Small Arts Awards October 2008 onwards

Mr William Cobbing
"Boundary Condition"
£16 346
Cobbing will collaborate with Central St Martins (CSM) and the Natural History Museum (NHM) to investigate possible links between praying mantids' camouflage functions and the purported human psychological state of Boundary Condition (the condition of feeling one is being consumed by the space around them). Cobbing's artistic investigation will research surrealist portrayals of the insect and Victorian era faunal dioramas. He will work with Curator of orthopteroid insects Dr George Beccaloni and Curator of Contemporary Arts Bergit Arends of NHM. An installation will be created for CSM's Window Gallery on Charing Cross Road, featuring 'live' dioramas using praying mantids in constructed habitats. Live video of the installations will also be hosted at the NHM, and a blog will be created. There will also be an artist's talk and seminars on the subject. The project aims to questions spatial perception and self-identity, and how humans and insects perceive our environment.

Miss Ellen Dowell
Qualia Theatre
"Performance Experiments"
£7450
Qualia Theatre will deliver six creative workshops, each taking place over an intensive weekend, focusing on six scientific areas and working with a variety of artistic and scientific collaborators. This award will fund three of these research weekends. A public sharing of the work explored and created from each session will be held at a local arts venue, the Southville Centre, Bristol, and on the web. Two of the three biomedical themes are confirmed as: neuroscience (identity, consciousness and perception) and the biology of ageing. The remaining theme will be confirmed following audience feedback from these projects. Through these workshops Qualia, whose mission is to use contemporary science as inpsiration for creating original theatre performance, aim to investigate and discover successful ways of making theatre about science.

Ms Sarah Kemp
Theatre Sans Frontieres
"Marie Curie and the Discovery of Radium"
£9281
Theatre Sans Frontieres make multilingual touring theatre. ‘Marie Curie and the Discovery of Radium’ is a collaboration with Centre for Life, Newcastle to create and pilot a two-week series of day-long workshops, which use drama, science experiments, French and history to inspire year 8 pupils - taking the discovery of radium by Marie Curie as an ethical starting point for debate and learning. The company will pilot the project with two school partners, working with 300 pupils. Following evaluation, it is hoped that the model can be rolled out for other schools.

Miss Catherine Long
"InBodied"
£30 000
Working with neuroscientists Prof Patrick Haggard and Dr Beatriz Calvo-Merino, performance artist Catherine Long will initiate a ten-month period of research on embodiment, and the relationship between the brain and the body. Catherine will take her unique physicality as the starting point for real experimentation on the representation of the physical body by the brain. In residence at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, she will observe and participate in a number of experiments, and translate her research into the subjective and objective experience of the body into a work in progress performance, at Toynbee Studios, in collaboration with dancer and choreographer Frank Bock. She will also document the process, creating an exhibition of photographs, a short film and a radio broadcast for Resonance FM. These will be exhibited at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton.

Ms Rachel McNally
Full Beam Visual Theatre
"The Lesser Spotted Collectors' Club"
£30 000
Full Beam will develop and tour a new multiform theatre performance for ages 14+. Supported by educational resources and made in conjunction with At-Bristol, the show will consider Darwin's working methods of collection and observation, and consider how these simple scientific processes led to a major paradigm shift in thinking about our world and origins. The show will use visual theatre, film, puppetry and sound, and will tour museums, science centres and schools, responding to the individual collections of each location it visits.

Ms Franziska Schenk
University of Birmingham
"In the Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Evolution"
£26 000
For this exhibition, Franziska Schenk will work with cutting-edge biomimetic paint technologies to create new artworks inspired by Darwin's iconic description of the development of the eye. The subject for her paintings will be the irridescent eyespots of butterfly wings - working with a number of scientific advisors she aims to investigate the complex interrelationships between the evolution of colour, display, camouflage and perception in nature and in art. Commissioned by the Wellcome Trust as part of our Darwin200 initiatives, the series will form the subject matter for a programme of outreach activities, including artist and scientist talks, and hands-on creative workshops. It will be exhibited at the University of Birmingham, Glasgow Science Centre and Birmingham City University.

