Research theme: Mobilities in Art and Performance (MAP)

About our research

Mobilities in Art and Performance (MAP) reflects how travel and mobilities shape and build on concepts of space and place.

One of our key objectives is to develop a cross-disciplinary approach to research, underpinned by collegiate and collaborative relationships. The group works with researchers across the University to foster major STEAM funding bids.

We research:

walking as an artform or performance
guidebooks as artwork
cycling as a performative output
running as an artistic exploration of space and health and wellbeing

We connect the cultural objectives of Manchester and Greater Manchester to Manchester Met’s strategic plan (Road to 2030) in relation to people, sustainability and place.

We are interested in hearing from potential PhD candidates with proposals in the areas we cover.

Get in touch about PhD study.

Our research areas

Running as arts and humanities discourse
Running as a metaphor, medium and method, taking into account city, gender, ageing, borders
Political exile, foregrounding viewpoints from migrant, aged, neurodivergent and disabled body-minds and their (im)mobilities
Shared and co-created methods and frameworks including speed-play-drift, joghraphy, running adrift, continuum bodycity, running-discourse, running art, artisthlete, and running artfully
Live art, performance art and social art practices and discourses
Kinaesthetic learning practices and discourses, including arts-health, art-sport, mobilities, decolonisation and urban intervention

Selected projects

RUN! RUN! RUN! Biennale #r3fest

Investigating running beyond the natural, sport and neuro-scienc
Go to project
Sit with us for a moment and remember

An immersive audio installation around a lake at Lakeside Arts.
Go to project

Key publications
Key publications
Pinchbeck, M (2021) Sit with us for a moment and remember (audio project), First presented: Lakeside Arts, Nottingham
Pinchbeck, M (2021) Cyclical (online performance) First presented: Derby Theatre, Commissioned by HOME
Baynton, R and Pinchbeck, M (2021) Igniting response-ability: Co-creating one-on-one audience experience In: Routledge Companion to Audiences and the Performing Arts, Routledge
Pinchbeck, M (2017) Open Your Eyes: Sit with me for a moment and remember, Performance Research, 23(1)
Tan, KS (2020) Run Riot: On life, and death (of civilisation), and the reveries of running artfully, In: Freudendal-Pedersen, M, Büscher, M and Kesselring, S (eds), Handbook on Methods and Applications for Mobilities Research, Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 303-314
Chapter: Tan, KS (2019) Running (in) Your City, in M Aguiar, M, Mathieson, C and L Pearce (eds) Mobilities, Literature, Culture Palgrave Macmillan
Chapter: Tan, KS (2017) Hand-in-Hand: Activating the Body in Motion to Re-Connect with Ourselves and Others amidst a World in Motion and Commotion, in Drevon, G, Gwiazdzinski, L, Klein, O and Benayoun, M (eds) Chronotopies: Lecture et écriture des mondes en mouvement  In: Chronotopics: Time, Art and Cartography, Representations of Populations and Territories in Motion, Elya editions, Grenoble
Tan, KS (2018) An exploration of running as metaphor, methodology, material through the RUN! RUN! RUN! Biennale #r3fest 2016 Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics, Routledge Taylor and Francis, February 1–17
Latham, A and Tan, KS (2016) Running into Each Other: Run! Run! Run! A Festival and a Collaboration, Cultural Geographies, Sage
Tan, KS (2016) Tough Ultramarathons and Life on the Run, Transfers Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies, Berghahn, 6(3), pp. 130–37
Brennan, T et al (2011) Vedute Manoeuvre York: Information as Material
Brennan, T et al (2005) Codex: Crusade Sunderland: Art Editions North·
Brennan, T (2005) Mercator Manoeuvre In: Cultural Geographies,12(4)
Brennan, T (2003) Museum of Angels: A Guide to the Winged Creatures in the British Museum, London: Gli Ori