Movement Reality

Movement Reality is an arts and health collaboration formed to raise understanding of how it feels to move for people with perceptual differences as a result of neurological conditions such as stroke or head injury.

Our perception helps us make sense of the world and the way we move in everyday environments. Perceptual differences are often hidden, but might be revealed for example when someone has difficulty getting dressed, or making a cup of tea, or bumps into people or objects when walking down the street.

People with perceptual differences can be misunderstood, because their challenges may be hidden or obscure. It often requires using different ways to achieve everyday activities, or relearning how to do things that they originally mastered as a child.

Perception is unique to the individual, nuanced and difficult to understand. Although movement science continues to make great advances, there are still vast amounts about perception, and its relationship to movement, that remain unknown. We are therefore stepping out to use the medium of art to research this abstract topic.

We will conduct workshops with people with perceptual difference (as a result of conditions such as head injury or stroke) to explore individual movement reality states, and to collect reference material for the art piece. This will culminate in spoken word performances and a written publication. We will perform and discuss our work at art galleries and relevant health and disability conferences across the country.

Alongside the project we will be conducting academic research to measure our impact and take a reflective approach.

At present we are a small team, but we plan to recruit across the country, to achieve nationwide representation. Currently we are made up of:

NaoKo TakaHashi MFA, BA (Hons) (naokotakahashi.com): an artist who has exhibited widely including at Tate Modern

Jon Cooper: studied fine art for a year's foundation a long time ago and has been theatrical since a child. He has been retired since his haemorrhagic strokes in 2011 and 2012

Shivinder Grewal: a professional actor, trained in artchitecture and design and draws avidly. He sufferred brain hypoxia as a result of a cardiac arrest and now has epilepsy

Sarah Ismail: a writer and journalist with a degree in creative writing. She has lived with bilateral cerebral palsy for over 30 years (since birth)

Athena Logothetis MRCOT, PgDip, PGCHE: a specialist neurological occupational therapist, with a special interest in arts and health

Gemma Cook MSc, BSc (Hons): a specialist neurological physiotherapist, with a special interest in arts and health

Dr Elizabeth Cassidy PhD, MSc: a researcher in qualitative analysis and neurorehabilitation

We need funding for each stage of this project including production, equipment, transport, venue hire, printing, travel and subsistence.