Out of Our Heads! Four perspectives on the curation of an on-line exhibition of medically themed artwork by UK medical undergraduates

The Medical School at Bristol University is noted for offering, and in some instances requiring, its students to work creatively with medical themes. Students, artists, educationalists and a web designer have worked to create an on-line exhibition of the resulting creative output. This can be viewed at www.outofourheads.net. This site is a themed repository of poetry, prose, drawings, paintings, cartoons, films, music, dance and rap. Most works come with commentaries that can be as illuminating as the works they describe. The site invites comment and welcomes new postings from anyone connected to medicine. As an alternative to the conventional pedagogical report, and in keeping with the subject matter, in this paper we tell the story of this unique educational enterprise through the narratives of four of its principle architects. The ‘Teacher's Tale’, the ‘Designer's Tale’, the ‘Curator's Tale’ and the ‘Artist's Tale’ offer different, personal, tellings of how the site came to be. Each tale contains hypertext links to notable works on the site some of which have become teaching resources within the institution. This paper is of relevance to anyone who seeks to explore and champion the human insights of this privileged community

Hand to clay : art practice and the visually impaired : the impact of tactual perception and narrative thinking upon cognitive development and identity construction

It is the contention of this study that the child’s physical representation of both their interior and exterior world by means of clay modelling, collage, drawing and so on, provides a vital observational foundation to cognitive, socio/cultural and emotional development.  Current scientific findings are cross-referenced with autobiological and philosophical notions as regards the role of tactual perception. Auto-biographical studies confirm the positive effects of self-perception as a pro-active learner and the transformative potential of sensitive mediation.  This thesis investigates the potential of art practice to support a range of cognitive operations, in particular memory retrieval and narrative thinking. Donald Winnicott, (1990) suggests that if the facilitating environment is not good enough, inherited tendencies which drive the individual growth process may be insufficient to support personality integration.  This study explores how adaptive educational approaches such as Feuerstein’s Instrumental Enrichment (1980) can support art practice in leading the visually impaired child towards a wholeness of personality in body and mind. Single case study as a methodology has provided the opportunity to explore the above notions, two case-studies documenting art projects with visually impaired children are included for discussion in this regard.</p

Hand to clay : art practice and the visually impaired : the impact of tactual perception and narrative thinking upon cognitive development and identity construction

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Pitching Perspectives on Disability: Voyage Experiences of Disabled Sailors on Tall Ships

This paper explores the experiences of disabled sailors on board a tall sailing ship, adapted for accessibility. Eight disabled sailors kept audio diaries and created artwork during the voyages, as well as taking part in interviews afterwards. In reporting their accounts, we explored what it meant for participants to go to sea. We became particularly interested in embodied activities on board ship, the ways in which sailing created and highlighted new identities, and the social aspects of sailing in a team. Our account brings together some of the central concerns in Disability Studies with the perspectives of social practice theorists, and seeks to add layers of meaning to both approaches. Since this is a nautical project, the paper is structured by following the stages of going to sea, and in the words of one participant, we seek to ‘join the dots between medical, academic and anecdotal knowledge’

Visualising the art of medicine:a showcase of creative endeavour from Bristol Medical School, UK.

The practice of medicine is both art and science. At Bristol Medical School, we seek to create learning opportunities to support our students to develop in both of these complementary domains. Alongside learning the biomedical and social science principles of medicine, our students meet real patients from the start. Their consultation skills training places patients at the centre of each encounter.(1) In a novel aspect of our course, we also draw students toward the human dimension through engagement with the creative arts. Creativity is one of the core values of our consultational approach. Though medicine is not typically considered a creative discipline, we argue that fresh thinking is key to helping patients unlock complex health problems.(2) The creative arts bring the additional demand of close and considered observation, a skill directly transferable to clinical life.(3) The arts also lend themselves well to tackling uncertainty and ambiguity, issues we often encounter as clinicians, but about which it is difficult to teach.(4)For the last 15 years, we have provided contexts for students to create art works as a formal element of their degree course. Informally referred to as “compulsory creativity”,(5) students are tasked to create artistic work in any medium, based on an aspect of their medical experience. In some contexts we seek individual creations, in others they are tasked to work as a group. Works often focus on encounters with real patients and their professional carers. Other common themes include their emerging professional identities and the wonders of the human body. Each year a cluster of creative works are added to a curated online art collection, ‘Out of our Heads’ (OOOHs) at www.outofourheads.net.(6) Some students are accomplished artists, creating works of a professional standard. We also curate works where the execution is naïve, but where the underlying story is poignant and well observed. Media to date include painting, drawing, poetry, short stories, film, mime, embroidery, sculpture, collage, cartoon and rap. Works are submitted with explanatory notes by the artist, as well as encouragement for student peers to reflect and add moderated comment. In our experience, the creative process can be of direct benefit to the wellbeing of the student artist, including those who claim to have little or no aptitude. Through embracing the arts, the student gains agency. There is the opportunity to put their unique spin on things and have that creative effort acknowledged by the wider community. The creative process further seems to unlock self-confidence and a sense of excitement in learning. In current times where we see increasing numbers of students facing mental health challenges, creative engagement can be revitalizing and sustaining. (7) For this paper we have selected works from www.outofourheads.net which surface qualities of acute attention and imaginative capacity. Translating medical enquiry through hands-on engagement allows student-artists to generate multiple material transformations whilst approaching their final creative integration. Many artists refer to the pivotal role of embracing this visceral and intellectual ‘dance’ in their reflective notes. These notes highlight their choices of materials and representation, which honour the kernel of the artists’ original curiosity and intent. We also reference selected OOOH! online responses from student peers, showing how the appreciation of creative enquiry leads to deepening dialogue around the medical enterprise. <br/