Dr Hugo J Spiers, Ms Michaela Nettell, Mr Tom Simmons
Department of Psychology, UCL
"Pattern Completion"
£29 929
A collaboration between a neuroscientist, an artist and a sound designer to create an artwork that explores a theoretical memory process known as Pattern Completion. Using innovative sound diffusion and moving image projection techniques, Spiers, Michaela Nettell and Tom Simmons will develop an immersive audiovisual installation to reflect ways in which networks of brain cells recall memories. An array of suspended glass spheres will catch fragments of distributed sounds and images to depict impressions of remembered narratives based in ancient woodlands. Initially appearing patchy and incoherent, the projections will gradually come together into lucid scenes, describing the pattern completion process and inviting audiences to consider ways our memories are structured. An artists' talk at the Gimpel Fils Gallery will be held alongside the exhibition to share and discuss the research.

Ms Christine Watkins
"The Tide Tables"
£29 950
'The Tide Tables' will be a new work for performance, featuring an original script by writer-performer Christine Watkins and new music by composers Mary Keith and Sianed Jones. It will explore the 'change of life' from a combined biomedical and narrative perspective, looking at the physiology of menopause and the history and nature of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). The show will premiere at The Courtyard Centre for the Arts, and be accompanied by a public discussion on the themes. There will be a series of four workshop events alongside the show, including one for local artists. 'The Tide Tables' will be developed in collaboration with Prof Saffron Whitehead of the Centre for Developmental and Endocrine Signalling at St George's University of London and The Society for Endocrinology.

Miss Madeleine Boyd
UCL Museums & Collections
"The Point of Perception"
£28 960
Madeleine Boyd will explore the critical point of ambiguity in perception, working with neuroscientists Mark Lythgoe and Beau Lotto in a research period investigating the human perceptual system and visual ambiguity; interrogating the idea of a perceptual 'tipping point'. The practice and interview-based research will result in an exhibition of visual, installation-based environments, at Art 18/21 Gallery in Norwich, accompanied by a catalogue and a discussion day at the University of East Anglia, as well as several venues in London.

Mr Peter Ursem
ArtCare
"Look at Me!"
£7420
Photographer Karen Hitchlock and writer Rose Flint will make a series of 16 photographic portraits of children born with and undergoing treatment for cleft lip and/or palate (CLP), and their families. This work will be an extension a creative writing programme, 'A Different Experience', funded by a People Award. The portraits will be accompanied by a short diary narrative from the families involved, and will be exhibited in three regional hospitals and during a number of national and international CLP conferences. The aim of the project is to bring into focus the relationship between the biomedical intervention of corrective surgery on CLP patients, and their and their families' experiences. It also aims to empower them with more confidence in expressing their experiences.

Mr Brian Lobel
University of London
"Fun With Cancer Patients"
£20 000
This research and development period will result in the first three of 15 proposed performance interventions by artist Brian Lobel, in conjunction with cancer patients at various stages of their treatment. The three pilot interventions will involve artists being treated for cancer, and will utilise consultation with doctors, patients and medical support staff in delivering high quality, imaginative and experimental interventions in the medical environment. In doing so, Brian will investigate the psychosocial experiences of those with illness, and the nature of treatment spaces. Brian will also complete the design of a website for recruitment of participants and dissemination of the learnings from the project. Ultimately, an installation and publication will be made based on the documentation of all 15 creative interventions. Brian will work with photographer Christa Holka.

Mr Adrian Jackson
Cardboard Citizens
"Mincemeat – A Coroner's Inquest into the Man Who Never Was"
£10 000
In conjunction with staging the play 'Mincemeat' in London in June 2009, Cardboard Citizens will create and deliver two interactive Coroner's Inquests. 'Mincemeat' is based on the true story of a successful World War II deception, in which the body of a homeless man, dressed as a British Naval officer, was dumped off the coast of Spain in order to dupe Nazi forces as to the location of the Allied Forces landfall in Europe. Working with pathologists and a forensic scientist, the company will devise an inquest 'performance' using forum theatre techniques. These sessions will investigate developments in forensic science that have helped us unfold the identity of this man, and question broader ethical questions about the historical uses of the bodies of the poor after death. The production is a collaboration between Cardboard Citizens, the Imperial War Museum and the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms.

