Puppetry and Skateboarding – Improving Organisational Performance
Dabei stellt Nicol die Forschungsansätze und Bemühungen das Genre zu stärken in den Vergleich zum großen (kulturpolitischen) Erfolg, den das Skateboarding als Nische durch eine neue Sprache, Forschung und mediale Aufmerksamkeit erzielen konnte.
Manipulate Arts (formerly Puppet Animation Scotland) exists to champion, develop and present brilliant animated film, puppetry and visual theatre in Scotland and internationally.
All of our work is focused around artforms which breathe life into the inanimate or tell stories using primarily images rather than text. Play and manipulation are at the heart of all the work that we champion and support – whether of puppets, objects, digital imagery, or of the human body.
Annually, we present Manipulate Festival, our international animated film, puppetry and visual theatre celebration in Edinburgh. We also work year-round across Scotland through our engagement and community programme Captivate. Artist development is key to our organisation, and we support artists through seed funding, workshop opportunities and sector focused producing support. We are currently core funded by Creative Scotland.
You can read more about our work at www.manipulatearts.co.uk
---
Misunderstanding and Misrepresentation of Contemporary Puppetry
Within the organisation, Manipulate Arts, we are facing a myriad of challenges that are not dissimilar to those faced across the cultural sector in Scotland today however, as an artform specific organisation we are met with both opportunities and challenges that are unique to our situation as an advocacy, development and platform body for puppetry and visual theatre.
The organisation has an added challenge to seeking funding and alternative income due to the underrepresentation of puppetry as an artform within the Scottish culture sector at all levels, from main stages to community arts spaces. The lack of understanding of puppetry as it exists today and resulting misrepresentation of the scope of puppetry as a cross-genre, visual theatre art form results in a challenge for our organisation to convey the artforms breadth of potential to cultural sector colleagues and existing theatre audiences; not to mention cross-sector organisations and the wider public.
In 2021 we surveyed 272 venues from across Scotland to help us understand their perspective on booking puppetry work for their programmes. The survey carried out in 2021 demonstrated that venues do not have a strong audience base or demand for this art form, 72% of venues said that they had consistently struggled to attract enough audience to justify the expense of the shows due to audience attitudes to the artform. Additionally, a large number of organisations went to lengths to specify that compared to other events, even other family events, ‘the puppetry events did not sell well.’ (Manipulate Arts, 2021).
From our engagement with other organisations that are producing or platforming visual theatre and puppetry, as part of a join project titled the European Contemporary Puppetry Critical Platform, we know that puppetry receives less interest both academically and critically than other theatre mediums with a resulting lack of media coverage and minimal academic discourse which ‘prevents this type of artform from accumulating the corresponding symbolic capital.’ (Zajc, 2022).
Reviewing our organisations media archive from 2023 we can see that coverage that does make it into the national press often used words that convey negative connotations which may compound audiences’ associations and experiences with puppetry – the words perplexing, peculiar, strange and weird all appeared within articles reviewing our puppetry and visual theatre festival in 2023.
This language conveys otherness and further pigeon-holes puppetry into a limited space that questions the ‘cultural legitimacy’ of puppetry as a ‘desirable’ artform (Suchman, 1995).
This is further emphasised by feed-back received through a community engagement project carried out by us in 2023, whose participants pre-workshop expressed ‘fear’ around participating in or watching performance featuring puppets. The result of carrying out in-person engagement with these individuals and their subsequent new experience of a puppetry performance that used objects, light and shadows to create stories grew their confidence to attend and gave a wider understanding of what puppetry can mean (Manipulate Arts, 2023).
We can see from these examples of research from within our organisation that puppetry is an art form which has been misunderstood and misrepresented, and that this impacts confidence of promoters and audiences to engage.
The misunderstanding and misrepresentation by promoters, audiences, the media and partners of puppetry as an artform has grown from, and continues to be cemented by, limited experience of puppetry as well as unfamiliarity with newly surfacing visual theatre terminology that could help express the artforms unique qualities and genre defying characteristics with more open, inclusive language.
There has been some research into the relationship between the theatre sector and the term puppet theatre which demonstrates the impact of this misinterpretation and misunderstanding even on artists who must think twice about using the word puppet because of negative associations: close association with children and low status amongst the arts’ (Kruger, 2014).
From the work of Tretinjak et al (2022) and our own experience as an artform promoter, it is clear to see that a distance has developed between the sectors understanding of puppetry as a genre and the reality of contemporary puppetry as a genre defying artform. Contemporary puppetry has been transgressing these genre limits and now exists as an evolving, cross-genre, performing art, as Kruger explains puppet theatre as a term does not acknowledge the artistic scope and complexity of an artwork in which multiple visual and acoustic elements are applied (2014).
---
Puppetry is not the only artform which struggles with perceptions grown from limited, or pigeon-holed, exposure. Storytelling is often misunderstood due to UK audiences experience of this artform being one that is closely linked or only received by young audiences. It is similarly an artform that can take many different forms, ‘it’s not theatre, dance, music or spoken word, but can encompass elements of them all’ (Wilds, 2017). As with puppetry, this makes the storytelling artform hard to legitimise, define and represent to audiences – particularly against a backdrop of misrepresentation and misunderstanding which comes from within the sector.
