Mig Burgess Walsh
About
Biography
I’m Senior Lecturer lighting on the Theatre Production course at the Guildford School of Acting part of the University of Surrey.
I am also the Co Chair and a trustee councillor of the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT)
I have 20 years experience in live entertainment and theatre production. My passion is lighting, but I love all aspects of the creative arts sector, designing, producing and making live theatre and events is what I do best.
I am creator of Fuse Arts Collective, a not for profit design consortium dedicated to work on creative projects fusing arts with science to create innovative creative work. Artistic work that provokes discussion and promotes social change, but also gathers data and evidence in creative and visually stimulating ways. If you would like to see more of the work I have done to date please visit the Fuse Arts website for more details on my projects. I have a personal interest in projects relating to mental health and well being, and many of projects I work on have this as the theme of my work.
My qualifications
Previous roles
Affiliations and memberships
News
In the media
ResearchResearch interests
All of my practice based research can be found at:
www.fusearts.org
My academic website can be found here:
https://migburgess.wordpress.com/
Research projects
Blackout Immersive is a ground breaking multi-media installation that gives a unique insight into the Bi-Polar mind. Part art installation, part immersive theatre and part educational initiative, Blackout Immersive was created to address the fundamental gap in understanding between those with mental health challenges and those without.
The installation provides a single viewer with a totally immersive 6-minute multisensory journey through a Bi-Polar cycle of mania and depression. It fuses art, technology, science and research in an attempt to change perceptions of mental illness and dissolve some of the unhelpful labels attached to it. It also hopes to provoke discussion and offer support to those who continue to suffer in silence.
Blackout Immersive is the brainchild of Mig Burgess, a professional theatre technician, lighting designer and academic who has battled with mental illness throughout her life. The installation charts her on going personal experience of Bi-Polar ii, using images and soundscapes from her life.
Pictures and more details can be found here:
I in 4 is an interactive lighting-based installation that centres on the compelling statistic that one in four people will suffer from a mental health related issue in any one year. In a symbolic and participative way, it explores the notion that by breaking taboos, dissolving labels and truly ‘connecting’ with those who suffer, we can make all difference. The installation uses four trees in close proximity. All are lit in a unique way, but one is obviously in poor health. Through the use of voice-over, soundscape and sensor technology visitors are encouraged to go to the unhealthy tree, connect with it and make it healthy again.
Pictures and more info can be found here:
Fuse Arts presents “First Contact”, staged at Kew’s wild botanic garden Wakehurst and funded by Arts Council England. A new multimedia installation that examines attitudes to mental health. Led by a specially designed app, developed by partner Despite the Monkey, visitors journeying through Wakehurst’s woodlands and gardens will encounter a series of three trees, each accompanied by a sculpted figure representing a person experiencing poor mental health.
As they meet each figure, visitors are encouraged to reflect on how to reach out to someone in need and the lasting impact of that first interaction. Their thoughts, messages, and questions can be shared and recorded in different ways at each tree, from leaving voice messages, to sending digital text messages through the bespoke app, or even handwritten notes. The unique blend of technology, soundscapes, and visual art forms a family-friendly, sensory trail and offers an accessible way to consider what it may feel or sound like to be trying to cope with their own mental health.
Pictures and more info can be found here:
In collaboration with PLASA, PSA, ALD, ASD and ABTT, Fuse Arts were enable to conduct new vital research into the mental health of the larger backstage entertainment industry. This evaluation took place at the 2019 PLASA trade show along side the Blackout project. We recieved 1302 responses to our mental health survey.
This data was compiled into a report by Dr. Paul Hanna at the University of Surrey.
2022 UK Backstage Wellbeing Evaluation Follow up studyI worked with The Alliance of Associations and Professionals in Theatre and Live Events to produce a follow up study to obtain data following the huge impact that Covid and the pandemic had on our indusrtry.
To read the full report of the survey follow this link:
https://www.abtt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/UK-BACKSTAGE-WELLBEING-SURVEY-REPORT-2021.pdf
Handbook of visual methods in Psychology - book chapterSometimes all the lights go out in my head
Co Authored with Dr Paul Hanna
This chapter focuses on bipolar type II disorder which is diagnosed on the basis that an individual experiences at least one episode (i.e. persistent feeling over several days or weeks) of severe depression and symptoms of hypermania. In an attempt to address mental health stigma a number of academics, practitioners, individuals living with distress and carers have turned to alternative methods to communicate what it is like to experience mental distress and attempt to empower individuals experiencing distress from the position that they are the experts of their experience. The chapter discusses the implementation of Blackout event to show what it is like to live with a mental diagnosis. It presents the words of the audience to express their experience of Blackout. By offering up something multi-sensory and immersive, Blackout adds an additional way to give voice to those experiencing distress, offering more than the traditional ‘expert voice’ of the psychologist.
Find this chapter here:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351032063-3127/…
Research interests
All of my practice based research can be found at:
www.fusearts.org
My academic website can be found here:
https://migburgess.wordpress.com/
Research projects
Blackout Immersive is a ground breaking multi-media installation that gives a unique insight into the Bi-Polar mind. Part art installation, part immersive theatre and part educational initiative, Blackout Immersive was created to address the fundamental gap in understanding between those with mental health challenges and those without.
