Never at sea: an examination of collaboration and translation in a creative project about women's experiences of forced migration

This chapter examines the collaborative creative development of Never at Sea (2023), an interdisciplinary work harnessing film, sculpture, performance and sound that identifies water as a site of journey, absence, and a place of loss and death. Never at Sea was created in an environment where the politicisation of people seeking refuge in the United Kingdom is extreme. The art-making attempts to subvert this by focusing on the grief of forced migration, with an emphasis on women's knowledge and stories. This chapter explores two concepts of translation: (1) translation of ideas that lie with and between our different artistic disciplines and creative processes, and (2) how artistic responses to the dehumanisation of the refugee experience can serve to translate this global issue to audiences. We argue that creative practice has a unique ability to sit with uncertainty, change and challenging topics, and that this makes the work of artists a crucial contributor in voicing key issues of our time and advocating for change. The chapter explores the role of affect and embodiment in Never at Sea and the process and role of mediation in experiential translation. We explore abstraction as a dimension of experiential translation where non-representation opens avenues for new responses. We also discuss the ways we made this work with— not about—those implicitly affected by the issues the work interrogates. Following discussion on the background and context of Never at Sea, is an interview between key creatives Kate McMillan (visual artist) and Cat Hope (composer), facilitated by Louise Devenish (percussionist), discussing the capacity for transformation and change through creative work, and how that manifests in their respective practices.