Artsadmin

Skip links

  1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to search

The Breath Control Project

Caroline Wright

Photo by Tony Millings

Breathe in…
And out…
And… don’t… stop.

“A knowing, yet mysterious intelligence… a meditation on the very action that keeps us alive”

A Younger Theatre

Breath Control is about the inhalations and exhalations that form the melody, rhythm and punctuation of our everyday existence.

Although breathing is universal, it is personal. It is a sustaining action that can be both conscious and subconscious, completely taken for granted and the sole focus of life itself.

So far, the project has been realised through three different artworks:

Breath Control: Notes
Breath Control: Hyperventilation
Breath Control: Osmosis

Breath Control: Notes is a durational installation where the public is invited to sing the longest note they possibly can from one breath. This single vocalised note is collected alongside data from the participant about their basic respiratory health. The collected sounds are edited into a soundscape and alongside projected analysis of their data in relation to air pollution statistics.

Breath Control: Hyperventilation blends choreography, theatre and a locally recruited Breath Choir, this performance was created in response to medical information about over-breathing and hyperventilation – more specifically the medically recommended 7 steps for healthy breathing.

Breath Control: Osmosis is a live art piece that has the physical, audible act of taking a breath at its core. Through an intimate relationship between audience and Breath Choir, the piece explores the territory of local and global air quality, and our relationship with our own breath, as gift, as voice, as life.

The project is supported by Cambridge Junction and subsidised through public funding through an Arts Council England National Lottery grant with additional in-kind support from Life of Breath, Bristol. Breath Control: Notes was originally commissioned by Space to Breathe and was shown at Somerset House as part of UTOPIA 2016. Breath Control: Hyperventilation was originally commissioned by, and premiered at Cambridge Junction as part of the Cambridge Science Festival.

For more information on this project download the touring pack or contact Róise Goan at roise@artsadmin.co.uk.

Date Title Venue City
21 February 2020 Breath Control: At The Point of Perforation Peter Pears Gallery Aldeburgh
29 May – 1 June 2019 The Breath Control Project The Coronet Theatre London
22 May 2019 Breath Control: At The Point of Perforation Venice Biennale 2019 Venice
14–16 September 2018 Breath Control Pier Projects Felixstowe
16 July 2017 Breath Control: Osmosis Wellcome Trust Arena, Latitude Festival Beccles
23 March 2017 Breath Control Cambridge Science Festival, Cambridge Junction Cambridge
28 January 2017 Breath Control: Note Collection (How Long Can You Sing For?) River Rooms, New Wing, Somerset House London
Photo by Tony Millings
Top