Paquette speaks about cultural legitimacy as being ‘attributed’ and something ‘granted by others’, but which is grown also from a strategy deployed by oneself to ‘build its own legitimacy’ (Paquette, 2021). The representation of puppetry as a niche, low status artform has resulted from a limitation in where, how and what venues, programmers and audiences are engaging – the sector’s knowledge of what the art form can offer are restricted by these encounters and a new narrative can be hard to establish as a result.
Manipulate Arts needs to undertake research that can support development of a communications strategy for the organisation that supports a new relationship with venues and the media that will define puppetry, build a new cultural legitimacy for the artform and communicate this with audiences successfully.
We can look to other sectors, such as sports where cross-sectoral research, and dissemination of the results through interaction with the media, has successfully changed perceptions and encouraged a different means of engagement with dramatic impacts. In this case, taking skateboarding as a sport that has been attributed cultural legitimacy in recent years.
Research into skateboarding and its impact on community resilience building, urban planning, mental health for participants and the subsequent engagement with the media to create a new positioning for the sport has led to a major shift in perception both from the public and from within the sport sector. This has led to a shift in who feels able to participate in the activity today and the number of people engaging with the sport.
Documentary film and news coverage of research by Borden (2018) into community cohesion, town planning and the urban environment and how skateboarding spaces interact with these have positioned the skatepark as being as important to London life as a village green’ UCL, 2022). Academic research into the mental health benefits of engaging with the sport by Oconner demonstrates the significance that skateboarding provided for emotional wellbeing, providing joy, community, and a spiritual outlet’ for middle aged people (O’Connor, 2021). Research into the Rom skatepark by Simon Inglis as a space that contributes to the UK cultural heritage led directly to it gaining protection as a world heritage site (Historic England, 2014).
These examples, demonstrate the power of research to reframe an activity that was sidelined to ‘marginal sites’ of a town, defined as being for young people and as an anti-social activity, to be seen now as an important, protected, community building activity that can hold numerous benefits for everyone that wants to take part (Borden, 2019).
The media change in coverage of skateboarding through engagement with these research publications has ‘contributed to a better public understanding of skateboarding’ (UCL, 2014) which may have influenced the inclusion of the activity in the Olympics in 2020 as a recognised skill-based sport at the highest level demonstrated organisational acceptance (Bateuv and Leigh, 2018). These are all demonstrative examples of how skateboarding has become articulated through particular visions of the ‘public’ or ‘community’ (Beal et al. 2016) and as a result been assigned value – by increased coverage in the media, engaged with through discourse from academics in different fields, identified on a local level as important by town councils and city planners, and held up by worldwide recognised gatekeepers of value or quality UNESCO and the Olympics.
If research can be undertaken which evaluates puppetry and visual theatre practices and how they engage audiences or contribute to the wider theatre sector and beyond then perhaps it can ‘create new forms of appreciation’ for the artform and provide insight for our organisation as a sector development body to operate a ‘strategic transformation’ for how we demonstrate the puppetry offer (Paquette, 2021) examining how, where and why we platform puppetry within wider cultural offers.
---
Language choice when communicating this updated vision of puppetry is important if we’re to move away from the negative connotations that people hold surrounding the word puppet, or that they have been used to reading or using when in dialogue about the artform.
There is little research into language choice and artform perception from within the cultural sector but within the health and social care sector, there is a wealth of studies which demonstrate the huge impact of language choice and communications campaigns where change of language internally and externally by organisations can have an impact on reducing stigma or changing perceptions of groups of people within society as one of the most immediate ways to affect change (Volkow et al., 2021).
A study into language use in the care sector highlights how terminology based in damaging preconceptions can reinforce how people are treated and resulted in a dictionary being created. Although this is a far- removed area of study the point which is relevant to our communications about puppetry is that we must critically about the language we use, our interpretations of the statements and behaviour of others, and the attitudes and assumptions that underlie them. This has always been an important way to overcome prejudice (Fieller & Loughlin, 2022).
To remove barriers for engagement and overcome outdated prejudices associated with language, some organisations carried out research which resulted in dictionaries of advised language or terminology for internal use when talking about, to or on behalf of people to shift and counteract preconceptions (TACT, 2019). Other research pointed to the importance of ensuring ‘language is meaningful to their intended audiences’ (NHS, 2021).
In developing new language to talk about puppetry or visual theatre that is based in people’s interactions with the artforms and that operates in relation to specific communities lived experience we could see a major shift in perspectives from those that bestow value externally.
From this review, it is clear that undertaking research into puppetry’s positive and unique attributes and how they can interact with the wider theatre sector as well as further examination of current language used to market, communicate and speak about puppetry which can convey these attributes could actively change the way that the sector and therefore the public interact with the artform.
