Performing Planet Activism: Our Place in the Game
A community-based research-to-performance project co-designed with residents of Kings Crescent Estate (Hackney) and artist Hector Dyer — translating participatory environmental research into workshops, a co-created zine, a short film, a museum exhibition and a knowledge-dissemination workshop.
Context
Climate communication has long over-relied on information and warning. The harder questions concern motivation, embodiment and collective practice — how publics come to act, together, in the face of slow ecological change.
Our Place in the Game took those questions to a single estate in Hackney, working with residents and artist Hector Dyer to translate participatory environmental research into a shared performance, publication and exhibition.
Methods
- Co-design workshops with residents of Kings Crescent Estate.
- Performance and storytelling devised collaboratively with artist Hector Dyer.
- Reflective research practice combined with public-facing knowledge-dissemination workshops.
Outputs
- A co-created zine — Our Place in the Game (ISBN 978-1-3999-4617-9).
- A short film documenting the process and the residents' contributions.
- A museum exhibition presenting the work to wider audiences.
- A knowledge-dissemination workshop sharing the methodology with research and arts peers.
Funding & partners
- UCL Performing Planet Activism — £8,000.
- Kings Crescent Estate residents.
- Artist Hector Dyer.
Relevance
For research-impact, knowledge-exchange and cultural-policy roles, this project shows how a small grant can generate durable public-facing artefacts — a zine, a film, an exhibition — that travel well beyond the research community.