Professors Tess Maginess and Pramod K. Nayar will offer a glimpse into how madness is represented in literature: specifically how Indian and Irish writers use the trope of madness to offer a subversive critique of a crisis in history where one kind of power must give way to another. They will focus on Saadat Hassan Manto’s story, ‘Toba Tek Singh,’ and Seamus Heaney’s translation of the ninth-century Gaelic poem, ‘The Frenzy of Sweeney’. Professor Nayar will contribute online.

Opening with a wine reception, followed by an open mic for writers and poets. 

Tess Maginess is Professor of Lifelong Learning in Queen’s University Belfast and teaches literature. Pramod K. Nayar is Professor of English and the UNESCO Chair in Vulnerability Studies at the Department of English, the University of Hyderabad, India.

Start the Bounce Arts Festival weekend by immersing yourself in the enchanting sounds of our beautiful traditional Indonesian instruments. During the session you will play the instruments and finish with a soothing gong bath.

Coming up for Air is a special commission for the Bounce 2024 Festival. It is a solo performance that examines how we deal with loss and live with grief. O’Donnell uses inherited materials and objects to explore her own recent losses, by creating rituals using objects belonging to those who she has lost.

The performance explores living while choked with grief, and examines how memories and belongings of those we have lost live with us into the future.

Peter Fleming is a composer and producer, and is the 2024 recipient of the Digital Innovation Award funded by the Santander Foundation at University of Atypical. Through the award, Peter developed this installation entitled ‘Time’ for Bounce 2024. Audiences will experience the profound journey of human emotions through the evocative sounds of the piano in this unique installation. 

This multi-sensory installation integrates Peter’s compositions with digital visuals created in partnership with his son Stephen. 

This specially commissioned performance art masterclass is led by the acclaimed performance artist Sinéad O’Donnell. The masterclass will include a 1-hour performance lecture, followed by group sessions of active working on tasks. Participants will explore the ideas that our identity resides in our body, and that identity is not something static, but is always changing.

Sinéad is an artist living with impairments. She will show participants how she encounters materials, places, spaces, and methods through her body and performance practice and discuss the impact of technology on performance practice.

No experience is necessary. Open to all abilities.

Brian Connolly is a multimedia artist who uses a wide range of artistic processes, including performance art, public sculpture, and installation art. Install-action is a performance artwork revolving around a series of small tables. It will reflect the artist’s response to current global concerns and political ills.

As Bounce 2024 Artist in Residence, Brian will take over the Atypical Gallery in September, leading towards his exhibition for Bounce. 

Visitors to the gallery can expect surreal, satirical, political responses that may leave you amused and full of questions.