, who first played PLAYING UP with us, is to be found here: playingup.thisisliveart.co.uk.