Dr Stacey Pitsillides & Ghislaine Boddington
Donate Yourself, 2021
50 x 40 cm
Donate Yourself is an Augmented Reality (AR) experience that blends sound and 3D visuals with non-linear narrative to spark debates about our organs, tissue and body data. It was created through a year-long collaboration with interactive design collective body>data>space and scientists from the Human Cell Atlas project (HCA), funded by the Wellcome Trust.
It invites the public to explore what it means to donate parts of yourself after death for research into scientific and healthcare futures. Aiming to deepen understanding of the revolutionary impact body donation (organs, cells and body data) is having on the future of the human. Across five AR expressions, the artwork asks: What role can our bodies play in scientific discovery? Could we see ourselves as a collection of cells? And does donating organs or tissue make you immortal?
The timing of this installation and its participatory research was key. Covid-19 has made us face death and challenged us to reconsider our biological and data bodies. Scientists have become media figures, presenting how our hopes and fears are embedded in questions of trust, consent and care for others. The topical issue of the ‘ownership of the body’ is also at the forefront, with private medical and location data regarded by the public as the most personal. During Covid-19 we have witnessed the global mass harvesting of body data through contact tracing apps and vaccine passports, where data is often used onwards by others and not available in an open and accessible way.
Therefore to explore these diverse public attitudes and ethical concerns Donate Yourself was created using a range of methods including: the co-creation of design probes with HCA scientists, online workshops, qualitative interviews, a documentation zine and public maker jam. The themes were generated for the AR experiences via thematic coding of interview data and analysis of design probes that were used as starting points in the five audio-visuals: CARE, TRUST, IMMORTAL, CONSENT, FUTURE.
Collaboration Credits:
Donate Yourself - Commissioned by One Cell At A Time, programme of public, creative engagement activities, commissions and talks, inspired by the Human Cell Atlas, bringing together arts and communities, patients and researchers.
One Cell At A Time engages the public with the science of the Human Cell Atlas project and aims to deepen public understanding of the revolutionary impact it will have on our understanding of the human body with collaborations across Cambridge, London, Newcastle and Oxford. Commission Producers - Suzy O’Hara and Dominic Smith, with research and insights from Holly Standing and Luke Sellers.
This work was funded through a Research Enrichment Grant from the Wellcome Trust Grant 218597/Z/19/Z and led by the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
It invites the public to explore what it means to donate parts of yourself after death for research into scientific and healthcare futures. Aiming to deepen understanding of the revolutionary impact body donation (organs, cells and body data) is having on the future of the human. Across five AR expressions, the artwork asks: What role can our bodies play in scientific discovery? Could we see ourselves as a collection of cells? And does donating organs or tissue make you immortal?
The timing of this installation and its participatory research was key. Covid-19 has made us face death and challenged us to reconsider our biological and data bodies. Scientists have become media figures, presenting how our hopes and fears are embedded in questions of trust, consent and care for others. The topical issue of the ‘ownership of the body’ is also at the forefront, with private medical and location data regarded by the public as the most personal. During Covid-19 we have witnessed the global mass harvesting of body data through contact tracing apps and vaccine passports, where data is often used onwards by others and not available in an open and accessible way.
Therefore to explore these diverse public attitudes and ethical concerns Donate Yourself was created using a range of methods including: the co-creation of design probes with HCA scientists, online workshops, qualitative interviews, a documentation zine and public maker jam. The themes were generated for the AR experiences via thematic coding of interview data and analysis of design probes that were used as starting points in the five audio-visuals: CARE, TRUST, IMMORTAL, CONSENT, FUTURE.
Collaboration Credits:
Donate Yourself - Commissioned by One Cell At A Time, programme of public, creative engagement activities, commissions and talks, inspired by the Human Cell Atlas, bringing together arts and communities, patients and researchers.
One Cell At A Time engages the public with the science of the Human Cell Atlas project and aims to deepen public understanding of the revolutionary impact it will have on our understanding of the human body with collaborations across Cambridge, London, Newcastle and Oxford. Commission Producers - Suzy O’Hara and Dominic Smith, with research and insights from Holly Standing and Luke Sellers.
This work was funded through a Research Enrichment Grant from the Wellcome Trust Grant 218597/Z/19/Z and led by the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
About the artists:
Dr. Stacey Pitsilides is a Senior Research Fellow at Northumbria University. She has curated events for public engagement around death and technology, collaborating with hospices, libraries, festivals and scientists. Her research has featured in a range of high profile events including Internet Week Europe, FutureFest, the Edinburgh International Science Festival, the Southbank Centre’s Beyond Belief Festival and Dying Matters Week. She has published widely on the topic of death online, most recently “Physically Distant but Socially Connected: Streaming Funerals, Memorials and Ritual Design during COVID-19” by Routledge 2021.
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Ghislaine Boddington is Creative Director of body>data>space (BDS Creative Ltd) and a Reader in Digital Immersion at the University of Greenwich. Working as a director, curator, and commissioner with the body and technologies since the early 1990s, she has led on innovations in arts / creative industry technological links and is recognised internationally as an expert on digital intimacy and connected experiences, with an extensive network of creatives globally. She presents internationally and bi-weekly as an expert commentator on BBC World Service’s flagship radio show, Digital Planet.
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Tadej Vindiš
Tadej Vindiš is an artist, producer, lecturer, curator, and cultural manager, working across the creative industries, technology, critical media, cultural studies and contemporary arts. He is a Lead Producer of body>data>space, is part of the curatorial team of KIBLIX International Festival of Arts, Science and Technology, and lectures in contemporary media practice and immersive technologies at the University of Westminster.
Nick Rothwell
Nick Rothwell is a software engineer, creative coder, visual artist and composer who works on commissions ranging from large-scale algorithmic projections to sound scores for ballet. He writes for music technology magazines and teaches at Ravensbourne University London and CODE Berlin.
Ivor Diosi
Ivor Diosi is an award-winning digital artist specialising in avatars, virtual worlds and the metaverse-to-come since the 1980s. Most recently he worked as an Artist / Researcher at Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz (AT).