Being Human 2021

Thu, 11 November 2021 19:00 – 20:00 GMT

Location: Ocean Room, National Waterfront Museum, Oystermouth Road, Maritime Quarter, SA1 3RD.

After a car crash threw her into life as a disabled woman during her Junior Doctor training, Dr Georgina Budd had to navigate an entirely new life with a new 'elephant' in the room. As a full-time wheelchair user Georgie will share her experiences of the challenges of disability and mental health struggles, how we come to terms with traumatic life change, and how any future society not only should have accessibility at its core, but can benefit from it.

This event is suitable for ages 18 and over, as there will be some discussion of challenging life events and mental health struggles. Audience participation will take the form of visualisation exercises and discussion.

In partnership with ADAPT Gateway

Accessibility: Access Guide for the National Waterfront Museum | National Museum Wales

REGISTER HERE 
**Please also book a free entry ticket to the Museum: Plan Your Visit to the National Waterfront Museum | National Museum Wales

Image credits: Wikimedia Commons

Fri 12 November, 19:00-20:00 GMT

Location: Cinema & Co, Swansea

This workshop will explore how to use climate as a motivator for an adventure. Come along to see how medieval narratives can help create lively and breathing narrative worlds - and start your own climate adventure. When April comes with its sweet showers, medieval storytellers know time is ripe for travel and love-making. The Canterbury Tales start when spring comes and brings about the pilgrimage season. Medieval romances use the seasons and the weather to influence the story, either using the danger of a stormy sea or posing a dragon in the place of environmental danger.

Please bring along a notepad and pen or a mobile device so you can start writing your very story!

In Partnership with Cinema & Co

Accessibility: The venue is fully accessible as it is all single floor with no steps between the bar and auditorium. We also have disabled toilet facilities.

REGISTER HERE

Sat, 13 November 2021

10:00 – 12:00 GMT Families/children session

13:00 – 15:00 GMT Adults session 

Location: Egypt Centre, Swansea University, Singleton Campus, SA2 8PP

Image Credit: The Egypt Centre, Swansea University

REGISTER HERE - Families/children session

REGISTER HERE - Adults session

Photo: Warehouse workers outside Mettoys Factory, Swansea, 1960s
Credits: Eira John Collection, Voices from the Factory Floor, Archif Menywod Cymru / Women’s Archive Wales

Tue, 16 November 2021, 11:00 – 12:00 GMT

Online Event

The history books don’t always capture the human side of work. Historians and archivists at Swansea would like to learn more about this from you. Come along to this ‘talk and record’ session to share memories of things you did in your working life to brighten up the everyday routine. Your stories could help renew the way we understand workplace experiences in the past. There will be an opportunity to find out more about how working lives are documented in local archive collections. You will also get to take part in the creation of a new audio resource – a podcast about workplace experiences which will include recorded clips from the discussions.

Suitable for adults currently or formerly employed in industrial or manufacturing jobs.

In partnership with the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea.

REGISTER HERE 

Tue, 16 November 2021, 18:00 – 20:00 GMT

Online event

Are you a teenager interested in creating your own digital story about the Earth’s climate system? Then this event is just for you!

Join us for a live online interactive event where you’ll get to make your very own digital narrative about climate change using a simple coding language. Your story could focus on the technical, inspire hope, re-imagine the past and present or engineer a brighter future!

No coding experience necessary! All you need is access to a desktop, laptop or tablet.

In Partnership with Dr Lyle Skains, Bournemouth University https://staffprofiles.bournemouth.ac.uk/display/lskains

REGISTER HERE

Wed, 17 November 2021, 13:00 – 14:00 GMT

Location: Taliesin Create, Ground Floor - Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea University

In this collection of thrilling short stories, Rachael Llewellyn adeptly traverses the outer edges of human experience and the horror that often comes with it. Twisting between the disturbing, the humorous, and the heartbreaking, Human Beings will forever change the way you look at your neighbour, how you treat your coworker, and even make you second guess the person lying next to you in bed. Because real monsters aren't what you see on late night television . . . the real monsters live just around the corner.

REGISTER HERE

Wed, 17 November 2021, 19:00 – 20:00 GMT

Online Event

The Latin author Columella, who lived around the time of the Emperor Nero in the 60s AD, wrote what appears to be a training manual covering all aspects of agriculture. In this session, join Dr Ian Goh for an online cook-a-long to explore some of Columella’s food-based precepts from the last of the twelve books of his manual. They are addressed to a ‘bailiff’s wife’, and look at preservation techniques for (among other foods) lettuces and turnips. At this event, you'll be taking Columella’s instructions seriously both as recipes and as expressions of identity and authority, to uncover some of the humbler, unglamorous foodstuffs that the ancient Romans ate. See just how similar their home economy and eating habits were to your own. 

