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Abstracts - York St John University

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Hannah Lammin is a performer and researcher with the collective <strong>St</strong>udio for Electronic<br />

Theatre. Originally trained in dance at the London Contemporary Dance School and<br />

CalArts, she is currently an AHRC supported PhD candidate in Media Arts Philosophy at the<br />

<strong>University</strong> of Greenwich/Birmingham Institute of Art and Design.<br />

Performance: Anatomical Theatres of Mixed Reality<br />

Mark Jeffery & Judd Morrissey<br />

Anatomical Theatres of Mixed Reality is a durational live performance and installation<br />

that engages histories of forensics and anatomical science, placing the crudeness of early<br />

surgery in relation to the prevailing 21st century vision of a body enhanced by data and<br />

augmented by computation. The work's choreography, text, and overall form and structure<br />

are influenced by research into a range of historical archives including the history of<br />

anatomical theater, the deductive logic of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Francis Glessner Lee's<br />

miniature crime scene re-­‐enactments known as the Nutshell <strong>St</strong>udies of Unexplained Death,<br />

and archives of personal evidence such as The <strong>St</strong>ud File, a methodical record of the sexual<br />

exploits of Samuel <strong>St</strong>eward, a 20th century tattoo artist, pornographer, and friend of<br />

Gertrude <strong>St</strong>ein.<br />

The core of the performance is an interactive operating table that generates screen-­‐based<br />

content and distributes virtual overlays that can be viewed through mobile devices<br />

throughout the event. The hand-­‐built operating table is potentially extended by four<br />

additional modular and mobile wooden leaves, eventually transforming into a 10'x16'<br />

assemblage that acts as a stage. The spatial choreography of bodies and objects enacts<br />

anatomy as both intact whole and distributed data-­‐consuming system, as the elevated<br />

surface of the work shifts underfoot, fluctuating between references to surgery, torture,<br />

sex, solitary confinement, monastic behaviour and banquet.<br />

The work is partially supported by a grant from the Chicago Dancemakers Forum and<br />

commissioning support from the European research group ELMCIP (Electronic Literature<br />

as a Model for Creativity and Innovation in Practice) in collaboration with Edinburgh<br />

College of Art and New Media Scotland. The piece has also been supported by artist's<br />

workshops at dance4, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and The School of the Art<br />

Institute of Chicago. The work is also supported by the National Museum of Health and<br />

Medicine Chicago. atom-r (anatomical theaters of mixed reality) is a provisional collective<br />

exploring forensics, anatomy, and 21st century embodiment through performance,<br />

language and emerging technologies. Participants include Mark Jeffery (choreography),<br />

Judd Morrissey (systems), Justin Deschamps, Sam Hertz, Christopher Knowlton, &<br />

Blake Russell (collaborators/performers).<br />

Mark Jeffery and Judd Morrissey are a collaboration merging live performance and digital<br />

literary practices. The work, which is visual, textual and choreographic, evolves through<br />

context-­‐specific research and practice and always considers the constraints of a given<br />

venue or occasion. Site-­‐specific considerations extend beyond the performance space to<br />

engage place as a living archive by incorporating online data available within a locale. A<br />

given piece is a body of material that may have no singular fixed form but is alternately<br />

presented as internet art, durational live installation, an ongoing activity, or a performance<br />

of fixed length. The two Chicago-­‐ based artists are currently in residence at the National<br />

Museum of Health and Medicine, working with four male dancers, on Anatomical Theaters<br />

of Mixed Reality, a performance that examines the history of anatomy and forensics in<br />

conjunction with the 21st century vision of a posthuman body extended by computation.<br />

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