I presented new research at the conference Improvising Care at McGill University, Montreal (2024) as part of the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology)-funded project: TOOLKIT OF CARE (TOC), CA21102. The conference was embedded within Flux Festival of experimental music and included artists, musicians, creatives and theorists positioning of improvisation within research practices.
This new research project is funded by BA/Leverhulme Small Projects Grant and Sheffield Hallam University and brings together a team of early career researchers, artists, activists and senior academics in security and the arts. The research proposes the development of innovative interdisciplinary methodologies between art and security and examines polarisation mechanisms in small communities to inform strategies of cohesion.
TOOLKIT OF CARE (TOC) is an international project led by an interdisciplinary group of creative practitioners, academics, researchers, and arts organisations that specialise in creative technologies and have considerable experience in the production and dissemination of this kind of knowledge across Europe and internationally, who have come together to form a “critical network of care.” The network collaborates to share their collective expertise and technical knowledge employed in creative ways to develop knowledge and methodologies of care. The main aim is to produce a well formulated and integrated TOOLKIT OF CARE comprising articles, prototypes, audiovisual documentation, technical manuals, theoretical analysis, and data. It will act as a model of how to successfully share knowledge and expertise across different geographical regions and social groups.