A gathering curated by Charlotte Spencer Projects, as part of the Percolate Programme.
Why is touch so important?
Why is it so complicated?
This gathering explores our (no doubt) complex relationships with touch and consent. There will be space for provocation, conversation, watching, listening, doing, digesting and reflecting – led by a collection of artists and practitioners from the fields of dance, performance, neuroscience, therapy and disability.
Human touch is fundamental to human communication, bonding and health. It is our first sense to develop in utero and our primary means for the spread of compassion and empathy. We live our lives through our bodies in a deeply tactile world – constantly touching and being touched. As we emerge from 18 months where touch was banned, and with the on-going reverberations of #metoo – where touch boundaries have been repeatedly violated – we are trying to work out how to be together (again).
This is an experiment at hosting a discursive event in an experiential and hybrid (in-person and online) way so that dialogues about touch and tactility are not abstracted into solely cognitive processes, but remain firmly rooted in our bodies.
This is a relaxed event – you are welcome to move around the building as you wish. There will be space for resting and crafting throughout the day. Refreshments and a plant based vegan lunch are included in the ticket price. You will be asked about your dietary requirements when booking.
Contributors
- Professor Michael Banissy, Social Neuroscientist
- Kimberley Harvey, Dance Artist
- Vera Tussing, Choreographer
- Fevered Sleep, Cross-disciplinary Arts Organisation
- Louise Tanoto, Dance Artist
- Dan Daw, Dance Artist
- Vicky Malin, Dance Artist
- Holly Thomas, Dance Artist
Access for this Event
In-Person
A number of Access Bursaries are available to support attendance.
BSL interpretation will be available at the in-person event.
Support workers and carers are welcome to join the day free of charge. Please select a free Support Worker/Carer Ticket when making your booking.
Online
As a standard all SDS online events feature automated transcription and closed captions. Participants will be able to listen and engage in the talks, and will receive links to view films and other materials on their own devices.
Sun 16 Jan, 11.30am – 5.30pm
At the studios and online
Tickets
In-Person Attendance
General: £10
Bursary: £5
Pay-it-forward: £15
Email us to join the waiting list
Online Attendance
General: £5
Book Tickets
Access Bursaries
We have a number of travel and access bursaries available to support attendance. We can offer up to £40 for around 10 people . Please get in touch with Charlotte Spencer Projects directly if you would like to apply.
Please email: info@charlottespencerprojects.org
Touching Matters forms part of Charlotte Spencer Project’s Written in the Body – a research project with performers Dan Daw and Louise Tanoto.
Written in the Body is funded by Siobhan Davies Studios through Percolate, The Place and Wellcome Collection through a Choreodrome Commission, Bonnie Bird Choreographic Development Award 2020 and Arts Council England.
Covid-19 Safety at SDS
Before attending our studios we ask that you read our COVID-19 page and familiarise yourself with the precautions we’ve put in place to ensure the safety of staff and all our users.
ACCESS AND AMENITIES AT SDS
Siobhan Davies Studios is mostly accessible to wheelchair users, with lifts to all floors. There are two accessible parking spaces available on site which can be booked in advance.
Amenities include:
- Changing facilities*
- Communal showers*
- Lockers
- Toilets / wheelchair accessible toilets
- Kitchen: tea and coffee making, fridge, and microwave (not fully accessible)
* Our changing facilities and showers are not fully accessible. Our closest publicly available and fully accessible changing facility is at The Castle Centre, a leisure centre 0.3 miles away from the studios. You can find full details of their features here.
Artists
Charlotte Spencer Projects
Our work is motivated by interests to engage with important social and ecological questions and to find ways to express those enquiries through intimate live encounters with audiences. We often make performances for unusual spaces in order to open new forms of conversation, and change how and where performances happen. Through each artistic project we strive to build community by inviting people to re-encounter their bodies and their environments through action and participation.
charlottespencerprojects.org