The Beginning

The Beginning, by Michael Pinchbeck

They are professionals.
They have learned their lines.
They are waiting to make their entrance.
They are ready to begin.

Part theatrical memoir, part safety announcement, The Beginning is the second in a trilogy of works taking Shakespearean stage directions as starting points for performance and looks at what it means to begin. Because he has promised never to perform again, Michael Pinchbeck has invited Nicki Hobday and Ollie Smith to join him in remembering how it feels to perform for the first time.

Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Developed at Lakeside Arts Centre (Nottingham), The Junction (Cambridge), Leeds Met Gallery and Studio Theatre and Loughborough University.

http://makingthebeginning.tumblr.com/

Photography by Julian Hughes

Revital Cohen, Butterflies Flying

I had an delight full experience working along side Revital Cohen as Lighting assistant and documentor for this project.

HUMAN CONDITION/ING - Autumn 2011

Radar presented two commissions with Jacqueline Donachie and Revital Cohen that involved a dialogue between the artists and academics based within the Department of Sport and Exercise Science. Both of the works responded in very different ways to research around improving human performance.

Butterflies Flying in Formation investigates the psychology of the elite athlete mindset, the body-mind connection, and how phobias of high level competing, which can be equally as paralysing as a physical injury, can be overcome. The work asks what kind of training equipment could make an athlete stronger, not by hardening the muscles, but through conditioning their mental state?

Researching the practices of mental toughness building and sport psychology techniques, a hypothetical training tool was designed to choreograph the body into conditioning the mind. Loosely based on the principles of samurai armour, protective and impenetrable, the object, in conjunction with the ‘scorpion’, a yoga pose which clears the mind and controls the nerves in the stomach, is put into action, triggering mirror neurons* in the brain which mentally rehearse the next moves to be made.

Revital Cohen is a designer who develops critical objects and provocative scenarios exploring the juxtaposition of the natural with the artificial. Her work spans across various mediums and includes collaborations with scientists, bioethicists and animal breeders. Recent exhibitions have included Talk To Me which is now showing at the MoMA in New York, Alter Nature: The Unnatural Animal, Z33, Belgium and BIOTOPIA: Art in the Wet Zone, Urzon Center, Aalborg, Denmark. This year Revital has been given an award from the Welcome Trust.

http://arts.lboro.ac.uk/radar/programme_archive/human_conditioning/