30 Jun Icology
Posted at 16:41h
in Uncategorised
Theatre, ecology and the shared planet
Icology is a collaborative theatre and research project between Living Structures, Falmouth University, the Environment and Sustainability Institute at the University of Exeter, and the Gustav Metzger Foundation that was initiated by Klaus Kruse and Camille Bonneaud.
The project explores how performance can engage young people in ecological discourse, both as performers and audiences, by examining the relationship between humans and the natural environment.
Through discussion, research, improvisation and performance-making, Icology uses immersive, participatory and verbatim theatre methods to transform the views, questions, uncertainties and experiences of participants into theatrical material. The process begins with participants where they are at, valuing their knowledge, half-knowledge, intuitions, concerns and lived perspectives as meaningful starting points for ecological enquiry.
The title Icology highlights the “I” within ecology. It asks how personal responsibility, individual action and collective change are connected. It challenges the notion that there is “no I in team,” and highlights the presence, choices and contributions of individuals within a group, society or population.
The pilot projects involved Theatre and Performance students, Technical Theatre Arts students, and Esports & Livestreaming students from Falmouth University, bringing together live performance, scenography, technical production, digital tools and livestreaming practice.
The project draws on Living Structures’ long-standing interest in immersive environments, audience participation and spatial transformation, while bringing this into dialogue with environmental science, ecological research, arts education and Gustav Metzger’s legacy of politically and ecologically engaged art.
More information
Icology is a practice-led research project that explores theatre as a tool for ecological reflection, dialogue and participation. Rather than presenting environmental issues as fixed information to be communicated to an audience, the project begins with the voices of participants. Their discussions are recorded, transcribed, edited and reworked into performance material.
In dialogue scenes that emerge from these discussions, performance students might find themselves speaking lines drawn from their own contributions, but, significantly, they might also find themselves voicing thoughts, feelings and perspectives first offered by others. These may differ from their own views, but within the world of the play they are invited to enter them imaginatively and generously. For a moment, they can set aside the certainty of their own position and explore another way of seeing, thinking and feeling. This act of transformation becomes a means through which participants can stand, if only briefly, in somebody else’s shoes. It does not require them to surrender their own perspective or be persuaded into another point of view. Like an actor with any character they play, they return to themselves when they step out of the role. Yet they carry with them the understanding gained through that encounter. In this sense, the temporary suspension of one’s own position becomes an act of empathy, openness and attentive listening: a counterpoint to increasingly polarised debate, echo chambers and entrenched views, and a way of recognising through practical doing that differences of view can be something we can creatively build upon.
This approach draws on traditions of devised, participatory and verbatim theatre, where performance is generated from the views, memories, experiences and language that performers bring into the rehearsal room. It also connects to Living Structures’ interest in immersive scenographic structures that change the relationship between audience, performer and environment.
The collaboration brings together complementary areas of expertise. Living Structures contributes its experience in immersive theatre, spatial dramaturgy, interactive environments and audience-centred performance. Falmouth University provides the educational context, student participation, technical facilities and interdisciplinary performance environment, including Theatre and Performance, Technical Theatre Arts, and Esports & Livestreaming. The Environment and Sustainability Institute at the University of Exeter brings ecological research and environmental science into dialogue with the creative process. The Gustav Metzger Foundation connects the project to Metzger’s legacy of artistic experimentation, ecological warning, political urgency and public responsibility.
The higher education strand of Icology focuses on immersive and interactive ecological performance. It uses spatial design, live performance, projection, sound, video, digital tools and audience participation to create embodied encounters with ecological ideas.
A second strand is being developed for secondary schools. This will use the shared house/shared planet metaphor as an accessible framework for pupils to explore resource sharing, climate displacement, food production, social tension, conflict, care and nurture, and collective responsibility through role-play, discussion, devising and performance.