Abstract
Role: Composer and sound-design. The BloodLines project is a development of a similarly named composition from my Hidden Music album (2011) – a set of works that employ digital technologies to convert biological processes into musical compositions. In BloodLines (2011), daily blood results during my treatment for leukaemia are translated into an electronic composition with each second of music representing a day of treatment. In this way the blood cells (and their progress through various states of health) are delegated compositional responsibility to form an autobiological work, and the complex and hidden progression of the disease made audible. The 2013 BloodLines project uses this as a foundation on which to build a lecture-performance work exploring the dramaturgy of bone marrow transplant. Through collaboration with my sister (and bone-marrow donor) writer Dr. Alex Mermikides, haemotologists Dr. Van De Velde (Belgium) and Dr. MacDonald (UK) and digital animator/artist Dr. Tanczos - a lecture presentation/performance is created which aims to: i) Explain to a wider audience the biological mechanism of leukaemia, treatment, bone marrow matching and transplant. ii) Adopts these biological mechanisms in script-devising, composition, visualisation and choreography. iii) Reflect upon on the Mermikides’ personal experience, and provide a voice for other people’s experience of leukaemia and bone marrow transplant by using interviews with doctors, donors and recipients. BloodLines is supported by the AHRC-funded Science Through Art (STA) international research network (established by my sister and I in January 2013) which aims to disseminate the project by providing a forum for knowledge exchange and discussion among a multi-disciplinary network of academics, arts/science practitioners, doctors, patients and the wider public. BloodLines has scheduled performances at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, Antwerp University (Belgium), the European Bone Marrow Conference and the Dana Centre, Science Museum. A video of the Dana Centre premiere can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmQRrs3UsS4&feature=player_embedded