PolyVocalCity: What’s On?

Building from the knowledge we have acquired and developed from last year’s conversations around Croydon, we will continue working in the borough and beyond with methodologies of world-building and gaming to find new strategies for achieving environmental and social justice in the urban realm. This year we are interested in employing the metaphor of parasitic life to interrogate symbiotic relationships based on co-dependency and resilience to break down hierarchical structures while exploring their fragility and their potential danger. We are particularly interested in engaging with ideas of:

1. Structural similarities – what similar grounds and resources do we share? 
2. Parasitic strategies – using mimicry to avoid detection 
3. To be and to become parasites – who is being colonised/ who is being the coloniser?
4. Parasites as noise and disruption – parasitic life as resistance 

We are interested in initiating new conversations and generating new thinking to create discourses that offer practical and theoretical responses through four dedicated sessions on choreography, sound, writing, and infrastructure and the production of a community TV programme and a public event.

The program will be delivered in partnership with locally based arts organisation Turf Projects and Croydon’s Placemaking Team.

 Program

The cohort will participate in a seven-month curated program of workshops, talks, walks and activities led by our diverse network of collaborators including artists, activists, thinkers and urbanists. Participants will develop their thinking and practice through the co-production of knowledge, establishing a platform for sharing cross-disciplinary ideas on city-making.

Participants will be supported in co-producing a TV show exploring how to enact social and environmental justice for Croydon and beyond. They will curate the show and its content with the support of cultural producer A- – -Z (Anne Duffau) and work towards a public presentation of the final outcome with one of our partners in the fall. 

Full program here

If you have any questions please read our FAQ or email cohort@theatrum-mundi.org

Eligibility 

We are interested in hearing from people with a broad range of perspectives on cities and culture from all disciplines and at all stages in their careers. We particularly welcome applicants from under-represented backgrounds – working class, migrant, diasporic, LGBTQIA, ethnic minority, neurodivergent and low-income. Diversity, in its broadest definition, will be the driving force behind the selection of applicants. 

All applicants must be able to commit to the whole program which will be conducted in person in Croydon. In addition, applicants should be able to commit sufficient time to develop activities for the production of the TV show between May and July as well as working towards the public event in the fall. 

Apply

We have extended the deadline!

Complete this form by 16th February 2024 – before midnight. 

Selection by 19th February 2024

Program starts 9th March 2024

We welcome audio and video applications. If you require any other assistance due to your access requirements, please get in touch with cohort@theatrum-mundi.org. It is our responsibility to make the application process as accessible as possible.

Fees 

£290 – Student/Senior/Concessions (Unwaged / In receipt of Universal Credit / State Pension)

£350 – Professional

£550 Organisations

(Free) Mentee 

We want to ensure equitable access to our resources and will be offering 10 free places to those from underrepresented groups (working class, migrant, diasporic, LGBTQIA, ethnic minority, neurodivergent and low-income backgrounds). People from Croydon or with a strong connection to Croydon will be prioritised to become mentees. If you are interested in applying, please outline your eligibility in the email application. 

PolyVocalCity: Re-Staging Croydon festival, 2023.