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A chimera is a mythical monster, an unlikely composite of body parts from different beasts -  the archetypal chimera is a fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head, goat's body and snake's tale but we might also think of satyrs and merfolk. Our creative approach is similarly composite, involving collaborations between makers, healers, researchers, educators and learners in the arts, in healthcare and in the communities that they serve. We devise our work very slowly, using creative and discursive explorations to seek out commonality between seemingly distinct discipilines. Our performances end up taking hybrid forms - mutant lectures, shows in simulation suites - and are research processes, outputs, dissemination and educational experiences as well as 'pure' performances. We usually share our work in academic contexts for students and researchers, and at science festivals. We love a post-show q & a to encourage reflection and discussion among different communities. 

In biomedicine, a chimera is an organism containing two or more genetically different tissue. Our first performance, bloodlines, was inspired by a bone marrow transplant that took place between director Alex and her brother, sound designer Milton, as treatment for deadly blood cancer in 2005. As a result of the transplant, Milton's bone marrow and blood cells are, in genetic terms, Alex's. As a donor, Alex considers herself transcorporeal: her genetic self habiting two bodies. For feminist biophilosophers, the immunological tolerance that enables such transplants challenges 'individuality as a strategic defence problem' (Haraway 1989), inviting more reciprocal models of community. We see interdisciplinary devising and collaboration as a way of challenging individualism and binary thinking and as a way to rehearse more careful ways of interacting.

Chimera was founded in 2012 from a research network, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, investigating interdisciplinary devising in science-engaged performance.