field notes: final session of this phase
We held our final online session of the current phase last night. The focus of the workshop was to collectively discuss how and if we wanted to continue with this work and why.
We’ve been spending time together over the last six months on phase 2: it’s been an opportunity to get more familiar with the Wellcome’s catalogue and start to share some creative approaches with the group to inspire them.
It’s important to me that at this stage we reflect on our ‘why’ - why we’re carrying on, what we want to achieve, what the group collectively feels is the right direction to go in.
In groups we tackled the following questions:
Do you want to carry on with this work (and a creative element)? Why/why not?
Have you found using the archive interesting/inspiring? Why/why not? Has anything we’ve seen in particular resonated?
What would you ideally want to achieve by the end of the next phase? Think about: what questions would we want to answer or pose through our creative work? Are there any particularly important angles or topics you’d like to cover? Who would we be creating for – ourselves or others?
Is this project still about ‘LGBTQIA+ gynae stories – does the working title ‘feel’ right based on what we’re exploring? Or should it be called something else? (“Exploring inequitable gynae healthcare for LGBTQIA+ communities.” is the more formal title we use internally)
I also shared a range of creative ideas that either the group had posed or I’d generated as a direct result of being inspired by our conversations. I’m already exploring some of these ideas in my creative practice, including the materiality of photography (especially what surface or object cyanotypes can be applied to) and ongoing investigations with the Wellcome’s receipe books, herbal remedies, and fumigation. We talked through what might be a good direction for our work and how logistically we’d make that happen, given that we’re all working from different towns in Greater Manchester and beyond, plus we work inclusively with our stealth trans participant who can’t show their face.
The group felt that this work is urgent. They want to raise awareness and share the realities of their individual stories through creativity in the next phase. They think it’s important to achieve better queer representation and to develop a greater understanding about the inequitities of gynae (and more broader) LGBTQ+ health inequities. I’m really pleased that they’re keen to continue working with me, each other, and the Wellcome team.
My next task is to work up a proposal to deliver a third phase of this work with the Wellcome Collection. I’m also continuing to develop my own creative practice by exploring how our archive findings can be reinterpreted through blending historical and contemporary photographic practices. I’ll keep updating these pages as my work and plans progress.
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Images above (l-r):
Clay-backed uterus. Roman votive offering. Wellcome Collection.
A clay-baked vulva. Roman votive offering. Wellcome Collection.
Female genitalia with a skin disease around the labia and the anus. Chromolithograph, c. 1888. Wellcome Collection.
This participatory research and socially engaged project is being delivered in collaboration with the Wellcome Collection.