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This event has science, art, poetry and theatre! Trapped in her own body, an extraordinary young woman lives with Motor Neurone Disease (MND). Emily is slowly losing her mobile capability. Despite severe depression and growing frustration, she never loses hope. Her resilience and courage guide her towards new ways of communicating. Learning to draw and paint with her eyes, Emily explores the beauty around her and devotes newfound energy to helping other MND sufferers. Using symbolic imagery to express Emily’s experience and the science of MND, Thought to Flesh encapsulates these hidden worlds.
An Eye For Painting
Sarah Ezekiel
(Artist)
Sarah Ezekiel explains how she has lived with motor neurone disease for 17 years, her journey with a terminal illness and severe disability. Sarah outlines the sources of help received that enabled her to overcome problems and start a new, albeit a different life. Hospice care, help from the MND Association and sourcing the right assistive technology has led to her longevity as well as a successful career as an artist. She believes that the ability to express and create are paramount for everyone, despite illness or disability.
What is Motor Neurone Disease (MND)?
Professor Rickie Patani
(Clinical Neurologist and Stem Cell Biologist)
To accurately investigate a crime scene a detective must have access to a frame-by-frame recording of the event from the moments before it started, allowing a precise sequence to be established. This in turn allows the detective to both understand the cause of the problem and offer a targeted solution to stop similar crimes from occurring in the future. These same principles hold true in science, we can now ‘replay’ initiating disease events within any cell type of the human body to understand how it becomes diseased.
Poetry
Seki Lynch
(Poet)
Seki Lynch is a writer of poetry and prose. His work varies greatly in form and subject matter but often is concerned with connection and that which is most human in us all, the search for one another. As well as performing at The Society Club, the Curious Arts Festival and at several Creative Reactions events he has written for the New Welsh Review and the International Times.
Poetry
Francis Byrne
(Poet)
Since completing his Masters in chemistry, Francis has taken to writing science poetry. He does things like trying to get two nerve cells to fall in love or uses the process of DNA replication to create a strange new nonsense language. Francis has worked with ITV, Creative Reactions, The Huffington Post, and runs his own poetry night in London called Frogs & Jays. He is also editor of the independent publisher, GUG Press.
Thought to Flesh
Gareth Mitchell
(Director and Sound Design)
Nathalie Czarnecki
(Actor )
Trapped in her own body, an extraordinary young woman lives with motor neurone disease. Physical theatre and spoken word, drawing on true stories and research from UCL Institute of Neurology. First seen at The Vault Festival, Waterloo, this production was conceived by Gareth Mitchell and Nathalie Czarnecki with UCL’s Dr. Rickie Patani. Photography by Karolina Maria Dudek.
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