Bloodlines
a film recording of a performance, entitled Bloodlines. The performance conveys the medical science and subjective experience of leukaemia and its treatment through stem cell transplant. In focusing on the body and mind of the patient and donor, it raises the question of ‘is the human body a soul-less, self-less object, at the mercy of automatic internal processes…or Is it a precious vessel containing a unique individual formed by felt physical encounters with the world and with other equally precious people?’ (Sian Ede, Art & Science p. 145). The performance thereby evokes the discomforting effect, also apparent in much anatomy art, of perceiving the body as both an object (of both the medical and the audience’s gaze) and a subject. In its dance elements, the performance also complicates the notion of the performers’ bodies as representations of human subjects by drawing on aspects of anatomy art, including the work of Vesalius.
The recording is approximately 30 minutes long.
The performance features three performers (two dancers and an actor/medical expert), video projection and a soundscape. Credits are contained within the recording.
Biographies
Bloodlines is a product of the Chimera Network, a research network supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of UK. The key artists involved in its creation are:
Alex Mermikides (director): Alex is both a theatre-maker and an academic specialising in contemporary interdisciplinary performance. She worked as a dramaturg for multi-media company Lightwork (2001-2009). Her performance writing has been produced on BBC Radio, the Lyric Theatre, the Battersea Arts Centre and the Rose Theatre Kingston. She is Senior Lecturer in Drama at Kingston University and has published on contemporary performance. She is currently editing a volume on performance and the medical body.
Milton Mermikides (composition/sound design) is a composer, performer and sound-artist with a particular interest in the creation of music through the translation of physical phenomena into sound. Milton has collaborated with diverse artists such as Brian Eno, Tim Minchin, John Williams, Paco Peña and Pat Martino and his music appears on film, TV and radio and is performed internationally. Milton is Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music, Head of Composition and a tenured Lecturer in Music at the University of Surrey.
The recording is approximately 30 minutes long.
The performance features three performers (two dancers and an actor/medical expert), video projection and a soundscape. Credits are contained within the recording.
Biographies
Bloodlines is a product of the Chimera Network, a research network supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of UK. The key artists involved in its creation are:
Alex Mermikides (director): Alex is both a theatre-maker and an academic specialising in contemporary interdisciplinary performance. She worked as a dramaturg for multi-media company Lightwork (2001-2009). Her performance writing has been produced on BBC Radio, the Lyric Theatre, the Battersea Arts Centre and the Rose Theatre Kingston. She is Senior Lecturer in Drama at Kingston University and has published on contemporary performance. She is currently editing a volume on performance and the medical body.
Milton Mermikides (composition/sound design) is a composer, performer and sound-artist with a particular interest in the creation of music through the translation of physical phenomena into sound. Milton has collaborated with diverse artists such as Brian Eno, Tim Minchin, John Williams, Paco Peña and Pat Martino and his music appears on film, TV and radio and is performed internationally. Milton is Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music, Head of Composition and a tenured Lecturer in Music at the University of Surrey.
