panel 3
Endurers
(co-creative interactive performance)
Group -TKLNV: Truus Teunissen, Jacqueline Kool, Paul Lindhout, Alistair Niemeijer & Merel Visse
Since 2021, we – a group of academic researchers who are friends – have been exchanging our views and personal experiences on vulnerabilities in everyday life. Inspired by Frans Vosman (2023), we wonder whether precarity can (also) be understood as a form of “enduring” or “surviving” as opposed to an idealized concept of lived reality, which portrays setbacks in life as something that can be “managed” or “coped’ with.” Survival is, in the words of Frans Vosman, an endeavour, an arduous experience, and a struggle to deal with the challenges in life.
First, there is a short introduction by the researchers about enduring and surviving and what we intend to do in this session. This is followed by a joint interactive and creative performance by everyone present in the room. This is inspired by five starting themes, each of which can be read or seen on one of the five tables. These starting themes deal with aspects of “enduring” or “surviving.” Around each table we form subgroups. A set of artistic expression materials is made available there. This can be used as desired to make mix of sketches, poems, written text, painting, cartoons, symbols, collage, et cetera. Using these artistic expressions, everyone explores and investigates “enduring” or “surviving,” starting from the table’s theme. This can be done individually and by generating ideas in conversations with each other.
After fifteen minutes there is a short break. One of the researchers addresses an aspect of “endurance.” Then we move on to the next table with a different theme. We repeat this until each table has been visited by each subgroup. The graphic results are then hung on the wall for everyone to see. Finally, we respond and reflect together on the artistic expressions and what they may reveal.
Dr. G. J. (Truus) Teunissen is guest researcher at the Department of Care Ethics, University of Humanistic Studies, Utrecht, the Netherlands and at Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing, Leiden, the Netherlands. She is also committee member in two research programmes at ZonMw, The Hague, the Netherlands. Her research focuses on Patient and Public Involvement (PPI), justice, care ethics, inclusivity, arts and health, and experiential knowledge. She works with auto ethnographic, phenomenological, and arts-based research methods. In 2012, she issued a set of appraisal criteria from the patient’s perspective for health research and quality of care improvement activities. Since then, she is involved in the health research cycle decision making, both as researcher and as experiential expert. In her work, she focuses on arts and care and on ethical issues in care and research. She translates her lived experiences with chronic diseases – experiences such as vulnerability, strength, and belonging – into artistic expressions such as sculptures and paintings and uses these in projects, publications, and exhibitions.
Drs. J. (Jacqueline) Kool is an independent researcher, writer, and disability advocate in the field of disability studies. Her work centers on disabled people’s belonging and representations of the disabled body. Her work reflects a commitment to integrate theoretical perspectives, professional knowledge, and lived experience of disability. Currently, she works on PhD research at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht. Both her PhD research and her advocacy work address the subject of disability, sexuality, and pleasure. Besides that, she is member of the Kreukelcollectief, a collective of persons working on disability history in society, arts, and culture. She is one of the founders of Disability Studies in the Netherlands and worked as the organization’s knowledge manager for several years. Additionally, she served as a writer, trainer, consultant, and advocate in policy fields in the Netherlands for over twenty years, e.g. for educational institutions, care institutions, government, patient/disability organizations, and religious communities. https://jacquelinekool.nl/
Dr. ing. P. (Paul) Lindhout, MSHE, is guest researcher at the University of Humanistic Studies, Department of Care Ethics, in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and at the University of Antwerp, Faculty of Applied Economic Sciences and Engineering Management (ENM) in Antwerp, Belgium. He is a self-employed safety consultant and trainer/tutor at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment via PHOV, Utrecht. He is connecting technology-oriented safety science with social, ethical, and human issues using qualitative methods. He has published about language related safety issues and high risk organization safety management challenges. His current research focuses on new technology, artificial intelligence, and its implications for safety and ethics. His special interest is the discovery of new phenomena in unarticulated or unknown realms. His aim is to support the development and use of innovative, psychological, and arts-based methods to the benefit of workers in industry and of people with medical and social issues.
Dr. A. (Alistair) Niemeijer’s line of research focuses on precarious practices of care and well-being of and for the (chronically) vulnerable. He has (co-)authored scientific articles in a diverse range of scientific journals and has also contributed to several Dutch media outlets and policy reports on topics related to medical and care ethics. Having both a chronic illness and a young son with Down’s Syndrome and epilepsy, Alistair is intrinsically and professionally motivated to carry out research that is aimed at understanding better what it means to live with a chronic disease or disability and what the everyday aspirations of caregivers entail. Currently he works as an Assistant Professor in Care Ethics at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht.
Dr. M. (Merel) Visse is an academic, artist, editor, and educator who, for three decades, successfully initiated various grant-funded, innovative, cross-disciplinary programs with civic and academic impact. She holds faculty positions at Drew University’s Caspersen School of Graduate Studies (U.S.A.), where she chairs a Graduate Program, and at the University of Humanistic Studies. Merel serves on several editorial boards of Visual Art and Education journals, co-founded the Meaningful Artistic Research Program in The Netherlands, and the Art & Care Platform Series. Merel was an artist in residence at the NY School of Visual Arts and the NARS Foundation in Brooklyn. She is fortunate to call both the United States and the Netherlands home. www.merelvisse.com
Location
23-25 January 2025
Kontakt der Kontinenten, Amersfoortsestraat 20
3769 AS Soesterberg
Online
23-25 January 2025
Kontakt der Kontinenten, Amersfoortsestraat 20
3769 AS Soesterberg
Online
30-31 January 2025 (Zoom links to be published later)
Contact info Louis van den Hengel
Images homepage: Merel Visse, Christine Leroy
design website: Johanne de Heus and Marielle Schuurman