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Daisy James is a Jacob Fabrikant Creative Fellow in Health Humanities, from March 2025 - March 2026.
Daisy James is an artist and researcher whose practice-led, interdisciplinary, and participatory work explores care—how we care for ourselves, for each other, and for the environments we move through.
Drawing on critical ethnographic methods, Daisy investigates the blurred boundaries between public and private domains—particularly places that appear open but operate with invisible rules of exclusion. She is interested in how these conditions shape belonging and access, and how overlooked moments of connection can shift how people relate to their surroundings and to one another. Her research also considers the entanglement of digital and physical worlds, and how globalised visual culture—especially through tourism and social media—is making cities feel increasingly uniform. In response, she explores alternative ways of engaging with place, valuing imperfection, adaptation, and embodied experience.
Her work spans installation, performance, and small publications, and often takes place in everyday settings—streets, libraries, gardens, disused shopfronts—sites that are open-ended, responsive, and invite spontaneous interaction.
Project
During the fellowship, I will explore how sensory-based methods can deepen our understanding of care, distress, and inclusion in health and social settings. I will work with visually impaired communities to investigate olfaction and the experience of place and belonging, challenging the dominance of sight in public environments. This research will consider how sensory perception influences emotional and psychological well-being, particularly in unfamiliar or stressful situations.
The project will be grounded in the sense of smell—a deeply personal and often overlooked form of perception. Through language and conversation, I will use descriptive practices to unpack how people understand sites and structures, exploring how sensory experience shapes connection to place and to others.
Building on my recent work, I will examine how creative practice can disrupt static institutional frameworks and open space for more inclusive, participant-led engagement. The project will emphasise co-creation, sensory awareness, and reflexivity as tools for rethinking how care is designed and delivered.
Situated within the Health Humanities, this work positions creative practice as a form of knowledge production—experimenting with, questioning, and reimagining systems of support. Through practical exploration and critical reflection, I aim to propose new ways of assessing care that are grounded in lived experience.
