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Resident at The Museum of The History of Science, Technology and Medicine

I became involved with The Museum of The History of Science Technology and Medicine at The University of Leeds  when invited, by the then Museum Director , Dr. Claire Jones, to work with the Museum of HSTM and its volunteers to develop artworks for Light Night 2013. This led to the creation of Ghost Sculptures (That were later developed on the ArtSoTech Accelerator at MadLab, Manchester) and a great reciprocal working relationship that has enriched my work and provided fun and interesting ways to explore the Museum Collections.

I have been a Visiting Fellow/ Artist in Resident within Centre for History and Philosophy of Science and this means that I am able attend lectures, seminars and have one on one time with world class scientific historians and philosophers. This has even  resulted in working with academics to gain a deeper understanding of how medical specimens, casts and scientific illustrations were produced.

Aside from some interesting people I also  get access to a collection containing thousands of specimens and historically important and scientific and teaching paraphernalia including a massive archive of magic lantern slides. With many of the slide boxes still in the order they were last used these slides are not only beautiful but give a fascinating insight into how science, medicine and entering have been taught over the past century.

I have been slowly digitising this massive magic lantern slide collection and below is a tiny sample of of the originals.

These slides were used to create an event and display for Light Night 2015 and the reopening of the Museum’s Gillenson Room. The slides were digitally manipulated to make them colourful and eye catching. They were then back-projected onto windows at the front of The University of Leeds so that they could be seen from the road. Inside we ran an event where people could use Cyanotype photographic techniques to make clothing decoded with a selection of slides from the collection.

Inside the University, alongside HSTM staff and volunteers, I ran an event where the audience could make cyanotype prints of slides on clothing and watercolour paper using artificial UV light.

In 2016, my research with slides from the HSTM collections and  the success of the event at Light Night 2015 resulted in a two commissions for The Leeds Humanities Research Institute. 

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