Social Experiment
17 July 2025 Programme
→ artists · programme · entry · access · credits Updated 15 July 2025 at 10.15am
A Social Experiment on 17 July, presented by Word of Warning + Contact
Artists
Ben Hodge · James Moss · Leah Stone · Rachel Smith · Shahireh Sharif · Xhi Ndubisi Participating artists subject to change.
Programme
July’s event kicks off at 6pm… and finishes about 9pm.
James Moss · Making Believe
Audio-visual series incorporating cut up, manipulated, and reassembled spoken word readings of books by Clara Barton, Virginia Woolf, Sigmund Freud, and Henrietta Marshall, plus texts from Xhi Ndubisi & Jo Manby’s Passing Cloud series.
Collaged and edited archive film exploring authorship, obsolescence, and illusion in the information age.
James makes artworks, performances, and exhibitions in collaboration with writers, researchers, residents, and visitors. Themes of particular interest include time, potential, work and waste; absence and erasure; and the frailties of language — when words can’t, or mustn’t, be enough. He’s staged exhibitions and events around the UK and at the Cité de la Mode et du Design in Paris, with other venues including Fuse Art Space, Lowry, and Bristol Folk House. He’s performed at Bluedot (Jodrell Bank), Festival Number 6, St John on Bethnal Green, Sounds from the Other City, Koko, Manchester Art Gallery, and Supersonic. Broadcasts include ARTE TV, BBC R1, BBC R6 Music (Best of 2015), NTS, and TF1.
Xhi Ndubisi and Jo Manby are artist-writers whose monthly series for the Fourdrinier, Passing Cloud, takes the form of a conversations with an imagined AI baby.
Insta @jamesmossart
Ben Hodge · Dating for Fat People
A live Tinder profile to entice you to a date with a man. That man is fat.
Can he hide the truth from his date? Will the date go successfully even with his large body?
Join Ben as he explores fat attractiveness and the pressure to impress a date, knowing his body is one that comes with many expectations; not many of those expectations are good.
Then join Ben for a one-to-one speed date…
Ben is a comedian, improvisor, and storyteller, currently studying an MA in Queer Performance at Rose Bruford. Ben’s humorous approach to his identity as a fat, transmasculine person has seen him earn the title of one of Liverpool’s Top 30 under 30. Ben has performed across the country at notable venues as well as festivals such as Brighton Fringe & Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Ben is currently writing his new show Build-a-Bear, exploring comfortability in a fat, queer body.
Insta @benhodgeee
Shahireh Sharif · Downhill Blues
A monologue that uses the Swiss cheese analogy to explore discrimination.
‘Ownership’, ‘labelling’, ‘dehumanisation’, and ‘obedience without critical thinking and maintaining ethical standards’ can lead to moral exclusion. And in turn, it could result in turning a blind eye to genocide.
Shahireh is a multidisiplinary artist interested in exploring gender, identity, and race.
Insta @sangrezeh
Xhi Ndubisi · The apologetics of Icarus
What right do we have to tell the story of black boys? In an environment where violence is perpetrated daily on women by men, why should we think about broken boys and misformed men? Why expend limited energy on contemplating their fragility or their needs? When we are dying. When we are robbed of purpose.
Let me tell you about Artemis, her mother Leto, her aunt Delos, and her brother Apollo. Let me tell you about my brother and possibly yours. Let me tell you about Icarus.
(Xhi will be available for debriefing after the performance, and additional support will be signposted.)
Xhi is a writer, storyteller, and visual artist. She is in the process of developing a performance voice with the hopes to add performance to the repertoire of tools at her disposal.
Insta @anotherdiasporan
Rachel Smith · MOTHER DARK
Apparently ‘rescuing’ is enabling and ‘helping’ is the sunny side of control.
But when there’s nothing left to catch people, how do we let go?
A propulsive ride through co-dependence, mothers’ revenge, recovery, and re-connection. A true-life story that may or may not have happened. If you love self-help groups, the 90s, and Thelma and Louise, if you yearn in these times for a (dark) mother — this show is for you.
A solo show with dramaturgy from Annie Siddons, mentorship from Ursula Martinez, and development funding from Arts Council England.
Rachel is a screenwriter and performer living in the North West. Having trained at Manchester School of Theatre in the 90s, Rachel worked extensively as an actor in theatre, TV and film for 16+ years before focussing full time on writing. She has written on many long running BBC TV shows and her R4 crime series UNDERCOVER is currently on BBC Sounds. Having returned to performing via stand-up in 2024, she is currently supported by a DYCP grant from Arts Council England to make a return to theatre, developing her first solo show.
Insta @rachthesmith
Leah Stone · Sex & Neurodivergence
A delightfully edgy mix of sex positive disability and trauma-informed advocacy and survival laid out in silly girly packaging; weird, moving, funny, and random.
The perfect way to spend an evening amidst the global chaos.
Leah is a BBC New Comedy Award 2021 shortlisted comedian, and MOAN ZINE (issues 5+6) featured sex positive writer and poet.
Insta @leaholiviafayestone
Entry
FREE: there’s no ticketing… just turn up!
Time: Thursday 17 July 2025, 6pm onwards (ends about 9pm).
Location: Contact (space 0 & bar), Oxford Rd, Manchester M15 6JA.
Access
Age Advisory: 16+ (aimed at adults, parent/guardian/carer discretion).
Content Warnings: some works involve interaction and/or participation; specific warnings listed here.
Features: six Live Art & contemporary performance works with varied content.
NB works occur on Contact’s step-free ground floor in space 0 & bar, and vary in format — they could be immersive, participatory, roaming, seated, standing, spoken word, visual, etc.
Queries: please contact Contact via boxoffice@contactmcr.com
Credits
Social Experiment (July 2025) produced by hÅb; supported by Contact and using public funding by Arts Council England.