SC3 Working with Scientist Dr Andrea Murray as she researches Raynaud’s Disease and Scleroderma. Discovering the cross disciplinary process and discovering the beauty within. The aim of our collaboration is to increase awareness of the research that is taking place and making our work accessible to patients, researchers and artists.
Image of nail folds from Mike Burke research on Pubmed
Sounds from the viaduct interpreted as each car being a blood cell heard crashing down as it passes through abnormal nail folds and marks the image seen by the Researcher.
Working in Audition I have recorded sounds with a Zoom H6 Handy recorder from underneath a viaduct. This will form part of the final audio sound that will contain a double base melody identified from the image above by Mike Gray a level 4 musician. This collaboration brings together, in the context of the laboratory, a narrative of the Researcher’s endevour to find new ways of seeing the condition, stages of recovery and effectiveness of medication on Raynaud’s Disease and in particular Scleroderma. Scleroderma is a rare disease that causes a debilitating thickening of the skin and much more. Patients have reported the symptoms being akin to turning to stone. I have interpreted the stone theatre of the viaduct as a metaphor for this and as described above an audio description of the blood cells indicating the shape of the capillaries in the finger tips.
Abnormal nail folds combined with smashed screen4 mono print screen prints of areas of the nail folds magnified 400 times. The sharpe edges form the edge of a number of photos in the montage which together form the complete arch of the nail.
My work considers the significance of scientific imagery as metaphors for human existence. I draw from both the microscopic and scientific images in a micro to macro process of making. I believe this brings a subconscious connection through which we can communicate.
Scientists agree that everything is energy, and everything is connected. I feel this passionately in my work and indeed my life. In my work I am exploring the crystallisation of tears as a process that occurs beyond our sight but once demonstrated it forms a portal to communicate with the viewer on a subconscious level.
Ideas come from momentary human interactions such as the response to Voyagers iconic blue dot image which began my journey into the study of the human visceral response of crying and the crystallisation of tears. I have developed the memory of a rock climb into a sculpture and a tear into a tactile object that sits in the hand.
As a multidisciplinary artist my choice of medium is key to resolving the work. I develop subjects often through print processes to ultimately create sculpture. I use many different materials such as paper, metal, Perspex and resin, often pushing them to breaking point as I explore their connection with narrative further. The process becomes the art, it is not always aesthetically pleasing but it is a direct result of my practice. The end result morphing into a piece of work that I could not have envisaged at the start of the process.
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Babs Smith Multidisciplinary Artist 