The Touch Commission
About
Part of our Bury Park residency, the Touch Commission was a major co-commission with Wellcome Collection — an organisation that uses science and art to challenge how we think and feel about health — that aimed to explore the theme of touch through arts and creativity.
As part of the study, Revoluton Arts and Wellcome Collection co-commissioned award-winning playwright and actor, Sudha Bhuchar, to explore the theme of touch with people in Bury Park through arts and creativity and create her own work in response.
Sudha will presented the final results of her work at a live online event in October 2020.
The results of Wellcome Collection's study into touch were explored in a BBC Radio 4 series, The Anatomy of Touch, in October 2020.
Sudha Bhuchar, Touch Commission recipient
The story
Starting in early 2020, Touch Commission recipient Sudha Bhuchar worked in Bury Park exploring the theme of touch with the people who live and work there.
Through a series of workshops and engagement activities, Sudha recorded personal stories and self-portraits relating to the theme of touch.
Sudha used the material she gathered to inspire a series of creative works, including a crowd-sourced film and original monologues.
Sudha documented her experience through a series of blog posts (you can read them on this page under 'connected blog').
Touchstone Tales is a unique collection of revealing and illuminating stories of Lutonians, seen through the prism of touch. These fictional self-portraits are written by playwright/actor Sudha Bhuchar and inspired by her residency in Bury Park during this unprecedented year, when Covid 19 stole so much human contact. Participants came together (physically and virtually) through workshops, interviews, and a crowd sourced/ co created film, Ramadan in Lockdown Luton. Bhuchar has transformed these shared narratives into a theatrical piece performed online and now captured as audio podcasts and a published text.
An evening of monologues, short film and conversation inspired by stories of 'touch' from Bury Park, performed live at an online event on 26 June 2020.
The second instalment in this series of intensely personal monologues based on real-life stories from Luton's Bury Park.
Crowdsourced film compiled from video footage submitted by people in Luton observing Ramadan in lockdown conditions, and telling the story through the lens of ‘touch’.
Touchstone Tales 2: Bury Park tales
Touchstone Tales monologues
Ramadan in Lockdown Luton film
Evening Conversations
Help us tell the story of Ramadan in lockdown in Luton through the lens of 'touch' — callout for videos
Posted on: May 06, 2020
Exploring 'touch' online workshops - callout for participants in Bury Park
Posted on: Apr 28, 2020
