The Enlightenment Cafe: New Atlantis - Multidisciplinary theatre exploring the technology behind satellites and science of measuring Climate Change
Lead Research Organisation:
LAStheatre C.I.C.
Department Name: Producing
Abstract
The Enlightenment Cafe: New Atlantis is an international organisation charged with monitoring and providing solutions to the tempestuous relationship between humanity and water.
Alongside UCL, Pennine Water Group, RAL Space and the British Library, LAStheatre is bringing its own brand of multidisciplinary theatre to a subterranean space in London, looking at how science and society are dealing with some of the most pressing issues of the 21st Century.
The show will involve engineers and scientists from satellite technology, meteorology, biochemistry, naval architecture and civil engineering providing the audience with an opportunity to interact with experts on a range of topics, including Climate Change, London's waterways and Conflict.
Combined with schools outreach, a series of short films about each scientist/engineer and an online space that can engage audiences through social media and digital research, The Enlightenment Cafe: New Atlantis will celebrate scientists, engineers and artists alike, bringing their work to new and diverse audiences.
As with our previous Enlightenment Cafe projects, we aim to achieve:
1. The entire project:
- Create an exciting new piece of immersive, interactive theatre
- Develop innovative new pieces of science communication across STEM subjects relating to water and climate change, which can be re-used by collaborators after the show.
- Develop an associated outreach project for local schools
- Develop a teacher's pack, downloadable from Times Educational Supplement website, with all collaborators aimed at Key Stages 3/4.
- Make a series of short films of each STEM section of the show to reach further audiences after the show.
- Encourage excitement in STEM areas relating to water and climate change in all ages, particularly in audiences new to science communication - a target of 50% of all audiences is set for each production.
- Create a greater understanding of climate change, and how societies can work together to prepare or prevent it, through bringing a number of STEM fields together in this innovative theatrical environment.
2. The funding from STFC, all of the above, plus:
- Create a section of the show about satellite technology and the study of Earth's atmosphere.
- Collaborate with RAL Space and others for this piece of science communication and include scientists and engineers in this section of the show.
- Work with scientists and engineers from RAL Space to assist their science communication skills, and how to reach new audiences, particularly in relation to working with the arts.
- Bring new audiences, including schools, to the work of STFC funded organizations and projects.
STFC has funded, and continues to fund a great amount of research into Earth's atmosphere, particularly in attempting to understand Climate Change. We want to being this important and topical work to an audience that would not normally interact with science communication.
Impacts:
Our shows have achieved a number of impacts, these would be relevant to this new project:
1. Help scientists and engineers create pieces of science communication, opening new methods and highlighting the benefits of science/theatre collaborations
2. Give the audience a big picture understanding of Climate Change and Water related issues. By combining a number of science institutions and fields the audience will be given a cross-section of possibilities in the science and engineering realm, and how they feed off each other.
3. Endeavour to change behaviours around personal water usage, by reaching schools and families with the digital technology and genuine science, delivered by passionate experts.
4. Using theatre to communicate the work of RAL Space engineers, satellite technology and Earth's atmosphere, with an ambition to develop audiences' interests in related STEM subjects, especially students.
Alongside UCL, Pennine Water Group, RAL Space and the British Library, LAStheatre is bringing its own brand of multidisciplinary theatre to a subterranean space in London, looking at how science and society are dealing with some of the most pressing issues of the 21st Century.
The show will involve engineers and scientists from satellite technology, meteorology, biochemistry, naval architecture and civil engineering providing the audience with an opportunity to interact with experts on a range of topics, including Climate Change, London's waterways and Conflict.
Combined with schools outreach, a series of short films about each scientist/engineer and an online space that can engage audiences through social media and digital research, The Enlightenment Cafe: New Atlantis will celebrate scientists, engineers and artists alike, bringing their work to new and diverse audiences.
As with our previous Enlightenment Cafe projects, we aim to achieve:
1. The entire project:
- Create an exciting new piece of immersive, interactive theatre
- Develop innovative new pieces of science communication across STEM subjects relating to water and climate change, which can be re-used by collaborators after the show.
- Develop an associated outreach project for local schools
- Develop a teacher's pack, downloadable from Times Educational Supplement website, with all collaborators aimed at Key Stages 3/4.
