What this is about...

performing our practice
practising our performance
intuition and expertise in the wake of the evidence movements

a day conference exploring professional practice and identity in
healthcare, psychoanalysis and the arts 8 November 2005
VENUE: The Old Refectory University College London Gower Street, UK

Its a chance for people involved in and/or studying the practice of healthcare (by doctors, nurses, arts therapists among others) and performers, artists of various kinds to discuss issues they all face in the context of a rise in an 'evidence' culture. In medicine a movement called Evidence Based Medicine rose to prominence in the early 1990s in the UK and North America and other places as well. It forced people to think again about rather hallowed notions like clinical judgement, expertise, the 'art' of practice and intuition. For me the different ways that the medical and nursing professions have responded to it are fascinating.

I'm not so familiar with how a similar change and tension plays out in the performing and other arts - and psychoanalysis - but am aware that some artists, chiefly those with links to universities, are having to learn how to describe their work as 'research' in order to maximise their, and their university department's, profile, 'performance' and funding.

The day conference is organised by Middlesex University in conjunction with UCL and City University, all in London, UK.