Unfinished Business centres around dialogue, ritual and collective action, getting us as creatives to think differently about hyper productivity and encouraging us to change the world through co-creation and participation, using our senses. As part of our weekly Zoom sessions we’ve had the privilege of interacting with well-respected artists from various disciplines, of which Silvia Mercuriali has been one. She is one of the pioneers of AUTOTEATRO, where the everyday becomes extraordinary through sound and the audience becomes the centre of the experience. We had the privilege of taking part in SWIMMING HOME where our bath became the theatre stage and we were transported into a whole other watery world through audio and instruction. The experience was totally thrilling and novel! You too can experience this directly in your own home should you choose to do so through the app Mercurious–NET, National Ear Theatre — I highly recommend it!
Creating KIND Futures
Local artist Nanette Madan, reflects on her time so far on our KIND Futures programme…
How are you feeling? What has your week been like so far?
Wouldn’t it be nice if before an interview, or a meeting we all asked each other these questions? A little check-in serves to break the ice and to gauge how everyone is doing. That way if someone is feeling particularly sensitive we can take this into account in our dealings with them. It would lead to perhaps a kinder society.
This is precisely how our weekly Zoom sessions with the KIND Futures programme start, with a little check-in. We repeat this at the end of every Zoom and inevitably everyone is left feeling a lot more energised, inspired and lifted!
KIND Futures is a year-long artist development programme to help develop the practice of local artists to build new socially engaged initiatives. It’s part of Rosehill Theatre’s KIND project and is a partnership with Everyone Here and multi-disciplinary and contemporary social art practice Unfinished Business. It’s about promoting the belief that creativity can nurture kindness for ourselves and our communities.
On the programme are thirteen community creatives, of which I am one, with varying backgrounds in theatre, poetry, storytelling, visual arts, life coaching, forest school and holistic health. Together we’re on a journey focusing on promoting community collaboration, supporting wellbeing and helping to reduce isolation in Whitehaven and the surrounding areas.
The programme started in November 2023 with an intensive face to face weekend session at Rosehill Theatre, led by Anna Smith and Leo Kay from Unfinished Business. Thought provoking questions about what drove our work and what we wanted to affect change with, made us think about our own art practice in such a new way that could benefit entire communities. We then went on to make a fervida, with origins from Thailand, but has been adopted by the Italians. Fervida is made from fruits, herbs, sugar and water that is left to ferment for a year. The end result is a probiotic and prebiotic vinegar with incredible health benefits! As we continue to look after the ‘mother’ vinegar we have to consider our intentions for the programme.
We have been making our own AUTOTEATRO experiences in pairs. I teamed up with poet Abi Palmer and we devised an audio piece with nature sounds, which together with a few props and Haiku poetry led to the construction of a Zen garden. I learnt that you can set the tone of your experience through sound alone. The beauty of having such a lineup of talented individuals in our group as a whole leads to unexpected developments creatively and has you thinking outside of the box.
Being on this programme has made me completely rethink my own practice and how I deliver workshops and communicate with participants; it has been an absolute game changer for me. Fundamentally, what I have learnt through this process so far is that the journey and the experience is more important than the final outcome of producing a specific physical thing. Considering the person/community holistically is vital to creating a kinder and more vibrant society. The chance to make what I offer, individually and in collaboration with the other creatives, more multi-disciplinary is very exciting. Being a part of the programme is challenging my own creativity and perception of it, with far-reaching implications. I look forward to each Zoom session with absolute relish and feel so honoured and grateful to have this opportunity.
And I’ll leave you with a quote from model maker and programme member Manos Anastasiou “Kind Futures enables its participants to be able to come up with creative ideas out of next to nothing.” Our imaginations are the only limit and the possibilities are limitless.