Artwork and participation programme: R&D 2019-20, first production foreseen 2023. All images on this page courtesy team collaborator: sculptor Alex Pentek.

Loop Love is a concept for a ‘mobile theatre of the voice’ environment that invites people with mild to moderate learning disAbility to delve into and layer luscious loops of their vocal inventiveness.

We visited four Cope Foundation locations in 2019 to explore how people with mild to moderate learning disAbility seemed to enjoy inventing voice-scape experiences. From this, a concept for this interactive, sculptural installation emerged, in dialogue across the team, based in the fact that the participants generally responded with agency to the layered looping of their vocal sounds. The Loop Love ‘machine’ will be launched and piloted with a facilitation programme and an ongoing experience improvement programme across the Cope Foundation in 2023, with public showings at the Cork Opera House lobby and the Granary Theatre. Loop Love is part of research-creation strand Voice-Art-Able .

Phase 1: Collaborators: Alex Pentek (visual and sculptural art; design); Jeff Weeter (audio art; coding; design); Julie O’Leary/Graffiti Theatre (independent evaluator/outside eye). Supported by the Irish Research Council New Foundations Award and University College Cork, with collaboration from the Cope Foundation. Phase 2: Alex, Jeff and I are joined by producer Yvonne Coughlan. We are supported by the Cope Foundation, UCC Theatre, Cork Opera House and funded by the participatory arts stream of Arts Council (Ireland).