Every Thought There Ever Was
- Submitting institution
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Goldsmiths' College
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 2426
- Type
- M - Exhibition
- Venue(s)
- Focal Point Gallery, United Kingdom
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first exhibition
- May
- Year of first exhibition
- 2018
- URL
-
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- Supplementary information
-
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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A - Art
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The question for this project, granted a Wellcome Institute ‘large award’ alongside funding from Arts Council and Matts Gallery, was how to address schizophrenia through the making of a new artwork which would make a contribution, using robotics, to the use of narratives in video installation. _x000D_
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The aim was to undertake extended conversations with medical neuroscientists to build on the artists’ established interests in the brain and the place of the ‘outsider’, specifically in this case to test new robotic structures to address the nature of consciousness, subjectivity and the notion of freewill. Her working methods reflect how Seers experiences and observes her own brain functioning, resulting in a prioritisation of the ‘lateral eclectic quality’ within the narrative, imagery and sound, and a commitment to heightening the viewer’s embodied experience of the artwork. _x000D_
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Literature reviewed included models of consciousness, early robotics, and the historical figure James Miranda Barry – a gender non-conforming Victorian surgeon, developed as a character in the work. A drawing exchange with those living with schizophrenia generated first person accounts. Scientific expertise was integrated through two way conversations with highly cited and clinically practising neuroscientists. _x000D_
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The final work consisted of a complex immersive installation combining two robots, a surround sound system, radio headphones, three synchronized media players, three projectors and a programmed light (duration 20 minutes). First shown at Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea UK (8th September to 23rd December 2018), it has since toured. _x000D_
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The project demonstrated how, by bringing together robotics, sound, imagery and narrative, the creation of a ‘synthetic character’ with a sense of non-contiguous space allowed an artwork to address schizophrenia implicitly by offering multiple references across history and connections that elide across time - a typical model for neuro-networks/brain functioning.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -