Sense and Sensation Seminar Series: Why Photography and Pain are Natural Partners

Deborah Padfield (UCL Slade) will explore the limitations of available tools to assess and communicate pain, suggesting that a visual language, in particular that of photography could help navigate the chasm between those living with and those witnessing chronic pain.  She will share some of the results of the recent Face2face and Pain: Speaking the Threshold projects at UCL/UCLH discussing the process of co-creating photographs with people with pain which represent their unique experience. A selection of the resulting images will be shown. Deborah will touch on ways in which she believes the arts, and in particular photography, are capable of dissolving traditional hierarchies in a clinical setting so benefitting interaction and communication.  She will screen an earlier short film duet for pain (2012) exploring the intersects and disconnects between patient and clinician narratives as a stimulus to discussion.

Image credit: Deborah Padfield from the series perceptions of pain. 2001 -2006, Silver Gelatin Print. © Deborah Padfield

'Sense and Sensation' is one of the Institute of Advanced Studies' major research themes for 2016-2017. This seminar series, organised by the two Junior Research Fellows working on the 'Sense and Sensation' research strand, aims to stimulate a dialogue on this rich topic in UCL more generally. These sessions aim to draw together as many researchers as possible whose work contributes to the theme of 'Sense and Sensation', understood in its broadest possible formulation, from across the departments and schools at UCL.

We hope that by conducting a conversation between researchers and academics in this environment we will be able to engender debates outside our traditionally conceived disciplines, forge fruitful inter-disciplinary collaborations and enrich our understanding of how questions of 'Sense and Sensation' shape our knowledge of the world. The seminars' scholarly work will be supported by a welcoming, informal atmosphere in which all are encouraged to share their ideas. All postgraduate students, post-docs and staff are welcome.

The seminars will take place monthly during term-time at 4-6pm on the following Thursdays:

• 19 January 2017: Vivienne Lo, UCL China Centre for Health and Humanity - title of paper tbc
• 23 February 2017: Melanie Jackson and Esther Leslie (latter tbc), UCL Slade - title of paper tbc
• 16 March 2017: Tim Mathews, UCL French and Comparative Criticism - 'Critical Stories of Sense and Sensation'
• 18 May 2017: Hannah Holling, UCL History of Art - 'Permanent Impermanence: Sensing change in Nam June Paik's technological assemblages'
• 22 June 2017: Matthew Beaumont, UCL English and Urban Lab, 'The Insomniac Nights of Vincent Van Gogh' (IAS Seminar Room 11, First Floor, South Wing)

The first hour of each session will be given over to a presentation from a single contributor, and in the second we will discuss the ideas put forward more generally.

Each session will take place at the IAS Common Ground (Ground Floor, South Wing, Wilkins Building), with tea and coffee provided.

For more information, or if you have access requirements or other queries, please contact: Dhanveer Singh Brar and Alicia Spencer-Hall. We look forward to meeting you at the seminars!

Image credit: João Loureiro - "senses". (Via Flickr; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)