Over the past few months, I’ve been working with incredibly talented writer-director Charissa Martinkauppi on translating the data gathered during the Reboot project into creative and widely accessible outputs.
Our vision was to create an intimate meeting experience between the audience and the material, and to connect audiences with the everyday experiences of hospitality workers navigating rapid technological changes at work. We wanted to offer an intimate and accessible way for audiences to interact with the research, aiming to generate greater empathy and curiosity for hospitality workers, raising awareness of the challenges they face.
As a result, the 65 interviews I conducted with hospitality workers were distilled into eight short audio narratives. These audio narratives – constituting composite accounts of the workers’ experiences – foreground worker voices (e.g. chef, bartender, receptionist, housekeeper) and provide the listener with eight different snapshot perspectives from the daily lives of hospitality workers navigating technological change. At the same time, conceptually, the narratives delve into key themes emerging from the study.
It was an honour to work with Charissa who brought the worker stories to life and creatively infused the narratives with the themes emerging from the research.
The narratives will be audio-recorded with the participation of a group of University of Lincoln students, many of whom work part-time in hospitality, who will help record the narratives, edit the recordings and add soundscapes.
Once recorded, the audio narratives will be showcased on the project website and will be accompanied by illustrations inspired by the narratives.
Through audio-narratives combined with powerful illustrations, audiences will be taken on a journey of how technological transformation affects worker well-being and shapes interactions with customers and co-workers.
The listener will be able to easily access the narratives and listen to the audio files while browsing through the illustrations. An interactive e-book containing all narratives and illustrations will be available to download.
About the collaborator: Charissa Martinkauppi is a Swedish/Finnish-British director and writer. She trained at Lancaster University and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She creates playful, politically charged theatre and film, often combining the subtleties of Finnish melancholia with theatricality and absurd humour. Charissa has written for theatres such as Tornedalsteatern and Uusi Teatteri and runs the feminist theatre company Teater Char Da Mar together with stage designer Erika Sjödin.