A public talk series by UCC/Arts Council Film Artist in Residence Maximilian Le Cain.

UCC/Arts Council Film Artist in Residence Maximilian Le Cain will begin his year-long residency with a series of four lunchtime talks that are open to the public.

Noted for his boundary-pushing, radically personal approach to cinema, the Cork-based Le Cain will draw on his own work, the film histories that inspire it and the contemporary contexts that nourish it to present a wide-ranging rethink of what cinema can be in the 21^st century. Challenging accepted notions of film making and history, these talks are sure to prove stimulating to film students, filmmakers or anyone with an interest in the moving image.

Le Cain will discuss such topics as the importance of a personal vision of cinema and how his work has developed as an example of this; the ever-expanding concept of cinema in the 21^st century and how it is fed by cross disciplinary interaction; the challenges of getting work seen and the case study of how these challenges were met by Experimental Film Society, the world renowned maverick filmmaking group he is affiliated with; the importance of collaboration; and histories of alternative filmmaking both past and present.

Mon 30/01 – The Films Only You Can Make

In the first talk, Max will discuss the idea of a personal cinema and how layered this concept has become in the digital age, where the gap between maker and viewer has become increasingly blurred. Through this, he will introduce his own work.

Tues 07/02 – Defining the Impossible

The second session will profile Experimental Film Society (EFS), an influential organisation for the production and distribution of experimental cinema that developed in defiance of a lack of platform for such films in Ireland.

Mon 13/02 – The Audience to Come

The third talk will look at several filmmakers past and present whose work pointed cinema in potentially fruitful directions that it has never followed.

Mon 20/02 – Cinema as Presence and Absence

Finally, he will look at cinema’s porous relationship with other disciplines and the importance of collaboration. His longstanding collaboration with Vicky Langan will be discussed in this context.

Maximilian Le Cain is the ninth UCC/Arts Council Film Artist in Residence. He has created a prolific and acclaimed body of moving image work including features, shorts, installations and film-related performances.

He is currently completing Solitaire (2023), a feature made with the support of an Arts Council Project Award. Recent works include Daughter of the Sun (2021), a short based on the Irish legend of the Cailleach Beara; and Blissed (2022), a feature presented at ECRÃ Festival, Brazil.

Le Cain is affiliated with Experimental Film Society, a Dublin-based company dedicated to the production and distribution of experimental cinema. He frequently works in partnership with Vicky Langan. He is also a programmer and writer on cinema.

All Welcome

Rhona Coughlan set up Ireland’s first inclusive dance company ‘Wheels in Motion’ performing in Father Mathew Hall and Cork Opera House. She then went on to work in radio broadcasting and disability advocacy.

In 2006 Rhona co-founded Croí Glan inclusive dance, performing at Dublin Fringe Festival, Cork Midsummer Festival, Clonmel Junction and working with international choreographers such as Jess Curtis, Kim Epifano and Adam Benjamin.

In July 2022 Rhona was appointed the Artistic Director of Ireland’s first professional qualification in inclusive dance which began in September 2022. Inclusive Dance Cork is based at Dance Cork Firkin Crane and is a partnership between Dance Cork, UCC, Cope Foundation and Cork ETB (Educational Training Board).

This Perforum session will be a facilitated conversation, followed by a Q&A, with Rhona sharing her experiences of the first year of the Inclusive Dance Cork Programme as well as her insights as a professional disabled dancer and performer.

Conversations On A Crosstown Algorithm is an immersive CGI video installation exploring new forms of queer subjectivity and their entanglements with data economy, artificial intelligence, identity politics – this post human fiction probes us to reconsider the relationship between nature and technology at a time of simultaneous crises. Set within the visions and memories of a diverse group of queer people who find themselves trapped in a virtual environment, where they are trying to regain the pre-colonial, pre-capitalist lost memories and rituals while simultaneously trying to awaken their frozen comrades who are trapped within the glitches of human behavioral dysfunction.

