In 2022, I took part in the Masterclass Artistic Research: Working With Waste at Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, led by artists Lucy Beech and James Richards; with invited guests and mentors Simon Werrett, Elsa Richardson, Mary Maggie, Pauline Curnier Jardin, Dr. Alex Blanchette, Jenna Sutela, and Riar Rizaldi. The hybrid programme invited participants to explore expanded definitions of waste and its potential as material, methodology, and metaphor. My contribution was rooted in early research for my practice-based PhD, which focuses on queer intergenerational mutual aid, the cultural value of true crime, and embodiment in filmmaking—particularly in relation to the 2016 fire that destroyed Steam Sauna Complex, a queer sex space housed in a former bingo hall in West Yorkshire.
I presented a pre-recorded performance to webcam in which I read a script while taking poppers, gradually becoming intoxicated and visibly flushed—interrupting my ability to complete the performance. I then developed this into a collaged video using scraps of unused footage, digital ephemera, and fragments of text. This piece explored bodily waste (sperm, sweat), wasted time (altered states, queer sex, poppers trainers), and traces—both physical and digital—as potential sites of cultural meaning. Through a mix of camp, sincerity, and research-driven poetics, I asked: What can a piss stain or an expired phone number on a cubicle wall reveal? How might “waste” offer alternative ways of understanding bodies, memory, and space? The work played with failure, uncertainty, and the idea that being in the waste—refusing sanitisation—can itself be generative, though perhaps not always comfortable.
