Associate Artist, Jo-anne Cox
Introducing Oily Cart’s 2022 Associate Artist
Jo-anne Cox is a cellist who creates mesmerising sensory and digital compositions and soundscapes to connect with her audiences. We are beyond delighted to welcome Jo-anne as our 2022 Oily Cart Associate Artist. She brings to sensory theatre a fierce creativity and radical care which seeps into all her thinking and ideas. We are particularly excited to be focusing on music and sound this year with Joanne, who has been experimenting with making her compositions interactive and co-created with young people who experience the most barriers to access. We are intrigued to see where her creative explorations take her and us!
“I am looking forward to exchanging skills and knowledge around inclusive working practices and artistic process. My residency will be an opportunity for deep exploration of sensory engagement and immersive storytelling. I am passionate about interacting creatively with children who face multiple barriers to accessing high quality artistic experiences. As Associate Artist I will be leading a residency with students and teachers in John F. Kennedy specialist school in Stratford, east London.”
More about Jo-anne’s work
Jo-anne discovered a love of sensory engagement during her role as an Early Years music teacher at Music House for Children, where she was mentored in musical storytelling by founder and managing director Emma Hutchinson who has been influential in her artistic development.
For her Arts Council England (ACE) funded Research and Development project Defiant Journey, Jo-anne explored the use of the cello and vibrotactile technology (sound you can feel) in partnership with disabled artists at Together!2012. Later, supported by Help Musicians UK Jo-anne went on to work with David Bobier of VibraFusionLab to prepare vibrotactile technology for touring.
Jo-anne works in cross continental collaboration with creative technologist Charles Matthews of Blurring the Boundaries. Having previously explored cello and audience responsive lighting they have just completed an ACE-funded Research and Development project, Define Your Journey, which features an audience interactive digital instrument that has been designed with access in mind.
To try out theDesign Your Journey digital instrument and cello please visit https://blurringtheboundaries.org/dyj
If you would like to find out more about Jo-anne Cox’s work please visit https://cello.joannesonia.live/