Rebecca Collins is an award-winning artist researcher working at the intersection between contemporary performance and sound studies. Her practice, grounded in specific sites or communities, investigates the relationships between social, political and cultural phenomena. Current works explore eavesdropping and amateur espionage, the performativity of gender online and the vibrant potential of landscapes and rural communities
Rebecca is interested in how critical, fictional and performative interventions might cultivate attention towards our contemporary condition indicating potential levers for change. Rebecca is concerned with sharing her scholarship and practice through multiple outcomes which might include performed material, exhibitions, screenings, workshops and publications.
Current projects include ‘Stolen Voices’ (2014-2019), a collaboration with Johanna Linsley (University of Dundee). The project uses eavesdropping as a method, combining this with the dramaturgy of detective fiction. Fieldwork in the form of site investigations along the East coast of the UK and a listening practice are combined with research into social, political and economic concerns found at the borders and margins of the UK. To date outputs include a series of performances, participatory workshops, the release of a limited-edition vinyl album, a number of seminars and conference presentations and a journal article for MDPI Arts. A book project is currently in process.
Rebecca is co-organiser of Women In Sound/Women On Sound (WISWOS), a research network which tackles inequality and gender bias in the sonic arts. She is a member of the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present, the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) and Artea, an interdisciplinary research group based in Spain. Between 2018-2020 Rebecca was part of PICA a competitively selected group of international researchers investigating collective creative processes. The group met regularly at AZALA in Northern Spain. As a member of PICA, Rebecca contributed to critical discussions at experimental film festival, Punto de Vista held in Pamplona and BAD, a dance/performance festival held in Bilbao.
Rebecca's work has featured on 'Ars Sonora' a sound art program broadcast on Spanish National Radio, Resonance FM, BBC Wales, BBC Newcastle and Radiophrenia. Her writing has been published in Contemporary Theatre Review, M/C Journal of Media and Culture and Bricks from the Kiln amongst others.