Registered attendees will be provided with recipe cards so you can create your own at home.

REGISTER HERE

Image courtesy of DOVE Workshop

Thu, 18 November 2021, 19:00 – 20:00 GMT

Location: Onllwyn Welfare Hall, Wembley Avenue, Onllwyn, SA10 9HL

In 1983, Swansea's South Wales Miners' Library produced a documentary film featuring community members from the Dulais Valley. In Waste of Our Time: Pictures of a Changing Valley, local residents discussed the villages of Banwen, Onllwyn and Seven Sisters and the effects coal mining had had on the landscape, people and wildlife. But how has life and landscape in the Dulais Valley changed since 1983? In the months leading up to Being Human 2021, local residents and school children will work together to create a new documentary to be premiered during the festival. Using the original documentary as a starting point and through a range of interactive artistic workshops, they will consider the changes to landscape, wildlife and community life since 1983 and the social and environmental legacy of fossil fuels. ‘Waste of Our Time: Renewing Pictures of a Changing Valley’ will be screened for the very first time at Onllwyn Welfare Hall, followed by a Q&A session with some of our documentary filmmakers.

Families and children aged 8+ are all welcome.

In Partnership with DOVE Workshop, Cwm Dulais Historical Society, Onllwyn Welfare Hall.

Accessibility: All facilities at the Onllwyn Welfare Hall are on the ground floor and are wheelchair accessible.  This includes toilet facilities.  There is a car park to the front and rear of the building, with spaces available at the front of the building for Blue Badge holders.  If you have any specific requirements, please inform us when booking tickets.

REGISTER HERE

Professor Martin Stringer, PVC (Education)

Friday 19th November, 12pm-1pm

When we entered the pandemic, almost two years ago now, my colleague Phil Newton brought together a training programme for our staff called total e-fabulous. This was essential to the way Swansea University adapted to the new context and provided a solid basis for learning and teaching through the last eighteen months. I now want to lead a workshop that will help us look forward, beyond the pandemic, beyond total e-fabulous.

What have we learnt? Is there a fundamental shift in the tectonic plates of teaching? Are we at last going to be able to fulfil a promise, made to me when I began teaching at Birmingham University in the early 1990s, that technology will transform our teaching forever? What about other uses of the digital? Are we able to fulfil the potential of all those learning analytics programmes? Can we really predict when students are falling behind on their learning? Should we? What does it mean to individualise, or personalise, learning and student interaction? Do we have the technology to do this effectively, and if ​we do, should we be using it? Can we honestly say that, following the pandemic, ‘every student matters’?

There are so many questions, but I fear very few real answers. Come along ​and ​explore what we do and don’t know, what we can and cannot do. Whatever else, it will be a totally fabulous conversation!’

REGISTER HERE

Come along to a fun and interactive 'learn Welsh' session with tutors from Learn Welsh Swansea Bay Region. This taster session, specifically aimed at welcoming asylum seekers and refugees, hopes to introduce the Welsh language and culture to you and your family as you adjust to life in south-west Wales. These sessions are suitable for adults and children.

Partners:

Academi Hywel Teifi

IAITH Cyf 

Rhieni dros Addysg Gymraeg (Parents for Welsh-medium education) 

Learn Welsh Swansea Bay Area 

THURSDAY 12TH NOVEMBER

'New World, New Beginnings'

14 November:  19:00 -20:00:  'Kings, Presidents, & Spies: Assassinations Past and Present'

Join us for an interactive talk, quiz and readings as we investigate secrecy and the use of assassination from Medieval to modern times.  We’ll also consider the methods deployed by assassins past and present, including red hot pokers and poisoned toothpaste! 

Led by: Dr Luca Trenta, Dr Eoin Price and Dr Roberta Magnani
Venue:  Cinema and Co.                                 Event Partners:  Cinema and Co.

15 November:  14:00-16:00:  'Discovering your Creativity: an interactive writing workshop'

Come along to our interactive writing workshop where you’ll have a chance to write poetry and prose on themes such as secrets, place and life in Swansea. Lines from individual works will be used to create a collage of what it means to both live and create in Swansea. 

