On the Ethics of Non-Disclosure: a Roundtable with Urban Theatre Projects and Collaborators

Abstract

In ‘The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents’, Claire Bishop discusses some uncomfortable tensions between the ‘ethical imperative’ of collaborative activity and the aesthetic imperative of “good” art (2006). Bishop argues that the ‘best collaborative practices . . . reflect on this antinomy both in the structure of the work and in the conditions of its reception’. Sydney-based Urban Theatre Projects (UTP) have been creating socially and politically engaged works for the past twenty-seven years (formerly as Death Defying Theatre). Their stated aims are to ‘reflect stories and images of contemporary life’, to engage with ‘diverse cultures and communities’, and to ‘explore new territory in contemporary arts practice and collaborative processes through a synthesis of artists, site, ideas and public dialogue’. (See their website for more information: www.urbantheatre.com.au).