- Make a series of short films of each STEM section of the show to reach further audiences after the show.
- Encourage excitement in STEM areas relating to water and climate change in all ages, particularly in audiences new to science communication - a target of 50% of all audiences is set for each production.
- Create a greater understanding of climate change, and how societies can work together to prepare or prevent it, through bringing a number of STEM fields together in this innovative theatrical environment.
2. The funding from STFC, all of the above, plus:
- Create a section of the show about satellite technology and the study of Earth's atmosphere.
- Collaborate with RAL Space and others for this piece of science communication and include scientists and engineers in this section of the show.
- Work with scientists and engineers from RAL Space to assist their science communication skills, and how to reach new audiences, particularly in relation to working with the arts.
- Bring new audiences, including schools, to the work of STFC funded organizations and projects.
STFC has funded, and continues to fund a great amount of research into Earth's atmosphere, particularly in attempting to understand Climate Change. We want to being this important and topical work to an audience that would not normally interact with science communication.
Impacts:
Our shows have achieved a number of impacts, these would be relevant to this new project:
1. Help scientists and engineers create pieces of science communication, opening new methods and highlighting the benefits of science/theatre collaborations
2. Give the audience a big picture understanding of Climate Change and Water related issues. By combining a number of science institutions and fields the audience will be given a cross-section of possibilities in the science and engineering realm, and how they feed off each other.
3. Endeavour to change behaviours around personal water usage, by reaching schools and families with the digital technology and genuine science, delivered by passionate experts.
4. Using theatre to communicate the work of RAL Space engineers, satellite technology and Earth's atmosphere, with an ambition to develop audiences' interests in related STEM subjects, especially students.
Planned Impact
1. Science communication theatre segments - the show will be made up of 6 separate science sections that the audience encounter on their journey. Each section will be developed so as to be used again independently by the science communicators.
2. Science communication film - The films will be distributed by New Scientist, LAStheatre and the collaborators. We hope to reach thousands more globally through these films.
3. Teachers pack - We will be producing a Teachers Pack with BBSRC and RAL, to be placed on Times Educational Supplement.
4. British Library dissemination plans
The British Library is carrying out research of the project in terms of its effectiveness in science communication. They plan to disseminate their findings by:
Research communities that we seek to engage with this project include: curators, artist-researchers engaged with science, immersive theatre researchers, interdisciplinary sensor researchers, public engagement specialists, environmental researchers and citizen science researchers.
We will disseminate this research through:
- social media and blogging,
- a workshop (to be held at the British Library)
- publications in appropriate journals (including open access), such as Arts/Science journal Leonardo, International Journal of Performance Arts & Digital Media
- presentations at relevant conferences such as the Science Communication Conference (run by the British Science Association), the Citizen Cyberscience Summit and Ars Electronica.
This research will shed light on the efficacy of digital engagement within the arts as an effective means for science communication, provide important insight into attitudes towards environmental data, and provide groundwork for further exploration of the use of citizen science within an arts context.
2. Science communication film - The films will be distributed by New Scientist, LAStheatre and the collaborators. We hope to reach thousands more globally through these films.
3. Teachers pack - We will be producing a Teachers Pack with BBSRC and RAL, to be placed on Times Educational Supplement.
4. British Library dissemination plans
The British Library is carrying out research of the project in terms of its effectiveness in science communication. They plan to disseminate their findings by:
Research communities that we seek to engage with this project include: curators, artist-researchers engaged with science, immersive theatre researchers, interdisciplinary sensor researchers, public engagement specialists, environmental researchers and citizen science researchers.
We will disseminate this research through:
- social media and blogging,
- a workshop (to be held at the British Library)
- publications in appropriate journals (including open access), such as Arts/Science journal Leonardo, International Journal of Performance Arts & Digital Media
- presentations at relevant conferences such as the Science Communication Conference (run by the British Science Association), the Citizen Cyberscience Summit and Ars Electronica.
This research will shed light on the efficacy of digital engagement within the arts as an effective means for science communication, provide important insight into attitudes towards environmental data, and provide groundwork for further exploration of the use of citizen science within an arts context.
Organisations
| Description | Engineers experience: The project certainly achieved the aims with the involved researchers. All the respondents unanimously strongly agreed that the experience was enjoyable, and would both recommend and take part in immersive science theatre again. For 7 of the 9 respondents, this was the first time they had worked with the arts to do public engagement (PE), and most strongly agreed the project was original, raising awareness of new ways of doing PE, and particularly awareness of public attitudes. This led to some of the most meaningful audience interactions, which were appreciated by the researchers. The lowest ratings were a neutral average as to whether the show improved research profiles, followed by building a network of engineers or scientists with both three disagree or strongly disagrees in both. The main improvements suggested focused on the pre-show period, and though efforts were made to encourage between group interactions and integration with the narrative, perhaps more can be done to involve scientists even earlier whilst developing the scripts to really tailor the show to the research. In terms of what the engineers will take away from the project; surprise that the audience are genuinely very interested in their work, and that the researchers were motivated to continue interacting with the public more, in a more engaging style. Several comments were about the format, and how it attracted new audiences, and also allowed more nuanced discussions about the wider implications of research. One comment also mentioned "optimism about the future after the school audience voted for reform!" Sammie Buzzard - Polar Centre for Observation and Modeling Thanks for helping me to get involved in the project, it was so different from any other outreach I've done I got a huge amount out of it. Audience experience: New Atlantis was a thought-provoking piece of science immersive theatre which engaged a wide range of new audiences in the debates surrounding climate change. It demanded real introspection from the audiences, who appreciated the ability to discuss research with real scientists in a narrative which allowed a historical, long-term sense of the bigger picture along with the political and human dimensions in which these issues also exist within. By it's very nature, audience experiences were very varied, but overall, the show was very much enjoyed by both public and researchers. Indeed, the scientists were overwhelmingly the stars of the show, and rose to the challenge of conveying their work within the overarching story, growing into their department philosophies as the run went on. The boundaries between research and theatre became blurred, which was simultaneously the shows greatest strength, and occasionally, its weakness, with some audience members not knowing which characters were actors and which were engineers. All this made the experience highly difficult to classify and ultimately, a very personal one. The show managed to attract a good mix of audience, with 50.8% of the surveyed audience being 30 or under (309 responses). There was a slight bias towards females in the audience (60.7%, 280 responses), which contrasts with engineering as a profession, which is heavily male dominated (ratio of 4.61:1 male-to-female, U.S rates, American Society of Engineering Education, 2009). In terms of backgrounds, the audience were primarily of an arts background, with over two thirds reporting going to arts events often or very often ("The converted audience"). For Theatre specifically, only a quarter went to theatre events quite so often, suggesting that the show was attracting arts audiences to theatre also. Only a quarter of the audience went a similar frequency to Science Events, with 40.4% reporting to have either never or rarely go to Science Events. New Atlantis was overwhelmingly perceived as both enjoyable and thought-provoking, in equal measure (Mean Score 4.4/5.0, with only 1.4% of surveyed with a negative response). New Atlantis was also seen as informative about engineering role in climate change (Mean score: 4.0/5.0). Based on both self-reported ratings and responses to actions inspired by the show, New Atlantis increased support for climate change. This was significantly more correlated to reported thought-provoking scores than enjoyment. The show attracted a broad demographic in both age groups (with 50.8% under 30) and gender (60.7% females). Audiences were also more likely to have come from arts or theatre events backgrounds. New Atlantis attracted an audience overwhelmingly new to climate change: over 76.2% surveyed had either never or rarely gone to climate change events before. 32.6% of evening audiences were evaluated. |
| Exploitation Route | 1. Further Artist/Academic collaborations - specifically exploring the benefits of immersive theatre 2. Tackling complex themes across disciplines. |
| Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Construction,Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Electronics,Energy,Environment,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Healthcare,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Government, Democracy and Justice,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Pharmace |
| Description | 1. To enhance collaboration between artists and academics at UCL. The feeling was that an administrator at UCL would have assisted in the project management from their end. 2. Several of the engineer sections are looking to repeat beyond the show, at festivals, and in schools. The show is now created and the aim is to repeat the show or to develop it for new audiences across the country and internationally. There is a clear hunger for this type of project - since the performance was staged in London requests have come to LAStheatre to remount the project in North America and Australia. The project is one of a series of projects in which LAStheatre and the creative team work with scientists and engineers, finding innovative ways to talk about their work and allow audiences to engage with the work in more meaningful ways. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Environment,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural |