Unchartered Collective

Cloudspotters’ Cafes

The Cloudspotters Cafe has been running monthly since January 2021. The cafes grew out of the piece A Crash Course in Cloudspotting and are an ongoing community offer. The ambition of the space is to be a safe, relaxed, creative online space for anyone navigating the challenges of a long term health condition or disability. In addition to the monthly cafes we’ve run two Cloudspotters Booklcubs. The Bookclubs are a 6 session block over 3 months that explore extracts of key disability texts alongside creative writing. The first Cloudspotters Bookclub was funded by a BAC / Necessity Fund award (21/22), and the second by a Bristol City Council Originators award (22/23). The aim of the cafes and bookclub is to build support networks and connection for chronically ill communities.

Testimonials

“This group has been one of the most important things in my illness journey, that made me feel less alone and like I belong” - Bee

“I always come away from the cafés feeling boosted and inspired so I'm very appreciative to everyone who participates.” - Mark

“I can’t thank you (and the wonderful, supportive ladies at the Cloudspotter’s Café) enough for your incredible encouragement today. I am so grateful for the voices of the amazing women who supported and encouraged me so powerfully.” - Sue

“I felt among a tribe, people I could relate to, people who, if I opened up about my illness and its effects, would get it, that I would be accepted. I felt validated, relieved.” - Bee

“It felt different to other spaces because of the lack of bureaucracy, and emphasis on creativity and kindness.” - Liz

“I felt accompanied in a way I rarely do. I also felt creatively inspired, happy, and at times entertained by the fun that we were having. It was a really special space.” - Sarah

“Its hard to explain what it feels like to be in a space where everyone there knows your experience of life in a world where you are misunderstood, shamed, ignored, unsupported and your power and beauty is not seen. Having a disability brings about so much daily challenge that you have to grow and learn some of the hardest lessons in life, and still try to thrive. And yet in the ableist society we live in people with disease or disabilty are seen as weak, or revered as strong. Its more complicated than that, and when you come to a space like this where all of that is understood without even needing to discuss it, you feel totally seen, empowered, held, alllowed, relaxed, safe, and like you can shine for the soul that you are beyond and also including all disabilty. This is how i felt in this space. I bloomed.” - Jo

“It felt totally unlike any other spaces I've been in, in the best possible way! I have either been part of medical forums and spaces around chronic illness where there was so much focus on sharing symptoms there was no space for creative thoughtful approaches, or I've been in well meaning creative spaces where there was only ever the possibility of a very superficial acknowledgement of illness or disability. Cloudspotters Cafe was the first space I've been in that enabled deep discussion and creativity to hold and explore experiences of illness and it was the first space I've been able to be present as my full creative and disabled self without having to compromise on either. That felt really powerful. It was so well held, and full of care and thought, and full of new encounters with texts that led to learning and awakening. Thank you!” - Anna

“I felt really understood.” - Helena

“The feelings I had were of deep belonging and an ease around everyone in the group. This included at the beginning, when I didn't know much about who was in the group, and then deepened as we did more things together and as I started to hear more about other people's lives. I think it was knowing the concept of the group that gave me the sense of belonging at the beginning, and then this feeling developed through experience and being alongside each other on a journey. The concept of the group was very important to me. I work in a fast-paced, systemically neurotypical environment and where in certain ways I feel quite different, and that these differences are shortcomings that need to be compensated for or hidden. It doesn't feel like the system as a whole really embraces the positive and creative aspects of neurodivergence, or understands as a whole what constitutes meaningful support (even though I might experience this in specific moments or from specific people). It also doesn't understand what fatigue is and how it is different from tiredness. There can also be a cultural virtue in being exhausted - not fatigue exhaustion, but neurotypical 'pushing through tiredness' and working above your contracted hours - as it can become proof of your commitment and how seriously you take your work. As I cannot participate in this culture (and don't see the value of it) I have felt this has impacted on how seriously my work has been taken at significant points. I therefore have to work quite hard internally to maintain a sense of ok-ness about how I work and what I have to offer in that space.
I experienced the opposite of this in the Cafe. I felt like because how I function was both a given, a source of insight and creativity, and something necessary to the space then I didn't have to hide that aspect of me or be in problematic negotiation with it. It made me feel both ok as I was and like I had something to offer because of my differences not despite them.”

How participants would describe the Cafe to a friend:

“A creative space to explore points of resonance, difference, and connection”

“A supporting, validating, inspirational space and opportunity to connect with a community I'm part of but don't have immediately around me.”

“A wonderful, warm, supportive, interesting and exciting space.”

“Something I didn't know I needed as much as I did, where I could be met, and be whole, and make some cool shit.”

“An empowering place to be seen, met, held, and to deeply relax and explore.”

“It's my Crip Support Club.”

“Like finally coming out and finding that instead of being stuck in the corner of the cafe on your own, you've somehow ended up in the cool gang where everyone is smart and creative and has a shared language that you're invited in on from the start.”

“An open forum where the chronically ill can feel safe to be themselves, be creative, be still.”

A Crash Course in Cloudspotting

In 2016 I (accidentally) set off a security alert by lying down on the 6th floor of the Southbank Centre. Since then I have collected over 250 stories about people’s attempt to rest in public. A Crash Course in Cloudspotting tells some of those stories.

A Crash Course in Cloudspotting

An invitation to pause.
To rest.
To listen.

A Crash Course in Cloudspotting is an intimate audio journey exploring the depths of human connection and the subversive act of lying down.

It can be experienced as a 35 minute audio-led installation or as a 55 minute installation + performance.

“Beguiling and thoughtful(…).A Crash Course in Cloudspotting is about finding, making, and acknowledging the connections between people… the show lets us imagine ourselves as part of a web reaching out across the world.” Exeunt Magazine.

CREDITS: 

Conceived & Performed by Raquel Meseguer Zafe

Devised in collaboration with: Composer & Sound Artist: Jamie McCarthy  Dramaturg & 2nd Performer: Laura Dannequin Artist & Theatre Designer: Sophia Clist Artist & Designer: Tom Metcalfe Lighting & Sound Designer: Charles Webber  Production Manager: Mark Munday Software Developers: David Haylock & Joseph Horton 

Produced by MAYK

Commissioned by Unlimited and Coventry City of Culture Trust with Arts Council England Support. Originally commissioned by Camden Alive and Unlimited.

The original R&D for this project was supported by Ovalhouse, South East Dance and Unlimited. Developed in collaboration with Synøvve Fredericks, Jamie McCarthy, Owen Calvert Lyons and Sam Evans. CREDITS: