Capturing and Holding the Invisible: gestation and grief framed through ultrasound and MRI images
Lead Research Organisation:
Royal College of Art
Department Name: School of Art and Humanities
Abstract
This PhD is an artist's investigation of illness and how it is experienced and understood and brings a new visual narrative and knowledge to the clinical setting. It focuses on the heart, and specifically questions how women understand their and their baby's internal bodies when captured through medical imaging techniques. It will analyse the discourse surrounding the mother-and-child dyad and will question whether imaging data, researched as part of an artist's exploration of the biomedical, symbolic and experiential reality of disease, can create new knowledge through the artist's practice.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Sofie Layton (Student) |
 http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4814-0550
|
| Title | Gestationality - Selected for the Royal Academy summer show 2022. |
| Description | Cyanotype created using Micro- CT images of post mortem heart and feotal images translated from medical data into a acteate film. These were then combined with seaweed and natural flora along with medical instruments to create this image which is 50cms x 75 cms. Cyanotype on Japanese Shoji paper. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The image is part of a serise of research investigations into the use of medical images called 'Gestationality' exploring the potential of using medical images as non diagnositic tools to explore narratives around Gestation and Grief which is the theme of my PhD research. |
| Title | I care by... |
| Description | Essay as part of the RCA research community |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The essay desribes the process of using the cyanotype process and the Micro CT imagery in an inovative way to resurface loss. |
| Description | Collaboration with the Micro CT postmorteum imaging team at GOSH and UCL |
| Organisation | Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) |
| Department | NIHR Great Ormond Street Biomedical Research Centre |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | As part of my PhD research I have been working in collaboration with the team at GOSH and using some of their post morteum to help explore my question. |
| Collaborator Contribution | My partners have enabled me to work with their Micro CT research images and to support the development of 3D models which has become part of my research methodology around surfacing the medical image. They have also facilitated the collaborated on a participatory workshop exploring pregnancy loss with members of the Miscarrage Association. |
| Impact | Art making - cyanotypes and reserach by practice outputs, art essay and creative writing and public engagement workshos with The Miscarraige Association. This is all part of my PhD research. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Creative writing and cyanotype workshops |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | As part of the research by practice for my PhD . I worked with participants recruited as part of the Micro-CT imaging team from GOSH's puplic engagement process. We collaborated on one workshopwhere we explored loss through creative technques such as creative writing, clay modeling and an a presentation of my cyanotypes which use the medical images. Ian Simcock explained how the Micro CT imaging team use the images and how the research can support pregnancy loss. I ran a second women only workshop, where we explored loss outside of the medical context but using the micro CT imaging alongside personal found objects which the group brought . |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Patient workshops |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | As part of my PhD research I worked in the Antenatal cardiac unit at St Micheals Hospital Bristol with mothers waiting for their appointments. I discussed in the clinic and ran online workshops around their feelings of being pregnant andthe vunerability to themselves and their babies of having a faulty heart. I also worked with the clinicians and medical staff in the research process. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |