Care-full Co-design with Older Adults || Connecting Through Culture as we Age || Watershed

This talk introduces the ‘Connecting through Culture as we Age’ research project which explores how participation in all forms of arts and culture, particularly those accessed digitally, can influence wellbeing and feelings of social connection as we age. We are working with 19 co-researchers aged 60-75 who are either disabled, socioeconomically or racially minoritised. The co-researchers are involved in a digital innovation process, in which their voices, lived experiences and expertise shape the co-design of digital cultural experiences and products.

Similarly to the Design Justice movement (Constanta-Chock, 2020) our approach to co-design has been shaped by an intersection of feminist thought and practice, particularly feminist writings on care, relational ontologies and situated knowledges. We will draw on our practices and experiences during the project to introduce a feminist inspired care-full design approach that attempts to foreground the lifeworlds of older minoritized adults and take seriously both their material and embodied experiences of ageing, whilst situating these elements within systemic inequalities experienced across the life course.

Our co-researchers will also share their experiences of being involved in the project.

Helen Manchester is a Professor of Participatory Sociodigital Futures at the University of Bristol and is currenting running an UKRI Healthy Ageing funded research project ‘Connecting through Culture as we Age’. She is also Co-I on the newly funded ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures. Helen is interested in ageing futures, co-design and participatory methods, social connectivity, culture and the arts. She develops methodologically innovative approaches to research in collaboration with artists, technologists, civil society organisations and policy-makers.

Tot Foster is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol, working closely with older co-researchers on ‘Connecting through Culture as we Age’. Tot has interests in filmmaking and artists' practices in working with communities. She has spent many years in the education, community and charity sectors supporting people to produce their own video content. She also collaborates with a variety of heritage organisations developing oral history projects. All her work is grounded in participatory approaches that value and foreground community and individuals' experience and knowledge.

The Pervasive Media Studio is a partnership between the Watershed, University of the West of England and University of Bristol. The lunchtime talks are partly supported by MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol to support creative industries in the region. Watershed is supported by Arts Council England.