Currently an MPhil/PhD Research Student in Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory at The University of Suffolk.
Through my research I am conducting a phenomenological exploration of the experience of living with long-term illness.
Disease is generally considered a biological abnormality by the medical profession and society at large. As such, its potential to also offer life-transforming experiences remains unacknowledged and culturally under-represented. Utilizing a phenomenological framework, my work visually explores how living with serious, long-term illness affects how someone might experience and communicate with the world around them socially, emotionally and physically. Through my research, various artistic practices capture differing experiences of living with illnesses in all their complexity, individuality and fluctuating intensity. Informing the visual investigation is an extensive body of research drawing from documented medical history and the medical humanities in challenging the normalized ideal of the healthy body and preconceptions about illness.
My research will ultimately show the value of understanding illness from an alternative perspective to the solely medical, scientific viewpoint, challenging current illness-related assumptions and empowering those affected.