Prof Marina Wallace
Artakt, Central Saint Martins College
"Move Me On – Dance with the Brain in Mind"
£30,000
This collaborative research project will bring together leading choreographer Russell Maliphant, cognitive psychologist Dr Peter Lovatt and violinist Oscar Bohorquez. 'Move Me On' will be produced by Professor Marina Wallace of Artakt at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and managed by Amelie von Harrach. The first stage of a three-year project, 'Move Me On' will experiment with understanding audience emotion when experiencing performance, and it will form the basis of a future project looking at the effect, benefits and complexities of movement in dance and in life. 'Move Me On' will use neuropsychological and biofeedback methods to investigate and measure audience responses to performance experiments, feeding these back into the development of a new contemporary dance work. Findings and work-in-progress performances will be presented at the Royal Institution and the Dana Centre, Science Museum. The follow up project, 'Mind Your Moves', with the team and Dr Mark Lythgoe, will also aim to manifest in a series of public performances, including the Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadler's Wells Theatre.

Ms Laura Lindow
The Empty Space
"Heartbreak Soup"
£30 000
'Heartbreak Soup' is a theatre performance about the fictional experience of a nine-year-old boy awaiting his second heart transplant. It is aimed at children and families, and was piloted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2008. This award will allow director Laura Lindow and producers The Empty Space to work further with their medical collaborators at the Children's Heart Unit at Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, developing the content of the show in response to feedback from the pilot performances. The show will then tour for six weeks in the UK in 2009/10, and a workshop package and website will be developed to support audiences.

Ms Sara Masters
iceandfire
"VacciNation"
£29 199
iceandfire propose to work with Thomas Churcher, an infectious disease epidemiologist from Imperial College London, to make a theatre production that will tour schools, for pupils aged 11-14. The play will explore issues surrounding community vaccination prgorammes, and will be accompanied by a workshop and resource pack that will investigate some of the issues around vaccination and human rights, discussing collective responsibilities for the health of our communities. The play will initally tour for four weeks in the autumn term of 2009, linking in to both science and PSHE curriculums.

Dr Ricardo Leizaola
Goldsmiths College, University of London
"London's Global Bitters Cabinet"
£28 919
The London Global Bitters Project will be carried out by a visual anthropologist and filmmaker from Goldsmiths College, Dr Ricardo Leizaola. It will research the traditions and current uses of plant-based alcocholic remedies, aiming to showcase a collection of bitters, tinctures and lotions used and sold on the streets of London. Display will be in a multimedia installation (featuring contextualising film, interviews and a botanical collection of 100 tinctures) exploring the biomedical and sociocultural aspects of this cross-cultural practice. The installation will initially be presented at Goldsmiths, and other partners for exhibition will be sought.

Ms Aura Satz
"Sound Seam"
£19 070
Film maker and artist Aura Satz and composer Aleks Kolkowski will work with biomedical scientists at the Ear Institute to create a new film exploring sound, hearing and the development of sound technology. Taking Rilke's poetic notion that each surface contains potential sound engravings, the artists will work with UCL's Ear Institute to explore ear anatomy and auditory neurology. They will combine this research with research into the development of vintage technologies of sound to produce a artistic short film, to be shown in gallery and film festival contexts. Satz will also publish her research through her academic networks, and create an online repository for the project.

