Social Experiment is a new gathering at Contact for anyone interested in Live Art and contemporary performance to meet, chat, and try ideas out…

A Student Edition of Social Experiment on 5 June, presented by The Producing Group, Word of Warning + Contact

Artists

Amelia Grace · Dana Potter · GIN Niemtus · Isla Webster & Gabrielle Kaufman · Oscar Dickson · Will Oliver

Participating artists subject to change.

Programme

This Student Edition kicks off at 6pm… and finishes about 8.15pm.

Entry

FREE: there’s no ticketing… just turn up!

Time: Thursday 5 June 2025, 6pm onwards (ends about 8.15pm).

Location: Contact (space 0 & bar), Oxford Rd, Manchester M15 6JA.

Artists

GIN Niemtus · Break It!

Because it’s there. Because it’s easy. Because it will let you.

GIN is a multidisciplinary artist with a kaleidoscopic practice ranging from music performance to shadow puppetry to durational work. Their art explores feelings of belonging and the unusual experiences we might have as people; they aim to make a home for these strange emotions and impulses.

Insta @ginniemtus

Dana Potter · The rain

A glimpse of my reality.
In this piece Dana investigates what it means to live as a black woman in current society and the feelings that derive from the experiences she’s had. Drawing from her own experiences as a black woman, Dana creates a metaphor in an attempt to express the feelings that derive from being undervalued in current society and the struggle to be seen.

This installation is a part of Dana’s current theatre practice, autobiographical theatre exploring themes such as intersectionality, colonialism, migration, capitalism, community, and the sense of belonging. As an artist she aims to create work that speaks to those like her, that relate to her experiences and feelings, as an attempt to ensure that others feel seen and represented.

Insta @danapotter_


Amelia Grace · Fetish Object

A solo piece about devotion, possession, and a statue that builds herself with paint.

Amelia Grace is a performer, writer and artist who makes intimate solo work exploring questions of constructed identity and explosive insecurity.

Insta @lia.attempt

Oscar Dickson · ·µ∂…£¬§‚↌≤¬øx{¬§ (call it lamps)

Choreographer and Dramaturg Oscar Dickson presents a solo performance centred around the sensations of tourettes. In collaboration with sound design artists Ethan Siddons and Toby Fletcher, this piece combines sound and choreography to recreate the experience of someone living with tourettes.
With the support of @touretteshero and their Department of Wonder and Play: Beyond Borders, Oscar is able to create a multi-sensory story that explores different types of tics and how tics impact the body.

Oscar is a soon-to-be graduate from Manchester Met (BA Hons) in Drama and Contemporary Performance. His work specialises in choreography and dance, often combining different genres of dance or elements of multimedia. His work as a queer artist, while not as prevalent in this piece, reclaims the virtue and presence of queer and trans bodies through choreography and through drag.

Insta @oscar.iain.creates

Isla Webster & Gabrielle Kaufman · TOP DOG

A fast-paced, queer and kinky romp through experiences of euphoria, dysphoria, liberation and pain. Exploring the nuances, pressures and discord around self-optimisation. What does it take to be Top Dog?
Originally created with the direction of Gabrielle Kaufman.

A performance artist, theatremaker & writer, Isla uses body & sound-based performance to answer questions about the world around them. Her work often explores identity, stagnation, pressure and social relationships.

Insta @islagrw

Will Oliver · For An Eye?

Make sure you bring an offering for the shopkeeper – he plans to barter his way out of this place by any means. It matters not who visits him or what he stands to lose. A picture, a memory, a hand. All looks like good currency to me, anything to fuel trade, to keep business going.

Meet the cast of strange characters that spend their days and nights browsing this dreamscape of a market in Will Oliver’s newest, strangest one-person horror comedy, constructed almost entirely from found objects. Songs, stories, dismemberment: there’s something for everybody here.

A new writer and performer fresh out of a linguistics degree! This will be Will’s second one-man show. He has performed at multiple fringe festivals across the UK.

Insta @foraneye.show

NB participating artists are announced about a week before each event — the call for proposals is open on a rolling basis at socialexperiment.posthaven.com

Find out more about the full programme and each piece here: wordofwarning.org/socialexperiment/may2025/

Credits

Social Experiment produced by hÅb; supported by Contact and using public funding by Arts Council England.