Category Archives: Poetry/Science

Liverpool Biennial

Bulwer-hands

In 1644 John Bulwer published Chirologia: or the naturall language of the hand, one of the first analyses of the rhetorical power of hand gestures.

Using the ‘Alphabet of naturall expressions’ that Bulwer included in his Chirologia, I sourced a series of gestures by feeding Bulwer’s Latin names through a Youtube search. I then tried to explain in words how to perform these new gestures to Sally Davies and recorded the results. The instructional passages are intercut with reflections on these attempts recorded in a domestic setting.

This work was performed at Mercy’s Electronic Voice Phenomena weekend at the Liverpool Biennial 2012. Excerpt below:

For the rest, see my post on the Vox Lab website.

Interior Traces

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A radio play, live performance and debate about the impact of brain imaging on society. A series of 6 episodes imagining the lives of two characters with different brain conditions had they lived in 1906, the present day, and 2030. Co-written with neuroscientist and science communicator Louise Whiteley, with music composed by Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

Go to the Interior Traces website for full information about this project, funded by the Wellcome Trust, or to download free MP3s or stream videos.