We’ve had an exciting year here at Emergent Value, delivering a packed programme of events and opportunities to participate in our research. With our website now up and running, we wanted to take a moment to reflect and tell you all about it. First, we need to go back to last spring...

In April 2025 we kicked off our third work stream, with our first ever Game Jam in London. This was a chance for 10 artists from a range of performance, game design and programming backgrounds to come together in a paid capacity, to develop ideas for playful evaluation experiences that could be embedded and delivered as part of performance or participatory artworks. In addition to being playful, the focus of the day was also on participant-centred approaches.

We had in-depth discussions looking at why participant-centred approaches are needed now, played games picking apart their systems to understand how we might adapt them, were led in a facilitated idea generation session, and finally we had some extended time to think through and develop any ideas that stood out to individuals or groups.  

The Game Jam felt really nourishing, both as a space to explore practice without the pressure of an output, but also as a space to meet likeminded practitioners who share some elements of practice and also have their own unique approaches. As an artist who has been working solo for a while, having spaces like this to develop collaborations and dialogue is invaluable.  - Pavlos Christodoulou, Game Jam Participant  

This Jam was a standalone event geared towards sparking valuable project ideas and evaluation insights for the artists to take forward into their work. However, it was also an intentional precursor or warm-up to the Emergent Value commissions programme. Each participant of the Jam was invited to submit a proposal to develop an idea seeded at the Game Jam over the winter.  With this callout, we were specifically looking for ideas for:  

• Evaluation games

• Reflection games

• Creative ways to embed evaluation/audience research within an experience

• Ways to embed data capturing within experiences and games

• Reflection strategies for a range of contexts: online/ digital and in-person events

With a wide set of parameters in place, we were pleased to receive a brilliant range of project proposals from the callout from which we selected four exciting projects that are now wrapping up delivery.  

• Arlo Howard & V Buckenham - Playful Reflections – a series of in-person post-show playful experiences installed in a theatre lobby prompting conversation, reflection and fun! Find out more here.  

• Sorcha Stott-Strzala & Suzanna Hurst - Performance Journal – a web-based app where you can select shows you’ve seen and leave written reflections to keep as an archive for yourself or to share directly with the artists. Find out more here.

• Mod (Mel Frances & Toby Peach) - a web-based experience inspired by the bygone era of DVD extras, where you can step behind the curtain, connect with the makers of a performance and answer their questions as well as other reflective prompts. Find out more here.  

• Sarah Warden - What Was That About? A theatre-going group for “not really theatre people” - an invitation for folks not regularly attending theatre to come along to two shows at Bristol Old Vic and join a of reflective writing workshops responding to the work. Find out more here.  

These projects have now been tested in partnership with a fantastic roster of live productions put on across this autumn/winter in London, Bristol and Cornwall including Rhianna Ilube/Koro Productions’ 1884 at Wellcome Collection, Frantic Assembly’s Lost Atoms at Bristol Old Vic, a number of productions at the brilliant VOILA! Festival, Wet Mess’ TESTO at Southbank Centre and many, many more.  

Right now, we’re in the process of putting together a comprehensive Evaluation Playbook – with more information about these experiments, learnings from the process, and tips and tricks to share should you want to try a version of these strategies for yourself.  We’ll be sharing more about the Playbook soon – so keep your ears tuned for announcements.  

That’s all for now!  

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