Hi #SmartCommunity friends, in this episode of the Smart Community podcast I have a great conversation with Dr. Jessamyn Fairfield. Jessamyn is a lecturer in natural sciences at the University of Galway in Ireland. Jessamyn’s work specialises in art-science collaboration with a focus on performing arts and thinking differently about how people can engage with science, technology, and research.
In this episode Jessamyn tells us about Bright Club Ireland, a research comedy variety night where she trained 300+ academics to do standup about their research. We discuss We Built the City on Rock and Coal, an improvised climate change show touring rural Ireland, including how improv creates co-created experiences with audiences and removes perceived power dynamics. We talk about using dance theater to explore concepts like particle-wave duality and local ecologies.
We finish our chat discussing the perception that changing data from graphs and equations is “dumbing it down” and the importance of listening to audiences to discover if your message is actually getting across. As always, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.
Oh also a little heads up that we’ll be taking a few weeks break over the Christmas/New Year season but we will be back in January with more episodes in this PhD series of The Smart Community Podcast!
What we cover in this episode:
- Training researchers to do standup comedy about their work and allowing researchers to maintain authenticity and their own comedy style
- The importance of looking for surprises in research rather than trying to be funny
- Bright Club Ireland’s interdisciplinary approach attracting diverse audiences
- The impact of writing comedy on researchers’ sense of self-determination and humanity
- Improv as a uniquely electric performance form where you watch the creative process happen in real time
- We Built the City on Rock and Coal using audience-written prompts to co-create shows about climate change
- Why making space for emotional responses like existential despair needs to be part of the research and reporting
- The difference in power dynamics between improvisers vs government and resulting difference in consultation and engagement
- Dance theater projects exploring nanoscience, neuroscience, and upcoming work on local ecologies using movement, light, and inclusive choreography
- The “woman laughing while eating salad” feminist circus performance as embodied commentary format
- The perception that changing data from graphs and equations to other formats is “dumbing it down”
- The power of listening to audiences to discover if your message is actually getting across.
Quotes:
“An audience won’t laugh for you if they’re scared for you…The audience has to feel that you are in control for them to feel comfortable enough to let go and laugh.”
“Writing comedy, it helps a lot to have a point of view and admit yes, I am the researcher, but I am also a person with a perspective… For many people it was really important getting to talk about the research in a way that also included their humanity.”
“Improv is almost the only form of creativity where you’re watching the creative process happen in front of you as well as the final outcome. It has an electricness that’s hard to find in other performance pieces.”
“It wasn’t just communicating the facts about climate change. If that were it, we’d be sorted. We know the facts. Making space for people to actually feel the way that they feel about that was really important.”
“How do you engage different types of communities… it’s very similar to so many things and that’s actually just listening to people, considering your audience and listening to the things that they care about. And those might not be the things that, that you thought they would care about, but just ask them. Just ask them.”
Links:
- Bright Club Ireland https://www.youtube.com/brightclubireland
- We Built the City on Rock and Coal tour information https://webuiltthiscity.ie
- Theater of the Oppressed resources https://thedramateacher.com/theatre-of-the-oppressed/
- Woman laughing with salad feminist critique https://veganfeministnetwork.com/women-laughing-alone-with-salad/
- Motivation, self-determination, and reflexivity of researchers in comedic public engagement https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09636625241291464
Connect:
Connect with Jessamyn Fairfield on LinkedIn
Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community
Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn and watch on YouTube
Podcast Production by Perk Digital
This podcast is recorded on the traditional lands of the Kabi Kabi peoples and edited on the lands of the Gaibal peoples. I pay my respects to traditional owners of country and their elders past and present. I also extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples listening today. Here on the Smart Community Podcast, we talk about data, technology, communities and the future. First Nations peoples have been sharing knowledge, caring for country, and telling stories for tens of thousands of years. I honour that deep connection of storytelling and community connection as we continue our conversation together here today.
Disclaimer
The views, opinions, and perspectives expressed by guests on The Smart Community Podcast are solely those of the individual speakers. They do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or positions of the host, Zoe Eather, or of The Smart Community Podcast as a whole.
Any discussion of ideas, products, organisations, or services by podcast guests does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by the host or the podcast. Listeners are encouraged to form their own opinions and seek professional advice where appropriate.
