This event is a part of our Crystallised Intelligence series of events running during Creativity & Wellbeing Week, exploring the value of artists whose work focuses on their lived experiences of health, illness & disability.
Join us for an online panel discussion exploring the value of artists whose work focuses on their lived experiences of health, illness & disability.
"Crystallised intelligence, is information you’ve learned in the past and stored [... it] results from experience, education, and cultural background. Crystallized intelligence increases as you age and gain more life experience. " — PsychCentral
What do we mean by lived experience? Can lived experience be thought of in a different way, perhaps as a form of alternative intelligence? What if we considered our lived experiences not just as something that are often the result of distress or illness, but as unique insights and knowledge that enable us to show others what it means to feel how we feel and live how we live?
This panel discussion presents academic and artistic understandings of what lived experience means historically, and what lived experience looks like creatively.
Image: See Me Through This, Jill Mueller and Maja Daniels
About Jill Mueller.
Jill Mueller draws on personal experience to explore issues around the body, what it means to be human, and how to make meaning in today’s world. Jill believes in the power of art to connect people to each other and the world around them. For her, the creative process and the viewer’s experience are as important as any finished artwork. Her research-based approach to projects bridges health, family history and the natural world. Jill completed an MA in Art & Science at Central Saint Martins in 2018 and has been speaking publicly about her BRCA experience since 2014.
At age 39, artist Jill Mueller tested positive for a hereditary BRCA1 gene mutation which gives her a high risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers. Choosing to undergo surgeries to remove her breasts and ovaries, Jill invited photographer Maja Daniels to accompany her on what she knew would be a physically and emotionally transformative journey. Merging creative non-fiction with photography, archive imagery and creative interventions, See Me Through This traces the medical journey of a healthy woman who receives unexpected results of a genetic test, and sheds light on the wider implications of learning what’s hidden in our DNA.
About Chris Millard.
Chris Millard is Lecturer in the History of Medicine and Medical Humanities at the University of Sheffield. He is interested in the history of mental health and illness, especially self-harm, child abuse, and suicide, and more broadly in ideas of ‘the social setting’ in medicine. He is also interested in the role of ‘personal experience’ in academic work, and history’s links with anthropology. Chris has recently received funding from the Leverhulme Trust to complete work on personal experience and the writing of history - the project is entitled Recovering Personal Experience in History.
About Mariama Attah.
Mariama Attah is a photography curator and editor with a particular interest in overlooked visual histories, and using photography and visual culture to amplify under and misrepresented voices.
Mariama is Head of Exhibitions at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool. She was previously Assistant Editor of Foam Magazine. Prior to this, she was Curator of Photoworks, where was responsible for developing and curating programs and events including Brighton Photo Biennial and was Commissioning and Managing Editor of the yearly magazine Photoworks Annual.
Cost.
Free
This event is kindly supported by Arts Council England, London Arts & Health and the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance as part of Creativity & Wellbeing Week 2023.