Ms Anne Brodie
"Exploring the Invisible"
£29 397
Working with bacteriologist Dr Simon Park, University of Surrey, Anne Brodie will research alternative artistic and social applications of the light-emitting and communication properties of the bioluminescent bacteria Photobacterium phosphoreum. Brodie and Park will investigate human perceptions of our relationship with bacteria, and consider with audiences some of the ways in which microorganisms are used within medical and scientific research. A series of portrait photographs using a bioluminescent Photography Booth will be produced, as well as a series of photographs of city locations, revealed using bacterial light sources, and a short film. These works will be contextualised in a series of events at the Dana Centre and in the British Science Festival. This project will be curated by Caterina Albano of Artakt, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

Ms Hannah Barker
Analogue Theatre
"Beachy Head: further research and production"
£30 000
'Beachy Head' is a new theatre piece looking at the repercussions of one man's decision to take his life, from three perspectives - the emotional, biomedical and artistic. Following an Arts Award supporting a period of R&D in 2008, Analogue Theatre will finish the piece and premiere it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2009. This will involve a stage of further research with histopathologist Dr Suzy Lishman, a period of rehearsal and a three-week run in Edinburgh at the Pleasance King Dome. Three preview performances will be held at the Corn Exchange, Newbury, South Hill Park, Reading and Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead. The company will also create web-based support resources through their collaboration with the Samaritans.

Ms Alice Sharp
"Invisible Dust"
£15 000
In this period of research and development, curator Alice Sharp will work with up to seven visual artists to develop proposals for a series of new public art commissions for 2010-2012. These works will aim to engage audiences with scientific ideas highlighting air pollution, its visibility and the health impacts of climate change in this area. The project team will include Peter Brimblecombe, Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at UEA (pollution and environment), Dr Hugh Mortimer, Planetary and Atmospheric Research Scientist at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Dr Mark Levy, Clinical Research Fellow at Edinburgh University (Respiratory Disease and Allergy). Partners include the Government Art Collection, RSA Art and Ecology Centre and the Walk to School initiative.

Miss Gemma Anderson
"Portraits: Patients and Psychiatrists"
£20 910
This is a collaboration project between the artist Gemma Anderson and forensic psychiatrist Dr Tim McInerny to create ten life-size etched portraits of a variety of psychiatric patients and psychiatrists at Bethlem Royal Hospital, London. The portraits will concentrate on transforming psychiatric ideas into narrative imagery embodied within individuals. Gemma Anderson will interview and draw each psychiatrist and patient in their ward and include them in the portraits drawings from the Medicinal Garden (Royal College of Physicians), The Topographical Laboratory (UCL), Mineral Collection (UCL) and the Grant Museum of Zoology (UCL) amongst other sources. The Artist will keep a Blog documenting the working process during the project. There will be exhibitions with accompanying talks in both hospitals and galleries on a national tour from May 2010. The artist will create a paperback publication of the works, produced in conjunction with the Bethlem Royal Hospital and sold through the Bethlem Museum.

Mr Simon Chaplin
"Armamentaria"
£18 100
This is an experimental project which aims to visually ‘unpack’ surgical instruments as material and metaphorical objects. Artist Elaine Duigenan will further develop her scanning technique to explore instruments’ contradictory status as the therapeutic extension of the surgeons’ hands and as objects designed to destroy living tissue. Drawing on the rich historical collections of the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons and bringing together the expertise of surgeons, historians and instrument designers and manufacturers, it will reanimate the instrument as a thing of beauty and dread. John Kirkup FRCS will be the expert adviser on the project, with input from instrument designers and manufacturers. There will be an image-based blog recording the process of the residency and Elaine’s work will be exhibited at the College in 2010.

Mr Simon Gould
University College London
"Object Retrieval"
£30 000
An unusual, interdisciplinary project culminating in a performance event, running for seven days, 24 hours a day. A huge team of researchers from across UCL's science, social science and arts faculties will explore the biography of one object from UCL's Museums and Collections. Real time research into the selected object will creatively demonstrate the synergistic benefits of interdisciplinary research by unravelling an object usually situated exclusively within one context.Lead by artist Joshua Sofaer and open to the public the project will highlight the cross disciplinary nature of research and bring welcome attention a lesser-known museum collection. The culminating mass of information generated by the week-long event will be logged onto the Object Retrieval web site. There will also be a resource pack and limited edition artwork that will be incorporated into the UCL Museums and Collections department's Learning and Access programme, to be used by schools or interest groups. It is anticipated that the content generated by the research event will be transferred to specific contexts for future use. Dr Mark Lythgoe will be the scientific adviser on the project.