The installation provides a single viewer with a totally immersive 6-minute multisensory journey through a Bi-Polar cycle of mania and depression. It fuses art, technology, science and research in an attempt to change perceptions of mental illness and dissolve some of the unhelpful labels attached to it. It also hopes to provoke discussion and offer support to those who continue to suffer in silence.
Blackout Immersive is the brainchild of Mig Burgess, a professional theatre technician, lighting designer and academic who has battled with mental illness throughout her life. The installation charts her on going personal experience of Bi-Polar ii, using images and soundscapes from her life.
Pictures and more details can be found here:
I in 4 is an interactive lighting-based installation that centres on the compelling statistic that one in four people will suffer from a mental health related issue in any one year. In a symbolic and participative way, it explores the notion that by breaking taboos, dissolving labels and truly ‘connecting’ with those who suffer, we can make all difference. The installation uses four trees in close proximity. All are lit in a unique way, but one is obviously in poor health. Through the use of voice-over, soundscape and sensor technology visitors are encouraged to go to the unhealthy tree, connect with it and make it healthy again.
Pictures and more info can be found here:
Fuse Arts presents “First Contact”, staged at Kew’s wild botanic garden Wakehurst and funded by Arts Council England. A new multimedia installation that examines attitudes to mental health. Led by a specially designed app, developed by partner Despite the Monkey, visitors journeying through Wakehurst’s woodlands and gardens will encounter a series of three trees, each accompanied by a sculpted figure representing a person experiencing poor mental health.
As they meet each figure, visitors are encouraged to reflect on how to reach out to someone in need and the lasting impact of that first interaction. Their thoughts, messages, and questions can be shared and recorded in different ways at each tree, from leaving voice messages, to sending digital text messages through the bespoke app, or even handwritten notes. The unique blend of technology, soundscapes, and visual art forms a family-friendly, sensory trail and offers an accessible way to consider what it may feel or sound like to be trying to cope with their own mental health.
Pictures and more info can be found here:
In collaboration with PLASA, PSA, ALD, ASD and ABTT, Fuse Arts were enable to conduct new vital research into the mental health of the larger backstage entertainment industry. This evaluation took place at the 2019 PLASA trade show along side the Blackout project. We recieved 1302 responses to our mental health survey.
This data was compiled into a report by Dr. Paul Hanna at the University of Surrey.
I worked with The Alliance of Associations and Professionals in Theatre and Live Events to produce a follow up study to obtain data following the huge impact that Covid and the pandemic had on our indusrtry.
To read the full report of the survey follow this link:
https://www.abtt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/UK-BACKSTAGE-WELLBEING-SURVEY-REPORT-2021.pdf
Sometimes all the lights go out in my head
Co Authored with Dr Paul Hanna
This chapter focuses on bipolar type II disorder which is diagnosed on the basis that an individual experiences at least one episode (i.e. persistent feeling over several days or weeks) of severe depression and symptoms of hypermania. In an attempt to address mental health stigma a number of academics, practitioners, individuals living with distress and carers have turned to alternative methods to communicate what it is like to experience mental distress and attempt to empower individuals experiencing distress from the position that they are the experts of their experience. The chapter discusses the implementation of Blackout event to show what it is like to live with a mental diagnosis. It presents the words of the audience to express their experience of Blackout. By offering up something multi-sensory and immersive, Blackout adds an additional way to give voice to those experiencing distress, offering more than the traditional ‘expert voice’ of the psychologist.
Find this chapter here:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351032063-3127/…
Teaching
I teach on the following programmes:
BA Theatre Production
MA Stage and Production Management
I also teach externally as a guest lecturer for:
Falmouth University
Rutgers University America - linked with the Globe Theatres exchange programme.
Publications
Highlights
A Handbook of Visual Methods in Psychology: Using and Interpreting Images in Qualitative Research
Chapter 27 Co Authored with Dr Paul Hanna
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351032063-3127/sometimes-lights-go-head-paul-hanna-mig-burgess
This chapter focuses on bipolar type II disorder which is diagnosed on the basis that an individual experiences at least one episode (i.e. persistent feeling over several days or weeks) of severe depression and symptoms of hypermania. In an attempt to address mental health stigma a number of academics, practitioners, individuals living with distress and carers have turned to alternative methods to communicate what it is like to experience mental distress and attempt to empower individuals experiencing distress from the position that they are the experts of their experience. The chapter discusses the implementation of Blackout event to show what it is like to live with a mental diagnosis. It presents the words of the audience to express their experience of Blackout. By offering up something multi-sensory and immersive, Blackout adds an additional way to give voice to those experiencing distress, offering more than the traditional ‘expert voice’ of the psychologist.
I have written the first entertainment industry guidance note on mental health and well being for the Association of British Theatre Technicians. This guidance note was written after conducting 2 major studies into mental health and well being in our backstage industry. The "W1" guidance note is a direct result of data collected. It looks at offering guidance on how to better consider the well being of freelance staff in your workplace, as it was noted in our study that 69% of workers backstage identify with working freelance and self employed in some way.
Guidance Note W1 – Mental Health and Well-Being: Supporting Freelancers in the workplace
This publication forms part of the Code of Practice for the Theatre Industry produced by the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) with the support of the Theatre Safety Committee.
The guidance note can be found here: https://www.abtt.org.uk/product/guidance-note-w1/