Utopia Lab: Keeping Death Close
6th March 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM GMT
Overview
Join Utopia Lab Residents in contemplation as we ask how keeping death close can change the way we live and think today and in the future.
In early March 2026, a small group of researchers, artists and practitioners will be in residence in EFI Utopia Lab, considering within this space and from many angles death, grief, mourning and loss.
During the residency, we will use the ‘no space’ of utopia to imagine what death might look like in the future, and to discover what we can learn from these imaginative experiments that could help us to navigate grief, loss and mourning from personal and global perspectives in the present.
We invite you to join us as we share what emerges from the residency. As there is no pre-determined output or end point for our explorations, we cannot say what we will be sharing but we promise it will be mindful, curious and welcoming.
We are aware that death is a topic that could be activating for many reasons and want to stress that we are not therapists or counsellors, and this is not a space where we can provide therapeutic or clinical assistance for those in need of support other than in the form of direction to potentially helpful resources. We will seek to ensure that the space and any actions within the space are deeply mindful and respectful to all who enter.
All attendees will be welcome to take breaks or leave at any point during the event if they wish to do so.
A photographer will be present to document the event sensitively but will ensure that no one is photographed partially or at all if they would rather not be.
Light refreshments will be provided. Any questions, please contact EFI Creative Projects Manager, Jennifer Williams, at j.l.williams@ed.ac.uk.
Residents
Luke Aitken is a student on the MA Graphic Design course at the Edinburgh College of Art. Luke completed his undergraduate degree in Product Design with a focus on speculative, future focused design. He has a keen interest in making complex systems and taboo topics highly accessible through visual design. Past projects vary from unravelling autonomous tech in the space sector through the use of bananas, exploring future metrics of health, and organising and directing a futures design exhibition featuring young designers from across Britain.
Josephine Balfour-Oatts is an AHRC-funded doctoral researcher in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. Working with SupportED, Scotland’s community eating disorder charity, her project investigates disconnections between traditional anorexia fiction and the complex cognitive realities of eating disorder recovery, exploring how experimental narrative forms might address this divide and enrich bibliotherapeutic interventions. As a Peer Support Worker at the Adult Eating Disorder Service in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Josephine integrates lived experience with both clinical practice and academic research. She also teaches on the MSc Narrative Futures: Art, Data and Society at Edinburgh Futures Institute, investigating how narratives frame and shape our understanding of the world.
Luke Pell is a maker, curator, dramaturge, researcher. Based in Edinburgh, they work internationally accompanying all kinds of artists and organisations in processes of creation, reorientation and repair.
Their work has taken form as site-specific dances with large ensembles for libraries in Scotland; one-to-one performances in broom cupboards in Finland, as well as in carparks and nightclubs at home; participatory walks and online artworks in response to the decline of biodiversity across the UK; a giant screen-dance for the ballroom of London’s Southbank and the foyers of dance houses in Sweden and a range of creative/critical writings and discourse series – online, in print, in person – here, there and in the elsewhere.
These have included podcast series exploring the knowledge dance artists might bring to climate emergency and intersecting global crises; reflective labs/workshops for dance, theatre and performance makers; queer alt-school offers and various symposia, artist and community gatherings attending to the choreography of care; crip technique, knowledge and expertise and dancing otherwise/ways.
Recurring threads of enquiry in their practice are: alterity and ableism; death, dying and loss; embodied knowledge; expanded poetics and choreographic practices; disabled and neuroqueer dramaturgies and experience; perception, touch and affect.
Formerly Head of Learning Research with Candoco Dance Company, they have held roles as Associate Artist and Development Associate at Dance Base, Edinburgh and Artist Support Progamme Facilitator at The Work Room, Glasgow. A long term Artistic Associate of performance company Fevered Sleep and Janice Parker Projects, until April 2026, they are part-time Research Associate for Claire Cunningham and the Einstein Strategic Professorship in Choreography, Dance and Disability Arts with Professor Claire Cunningham at the Inter-Univeristy Dance Centre (HZT) Berlin.
Rebecca Jo-Rushdy is a Master-level KonMari® Consultant, facilitator, and end-of-life doula based in Edinburgh. Her work sits at the intersection of decluttering, legacy, and life transitions, supporting people to gently engage with change, grief, and impermanence through practical action and emotional care.
Drawing on her background in design, community facilitation, and end-of-life training, Rebecca explores how our relationship with belongings, memory, and space can open meaningful conversations about death and legacy – approaching them not as abstract ideas, but as experiences that are lived, felt, organised around, and honoured in everyday life.
Karim Rushdy is a mindfulness teacher working with individuals and teams across elite sport, corporate and community sectors. He holds an MA from Bangor University’s Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice and serves as trustee at Breathworks, a charity supporting people with chronic pain and illness. His teaching draws on two decades in Asia, personal experience with chronic pain, and the integration of contemplative practice with neuroscience and psychology. More at www.karim-rushdy.com.
Jimmy Turner is a furniture maker, sculptor, curator and anthropologist who works as a researcher for the Binks Hub at the University of Edinburgh, concentrating on designing and developing projects with communities through which they can explore their curiosities and priorities through art and creativity.
Matjaz Vidmar is researching innovation, (eco)systems, futures and design. His work is especially focused within the space industry, artificial intelligence and biotechnology. He is particularly interested in processes of emergence and alignment. He leads interdisciplinary projects spanning arts, science and civil society; is involved in several start-up companies; and he delivers an extensive public engagement programme. Mat counts it as a unique privilege to help Jennifer frame Utopia Lab activities. More at www.blogs.ed.ac.uk/vidmar.
Jennifer Williams is Creative Projects Manager at the Edinburgh Futures Institute where she leads on a portfolio of creative projects that connect the work of the Institute to communities within the University of Edinburgh and beyond its walls. These include programming the Anthea Bond Exhibition Room and EFI Creative Big Screen, as well as creating Utopia Lab – a project in which people from many different places gather to dream futures that inspire our experience of the present and allow us to see the world in new ways that enable change.
Jennifer is a poet, librettist and yoga teacher and her background is in writing, art, collaboration, creative learning and creative project management. Williams is particularly interested in expanding dialogues across languages, perspectives and cultures and in poetry, cross-form work, music, visual art, dance, opera and theatre. She is concerned with how we navigate our experience of the world via our body and mind, and how slowing down can help people to experience their connection to themselves, one another and the world more fully.
She holds a BA degree from Wellesley College in English Literature with a Studio Art minor, and an MLitt in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow. Former roles have included Projects & Engagement Coordinator at the Institute for Academic Development, Programme Manager at the Scottish Poetry Library and Literature Officer at the Traverse Theatre.
