The LSE Festival, a festival held every year to showcase LSE research and projects to the public, took place from Monday, June 16 to Saturday, June 21 at the London School of Economics and Political Science. This year’s festival sought to explore how new technologies and innovation shape our societies, how to confront the global challenges of climate change and inequality, and lastly, whether our political reality will change after a historic year of elections.
This year, the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE) programme participated in the LSE Festival by taking part in the exhibition and hosting two events. AFSEE collaborated with AFSEE Senior Fellow Myriam Hernández Vazquez to showcase her virtual reality (VR) film, ‘GAWI: an ancestral Rarámuri dream on the care of Mother Earth’ at the LSE Festival exhibition. AFSEE also co-hosted an LSE Festival event, ‘Watch, act, vote: legislative theatre for health and climate justice’, which featured AFSEE Senior Fellow Katy Rubin.
GAWI: an ancestral Rarámuri dream on the care of Mother Earth
From Monday, June 16 to Thursday, July 3, the LSE Festival Visions for the Future exhibition was set up in the Marshall Building. This year’s Festival exhibition aimed to explore the people and communities, innovative technologies, challenges of today, and lessons from the past that are shaping the world to come. Myriam Hernández Vazquez’s VR film ‘GAWI’ was displayed as part of the exhibition.
‘GAWI’ is a VR dream experience co-created by Myriam Hernández and the Rarámuri, an indigenous community of northern Mexico. Gawi is a Rarámuri word that can be interpreted as 'land' or 'territory' and caring for it is at the heart of the Rarámuri way of life. The traditions of the indigenous people remain to this day in spite of external threats. In the film, Isabel, a Rarámuri leader, guides you through the places and ancestral traditions of her community - inviting us to (re)learn about their ways of caring for and loving the Earth. Myriam created the film as part of her AFSEE non-residential project.
Visitors were able to wear a virtual reality headset and watch the film at the exhibition. We are grateful to the Atlantic Institute for loaning the headsets for the exhibition. Afterwards, they were able to interact with the display by drawing or writing their dream for the future of the earth on a whiteboard. Visitors were also able to scan a QR code and get their own copy of an ethical storytelling checklist created by Myriam. The display was also accompanied by a short audio explainer, available to listen to here. The wall display is also available to view here.
Immersive storytelling for social and climate justice
During the Festival week, Myriam Hernández Vazquez also led an interactive workshop titled ‘Immersive storytelling for social and climate justice’ for LSE students and the AFSEE community. The workshop explored the spectrum of the Reality-Virtuality continuum, co-creation as a political approach to (immersive) storytelling, and GAWI as an example of co-creating VR.
The workshop wrapped up with a collective wisdom exercise, where participants worked in groups to brainstorm the opportunities and restrictions for co-creation in the spaces where we work, the ethical considerations for engaging with VR as a medium that allows illusions of embodiment and presence, and how to avoid extractive practices in storytelling.
Watch, act, vote: legislative theatre for health and climate justice
The Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE) programme collaborated with the LSE Global Health Initiative and the LSE Department of Health Policy to host an event at the LSE Festival on Thursday, June 19 titled ‘Watch, act, vote: legislative theatre for health and climate justice’.
The event offered an interactive introduction to the Legislative Theatre methodology run by AFSEE Senior Fellow Katy Rubin and Samra Said, Co-Director of Arts & Homelessness International. The event was aimed at practitioners, activists, and policymakers, and anyone seeking new ways to inject accessibility, creativity, and joyfulness into decision-making and systems change.
The hands-on workshop was followed by an open dialogue between Legislative Theatre practitioners Katy and Samra, LSE Health Policy Assistant Professor Dr Miqdad Asaria, and CEO of the Runnymede Trust Dr Shabna Begum. The panel shared outcomes from recent projects and investigated how Legislative Theatre could help communities collectively imagine and build a better, healthier future in the face of the climate crisis.
Image Credits: Photos by Maria Moore, Hala Haidar, and Matteo Menapace