Impact case study database

Educational Entertainment. A collaboration with Chipping Norton Theatre (2017-20; trialled with Pegasus Theatre 2016) adapted 19^th-C popular drama and music with interspersed educational talks, creating ‘Contagion Cabaret’. The Cabaret showed diverse audiences how popular culture, past and present, exploits metaphorical connections between disease and ‘contagion of ideas’. Venues included the History of Science Museum, Oxford (audience: 60), Pitt Rivers Museum (200), and Chipping Norton Theatre (50) (5.1.i). Updated and filmed during COVID-19 lockdown, the Cabaret provided online educational entertainment for 735 viewers (post-show discussion: 345+ views) (5.1.iii). Its ‘brilliant and irreverent historical look at lockdowns, diseases and pandemics’ (Ox in a Box review, 5.1.ii) generated intense audience responses (‘Moved me to tears… what a powerful idea’; ‘current/past/scientific...... I couldn't stop watching’) (5.1.iii). The theatre benefitted from ‘new ways of working during lockdown/social distancing’, speaking to ‘themes and ideas … of immediate relevance and interest to our audience’ (Director). 45 days of freelance actor and production staff employment were created during enforced theatre closure (5.1.iii).

19 state-school students on the 2018 Oxfordshire County Music Service Advanced Musicianship Programme developed composition skills, interpreting ‘Contagion Cabaret’ for a ‘Contagion Camerata’. Working with composer John Traill (U Oxford), they elaborated motifs of contagion, capturing ‘the feeling of what it was like to have a terminal illness’ and improvising on thematic ‘cells’, ‘mutating’ between instruments (participant interview feedback, 5.2.ii) (live audience: 65; YouTube video of performance viewed 83 times, 5.2.iii).

A DML-designed programme of interactive games and activities at the History of Science Museum, Oxford (HSMO) in 2018 educated 180 amateur science enthusiasts in the technologies that fuelled 19^th-C anxieties about accelerating pace of life (5.1.i). Participants welcomed the ‘move away from a very academic approach only to museums’, reporting changed perceptions of ‘modern’ pressures: (indicatively) ‘I'm surprised at how not-modern the pressures are! ... even instant connectivity’ (5.3).

Collaboration with the Projection Studio created ‘Victorian Light Night’ (VLN), part of the city of Oxford’s Light Night, 2018: 2,500 festival-goers watched a rolling sound and light projection sequence on the Radcliffe Infirmary building, Oxford, in November (5.4.i). A scripted montage of Victorian archival images and sounds incorporated a ‘telegraph polka’ with commissioned recordings of 19^th-C environmental pollution songs on Victorian instruments and a telegraph machine (‘Amazing [how] … [p]resent conditions are simply an increment on’ rapid 19^th-C technological change – anonymous feedback, 5.4.ii). Accompanying talks and activities on historical perspectives of ‘work-life balance’ and technological/workplace anxieties gave visitors a changed understanding of ‘convalescence’ (‘didn’t know about … convalescent homes. … [I]nteresting!’, 5.4.ii). Others gained new perspectives on trade unions – born of ‘overly demanding’ 19^th-C employment practices (5.4.ii). The installation expanded Projection Studio’s ‘range as artists’, providing new research input (with Shuttleworth ‘guid[ing] and support[ing]’ interpretation) – yielding ‘an incredibly powerful way of working’ with new publics and generating a further commission (testimonial letter, 5.4.iii). VLN won an Oxford Preservation Trust Award (2019), recognising ‘temporary installations or events that help bring the city’s past alive’ (5.4.iv). Re-constructed at the Poole Guildhall in February 2020 for a Digital Light Art Festival, the installation was seen by 40,000 (5.4.iii). VLN moved to Otago, New Zealand the same month. As COVID-19 spread through the Southern hemisphere, it became increasingly relevant, attracting over 1,000 viewers in Dunedin, c. 80 of whom attended Shuttleworth’s accompanying public lecture at the Toitū Otago Settlers Museum (co-hosts: U Otago). The Museum’s Public Programmes Developer observed: ‘the work inspired … realisation that many … 21^st-century life [stresses]’ have 19^th-C precursors; musicians were intrigued by the audio track ‘imagining the sounds of Victorian life’ (5.5.i). Feedback postcards highlighted viewers’ surprise that ‘diseases of modern life have a long (and well-considered) history’; ‘The projection made me think about the pressures on us by COVID 19 […] panic buying adding bodily stress’ (5.5.ii). Nationwide reach came through a 30-minute interview on Radio NZ’s prime-time (live audience: c. 316,000). A listener, planning to write a popular Victorian history, welcomed a ‘resource gold mine’ (5.5.iii).

Enhancing English and History curricula in the UK. Workshops with Cheney School, Oxford supported the Year 8 English curriculum, comparing Victorian and modern responses to new communication and transport technologies. 30 children produced artistic interpretations – the most striking projected onto the Radcliffe Infirmary as part of VLN. The school lead observed ‘behavioural’ and ‘educational’ benefits (5.6). 62% of children changed ‘the way [they] think about how [they] communicate with others’: ‘the school should teach about phone addiction’; ‘I should talk in person for those who I can and only use online … for those I can’t’ (5.6).

An online kit of 19^th-C literary non-fiction extracts improved resources for the 9-1 GCSE English Language and Literature unseen test. Collaborating in 2019 with the Thomas Hardy Society educational charity in Dorset looking to widen access to 19^th-C literature, DML trialled extracts (AQA exam formatted including introduction and glossary) with 6 teachers from mixed schools. Teachers praised an ‘improved range of resources’ and fresh ways of ‘us[ing] contextual links’ in teaching (5.7.i). Released nationally via the Oxford English Faculty resources webpage, and used by the AQA with teachers (5.7.i, addendum), the kit filled a resource gap (teacher feedback, Finham Park 2 Academy: ‘I had been struggling to find appropriate texts, … non-fiction can be a huge challenge, … these extracts … [are] a little gold mine!’, 5.7.ii). 17 Year 10 students attending a free Dorset state schools workshop understood better ‘how to answer GCSE questions and prepare … for analysing texts’; 87% became more interested in the Victorians, 94% more interested in history of medicine (5.7.i).

Bonea created an online adventure story about a 19^th-C boy attempting to telegraph a mango seed, India to London. Hosted by open website Storyweaver (India), The Magic Mango educated children in the historical impact of technology. Since going live (31 March 2018), The Magic Mango has been translated into 9 languages including Bengali, Hindi, Romanian, Tamil (5.8.i), and adopted by Free Kids Books (online), recommended for Grades 1-3 History and English ( 9,000+ downloads) (5.8.ii). The story gave pupils ‘exposure and challenges beyond routine syllabus and social environment’ (Principal, Focus High School, Hyderabad, 5.8.iii). A virtual theatre production and documentary film adaptation were produced by Hyderabad children during lockdown, September 2020 (5.8.iv).

Informing patient-centred care and clinical practice. ‘MindReading’ workshops in Dublin, Birmingham and Oxford (2017-20) assisted patient-centred care and clinical practice. The first workshop (approved by the College of Psychiatrists, Ireland) enabled psychiatrists’ and patients’ reflection on how far they speak the same language, and how narrative can bridge gaps. Dickson and Shuttleworth gave public talks exploring mental health through literature and self-narration and curated an exhibition at the dlr LexIcon Public Library and Cultural Centre, Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, comparing literary and medical representations of mental illness (the Senior Executive Librarian welcomed ‘something quite radically new for us’, advancing the Centre’s work in bibliotherapy, 5.9.i). Representatives of REFOCUS (Recovery Experience Forum of Carers and Users of Services) found new ways to articulate experience of psychosis, including ‘A Healing Sonnet’ (5.9.ii). A MindReading online toolkit created by Shuttleworth and Dickson with clinicians and patient groups enabled psychiatrists to ‘explore the patient experience through the prism of literature and personal narrative’, informing ‘self-care, patient-centred care, and … clinical practice’ (toolkit introduction, 5.9.iii; clinicians’ endorsements, 5.9.iv). Two resource pages have been viewed 980 and 732 times; these include a YouTube video which has been viewed 60 times (average viewing time: 3.25 minutes, 5.9.v).