Led by: Kathy Chamberlain and a team of PhD students and alumni in Creative Writing whose research focuses on ‘place’.
Venue:  National Waterfront Museum.      Event Partners:  National Waterfront Museum and Disability Arts Cymru

16 November:  11:00–15:00:  ‘Discovering the Mary Rose: Aaarrtt on the High Seas

All aboard for a fun-filled day of fantastical adventure on the high seas, celebrating the Glynn Vivian’s new exhibition The Mary Rose: People and Purpose. Discover fascinating facts and sinister secrets about life on board this infamous boat in a series of workshops including animated theatre and creating your own Tudor play, digging for buried treasure, building a 3-Dimensional open world and designing and racing your own Tudor-themed self-propelled motor boats. You will need to keep your eyes peeled for clues on our Mary Rose themed gallery trail - find them all to discover the hidden secrets of the Mary Rose! With talks, performances, dress up and wandering minstrels this is going to be a day you will not want to miss.

This new exhibition provides an insight into the innovative design and global context of the famous ship. It explores the ship’s innovative design, Welsh connections and new scientific research through a variety of objects, including longbows, arrows, bowls, and shoes, which gives us a unique insight into Tudor history.

Led by: Dr Nick Owen, Dr Catherine Fletcher and Professor David Britton
Venue:  Glynn Vivian Art Gallery.     Event Partner:  Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, the Mary Rose Trust, Oriel Science, the Cultural Institute and the College of Engineering, Swansea University.

18 November:  10:00-12:00:  'The Climate's Hidden History' (Welsh Medium Schools Event)

Come and discover the hidden secrets of the planet, found in the depths of the ice fields, with Professor Siwan Davies, an international expert on Climate Change and the Head of Swansea University’s Geography Department. After you’ve had a chance to see the evidence for climate change first hand in the laboratory, poet Grug Muse will lead a poetry workshop which will respond to these discoveries about the past and future of the Earth.

Led by: Professor Siwan Davies and Grug Muse
Venue:  Margam Building, Singleton Campus.        Event Partners:  Swansea Museum

18 November:  19:00-20:00:  'Becoming Human: Pinocchio Retold'

Becoming Human – Pinocchio Retold tells the story of the world's most famous puppet, set against the demands and prerogatives of modern Western society. Following his footsteps from birth to adulthood, we are invited to see through his eyes what it means to become socialised. Though Pinocchio is shaped in mind and body to fit into society, as an individual he still struggles to find meaning, love, and identity. This tragicomedy takes an unflinching look at social values and structures, while inviting the audience to laugh and be mesmerised by a caravan of characters (all played by Muzzioli and Soinila). The play poses questions about what makes up our core identity as humans and how we can deal with modern life - questions that Pinocchio grapples with throughout the play, and eventually comes to terms with.

The central theme of Becoming Human – Pinocchio Retold is a journey of self-discovery, where the secrets of Pinocchio’s true self are revealed.

Led by: Dr Ian Rutt (Director of Music), Alice Muzzioli and Inari Soinila  (writers/performers) and Atillio Zilli (sound design)
Venue:  Volcano Theatre               Event Partner:  Volcano Theatre

19 November:  19:00-20:00:  'The Panic Room: Werwolves and Sherlock'

Life is lived through half-truths, entrapment, lies, decoding, escape and discovery of truths. The complex and unreliable code of Werwolf child terrorists and the work of Sherlock Holmes offer a unique insight into the human psyche. In a panel discussion, with simulated ‘panic room’, we will uncover the secret plans of Hitler’s Werwolf and the brilliance of Sherlock Holmes.

Led by: Dr Anne Lauppe-Dunbar and Dr Nicko Vaughan
Venue:  Swansea Museum.   Event Partner: Swansea Museum

20 November:  19:00-20:30:  'Now I Become Myself: a woman's voice in music and poetry' 

Welsh composer Rhian Samuel will talk about her life as a composer of classical music in the USA and the UK, from a time when women composers were an extreme rarity to today when they are much more prevalent. In what ways may this change have enriched our culture? She will be aided by Siân Dicker (soprano) and Kristal Tunnicliffe (piano), who will perform Cerddi Hynafol (Ancient Songs), settings of three medieval Welsh texts apparently by women, and the song ‘Before Dawn’, set to a poem, ‘Mourning to Do’, by American May Sarton

Venue:  The Great Hall, Swansea University.  Event Partners:  The Richard Burton Centre