Thur 15th Dec – Screenings at 6pm & 8pm

Fri 16th Dec – Screenings at 6pm & 8pm

Sat 17th Dec – Screenings at 3pm, 6pm & 8pm

Conversations On A Crosstown Algorithm is an immersive CGI video installation exploring new forms of queer subjectivity and their entanglements with data economy, artificial intelligence, identity politics – this post human fiction probes us to reconsider the relationship between nature and technology at a time of simultaneous crises. Set within the visions and memories of a diverse group of queer people who find themselves trapped in a virtual environment, where they are trying to regain the pre-colonial, pre-capitalist lost memories and rituals while simultaneously trying to awaken their frozen comrades who are trapped within the glitches of human behavioral dysfunction.

Thur 15th Dec – Screenings at 6pm & 8pm

Fri 16th Dec – Screenings at 6pm & 8pm

Sat 17th Dec – Screenings at 3pm, 6pm & 8pm

Conversations On A Crosstown Algorithm is an immersive CGI video installation exploring new forms of queer subjectivity and their entanglements with data economy, artificial intelligence, identity politics – this post human fiction probes us to reconsider the relationship between nature and technology at a time of simultaneous crises. Set within the visions and memories of a diverse group of queer people who find themselves trapped in a virtual environment, where they are trying to regain the pre-colonial, pre-capitalist lost memories and rituals while simultaneously trying to awaken their frozen comrades who are trapped within the glitches of human behavioral dysfunction.

Thur 15th Dec – Screenings at 6pm & 8pm

Fri 16th Dec – Screenings at 6pm & 8pm

Sat 17th Dec – Screenings at 3pm, 6pm & 8pm

Doireann O’Malley / Conversations On A Crosstown Algorithm
Artist Talk

Conversations On A Crosstown Algorithm is an immersive CGI video installation exploring new forms of queer subjectivity and their entanglements with data economy, artificial intelligence, identity politics – this post human fiction probes us to reconsider the relationship between nature and technology at a time of simultaneous crises. Set within the visions and memories of a diverse group of queer people who find themselves trapped in a virtual environment, where they are trying to regain the pre-colonial, pre-capitalist lost memories and rituals while simultaneously trying to awaken their frozen comrades who are trapped within the glitches of human behavioral dysfunction.

Jody O’Neill, the UCC-COH Theatre Artist in Residence, will be doing a free performance of her new show ‘Yellow’ on Thursday, 8th Dec at 2 pm in the Granary Theatre.

The event will be followed by a post-show discussion with students from UCC’s Certificate in Disability-Inclusive Practice.

Booking and more information is available on the Eventbrite link here

About Yellow

‘Yellow’ is a joyous, uplifting piece of theatre written by Jody O’Neill, writer of the award-winning, ‘What I (Don’t) Know About Autism’.

It follows the story of Lizzie, a creature of habit, and how her life is irrevocably changed when she sleeps through her alarm clock and has to break her routine, with very unexpected consequences.

Yellow will be followed by a discussion on inclusion, disability and diversity, designed in collaboration with Sinéad Dunne Finnegan and facilitated by Sinéad, alongside students from UCC’s Certificate in Disability-Inclusive Practice.

The play is a relaxed performance and is suitable for all ages.

Age guideline: Suitable for all ages

Yellow was originally commissioned and developed by Draíocht in Dublin 15 through Home Theatre (Ireland). Home Theatre (Ireland) was funded through an Arts Council’s Open Call award with additional support provided by Fingal County Council.

