A green mannequin holding its right hand up to the front of its face.

LivingBodiesObjects is a project that asks how health research is undertaken: what are the assumptions that govern how the work proceeds? Who decides how to start, and where and when? Why are certain ideas privileged and who gains from this?

A group of people spread through a room, some sat on the floor, others on chairs, in small groups. There is a large orange wall with a whieboard, and the groups are engaged in close, focused discussion. There is a large TV screen mounted on the far wall.

Reflections from our Research Assistants

Blog, Project Updates
The LivingBodiesObjects Research Assistants – each affiliated with a different partner organisation as part of the project – have been busy! Three have published reflective accounts of their time on the project with leading medical humanities blog, The Polyphony, while another has led the development of a new digital exhibition. Dr Yaxin Luo, Research Assistant … Read more
a room in a museum which has been divided up to showcase different exhibits including photos of eyes and a glass cabinet containing medical devices. The area is spacious and contains brightly coloured plinths and partitions.

Thackray Museum residency: You Choose

Project Updates
The residency period of the Thackray Museum of Medicine finished in July 2024, and culminated in the launch of a new six-month exhibition: You Choose. The exhibition explores the role of choice and personalisation in medicine and healthcare, using facial prostheses, such as artificial eyes, pills, and wearable devices. It features both historic materials from … Read more
Two grey poster boards in a meeting room. Attached to them are a poster about the LBO project and a number of drawings. Next to the poster boards is a round table with a laptop upon it, linked to a display screen showing a VR space.

LBO team join researchers from other Research Development Award (RDA) projects at Wellcome Trust symposium in Bristol

Project Updates
Between 15-18 July members of the LBO team took part in the ‘Best Practice in Engagement and Culture’ symposium, organised by the Wellcome Trust, which took place in the Watershed Arts Centre in Bristol. The event brought together the eight Wellcome-funded RDA projects to discuss and share the work they had undertaken over the course of the awards.
Logo of the BMJ Medical Humanities Podcast

BMJ Medical Humanities: LivingBodiesObjects and the Tragedy at Bhopal | July 2024

Podcasts
In this podcast episode hosted by Brandy Schillace, LivingBodiesObjects team members Clare Barker and Lynn Wray and the Bhopal Medical Appeal’s Jared Stoughton introduce their collaborative work to produce new digital resources emerging from the stories of survivors and activists in water-affected areas of Bhopal.
Close up of white exhibition walls featuring framed LivingBodiesObjects work: Wray’s artworks and extracts from survivor testimony.

What are we doing? | May 2024

Project Updates
LBO team members Lynn Wray and Clare Barker have been in Brighton recently visiting ‘Everything in Their Eyes: 40 Years of Disaster in Bhopal’, an exhibition curated by our project partners The Bhopal Medical Appeal and featuring work from the LBO project. Staged at the Phoenix Art Space as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival, the exhibition commemorates the 40th anniversary of the 1984 Union Carbide (UC) gas disaster in December this year, tells the story of the Bhopal gas and water disasters through the eyes of survivors and activists, and showcases the BMA’s impactful campaigns over the last thirty years.
On a black wall is a 9 x 4 grid of black tiles with white spiral engravings on them. In front of this is an open wooden box, housing a small stylus, hand print, and space to fix sample tile for engraving.

Touching Sleep

Touching Sleep
Feature image: Sleep Engraver Exhibition, credit Benedict Phillips Touching Sleep is an exploration of technology, art and cultural theory, focused on sleep, which emerged from early conversations during the first months of LivingBodiesObjects. It was inspired by discussions of how the body can be understood as a living object and how it might be recorded … Read more
A 1970s SciFi Iron Lung featuring a mustard-coloured plush chair inside a glass dome

What are we doing? | April 2024

Project Updates
Feature image: A 1970s SciFi Iron Lung (Image created by MidJourney) The fourth and final residency period of the LBO project began in January 2024. We’ve been working closely with the Thackray Museum of Medicine, based in Leeds, developing ideas for a six-month exhibition which is going to launch in July 2024. The initial phase … Read more
Three people appear in the photograph standing in a theatre with black back drop. A female actor stands on the left dressed in black and wearing a silver wig. A male wearing glasses, a checked shirt and brown cardigan stands in the centre. A female actor wearing glasses, a bright pink cardigan and pink hoop earrings stands at the right. She wears a name tag labelled Yaxin.

Kara: An Artificial Friend staged as part of Being Human: A “Festival of the Humanities” | November 2023

Events
On 9-10 November, the LBO team brought the theatrical piece Kara: An Artificial Friend to Being Human – “the UK’s national festival of the humanities.”
The logo for the Research Culture Uncovered podcast series

Rethinking Research Spaces | Oct 2023

Podcasts
Clare Barker and Amelia DeFalco recently recorded a podcast with Emma Spary, Head of Researcher Development and Culture, as part of the University of Leeds’ Research Culture Uncovered series. The episode is entitled ‘Rethinking Research Spaces: Developing a Medical Humanities Lab and Redefining Research Practices‘. The project introduces us to a non-hierarchical leadership model and … Read more
A room where 3 men are using VR headsets whilst other people assist or look on from seats

Podcast with Stuart Murray and David Tabron | July 2023

Podcasts
In this episode, Brandy speaks to Stuart Murray and David Tabron. David works for Blueberry Academy, a business that operates in special educational needs. “We’re a training provider, a post-16 training provider. And we also operate in health and social care,” David explains. Blueberry Academy was set up in 2007 and is localized to York … Read more