Human Race: Inside the History of Sports Medicine

Human Race: inside the history of sports medicine is a Scotland wide exhibition and associated programme of events, touring public funded museums and galleries, that uses Scottish collections and newly commissioned artworks to explore the history, development and ethics of sport and exercise medicine. The exhibition is part of The Scottish Project, an official part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad funded by Legacy Trust UK and by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland. Audience figures to date are in excess of 33,000 (figure based on exhibition attendance in Stirling, Inverness and Edinburgh).

I was one of four artists awarded an artists commission as part of the Human Race exhibition, funded by the Scotland & Medicine partnership, and curated by Prof Andrew Patrizio. For this commission I created the digital installation and performance project glitching, with additional funding from a Creative Scotland, Visual Artist Award and Edinburgh College of Art’s Individual Research Awards.

glitching attempts to re-describe movement derived from characters in contemporary sports and action computer games. Appropriating the premise of the latest home entertainment dance and training games, glitching employs the motion-sensor controller Microsoft Xbox Kinect, large-screen display and a pseudo game interface, to create a full-body, skeletally controlled, interactive installation for exhibition. The audience is invited to step into the digital shoes of a ‘lead dancer’ character, and attempt to follow the awkward and intricate, glitch choreography performed by the dancing troupe on screen.

In conjunction with the installation there are a series of glitching live performances featuring dancers Tony Mills, Hannah Seignior, Felicity Beveridge, a performance soundtrack devised by Martin Parker and the interactive installation as backdrop.

The exhibition tour includes the following venues:

2 March – 13 April 2012 Pathfoot Gallery University of Stirling & The Peak, Stirling
25 May – 7 July 2012 Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, Inverness
21 July – 9 September 2012 City Art Centre, Edinburgh
21 September – 10 November 2012 Lamb Gallery, University of Dundee & Institute of Sport and Exercise, University of Dundee
24 November 2012 – 3 February 2013 Govanhill Baths, Glasgow

The performance tour includes the following venues:
9 September 2011, Inspace, Edinburgh
1 April 2012, macrobert arts centre, Stirling
6 September 2012, WHALE Arts Agency, Edinburgh
7 September 2012, Inspace, University of Edinburgh
24 October 2012, Chamber East, Dundee