SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL

Since returning from New York City in September, Sasapin Siriwanij, Teerawat Mulvilai and Nana Dakin along with other members of pioneering physical theatre group B-Floor have been turning their creative minds to science.

Along with artist colleagues in Kenya, Malawi, South Aftrica, the UK and Vietnam, the troupe has been conducting research on malaria and lesser known tropical diseases at the Wellcome Trust-funded Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), Mahidol University. 

They are part of a new project, “Art in Global Health”, which brings artists and scientists together. It’s run by the London-based Wellcome Collection, which describes itself as “a free visitor destination for the incurably curious”, and explores the connections between medicine, life and art in the past, present and future. It is part of the Wellcome Trust, a global charity. So far there have been six Art in Global Health programmes around the world, each looking at the personal, philosophical, cultural and political contexts of health research.

On the programme’s website, Sasapin writes that it’s like the group has “walked into a whole new world”.

She also notes, “Malaria now has an efficient drug to treat it, but the disease is constantly in evolution. “Resistance to the drug is being spotted, and we will have to hope that it doesn't spread. Look at the malaria parasite in the cells and you'll find how fast and effectively it expands its kingdom. It transforms so quickly it’s practically impossible to find a vaccine for it. Melioidosis, much less known compared to malaria the rock star, is in the soil where the farmers work. Despite being investigated, so much still remains unknown. It’s as if it only comes forward for us to notice it when it’s already too late to do anything.”

Adapting this research information into performance are the creative minds of Teerawat and Nan, in co-operation with the Chiang Mai shadow-puppet company Wandering Moon.

The creation process differs from their previous works, Teerawat says. “We can’t plan exactly how this project will turn out. Rather, it’s a journey where we figure things out along the way. We have a total of five months to really go deep and focus on scientific and health issues that are quite alien to us – fans of B-Floor will know that we usually address social and political issues more than anything else.”

Nana adds, “We also need to find a way to perform this scientific data – to communicate it through visuals and movement and to tell a story that reflects how this data relates to current social issues.”

Teerawat says that they have identified the socio-political angle of the research on which to work, explaining that “healthcare issues are based on a network that links countless people together from birth to death. It’s not just about humans and diseases; it’s about life and death and the management of both steered by larger organisations and structures. We’re starting to see that everything is interconnected, and hoping that science and its logic can change the world we live in so that it become a better and healthier place. If you know a disease, you’ll also know how to prevent and cure it.

“But the bigger question is: how do we get to know it at all, especially our ‘societal illnesses’? What makes them grow? We have to work to get to know the diseases that hinder our society’s growth and development, so we can prevent them from causing harm, and find treatments for them.”

“Survival Games” is thus “the stories of the diseases, the patients, and the scientists,” says Nana. “We see each of these three groups evolving in relation to one another, and each one struggling for the right to carry on and remain alive.

“I think many people feel that neither arts nor sciences connect to their everyday lives, or that they are too difficult for ‘normal’ people to understand. I hope that we can succeed in drawing everyday people in to watch and experience a story they can connect to.”

Thanks to generous support from the Wellcome Trust, anyone – theatre-goers or not – can watch “Survival Games” for free, and be reminded that not only are arts and sciences interconnected, but they’re also vital to our life. Just don’t let New Year festivities make us forget it. 

 

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