g e o d e s i c a r t s
Welcome to geodesic arts, an organisation formed specially to bring together the diverse and complementary skills of its founding members Kirsty Halliday (Arts Management), Mark Hildred (Interactivity, Technical Production and Realisation) and Damian Murphy (Artist and Researcher in the field of sound and music computing). Joined in 2008 by John Oxley (Video and Photography) and Kippa Matthews (Photography), the team produce workshops, exhibitions and installations that inspire and engage
Kirsty, Mark, Damian, John and Kippa have all worked together previously in various collaborations as part of Sightsonic, York's festival of digital art, and Mark, Damian and John have collaborated on a number of projects including the very well received sound and light installation, A Sense of Place, exploring and interpreting aspects of York's history, archaeological and architectural heritage.
Me,
Myself and MRI - Launch of Project Website
What
makes us all unique? Can you tell what job someone does just by looking
at a picture of their brain? Can a brain scan be a portrait? Me, Myself and MRI is a chance to explore these questions and lots more while exploring the idea of identity, writes Kirsty Halliday.
It all started back in Autumn 2006 when sound artist Damian Murphy
had an MRI brain scan as part of a colleague’s research project. Around
the same time, we saw Marc Quinn’s DNA portrait of Sir John Sulston as
part of an exhibition by the National Portrait Gallery. Looking at the
portrait and the images from Damian’s scan, we got to thinking about
alternative forms of portraiture and the use of biomedical data in
artworks and the crossovers and links between science and art.
Me, Myself and MRI began in December 2007 with an 18-month education project, working with KS3 pupils from Archbishop Holgate’s School in York to explore topics including MRI technology (with two site visits to York Neuroimaging Centre),
ethics in science and art, the history of portraiture, individuality
(and what makes us all unique) and creative digital media, including
video, audio, photography and interactive technology. The aim was to
create a touring portraiture exhibition featuring interactive digital
portraits that used MRI brain scan data, video, audio and photographs.
The
students drove the development of the final exhibition. They selected
the six individuals whose portraits feature in the exhibition, devised
the interview questions that were used for the audio and video
portraits, created the briefs for the project artists, tested
prototypes and steered the design of the exhibition publicity and
signage.
The exhibition launched in Spring 2009, with
portraits of six people from different walks of life – a TV presenter,
a science teacher, a writer, a nurse, a kickboxing champion and a
chaplain. It was fantastic to see the artworks out in the public domain
and watch how people interacted with them. Some folk seem to prefer
standing in the middle of the room, listening to the hubbub of
conversation between the portraits and the background sounds of the MRI
machine, others like to spend time with each individual portrait,
hearing them talk about their heroes, their aspirations and their
memories. We invited visitors to tell us what was in their brain that
day. The responses showed that the thoughts and ideas that occupy our
minds are as varied and unique to us as individuals as our physical
appearance is.
A new website has been created to document
the project and the exhibition, offer lesson plans and other
educational resources for all of the topics we covered and provide
information on the artworks to support future touring. We hope that the
site offers an insight into the project and the ideas we explored as
well as providing inspiration and ideas to support people in developing
their own creative projects. Take a look and let us know what you
think… www.memyselfandmri.org
Kirsty Halliday, Project Manager, Me, Myself and MRI
geodesicArts have realised this project in collaboration with partners at the York Neuroimaging Centre, Archbishop Holgate's School and the National Science Learning Centre.
Note: Check out the new geodesic arts Blog where you can find out more about the project, download examples of our work and works in progress, find out more about other projects and get in touch with gA members. Kirsty, Mark and Damian, John and Kippa also have their own websites where you can find out more about their individual activities, and these can be accessed via the Links section.