Symposium: Autopathography Beyond Narrative Closure

Vincent Boy Kars

Vincent Boy Kars (1990) is a filmmaker based in Rotterdam. After graduating from St. Joost School of Art & Design with My First Porn Film (2015), he created his acclaimed millennial trilogy: Independent Boy (2017), Drama Girl (2020), and Future Me (2024). These hybrid documentaries blend fiction and reality to explore the identity struggles and existential questions of his generation.

Combining his skill as a writer, director and editor, his conceptual and deeply personal approach places real people in cinematic constructions, resulting in intimate character studies that probe the human psyche and the potential for transformation.

In addition to his trilogy, Kars directed the three-part documentary series Vieze Film (2017), the short music film SOLO (2023), and his latest documentary bubble bubble (2026). He is currently developing several new projects – including a fiction feature, a new documentary series, and a reality show – while also teaching and mentoring emerging filmmakers who share his drive to think and create beyond convention.

Dr Fiona Johnstone

Fiona Johnstone is Assistant Professor in Visual Medical Humanities at Durham University where she leads the Visual and Material Lab as part of the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities. Her research explores the intersections of contemporary arts practices and health humanities scholarship. Her most recent book, Art and the Critical Medical Humanities (co-edited with Allison Morehead and Imogen Wiltshire), was published Open Access by Bloomsbury Academic in the series “Critical Interventions in the Medical and Health Humanities” in early 2026. 

Other relevant publications include the monograph AIDS & Representation (Bloomsbury 2023); the edited volume Wearable Objects and Curative Things: Material Approaches to the Intersections of Fashion, Art, Health and Medicine (Palgrave 2024); and articles “What can art history offer medical humanities?" (co-authored with Suzannah Biernoff, 2024) and “Manifesto for a Visual Medical Humanities” (2018).

Claire Sunho Lee

Claire Sunho Lee is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher based in London. Claire’s practice engages with seeing various meanings within one “reality” by questioning acceptable norms. She sees “normal” as what one knows based on the perspective(s) they have rather than being defined in one way or another, thus having multiple meanings at the same time. She often thinks about the ways of “being” and how we exist in the world individually and collectively. Claire experiments with this idea through the concept of “control and surrender” in everyday life settings and suggests new perspectives to look at the familiar. Through the means of rules, logic, and algorithms, she examines psychological complications, human conditions, trauma, memory, and more. 

Claire received her BFA degree in Photography and Imaging from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University in 2017 and received her MA degree in Photography from the Royal College of Art in 2021. Her recent achievements include a group exhibition with Photographic Exploration Project, Noorderlicht Photo Festival, Cromwell Place, features on Der Greif, ArtDoc Photography Magazine, VOGUE Italia and Musée Magazine. She’s also a recipient of Photoworks X MPB - R&D Seed Grants and The Eaton Fund. She recently gave artist talks at Southbank Centre and online both hosted by Arts & Health Hub.

Kahyun Lee

Kahyun Lee is a curator, researcher, and writer based in London and Seoul. Her practice explores how modern and contemporary art engages the present and imagines alternative futures. With a particular focus on how dominant narratives are constructed within art, Lee’s practice questions structural frameworks such as institutions, national borders, and identities. 

Lee is currently a doctoral researcher at the Royal College of Art, London and Tate Modern, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership. Lee’s research examines transnational curatorial practices and narratives of East Asian modern and contemporary art within Tate Modern. She has contributed writings to Monthly Art, Qilu, Daejeon Museum of Art, and Seoripul Gallery. Lee has curated exhibitions and programmes at the Design Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, and it’s a local collective.