Speaking of the Arts Council and its casual arrogance, Karen steers our attention to this little nugget:
A dance artist with epilepsy is to try to induce a seizure on stage. Rita Marcalo has stopped taking her medication ahead of the event at The Bradford Playhouse. Arts Council England, which is funding the performance, said it aimed to raise awareness about the condition. Ms Marcalo, the artistic director of Leeds-based dance company, Instant Dissidence, plans to induce a seizure as part of the 24-hour Involuntary Dances event on 11 December, which will also include dance and poetry readings.
Ah, dance, poetry and epileptic fitting. A fine night out by anyone’s standards. But how will this gesture – sorry, seizure – be achieved? Isn’t it all rather messy and difficult to predict?
During the 24 hours Marcalo will be engaging in a series of epilepsy inducing acts: from ingesting legal brain stimulants (alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, dark chocolate), to stimulating the brain through strobe lights and specially designed computer programmes, to raising her bodily temperature, to fasting, to trying out methods utilised to induce seizures in animal testing, to sleep deprivation.
Chocolate, booze and fasting?
If she has a seizure, an alarm will sound and the audience will be invited to film on their mobile phones.
And it’s interactive too. How terribly modern.
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