Dr Alice O'Grady (formerly Bayliss)
Senior Lecturer in Applied Theatre and Performance

PhD University of Leeds, MA Drama in Education and Cultural Studies, PGCE Drama and English, BA English Literature and Theatre Studies

Urban Angels Circus (www.urbanangelscircus.co.uk) touring ‘The Heavenly Court of Madame Fantaisiste’ as part of the Beyond Text Small Grant award ( Images:Caroline Bonser) and …floorSpace… performing at a range of festivals and clubs (images Alice O'Grady& Chloe Uppington)

Biography

Having worked in secondary schools and FE colleges as a Drama and Theatre Studies teacher for many years, Alice took up post at the University of Leeds in 2003. She is responsible for
co-coordinating the Applied Theatre and Intervention strand of the Theatre and Performance degree programme and is Programme Manager for MA Performance, Culture and Context. Her teaching sees students engaged in various practical projects across the region including work with primary and secondary schools as well as community groups, asylum seekers, young offenders and adult prisoners. She is involved in educational research, training and consultancy and sits as on the Management Committee for the Priory and Springfield PRUs (Pupil Referral Units). Alice is a University Teaching Fellow and has been working on peer-to-peer cascaded learning strategies and is active in developing community and industry partnerships to feed into student projects and placements.

Alice is Creative Director of the performance company …floorSpace…. who make interactive walkabout performances for contemporary music festivals and club spaces (www.embracefloorspace.co.uk). She mentors TaleGate Theatre Company (www.talegatetheatre.co.uk) as part of the School of Performance and Cultural Industries’ incubation scheme. She is currently working in collaboration with Urban Angels Circus (www.urbanangelscircus.co.uk) and touring ‘The Heavenly Court of Madame Fantaisiste’ as part of the Beyond Text Small Grant award.

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Research Interests

• Interactive and participatory performance
• Festival performance
• Underground club culture and performance
• Play theory
• Compositional strategies for context-specific performance
  
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Research Group

Cultural Industries and Performance Contexts
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Current Teaching

BA Theatre and Performance

MA Performance, Culture and Context

Teaching specialisms include Interventionist and Applied Theatre, Community and Educational Drama, Theatre for Social Change, Prison Theatre, Festival Performance and Interactivity.

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Current Roles

• Director of Student Education
  
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Supervised MA and PhD students

Roxanne Yeganegy: Boutique Festivals and the Democratisation of Cultural Production
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Publications

McKinney, J, A. Bayliss, S.Popat and M.Wallis (2010) ‘Emergent Objects : Performance and Interdisciplinary Design at the Human/Technological Interface’ in T. Inns (ed), Designing for the 21st Century, Volume 2: Interdisciplinary Methods and Findings, Gower, pp.116 -131

Bayliss, A.; Hales, D.; Palmer, S. Sheridan, J. (2009) (Re)Searching Through Play: Play as a Framework and methodology for collaborative design processes. International Journal of Arts and Technology, pp5-21 DOI: 10.1504/IJART.2009.024054 ISSN 1754-8853

Bayliss, A., and Sheridan, J.G. (2008) Editorial, International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media 4 (1). Intellect: Bristol

Bayliss, A., and McKinney, J., ‘Emergent Objects: Design and Performance Research Cluster’, Inns, T., (2007) Designing for the 21st Century: Interdisciplinary Questions and Insights, Gower Ashgate: London

Bayliss, A., McKinney, J., Popat, S., and Wallis, M. (2007) ‘Emergent objects: Designing through performance’, International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media 3: 2&3, pp.269-279

Bayliss, A., Kill, R. (2007). Clubbing the curriculum: exploring the interface between the University and the non-traditional performance site. Podcast for Dialogue, Art/Music/Event, Issue 6 (July 2007 – Sept 2007), Part 1

Sheridan, J.G., Bayliss, A. and Bryan-Kinns, N. (2007). The interior life of iPoi: objects that entice witting transitions in performative behaviour. International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media 3(2). Intellect: Bristol

Bayliss, A. and Sheridan, J.G. (eds.). International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media (2007) Special Issue on Digital Live Art 2(3). Intellect: Bristol

Sheridan, J.G., Bayliss, A. and Bryan-Kinns, N. (2006). iPoi. In Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Culture, Creativity and Interaction Design, 12 September, Queen Mary, University of London, UK.

Bayliss, A., Sheridan, J.G., and Villar, N. (2005) New Shapes on the Dancefloor: Influencing ambient sound and vision with computationally-augmented poi. International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media 1(1). Intellect: Bristol, pp. 67-82.

Sheridan, J., Lock, S. and Bayliss, A. (2004) .:thePooch:. : HCI and Live Performance. In workshop proceedings of Designer, User, Meaning Maker: Rethinking Relationships for a more Creative HCI, 18th British HCI Group Annual Conference, 6-10 September, Leeds, UK

Bayliss, A., Lock, S. and Sheridan, J.G. (2004) Augmenting Expectation in Playful Arena Performances with Ubiquitous Intimate Technologies. In Proceedings of PixelRaiders 2 [CDROM] 6-8 April, Sheffield, UK.

