Which Way North - Hancock Museum 22/6/ - 9/9/18
I urge you to go to see the artist Simon McKeown's elaborate state-of-the-art installation called Motion Disabled
Ken Russell - The Times
Disabled artist Simon Mckeown developed Motion Disabled combining his background in Fine Art, computer games and animation with an interest in disability and emerging technologies to create this innovative exhibition.
Motion Disabled is a digital exploration of the bodies - the biological pathologies - of people who are physically different. The work makes use of motion capture, a technique more commonly associated with feature films and computer games, along with 3D animation to create a kinetic connection with the human form - beautiful everyday movements highlighting all the intricacies and uniqueness of each person's physicality.
It was created by recording the physical movements of fourteen physically impaired people with conditions, such as Spina Bifida, Cerebral Palsy and Brittle Bones, who had their actions captured - their physical signatures in 3D digitised forever. Dr Paul Darke of Wolverhampton's Outside Center was the first motion capture study. Following a ten-month production period, Motion Disabled was first exhibited in 2009 at Wolverhampton Art Gallery and has since gone on to be exhibited nationally in London, Leeds, Manchester and the Houses of Parliament as well as internationally in South Korea, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and other locations including the prestigious Smithsonian International Gallery - Washington D.C. USA, in an exhibition organised by VSA, where it was viewed by over 700,000 visitors over three months.
Motion Disabled was exhibited simultaneously and globally in 17 countries and 25 locations on the 3rd of December 2010. Promoted by VSA of Washington D.C. USA and DadaFest International the events were seen by many thousands of people as well as being covered by news media including the BBC. Mckeown was named Artist of Year by DaDaFest International 2010.
Simon is a Reader in the Mima School of Art and Design, Teesside University) and holds a PhD from Teesside University and his thesis was entitled 'A Digital Response to the Cultural Representation of Disability'. Professor Simon Morris, Director of Research at Leeds School of Arts at Leeds Beckett University, supervised Simon. Simon was examined by Professor Robert Williams of the University of Cumbria and Dr Lucy Burke of Manchester Metropolitan University.
