Mammalian Diving Reflex

Mammalian Diving Reflex

Mammalian Diving Reflex was founded in Toronto in 

1993, and between 1993-2003 primarily produced the stage-based performances of Artistic Director, Darren O’Donnell. Currently based between Germany and Canada, Mammalian Diving Reflex views innovative 

artistic interventions as a way to trigger generosity 

and equity across the universe.

Methods:

Social Acupuncture - playful, provocative, site and social-specific participatory performances with non-actors of all ages and demographics, designed to bring people together in new and unusual ways.

http://mammalian.ca/

"We get our name from a reflex found in mammals, which increases the chances of survival when we’re plunged into a cold watery environment by snapping the vocal cords shut over the trachea, locking air into the lungs and slowing the heart rate, thus consuming less oxygen. For us, this is a metaphor for surviving difficult times."

Propelled by the company’s subsequent touring hit, Haircuts by Children – a performance about trust, children’s rights, generosity and vanity, where ten-year-olds offer free haircuts to the public – Mammalian began to work with a wide array of new collaborators, including international art festivals, art galleries, city administrations, seniors homes, community centres, schools and other socially-related institutions of civil society.

Show and Tell, 2008
Directed by Stephanie Comilang, Darren O’DonnellProduced by Natalie De Vito
Show and Tell was written with and starring all 647 students of Parkdale Public School,
featuring their favourite things; Transformers, basketballs, Tweety Bird, and erasers.

How to Be a Brown Teen, 2011
Conceived by The Torontonians and Darren O’Donnell
Directed by Darren O’Donnell
Produced by Darren O’Donnell
How to Be a Brown Teen is a short film starring Sanjay Ratnan, Nerupa Somasale, Ahash Jeeva, and
Darren O’Donnell, who frankly discuss the good times of being a teenager in a ‘brown’ family.

Sleeping with Family, 2015
Directed by Nicole Bazuin, Darren O’Donnell
Produced by Kathleen Smith
Sleeping with Family is about sleeping arrangements in a low-income neighborhood as described by 15 teenagers living in Parkdale, Toronto. Disguised to protect their identities, the young people in the film discuss their living conditions, particularly the absence of, and negotiations for privacy living in close quarters with multiple family members.