Future River Soundings: Performance/workshop

Future River Soundings is a workshop/performance that takes participants on a short walk into the future of their local river. As they walk, an app on their phones guides them to imagine and write about how they would like the river and its environment to be in future. When participants return to the workshop venue, the hopeful science fiction story they have written collectively is performed for them with an improvised, immersive soundtrack.

Future River Soundings is an engagement activity, which uses performance, science-fiction storytelling, and immersive sound to support people to imagine preferable futures for their rivers, and to make their ideas feel more tangible. The aim is to develop an entertaining way of involving a wider range of people in decision-making about their freshwater systems, to build a sense of responsibility for rivers, and to enable participants to discuss steps that could be taken to move towards the futures they want for their local environment.

PERFORMANCES?ENGAGEMENT & PRESENTATIONS/SHOWCASES
• Performances/workshops run for regenerative designers at Watershed, as part of Wild and Generous project, 2024, in community centres in Shirehampton, Sherston, and Avonmouth.
• Future Soundings was successfully trialled at Defra Futures, CaBA, and Policy Lab’s national forum, Changing Course, a workshop and exhibition for senior policymakers on 15 June 2023 at Makerversity/Somerset House as part of their Water Post 2043 project (80 attendees over 2 days). A booklet was produced and this Policy Lab blog on using experimental methods to reimagine decision-making for the freshwater system, post 2043: https://openpolicy.blog.gov.uk/2024/02/07/using-experimental-methods-to-reimagine-decision-making-for-the-freshwater-system-post-2043/
• Showcased and presented at Defra’s national Innovation Day at Horizon House, Bristol and online, May 2024.