Brave, Poor (and Invisible): Gatekeepers of Past and Future Cities

Experience creative happenings, visits by robots and an opportunity to be part of a Cultural Animation installation work. This symposium brings together two major national disability projects, Disability and Community: Dis/engagement, Dis/enfranchisement, Dis/parity and Dissent (the D4D project) and History of Place, along with some guest speakers to expose and explore the often absent voices of disabled people in our collective history as well as our future planning.

Delegates will have opportunities to find out about our process for engaging local people in research for a new exhibition at M Shed and the crucial role creative interpretation, digital gaming and new technologies play in giving disabled people a voice in reclaiming their history and their future.

We will explore who has been historically disregarded, left out, or silenced and how we can make sure through our ‘collaboratory’, that these voices are not lost or overlooked in planning and design, or in the way people are valued. We will ask the wider ethical questions as to whether technological progress offers us both a utopian and dystopian future and what methods we can adopt to ensure disabled people are the gatekeepers of their own futures.

Programme ‘Brave, Poor (and Invisible) Gatekeepers of Past and Future Cities’.
20 October 2017 at M Shed Bristol, Events Suite
10 – 10.30 am arrivals and coffee – visit the exhibition Brave Poor Things: Reclaiming Bristol’s Disability History
10.30am: Welcome and Opening Remarks – Esther Fox, Head of the Accentuate Programme, Screen South. http://www.accentuateuk.org/homepage
10.40am Grace Swordy introducing History of Place in Bristol, the ways we engaged local people to explore the history of their city, in particular the absence of disabled people’s voices in the archive record and how digital gaming and film making workshops have given disabled people a voice in re-interpreting this heritage. www.historyof.place
11.10 – 11.20 Questions
11.20 – 11.40 Comfort break and opportunity to play the Brave Poor Things Game/visit Exhibition
11.40 – 12.00 Sue Moffat Director of Borderlines New Vic Theatre Stoke  ‘Exploring Cultural Animation how theatre and play can give communities a voice and presence in expressing issues pertinent to them’. http://www.newvictheatre.org.uk/education-and-community/borderlines/
12.00 – 12.10pm Questions and opportunity to move into the ‘collaboratory’
12.10 – 1.30pm Lunch and opportunity to take part in the ‘collaboratory’ and view exhibition
1.30 – 2.05pm Openstorytellers  ;The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Fanny Fust: an 18th Century Adventure Story’ explores the life of a young heiress with learning disabilities who lived in and around Bristol in the 18th century, and was abducted for marriage. Her story is tumultuous and resonates with many issues that people with learning disabilities still face today. They will present what they have learned by researching together and a ‘Commission of Lunacy’. https://www.openstorytellers.org.uk/
2.05pm – 2.25 Dr Sue Ledger from The Open University and Dr Nicola Grove from The OpenStoryTellers will explore contemporary issues of consent and finding ways for all members of society to participate in their cultural heritage www.drnicolagrove.com
2.25 – 2.35 Questions
2.35 – 3.05 Dr Praminda Caleb-Solly- Associate Professor in Independent Living Systems – Bristol Robotics Laboratory, UWE and Designability will demonstrate the ways in which new technology offers the potential for greater agency and presence for disabled people via telepresence. This session will be co-produced and presented with Miro Griffiths MBE, from Liverpool John Moores University http://ljmu.academia.edu/MiroGriffiths http://www.brl.ac.uk/ http://www.designability.org.uk/
3.05 – 3.15pm Questions
3.15 – 3.20 closing remarks Esther Fox, Head of the Accentuate Programme, Screen South.
3.20 – 4pm Tea/ Coffee final opportunity to see exhibition, play game, explore ‘collaboratory’
4pm close.

To book your place please click on this link to the Future City Festival