How can we use immersive theatre to look afresh at ‘arts-led dialogue’ and understand the ethical and social implications of digital transformation?

Big Telly Theatre Company partnered with researchers Michael Pinchbeck, Josh Edelman and Kirsty Fairclough from Manchester Metropolitan University and Eleanor O’Keeffe from the National Centre for Social Research as part of a research project supported by the Centre’s Collaborate fund.

Their research partnership explored how ‘arts-led dialogue’ can uncover the psychological and social effects of digitising memory and memorialisation through immersive theatre performance, Granny Jackson’s Dead.

Adopting a co-creative approach

The project centred upon collaboration and co-creation at every stage. The team was involved in planning, designing, developing and sharing Granny Jackson’s Dead to ensure a shared approach, cross-disciplinary integration and robust data collection.

The research team attended performances in Belfast to explore how immersive theatre can serve as a hands-on, thoughtful research tool. This method enabled theoretical, creative and practical insights to come together and grow through direct interaction.

Creating dialogue to strengthen social cohesion

The project builds on Big Telly’s real-world knowledge of working with divided communities to model a conscious and consensual space for public dialogue through creative practice.

The team facilitated workshops with participants from different traditions in Northern Ireland to explore the personal and social impacts of technology on memory and memorialisation, including grief and grieving.

This was then fed back to writers Owen Booth, Bernie McGill and RB Kelly so they could experiment with embodying these dilemmas and debates in character and character-driven scenarios.

Reconceptualising arts-led dialogue

The research explored various methods to understand whether immersive performance and elicitation techniques could work together to generate meaningful data.

Adapting the methodological approach ’embedded dramaturgy’, developed by Michael Pinchbeck, the team designed Granny Jackson’s Dead as both a performance and a research tool. This involved embedding researchers with Big Telly, bringing an outside eye to the creative process.

Michael shares more about this approach in the book Acts of Dramaturgy.

Through dialogue with the audience and follow-up activities, including short interviews and surveys, the research team generated data on how the audience navigated difficult topics, such as grief and mourning, and how technology influences societal memory, personal grieving and familial memorialisation.

This approach advanced the ‘arts-led dialogue’ concept by blending immersive and deliberative techniques. The project also demonstrated that using fiction and maintaining audience enjoyment can create a safe space for people to explore sensitive topics without feeling vulnerable.

Responding to digital transformation in society

Alongside exploring rapid social change, the project team was specifically interested in investigating theatre’s potential to manage rapid technological transformation in society. Big Telly incorporated augmented reality, virtual reality, and immersive and hybrid technology into Granny Jackson’s Dead, allowing online audiences to engage with the performance.

In Bunker Talk #136, Big Telly’s Zoe Seaton reflects on the research project and describes how the Granny Jackson’s Dead audience responded positively to the idea of grief technology. The project demonstrated how technology can support healthy ways to mourn, remember and process loss.

The project team presented findings as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science and Josh Edelman and Zoe Seaton were invited to share more about the collaborative project at a policy event, Culture, Collaboration and Knowledge Exchange: Technology for Social Good, curated by the National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange. There are also plans to present at the Creative Network South Research Alliance Symposium in January 2025.

Big Telly Theatre continues to tour the production, incorporating some of the methods of data collection established by the research team.

You can read more about Granny Jackson’s Dead on the Manchester Metropolitan University blog, Belfast Telegraph and The Irish News.

Article by Maria Radeva.

Photos by Neil Harrison.