The Computer Says No – EyeCare Conference 2018

Once again myself and Mared were asked to create performances for the Annual Eye Care Conference. It was an exciting year as both WCB and the NHS were celebrating big birthdays and so we were given the themes of “Celebrating NHS 70th Birthday” and “The Future”.

When we first got these themes we had a few initial ideas but nothing we totally loved.  We did some research into the history of the NHS and looked at what an average day in the NHS was like.  Through this and lots of brainstorming we came up with the idea of making a song out of the statistics, we tasked the talented Ellie Wait with this.  We then came up with the concept for the performance that Mared and I are the organizers and are late to the NHS 70 birthday party, all the guests (the delegates at the conference) have arrived and nothings been set up. During the performance chaos ensues as Mared and Megan try to set up. There was arguments, caterpillar cakes and even a game of never have i ever, finishing the performance with the original song called “95 babes are born”.

For the afternoon performance we were looking at the future so we decided to focus on how the patient experience might change due to advancements in technology and surgeries that could be available based on research that’s currently being done.  We based the sketch on a patient, who was Amy going for her annual check up. Using the idea that the check up would be done through AI (artificial intelligence) and technology so no human would be needed. There are robots who complete manual tasks, we called it NurseBot Alaska played by Mared. The message we were trying to give was that no matter how advanced technology becomes we believe there is always a need to a human interaction and highlighted how valuable it is.

Despite it challenging us we were really pleased with what we managed to create, with the performance itself and of course we enjoyed being a part of the conference once again.