In 2001 I was pleased to have the opportunity to work with internationally acclaimed performance artist, Bobby Baker, on a Wellcome Trust Sciart Award. These awards are made to promote imaginative and innovative interdisciplinary collaborations between artists and scientists. Our first project grew out of a common link to CBT. I have practised this form of therapy throughout my career and Bobby Baker has used CBT to help her deal with personal issues of her own. The first ‘performance’ we jointly devised was a simulated social psychological experiment in which groups of arts and science participants were invited to ‘tea parties’ at which expectations were confounded and the participants had to resolve them spontaneously. Open discussion after the ‘experiment’ revealed different responses from artists and scientists and explored parallels between drama and therapeutic role-play in CBT (see our chapter in Arends and Thackera, 2003).
Inspired by her personal experience of therapy, Bobby Baker turned to the subject of self-improvement and life-skills training, and made it the subject of a multi-media, theatrical event How to live which has had two runs at the Barbican Theatre in London (2004, 2006) and has been performed at the Newhaven International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Conn., USA (2005), in Australia and Germany, and also at other venues. Still being performed in a smaller-scale version, this show is humorous and entertaining, with an ironic sub-text about the role of therapy in society at large (especially the self-help ideas of self-styled gurus). In the show, Bobby Baker presents herself as the inventor of a powerful set of life-changing principles designed as the solution to all personal ills.A public debate was held at the Barbican Centre after one performance, chaired by Marina Warner, novelist, critic and cultural historian, and including Nikolas Rose and other speakers.
To download my contribution, click here
All content © Richard Hallam 2009-2011