It’s been a while since our last update and so we want to bring you up to speed with the project.
Back in February we were invited by the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health at the University of Exeter to talk about our research. As well as presenting initial findings we also had breakout activities where attendees had the opportunity to try out some of the creative methods we used. You can watch the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGFqwOypET8
Then in May we had our end of project event at the Macrobert Arts Centre at the University of Stirling, which we facilitated together with Gavin Crichton from project partner Active Inquiry. It was brilliant to hold it in person, particularly as we were able to show Ray Bird’s wonderful documentary of the project, Re-imagining the Future in Older Age – on the cinema screen. The event was attended by members of the third sector, academia, research participants, and others interested in the project themes of ageing, futures, and intergenerational relationships.
After the film screening attendees took part in workshops where they tried out creative writing methods, used Forum Theatre techniques, discussed novels depicting themes of ageing and futures, and helped us to develop our utopian methods toolkit.
Screening of Re-imagining the Future film at the Macrobert Arts Centre on 3 May 2022. Photograph by Ray Bird.
The project funding ended last month, but we’re still working on project outputs. On September 2nd please join us for an online screening of the film Re-imagining the Future in Older Age and a discussion with the director Ray Bird, the research team, Gavin Crichton and Liz Strange from arts company and project partner Active Inquiry, and older adults who participated on the project. You can register for free here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/reimagining-the-future-in-older-age-online-film-screening-and-discussion-tickets-395009683597. Following the film screening we’ll make the film publicly available on this website.
Once we’ve finalised the utopian methods toolkit, we will also make it available on the website. The toolkit is designed to advise organisations on how to practically embed creative methods and utopian thinking into planning and campaigns to encourage more imagination and aspiration in policy making.
We have submitted research papers to academic journals and are in the process of writing more. We will keep you posted on our publications via our Twitter account.
We’re really pleased with how the project has gone – especially considering the upheaval of the last two years – and it’s clear that the topic of older age and future time has resonated with a range of people. There is clearly more work to be done in this area and we hope to pursue these themes in future projects.