Miss Revital Cohen
"Genetic Heirloom"
£25 540
The biggest factor in individual vulnerability to life-threatening diseases is not lifestyle but family history. This project will explore the social, ethical and familial questions that stem from genetic vulnerability. What are the implications of increased knowledge of genetic information on the perception of parental responsibility towards subsequent generations? A series of speculative artefacts, ‘heirlooms’, will be created, based on the medical applications of nanogold and nanosilver particles in response to the new moral codes of genetic responsibility. The project will be accompanied by a research documentation blog and a public event. The artist will be working with Professor Richard Ashcroft of Queen Mary, University of London, Dr Andy Miah from the University of the West of Scotland, Dr Ainsley Newon, Centre for Ethics in Medicine, University of Bristol and Dr Roya Ashayer-Soltani, Division of Engineering, Kings College London.

Dr Andrew Morley
St. Thomas’ Hospital
"Music from the Genome"
£30 000
‘Music from the Genome’ is a project that combines a scientific study with an original choral composition. DNA from a group of choral singers, including the New London Chamber Choir (NLCC), will be compared with the DNA of non-musical people. The aim is to see if there is any difference in the brain chemistry of people with musical ability. In the second part of the project, genetic information from the NLCC singers’ DNA samples will be used to compose a new piece of music. The NLCC will perform this at the Cheltenham Music Festival.

Mr George Higgs
Science Gallery
"Evolvaphone"
£27 600
This project involves a collaboration between a composer and a geneticist to create a participatory installation on display in the Science Gallery, Dublin for six months. Two visitors enter a booth - the Evolvaphone - where they speak into a microphone and witness their voices generating a composition based on the laws of natural selection. There will be extensive display materials, workshops, a performance and a web page to inform the visitors about the installation and evolutionary theory in the Science Gallery. The project will launch on 24 November, the 150th Anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species.

Mrs Gabriella Braun
Bee Arts Community Interest Company
" BRE4TH"
£24 325
Multimedia artists Gabi Braun and Terry Braun, will be collaborating with Dr Margaret O'Hara, a medical physicist, as well as artists, scientists and the public to research and develop new ways of producing dynamic computer visualisations and sonifications of disease diagnosis via the real time analysis of human breath by proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS). There are potentially 30 different diseases and conditions that can be diagnosed by PTR-MS. BRE4TH aims to facilitate understanding of the function of this non-invasive diagnostic tool, the importance of early diagnosis and to reveal hidden aspects of human breath. The project results will be published on a specially designed web site and will form the basis for further development into a multi-platform multi-audience arts work.

Mr Edward Jaspers
Ad Astra
"Dreams to Her Father"
£2 680
This is a research and development phase for a theatre piece, based on a case study of Jung, about a girl who makes a book of her dreams and gives them to her father. The project will explore the unconscious, dreams and the Jungian approach to psychopathology, working with a Jungian academic and a practising Jungian clinical psychologist to devise the final piece.

Large Arts Awards October 2008 Onwards

Ms Suzy Willson
The Clod Ensemble
"Performing Medicine"
£150 000
Clod Ensemble will be working on a performance project that will focus on the themes of anatomy, movement and physiology. There will be three strands to the project. The first is the development of new courses investigating anatomy and physiology through the arts for medical students with the potential to integrate them into the curriculum. The second is the creation of a new dance/performance by Clod Ensemble that will premier in Spring 2011. The third is a 'Performing Medicine Season' - a series of conversations, workshops and performances on the theme of movement, anatomy and physiology.

Sherry Neyhus
The Opera Group
"The Lion’s Face"
£111 000
Following a period of research and development, the Opera Group will be producing "The Lion’s Face", a new opera which explores the social, emotional and physical aspect of Alzheimer’s disease. Composer Elena Langer and poet Glyn Maxwell have been developing the project in collaboration with Professor Simon Lovestone and his team at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. The opera will premiere at Brighton Festival in May 2010 and tour to a group of the UK’s leading music and theatre venues. In addition, The Opera Group will deliver a programme of discussion and participation activities to raise awareness of the disease at each tour venue created in partnership with local scientific partners.