Sheridan, J.G., Dix, A., Lock, S. & Bayliss, A. Understanding Interaction in Ubiquitous Guerrilla Performances in Playful Arenas. People and Computers XVIII - Design for Life: Proceedings of HCI 2004, Springer-Verlag, 2004, pp. 3-18.

Bayliss, A. 2004 The Fourth International Drama in Education Research Institute - Destabilising distinctions and definitions. Research in Drama Education, Vol 9, (1) pp.111-113.

Bayliss, A. 2000 Teachers and Practitioners of Drama and Theatre in Great Britain, French-speaking Belgium and France. Research in Drama Education, Vol 5, (2) pp.309-311.

Bayliss, A. (1999) Playing with Words: an exploration of ludic terms and the linguistic permeation of play in a cultural context. Research in Drama Education, Vol 4(1), pp.73-84.
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Projects

2010-2012, Principle Investigator, Environments for Encounter (Co-I Rebekka Kill, Leeds Metropolitan University) AHRC Small Grants – Beyond Text Scheme
This project explores the phenomenon of relational performance within contemporary music festivals as an emergent genre of creative communication. Academic researchers will be working in partnership with Urban Angels Circus who will be commissioned to make a piece of interactive performance that will be toured to three different contemporary music festivals across the UK and Europe. Each festival will be chosen to provide a different 'environment for encounter' so that a comparative analysis can be made. In addition we will be engaging with festival promoters in order to assess the impact this type of performance practice may have in terms of developing festival culture.

2008-2010, Principle Investigator, Exploring Festival Performance as a ‘State of Encounter’ (Co-I Rebekka Kill, Leeds Metropolitan University) AHRC Research Networks and Workshops – Beyond Text Scheme
This network will discuss the types of relational performance that occur at contemporary music and dance festivals in the UK. It will explore improvisation and space; the playful arena; the transmission of memory and archiving; storytelling and the role of electronic media such as mobile phones, and the internet in creating the “field of festival culture” and festival memories.  Four seminars will be held over two years with an invited group of academics, practitioners and industry specialists. The seminars will take place in Leeds with a view to establishing a national research hub based in the Yorkshire region.

2006-7 Co- Investigator, Emergent Objects: Designing the human/technology interface through performance http://www.emergentobjects.co.uk/ P.I. Prof Mick Wallis, EPSRC/AHRC funded project (December 2006 – December 2007) as part of the Designing for the 21st Century initiative.
In this second phase, the Emergent Objects research project draws on performance knowledge to explore and articulate the emergent nature of the interface between technological object and human that is fundamental to the development of new design thinking and practices. The project uses performance perspectives to investigate the modelling of the role of design in a technological society and asks questions about the desirable relationships between users and designed artefacts, systems or environments.

2005-6, Co-Investigator, Emergent Objects:  Design and Performance Cluster (P.I. Dr Calvin Taylor) EPSRC/AHRC funded project as part of the Designing for the 21st Century initiative.
This twelve-month project investigated the relationships between discourses and practices in design and performance. This work provided the protocols and framework for further funded research dedicated to the theorisation and development of design processes.


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Editorial Work

Editorial Board, International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media (Intellect)
Editorial Board, Punk and Post Punk (Intellect)
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International Presentations

Bayliss, A and Kill R (2009) ‘Festival Performance as a State of Encounter’, International Conference on Festivals and Events Research, Florida 18th-21st January, 2009

Co-author and presenter with Mick Wallis, Sita Popat, Joslin McKinney, David Hogg, John Bryden, Rich Walker and Matthew Godden ‘SpiderCrab and the Emergent Object: Designing for the Twenty-first Century’ at dux07, Design for User-Experience Conference, Chicago 5th - 7th, November, 2007

Sheridan, J., Bayliss, A. and Bryan-Kinns, N. (2006). iPoi: acceleration as a medium for digital live art. Demonstration. The 8th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, 19 September, Orange County California, USA.

Bayliss, A. (2006). Making space to move – underground clubbing and sensual performance at Sensi/able Spaces, Reykjavik, Iceland

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External Activity / Professional Links

Management Committee member for Springfield and Priory Pupil Referral Units, Wakefield
Mentor for TaleGate Theatre Company (www.talegatetheatre.co.uk)
External Examiner for Central School of Speech and Drama (MA Applied Theatre)
External Examiner for University of Glamorgan (MRes)

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Education and Career


Education

University of Leeds  Awarded May 2010
PhD: “Underground Club Spaces and Interactive Performance”

University of Warwick Sept 96 – June 99
MA in Drama in Education and Cultural Studies                                                                                          Distinction

Bretton Hall College Sept 92 – July 93
PGCE Drama and English                                                                                                                              Distinction

University of Leeds Oct 89 – June 92
BA English Literature and Theatre Studies                                                                                         
1st Class Honours


Career

Lecturer in Applied Theatre, University of Leeds                                                       Jan 03 – Present

Head of Media and Performing Arts, Josiah Mason College, Birmingham           Jan 97 – Dec 02

Excellence Challenge Co-ordinator, Josiah Mason College, Birmingham          Sept 01 – Dec 02

Visiting Tutor, University of Warwick                                                                             Sept 99 – July 00

Head of Drama, Tudor Grange School, Solihull                                                         Sept 93 – Dec 97

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