The outcome of research in these areas would be the creation of an external and internal communications strategy, perhaps including a dictionary of visual theatre terminology for venues and promoters that can help us to advocate more confidently for puppetry and visual theatre as far from a niche artform offer but instead as an artform that can set the standard for inclusive, performing arts offers and with a clear offer of terminology that can be used to promote the work and give audiences a better picture of what they can expect to experience. This process would also impact language we use internally as a staff team to support artists, venues and cross sector partners to present puppetry, as a current, exciting and forward looking artform that can be celebrated and enjoyed by all. This research will also support us to review and make changes to our current engagement strategy, delivering programming and projects that lean into the unique offer of the artform and communicate this well, reaching more people and changing people understanding of puppetry from the ground up through delivery of meaningful and relevant experiences.
References
Bateuv, M & Robinson, L. (2018) ‘What influences organisational evolution of modern sport: the case of skateboarding’, in: Sports, Business and Management. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1108/SBM-10-2017-0052 (Accessed: 08/08/23)
Beal et al. (2016) ‘Skateboarding, community and urban politics: shifting practices and challenge’, in: International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, Issue 9:1. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/19406940.2016.1220406 (Accessed: 09/08/23)
Borden, I. (2019) ‘Skatepark Worlds: Constructing Communities and Building Lives’, in: J. Schwier and V. Kilberth (ed.) Skateboarding Between Subculture and the Olympics: a Youth Culture under Pressure from Commercialization and Sportification. Bielefeld, p7996. Available from: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10080928/1/Borden-SkateparkWorlds-2019.pdf (Accessed: 10/08/23)
Historic England (2014) London skatepark given protected status. Available from: https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/london-skatepark-given-protected-status (Accessed 09/08/23)
Kruger, M. (2014) ‘What’s in a name? The sense or non-sense of labelling puppets in contemporary Western theatre, in: Cogent Arts & Humanities, Issue 1: 990866. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2014.990866 (Accessed: 07/08/23)
Loughlin, M & Fieller, D. (2022) ‘Stigma, epistemic injustice, and “looked after children”: The need for a new language’, in: Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, Issue 28:1. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360787577_Stigma_epistemic_injustice_and_looked_after_children_The_need_for_a_new_language (Accessed 09/08/23]
Mackintosh, R. (2021) From outlier to Olympic sport: How skateboarding made it to the Olympic games. Available from: https://theconversation.com/from-outlier-to-olympic-sport- how-skateboarding-made-it-to-the-tokyo-games-165152 (Accessed: 06/08/23)
Merrel, C. (2027) One Year On: How Skateboarding’s Olympic Debut Changed the Games. Available from: https://olympics.com/en/news/one-year-on-skateboarding-olympic-debut- feature (Accessed: 09/08/23)
Moran, F. (2023) ‘Manipulate Festival Review’, in: The Stage (online). Available from: https://www.thestage.co.uk/long-reviews/manipulate-festival-review-2023-in-scotland- produced-by-puppet-animation-scotland-edinburgh (Accessed: 06/08/23)
NHS (2021) Health and Race Observatory Terminology Consultation Report. Available from: https://www.nhsrho.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/NHS_RaceHealthObservatory_Terminology-consultation-report-NOV-21-1.pdf (nhsrho.org) (Accessed: 08/08/23)
O’Connor (2021) ‘Identity and Wellbeing in Older Skateboarders’, in: T. Dupont & B. Beal (eds.) Lifestyle Sports and Identities: Subcultural Careers Through the Life Course. Routledge. Available from: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429340505 (Accessed: 08/08/23)
Ortiz, S. (2019) Language that cares Changing the way professionals talk about Children in Care. Available from: https://www.tactcare.org.uk/content/uploads/2019/03/TACT- Language-that-cares-2019_online.pdf (Accessed: 06/08/23)
Paquette, J. (2021) ‘Building Legitimacy in the Cultural Sector’, in: Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society, Vol 51, Issue 1, February 2021. Available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10632921.2021.1882233 (Accessed: 09/08/23)
Manipulate Arts (2021) Venues Survey. Manipulate Arts. Unpublished. Manipulate Arts (2023)
Media Archive 2022-2023. Manipulate Arts. Unpublished.
Suchman, M. (1995) Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches Academy of Management Review, Issue 20: 3, p57l 610. Available from: https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/AMR.1995.9508080331 (Accessed: 08/08/23)
University College London (2014) Changing Perceptions of Skateboarding. Available from: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/impact/case-studies/2014/dec/changing-perceptions-skateboarding (Accessed: 06/08/23)
Volkow, N.D., Gordon, J.A. & Koob, G.F. (2021) ‘Choosing appropriate language to reduce the stigma around mental illness and substance use disorders’, Neuropsychopharmacol, Issue 46. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-021-01069-4 (Accessed: 06/08/23)
Wilds, N. (2017) ‘The Trouble with telling Stories: Selling storytelling as an artform’, in: Arts Professional, Issue 301. Available from: https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/301/case-study/trouble-telling-stories (Accessed: 12/08/23)
Photocredit: Claire Hughes, Community Event