23 November:  14:00-16:00:  ‘Enter the Chamber of Secrets'

Do you dare to enter our chamber of secrets? Join us for a family fun day, including:

• ‘Opening the Chamber of Secrets’ – writing mystery and storytelling chains, with two master-narratives – ‘Secrets of the Sea’ and ‘The Buried Past’ (Suitable for children up to the age of 12)
  
  
• ‘The Secrets of Ancient Egypt’ – discover mummification, the secrets of hieroglyphs, the ancient game of Senet and real Egyptian artifacts
  
  
• ‘Discovering your digital story’ - create your own 2-min digital narrative! (Please bring along your Android smartphone/tablet

Led by: Dr Geraldine Lublin, Dr Alan Bilton, Dr Anne Lauppe-Dunbar and Hannah Sweetapple
Venue: Taliesin Create, Taliesin Arts Centre

'Swansea's Big Book Find'

Join us for our family-friendly book hunt across the city of Swansea from Saturday 16^th November! In the run up to our University’s 100^th birthday, we’ll be hiding one hundred books where you’ll least expect to find them. Finders, keepers! Each book will also contain a special message! And when they’re gone, they’re gone!

'Rediscovering Swansea: a new exhibition' - 14-23 November
Join us for a new family-friendly exhibition where you will have an opportunity to rediscover your city!

• Learn about the Vivian family, who came from Cornwall, and their life at in Singleton Abbey
• Find out about the copperworks at the heart of Swansea life
• Celebrate Swansea University’s forthcoming centenary in 2020 with a glimpse at its history

Venue: Swansea University Singleton Campus Library

15 November:  18:00 -19:00:  'Pembrokeshire, Passchendaele and Perth: my family in the Great War'

Join Professor Curtis for an illustrated talk on his family in the Great War.

Venue:  Volcano Theatre.                                 Event Partners:  Volcano Theatre; Jeff Phillips Art

16 November:  18:00-19:45:  'To Provide All People'

Join Owen Sheers, Swansea University's Professor in Creativity, for a conversation about his recent film-poem To Provide All People

Venue:  Venue: Cinema & Co.      Event Partners:  Cinema & Co.; Vox Productions; BBC Wales; Cover to Cover Bookshop

17 November:  12:00–16:00:  ‘The end crowns all’: Shakespeare’s stories and surprises

A family day of Being Human festival fun on Shakespeare! This event is kindly sponsored by the British Shakespeare Association.

Venue:  National Waterfront Museum.     Event Partner:  National Waterfront Museum; Fluellen Theatre Company

20 November:  19:00-20:00:  Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, and civil rights

Join Swansea University’s Dr Regina Poertner for an illustrated talk on this fascinating, complex couple.  (Audience: 16+)

Venue: Swansea Museum.        Event Partners:  Swansea Museum

21 November:  19:00-20:30:  'Edward Thomas and Wales'

Jeff Towns explores the profound influence Wales and Welsh culture had on Edward Thomas’s prose.

Event Partners: Cinema & Co.; Parthian Books; Dylans Mobile Bookstore

22 November:  19:30-21:00:  Kamila Shamsie - 'Home Fire'

Venue:  Great Hall, Swansea University.   Event Partners: Swansea Building Society; Cover to Cover Bookshop

23 November:  13:00-14:00:  Origins and evolution of a theory: Alfred Russel Wallace

Actor Ioan Hefin and scientist and broadcaster, Elin Rhys, discuss how the work and life of pioneering naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, a self-taught man, still inspire and astound the world.

Venue:  Glynn Vivian Art Gallery.  Event Partners:  Academi Hywel Teifi; Theatr na nÓg; Glynn Vivian Art Gallery

24 November:  13:30-14:30 and 16:30-17:30:  ‘Once Upon a Time, the End

A family-friendly Creative Writing workshop.

Venue: Taliesin Create, Taliesin Arts Centre

24 November:  15:00-16:00 and 18:00-19:00:  Arthur Ransome's 'Old Peter's Russian Tales'

Come along to an afternoon / evening of folktales and magic as Swansea University’s Professor D.J. Britton and Theatr Cadair bring Arthur Ransome’s ‘Old Peter’s Russian Tales’ to life on stage!

Venue: Taliesin Arts Centre.  Event Partners: Taliesin Arts Centre; Theatr Cadair; Arthur Ransome Estate.

The NHS is Born! - week long exhibition 15-24 November

Venue:  South Wales Miners' Library