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Produced by Draíocht with Jody O’Neill
Supported by UCC and Cork Opera House
Performed by Eleanor Walsh
Directed by Al Bellamy
Lighting by Sarah Jane Shiels

The present study constitutes part of a broader project which, in the form of postdoctoral research, is funded by the State Scholarships Foundation of Greece (IKY) and is titled ‘Eastwards heterotopias of the piano’ (2020–2022). The basic aim of the research project is the highlighting of a special and unexplored aspect of the piano: its role outside of its usual context, which is that of classical music. The research programme focuses on discography found in various musical realities within a broad geographical span (Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa). The modeness found in these repertoires constitutes a common feature, which through historical discography often outlines in-between places of the familiar stereotypical dipole forms (popular–scholarly, West–East, foreign–ours). The piano is present in the live performance but also in the discography of the repertoire in question. In the latter, we find it even in the time period of the mobile recording workshops, that is, right from the start of commercial discography (1900). In discography, the piano appears in its familiar ‘classic’ identity, but it also appears in alternative aesthetical attire: it performs a different repertoire in a different manner, constructing an autonomous entity. These alternative aesthetics, active even in the present, remained excluded from research. This lecture will introduce certain special examples from historical discography, at the same time examining the cultural framework of the regions in question.

If you would like to attend this event, please Email; music@ucc.ie for MS teams link to attend.

Dance artist and choreographer Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín has been exploring notions of site with the body and the senses in her UCC Creative Residency, leading the group through curious investigations around the connections between people and places. Join us on Thursday 28 January for a Public Presentation where Siobhán will share some of her practice and discuss her processes. The audience will be briefly invited to drop into their bodies in a guided seated exploration, and there will be a moment to experience a small number of pieces from workshop participants. The event will be hosted by Jools Gilson, Professor of Creative Practice. 

Note: if you did not receive your confirmation email with your zoom link for the event, please check your spam folder.

I am continuously drawn to connecting with people and place. I am looking for where the body meets other forms and how this can lead to a shift in perception; of something’s purpose; of someone’s role; of the structures we surround ourselves with. This workshop will gently explore the textures and gestures of situated space and is open to beginners as well as those with some dance / movement experience.

Please note: 
The workshop entails a gentle and exploratory approach suitable for beginners. Please wear comfortable clothing you can move in. You will also need a yoga mat (or a blanket), pen / paper and colouring pencils. 

Workshops:

Tuesday 5th Jan 6 – 8pm
Tuesday 12th Jan 6 – 8pm
Tuesday 19th Jan 6 – 8pm

Final Online Presentation

Thursday 28^th Jan 6 –7pm

Alan Gilsenan has been exploring the notion of truth in documentary and fiction filmmaking in his UCC Creative Residency. Alan is a writer, film-maker and theatre director who works across documentary, experimental work, and feature films. In this public presentation, he will show short excerpts of his practice, discuss questions around truth in contemporary film making, and invite workshop participants to share some of their explorations. This event will be hosted by Jools Gilson, Professor of Creative Practice. 

Note: please check your spam folder if you haven’t received your confirmation email with your zoom link to the event.

Paul O Donnell is a composer, performer and lecturer at the University College Cork School of Music and Theatre. His areas of interest are Jazz, World Music and Popular Music. Over the last 25 years he has worked nationally and internationally with a host of jazz luminaries, including: Grant Stewart, Bobby Watson, Bill Berry and Jon Faddis. Paul has also recorded CDs in the genres of Jazz, Latin American and Popular Music. In more recent times he has created  and  led a number of Jazz/World Music groups, including: Enerjazz (2010), The Paul O Donnell Jazz World Ensemble (2011) and his most recent and current project POD Fusion (2012 – present day) which is an intercultural, collaborative ensemble focusing exclusively on Paul’s own original work in the genres of Jazz and World Music. 

As well as his work with the aforementioned groups, Paul is also the keyboardist with TRASNA – another intercultural music-making project, which represented UCC, Cork and Ireland at the Shanghai World Expo in September 2010 and he is the founder and director of COLLAGE – a Soul/Pop ensemble which specialises in original arrangements of contemporary and classic popular music. 

Free. Organised by FUAIM.

To join the event please email: music@ucc.ie