Piloting creative engagement strategies to explore themes of parenthood with fathers

Introduction: The role of the arts in health is increasingly recognised, with participatory arts-based approaches facilitating public engagement. However, little is known about men's involvement in art-based participatory research. We aimed to investigate how men who are fathers may be engaged creatively to explore experiential aspects of fathering and parenthood.Methods: Fathers collaborated with an artist, sharing individual perspectives around fatherhood by telephone and email, leading up to creative representations of fatherhood. Initial conversations were prompted by images from a 2020 exhibition catalogue entitled “Masculinities” (Barbican Centre, London) inviting participants' responses to the photographic curation. The catalogue served as an artistic reference to gauge a sense of participants' creative predispositions, as well as a foundation to facilitate spontaneous dialogue about personal meanings of fatherhood. Fathers' experiences of contemporary arts varied greatly; yet all fathers confidently shared responses ranging from photographers' representation of masculinity and fatherhood and perceptions of what was excluded or privileged within this very specific curation. These discussions further led to conversations around representations of fatherhood and highlighted particular areas of interest in terms of fathers' involvement in research and public engagement. The artist provided reflections to each participant by email with links to arts resources building on the initial conversations. Two further shorter sessions followed as fathers' key messages emerged, and the final forms of their own creative expressions crystallised.Results: The final pieces included a musical composition around sharing vulnerability as a new father, a word cloud to represent gendered language of parenthood, an animated graphic image representing the bond between father and child, a combination of short poetic stanzas highlighting assumptions around fatherhood, an experiential photographic record of a father and a son in the early years, and a cartoon strip around emotional intelligence in parenting.Discussion: Arts-based participatory engagement enabled to capture deep-rooted experiences of being a father in modern society, illuminating common cultural and intergenerational perspectives, while also tapping into unique individual experiences. The richness and diversity of these unique responses suggest that arts-based methodology can facilitate public engagement with men and lead to deep reflections on complex and socially constructed phenomena such as fathering and parenthood

Talking Trials: An arts‐based exploration of attitudes to clinical trials amongst minority ethnic members of the South Riverside Community of Cardiff

Abstract Introduction Clinical trials must include diverse participants to ensure the wide applicability of results. However, people from ethnic minorities are included in clinical trials at rates lower than expected given their share of the population. Working with South Riverside Community Development Centre (SRCDC), Talking Trials used public engagement to foster discussions around the underrepresentation of those from minority ethnic communities in clinical trials and to identify and address concerns surrounding trial participation. Methods We conducted three workshops with 13 co‐researchers from minority ethnic backgrounds. We explored perceptions and understanding of clinical trials alongside participatory art activities to help move away from verbocentric methods of communication. These artworks formed an exhibition that was presented to the community, prompting further discussions and engagement. Findings Co‐production workshops were an effective tool to introduce the public to trial research. With little knowledge of clinical trials at the beginning of the process, our co‐researchers formed a cohesive group, sharing initial fears and mistrust towards trials. As conversations progressed these attitudes clearly shifted. Artwork produced during the workshops was incorporated into an exhibition. Quotes and creative pieces from the group were included to reflect the themes identified. Presenting the exhibition at Riverside Festival enabled further engagement with a wider diverse community. The focus on co‐production helped build a network of individuals new to research and keen to become involved further. Conclusion Inclusive and democratic co‐production, enriched by participatory art practices, provided a powerful means of enabling our group to create new insights and foster new relationships. Projects like Talking Trials can diversify the research process itself—for example, four co‐researchers have commenced lay research partner roles on trial management groups and a lay advisory group is in development. Patient or Public Contribution Three members of staff at SRCDC were on the project delivery group and involved in the initial project design, subsequently helping to connect us with members of the Riverside community to work as co‐researchers. Two of the SRCDC staff are co‐authors of this manuscript. The project had 13 public co‐researchers guiding the direction of this research and creating the artwork displayed in the art exhibition