Amanda Coogan on Ode To Joy: 'The deaf performers will feel the bass'

As part of Cork Midsummer Festival, Beethoven's famous piece - written after he'd lost his hearing - will be performed by Cork Deaf Community Choir

Amanda Coogan has helped create the special performance of Ode To Joy. Photograph: Eoin O'Neill

When it comes to all aspects of her art, Amanda Coogan is certainly hands-on. The acclaimed performance artist is known for her highly visual and physical work across all media. As a child of deaf parents, who describes Irish Sign Language (ISL) as her mother tongue, gesture and expression underpins much of her work. The Dublin native will also be familiar to many people from her gig as an ISL interpreter on the Late Late Toy Show, going viral on social media with her wonderfully energetic signing. 

Coogan is talking to me on a video call from her home in Belfast about her latest project, a live performance of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy explored through the unique perspective of deaf culture. Not only has she helped create the piece, but she is also in the middle of conjuring up an important element of the set as we speak. On her desk are piles of old shirts, the raw material for a canopy which will envelop the lecture hall of the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork city, where the performance is taking place as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival. Coogan is positively fizzing with excitement.