EMPATHY SPACES

We’re delighted to announce that we’re reuniting with the wonderful team from Padepokan Seni Bagong Kussudiardja, having been successful in receiving funding for a joint project from the British Council!

The ‘International Collaboration Programme’ received around 950 applications(!!!!) from across the globe and we are SO DELIGHTED to have been successful in receiving funding for our innovative virtual collaboration, ‘Empathy Spaces’.

Building on the knowledge and research we have gathered from The School of Hope the project will see us work with, and mentor, a series of young creatives in the UK and Indonesia, in conjunction with an Empathy artist and academics, experimenting with new ways to connect and develop audiences in both physical and virtual spaces.

We’ll explore how we can create digitally interactive, non-verbal theatre that spans continents and language barriers and investigate how we can enhance an audience’s relationship with the theatrical experience as well as deepen their emotional and intellectual connections independently and collectively.

‘Empathy Spaces’ will celebrate how theatre can bring together people from different backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities, to enjoy shared experiences, dialogue and gain a greater understanding and appreciation of each other’s lived experiences.

There will be 4 online performance opportunities across the series of the project in the UK and Indonesia, enabling the young artists to collaborate and trial digital tools to allow virtual and physical audiences to have meaningful dialogue with each other and the artists. After each live event there will be the opportunity for reflection and evaluation: digital experimentation and infrastructure for the next event will be planned in response, and the project will then culminate with a fifth and final sharing, both live and digitally, in the UK and Indonesia, to celebrate the findings.

We’re really looking forward to planning the project out in more detail over the coming weeks and will be sure to update you, just as soon as we can.

A massive thank you also to Citranet for supporting PSBK and helping the project come to fruition.