James will speak about his new work on the concept of care aesthetics – that is how the practice of care is embodied, sensory and craft like. Rather than thinking about the arts in care settings, care aesthetics focuses on the artistry of the care worker, and the care work of the artist. James will discuss care aesthetics as it is applied to the work of health care workers, artists and in everyday life. The talk will conclude with a discussion of the relation between care aesthetics and socially engaged theatre. How might theatre practitioners create experiences of care in their work? Considering the impact of Covid and our current ‘cost of living crisis’, what implications does attention to the aesthetics of care have for theatre projects and their participants?
James Thompson is Professor of Applied Theatre at the University of Manchester. He was the founder of In Place of War (www.inplaceofwar.net) researching and developing arts programmes in conflict zones and now runs a research project on Care Aesthetics. He has run theatre projects internationally and has written widely on applied theatre and socially engaged arts. Past books include Performance Affects (2009), Humanitarian Performance (2014) and edited with Amanda Stuart Fisher (2020) Performing Care. His new book Care Aesthetics: for Careful Art and Artful Care was published in 2022.