More Misfolding!
Handcross Primary School
Our Misfolding project was for Year 5 so it focused not so much on Alzheimer’s but on the biological processes of folding and misfolding proteins. Together we wrote a MEGASONG about a misfolding protein called Patricia Prunella Protein. She was born of DNA, folded into proteins and then proceeded to the brain cells, finally ending up on the bottom of a spider!
Yes – we’ve been up to a lot more Misfolding this year since our Vocal Connections at Conway Hall in April. We have been working with Handcross Primary School and our wonderful scientists from the Serpell Lab, and we have more plans for the future – including returning to Conway Hall on September 14th with Songhaven for Voices and Minds a special day in honour of Alzheimer’s Awareness Month.
Our team was:-
ELECTRIC VOICE THEATRE
Frances M Lynch Workshop Leader, Singer, Composer
Herbie Clarke Production, media, Guitar & Event Support
Maxence Marmy Assistant Workshop Leader, Singer
Serpell Lab, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex
Prof Louise Serpell Director of Sussex Neuroscience
Dr Karen Marshall Senior Post Doctoral Fellow
Sam Atkinson PhD student
We worked together from early this year – see our Misfolding Workshop Fun page – and then initiated weekly workshops with the class from the end of April culminating in a sharing event for several older classes and parents and friends on May 22nd. The final part of the journey was recording their MEGASONG which you can hear on their Minerva Scientifica website page where you will also find what they thought of the project, we certainly enjoyed working with the children and seeing their ideas and understanding grow.
Voices and Minds:
Creative Responses to Dementia
Electric Voice Theatre are delighted to be invited to work on this project with Songhaven, whose concert series for people living with dementia is a feature of Conway Hall. Voices and Minds: Creative Responses to Dementia gives us an opportunity to share our work with scientists from the Serpell Lab at the University of Sussex on the Misfolding Project – a commissioned series of five audio-visual works that draw inspiration from scientific research to explore the biology behind Alzheimer’s disease. The pieces were first exhibited at Phoenix Art Space, Brighton in April 2023.
As well as showing the commissioned work our Artistic Director, Frances M Lynch will be joined by the lead Misfolding Scientist, Professor Louise Serpell, to discuss current developments in the lab’s research and our collaboration, interspersed with some of the music made for the project over the last few years.
Maxence & Frances practicing a misfolding song
Frances performing “Misfolding for Dummies”
Huge thanks to Sussex University, Serpell Lab, Alzheimer’s UK South Coast Network and Conway Hall for making all this possible.
