Time to Talk and Alonely

As part of the Productive Margins: Regulating for Engagement research programme, I and other Community Researchers, in collaboration with the University of Bristol and the Southville Community Development Association explored the isolation and loneliness of older people in the community and
considered ways of addressing the concerns and challenges uncovered. I became involved in this project as a volunteer, my experience of working as a project officer for a charity that supported older people meant I had first hand experience of hearing stories of everyday loneliness and witnessing the effects of it on the older people I worked with. I wanted to get involved in a project that would enable these experiences to be shared on a wider scale and voiced in a creative yet practical way that would allow loneliness to be discussed more openly hopefully reducing the stigma whilst possibly offering up some ongoing solutions.

As an experienced artist and curator I was invited to design a way of collecting the research.

I designed, built and decorated a wheeled tea trolley, the idea being that a cup of tea and a friendly chat can start natural conversations between researchers and the local community about experiences of loneliness. It was taken to a series of venues and events across the Greater Bedminster area. As a group we felt the research needed to be fun, interesting and easy to participate in. Engaging directly with people in different settings and having a prop that generated interest and conversation was important to the group. Generally, between three and five group members went to each venue and offered tea and cupcakes to the people we met. We talked about our project and asked people if they would be interested in completing a postcard about their experiences of loneliness, which a number of people did.

I was then employed to curate the outcomes from the research. These were a series of stories about loneliness, named the ‘Alonely Monologues’, which were performed to audiences of all age. I put together ideas for how display the research outcomes in the form of an installation as part of an exhibition at Somerset House called Utopia. The installation was a small house in which performers could stand whilst a small audience could come in and watch. There was also a blackboard wall on the side of the house so people could contribute ideas on what loneliness means to them. There were also headphones with audio so people could listen to all the monologues if they wished.

Stand + Stare were invited by Bristol University to support me realise my ideas and plans and organise the practical construction of the installation using a contractor they employ.