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The Directors review: Five intimate short films about psychosis

Five people in recovery from psychosis guide artist Marcus Coates as he recreates aspects of their experience in this series of disorienting and sometimes very frightening short films, finds Simon Ings

By Simon Ings

31 August 2022

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Recreating experiences of psychosis leads Marcus Coates to dark places

Artangel/Marcus Coates

The Directors

Five short films by Marcus Coates

At venues in London from 4 September to 30 October

IN A flat in a social housing block in London’s Pimlico, artist Marcus Coates is being variously nudged, bullied and shocked out of his sense of what is real.

Controlling the process is Lucy Dempster, a teenager in recovery from psychosis. In his ear, Coates hears Dempster prompt him in how to behave, when to sit, what to touch and what to think about. Sometimes, Coates asks for guidance, but…

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