Introduction

Last month, Arts and Culture co-hosted our second Exchange Symposium in partnership with another university team, Public Engagement with Research. We commissioned illustrator Laura Miles-Boardman to create a day-by-day illustrated summary, and we recorded each session for posterity – both the illustrations and the videos are compiled below and we hope you enjoy them.

The central purpose of the Exchange Symposium is to celebrate, question and discuss the mutual benefits that come from communities and researchers working together. Researchers inside universities are working on large and complex real-world challenges across all aspects of life. Communities outside universities have lived experience of these challenges, as well as expertise, skills and insights that can shine new light on thorny problems. Combined, amazing work can happen.

While ‘the university’ or ‘the community’ can each be summarised in a single word, such brevity isn’t always helpful and masks huge variety on both sides. Any organisation with over 5,000 staff across two counties is going to be challenging to navigate, and we all belong to multiple communities, depending on a range of factors and context. Strategy and serendipity are needed for new working partnerships to be forged and maintained. If there was one message I would take from Exchange Symposium, it’s that “it’s all about relationships”. I so enjoyed hearing about people learning from each other and getting a buzz from someone else’s ways of working or thinking or being. Staying curious seems to be the key.

Sarah Campbell, Associate Director for Arts and Culture, University of Exeter

Day 1

Wednesday 30 June: Climate and Environment

Day 1: Session 1 - Opening and Keynote: Painting a Parish Future

To open the Exchange Symposium 2021, Professor Neil Gow, Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Exeter, discusses 'Collaborating with Communities' and Martha Wilkinson, CEO of Devon Communities Foundation explores 'Collaborating with University Researchers'. This is followed by a keynote by ecological artist Peter Ward and Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Exeter, Penryn Dr Joanie Willett. Together they share insights into their working practices and what new knowledge they have gained through their recent creative collaboration 'Painting a Parish Future'. Chaired by Sarah Campbell, Associate Director for Arts and Culture, University of Exeter.

Day 1: Session 2 - Tidelines: Bringing together different forms of knowledge to inform research, action and care for the place that we live

In this talk artists Jo Salter and Anne-Marie Culhane and University of Exeter Research Fellow Tom Powell discuss their work on 'Tidelines' an artist-led interdisciplinary community project working with the Exe estuary and coast and bringing together arts, sciences, local knowledge and academic research to celebrate, learn more about and care for our changing home at a time of climate and ecological emergency. Chaired by Lindsey Anderson, Impact and Partnership Development Manager – Community Partnerships, University of Exeter.

Day 1: Session 3 - International Collaboration: Perspectives of Local

Imagine you live in Indonesia and the only scientists you have met are Europeans who study your local river, but you know it better than they do. In this discussion Indah Sartika Sari (Msc Student of Conservation and Biodiversity, University of Exeter), Dr Heather Koldewey (Senior Technical Advisor Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Honorary Professor University of Exeter) and Dr Mark Griffiths (Research Fellow, University of Newcastle) argue that international field work often plays out in this way, with scientific research in the Global South led and benefitting academics in the Global North. Through video informal talk, video, and open discussion together they share ideas on how improving scientific collaborations will lead to better environmental and conservation results. Chaired by Dr Kate Baker, Research Fellow at the University of Exeter and Director of Agile Rabbit.

Day 2

Thursday 1 July - Health and Well-Being

Day 2: Session 1 - Your Body is a Planet

Devon based artist Léonie Hampton discusses her embedded residency with the University's MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (CMM) alongside Prof. Neil Gow and Prof. Elaine Bignell from the University of Exeter. During the talk Léonie touches on her interdisciplinary exploration of ideas and practices around biomedical research at the CMM, including ways in which the scientific process of discovery and invention can be understood and represented. Chaired by Brigid Howarth, Head of Society, Culture and Organisations (IIB), University of Exeter.

Day 2: Session 2 - Here's to Thee, the microbiopolitics of cider-making

Artist Simon Pope, and Harry G West, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Exeter, discuss their Arts and Culture/Royal Albert Memorial Museum Arts Commission 2020-22 'Here's to Thee' which explores how humans negotiate their social relationships with microbial life with a particular focus on cider-making. Their project is a collaboration with Grays Farm Cider, as well as a selection of other artists and researchers, along the microbial allies who live in the orchards and cider-barns at Halstow (near Exeter) - the yeasts, moulds, and bacteria that take part in the process of fermentation. Chaired by Sarah Campbell, Associate Director for Arts & Culture, University of Exeter.

Day 2: Session 3 - Agile Rabbit presents online panel discussion: Tech vs Trust

In this lively online discussion hosted by Agile Rabbit, Glen Weyl (Microsoft’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer Political Economist and Social Technologist), Reema Patel (Associate Director at the Ada Lovelace Institute) and Henry Farrell (SNF Agora Professor of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies) take a deep dive in to the relationship between online technology and our data. We give away our data in exchange for so-called ‘free’ services, giving firms valuable information that underpins their business models. The data drives revenue, often used to help targetted adverts function or provide data work for other AI. We love the benefits of ‘free’ technology, but perhaps anxiety is rising as trust recedes in big tech companies such as Facebook and Google. Has our trust actually been breached and if so does this even matter? Chaired by Ritula Shah (lead presenter on BBC Radio 4’s ‘The World Tonight').

Day 3

Friday 2 July: Process (how we do it)

Day 3: Session 1 - The Sex and Nature Salon - Combining Comedy and Academia for Engagement, Networking and Fun

Comedian and 2020/2021 Arts and Culture Creative Fellow Siân Docksey and Lecturer in German and Co-Director of the Sexual Knowledge Unit at the University of Exeter, Dr Ina Linge share more about how and why they created 'The Sex and Nature Salon', an online event format where academia meets queer comedy cabaret in a hilarious whirlwind of fascinating talks, stand-up, drag and irreverent fun. Together they outline practical tools to make a fizzing online event, and report their learnings and future plans for the salon. Chaired by Sarah Campbell, Associate Director for Arts & Culture, University of Exeter

Day 3: Session 2 - Adventures in Time and Gender: Pivoting from theatre production to podcast

The Rethinking Sexology and Transformations Team from the University of Exeter share their experiences of having to change substantial engagement plans due to Covid 19. What was planned to be a theatre production of their collaborations with Jason Barker and Gendered Intelligence, turned into a three episode podcast series instead. Here, they reflect on the struggles and the celebrations and lessons learned in what has been a challenging year for those with public engagement plans. Chaired by Dr Kate Baker, Research Fellow at the University of Exeter.

Day 3: Session 3 - Education Incubator Panel: How can students and communities learn together?

The Education Incubator is a University of Exeter investment in cultivating pedagogic innovation and collaboration. The Incubator supports academics from across the University by creating spaces in which they can explore and develop pedagogic innovations and ideas, including community-engaged learning.

In this panel we hear about two projects, each represented by an academic and a community partner: Professor Fabrizio Nevola and Dr Judith Morgane introduce 'Hidden Exeter and St Nicholas' Priory' and Dr Francesco Goglia, Thomas Porter, and Dr Sarah Lawson discuss Students as Teachers of 'Multilinguilism: a Bi-Directional Project between the University of Exeter and Rokeby School'. The panel reflects, and invites conversation, on the process of facilitating community-engaged learning - both the challenges and the benefits. Chaired by Sarah Campbell, Associate Director for Arts & Culture, University of Exeter.

Day 3: Session 4 - Discussion: The Slow Ritual of Care: Adapting in times of change

In the final session of the Symposium, Animal Research Nexus' Creative Facilitator Dr Bentley Crudgington explains how and why he developed 'A Slow Ritual of Care' as a creative research method used to facilitate discussion about the use of animals in research. He reflects on how and why this method works so well, and lessons learned on adapting to virtual engagement over the past year. Chaired by Sarah Campbell, Associate Director for Arts & Culture, University of Exeter.

Revisit the Symposium Programme

View and download the programme for the Exchange Symposium 2021, which took place from 30 June - 2 July 2021.

Exchange Symposium 2021 pdf programme