Yvon Bonenfant

Yvon Bonenfant, PhD joined the Department of Theatre at UCC in September, 2018. He is currently Director, Future Humanities Institute; and Co-Lead, UNICArt Thematic Line of www.unic.eu.

Yvon Bonenfant (he/him) is a performance-maker, art-maker and researcher. He is currently leading the Artistic Methodlogies and Artistic Thinking strand of UNIC.eu, which explores how best we teach transversal artistic methods and and purpose them, where appropriate, for social transformation. He is involved in the scholarly discipline of Research-Creation, also know as Arts Practice-Research or Artistic Research. His work explores the sensual power of the unusual voice and body; artworks are developed from questions that generate experiments in how best we might explore the Queer voice and body across artistic media. Since 2010, his work has largely focused on unearthing and developing how we best invite participants to explore the virtuosic glory of their own vocal difference, and to celebrate that difference. By extension, he is interested in tactile art and performance, visuality, and environments that celebrate the artistic expression of unruly bodies. His work and collaborations have shown in 14 countries over 30 years and he has published widely. 

Please visit www.yvonbonenfant.com for recent work. 

Work has been funded by: Arts Council (Ireland); Arts Council England; Wellcome Trust Small and Large Arts Awards; Irish Research Council; Arts and Humanities Research Council of the UK; British Academy; and with Tract and Touch, by Youth Music; Postcode Community Trust; and co-production funding from Stockholm City, Stockholm County and Swedish Arts Council. Production residencies: The Place (London); Experimental Media and Performing Arts Centre (EMPAC) (Troy, NY, USA); Creation Centre, The Point (Eastleigh, UK); Mile Zero Dance (Edmonton, Canada); ENSAD Limoges-Aubusson (France); Weld (Stockholm, Sweden) Mediums: Touring theatrical stage shows (Uluzuzulalia, Beacons); mobile theatre of the voice (Resonant Tails, Loop Love); work for public space (Curious Replicas, The Voice Trunk, We Wink We Wink our Voices Blink, The Opposite of Trauma); interactive installation (Curious Replicas, Resonant Tails, We Wink We Wink our Voices Blink, The Voice Trunk); voice-videoart (Intimacies); voice-painting (B(earth)); iPad app (Voice Bubbles); sound recordings (Masz, Soie soyeuse); Performance art (Soie soyeuse, Beacons, The Opposite of Trauma); voice-dance/movement (Wig Show; The Opposite of Trauma; Intimacies), and recently, participatory stage performance and intermedia (The Opposite of Queer Trauma). When younger Yvon worked regularly in choreographic contexts.

Sample guest teaching: UniArts Stockholm; UniArts Helsinki; University of Limerick; Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama; Mile Zero Dance; University of Bristol; CEPIA; University of Leeds Numbers reached by work: The Voice Trunk, situated in Winchester Science Centre for nearly 7 years, reached numbers in the hundreds of thousands; Resonant Tails, for children & other young people with PMLD, reaches 300 users intensively and repeatedly in any given year. I make work for both mass publics and the most 'niche', historically marginalised audiences, often accompanied by publication. 

• Voice, extra-normal voice, queer voice
• Futures thinking, artistic thinking, making artistic approaches available for innovation and social solutions
• Live/performance art, devising practices
• Installation, mediation, digital mediation 
• Artistic research, practice-research, recherche-création
• Tactility, theatres of tactility, touch and the haptic register
• Experimentalism in the arts
• Alternative approaches to visuality 
• Somatic register, sensation
• Inclusion, participation, audience participation
• Performance and art for and with children
• Performance and art for marginalised audiences
• Music theatre, queer aesthetics, the queer spectacle

Bonenfant's teaching experience includes a wide array of modules in artistic research methodologies, voice-as-method, devised performance, interdisciplinary performance making, theatre and performance histories and theory, voice practice and study, and research methods - including practice-based methods within artistic research or research-creation. He teaches through both theoretical and experiential modalities.