Project framework: context, research questions, summary of research insights

Since 2007, I have been a core member of an international, interdisciplinary team of medical practitioners, social scientists, artists and philosophers, who have worked together to investigate the phenomenological effects of heart transplant on recipients and the bereaved families of donors. There followed a series of international exhibitions and events exploring hybrid bodies, funded in part by the British Council. In 2017, I was awarded an AHRC Research Network grant, which funded a series of international networking events and work-in-progress exhibitions – and the AHRC Hybrid Bodies Network, an artist-led interdisciplinary study into the effects of heart transplantation on donors’ families, came into being.

Context

While significant bio-scientific research had been conducted into the procedures of heart transplant and its medical outcomes, there had been very little research into the emotional and psychological impact of transplantation on the families of donors. On a broader level, organ transplantation signifies a shift in the way the body is viewed and raises questions around bodily boundaries, identity, and new nonbiological kinship relationships. The project therefore responds to these challenges by bringing together medical practitioners, visual artists, a philosopher and social scientists to study transplantation from multiple, interwoven perspectives with the aim of understanding the procedure within a broad social and psychological context. The international research meetings were integrated with exhibitions and contributed to published outputs across a number of platforms to create new insights for academics and deep encounters with participants and the public alike. 

Hybrid Bodies: The Heart Project broke new ground in the study of heart transplantation through the positioning of artworks at the fulcrum for interdisciplinary exchange while engaging with wider issues of inter-corporeality and kinship. 

Influenced by British philosopher Margrit Shildrick’s research, this project brings artwork as a process-led investigation into productive encounters with standard scientific and humanities research methods in order to rethink the ways we address biomedical interventions that transform the nature of our embodied identities. If, as Shildrick argues, we think of ourselves as being rooted in our bodies, the research asks how merging one body with another through transplantation might affect identity? The response to such inquiry presents patient and medical practitioner with issues ranging from “How does this make us feel?” to “How should the medical profession help patients to prepare for the disruption that may occur when they start to consider themselves as spread across more than one body, or made up of different or disparate parts?”. 

The way in which the project entangles research from the arts, biosciences and humanities through the medium of artworks, but without privileging any one discourse, is unprecedented in this area of study. The process extends concepts of what constitutes a boundary object in art/science collaboration through a focus on participation by and with those who have undergone – or have close relationships with – transplantation.

Researchers in the Department of Primary Healthcare Sciences at the University of Oxford have carried out a similar interdisciplinary study (healthtalk. org/organ-donation/overview) into patient and donor family experience with the purpose of improving the quality of care and donation rates. But with a team entirely made up of clinicians, scientists, medical practitioners and scientific and medical researchers their methods are more conventional. Within this project the artworks have been developed iteratively and responsively, using a research process I designed to address both practical and philosophical questions.

Key questions 

1 How might art act as a bridge between the experience of heart-donor families and medical professionals? 

2 What forms and methods of artistic practice are most appropriate in this context? 

3 What are the implications of considering organ transplant as a form of intercorporeality? 

4 Could we consider a new kind of kinship that views transplant as a reciprocal relationship rather than one based on giver and receiver? 

5 How can the visual and media arts be used to address such questions in a way that will have significant social impact?

Summary of research insights 

Our research has shown that, as well as blurring the boundaries between self and other, organ transplantation has deep implications for our understanding of the relation between death and “staying alive”. Recipients of donor organs often find the experience of surviving an otherwise certain death is fraught with complex emotions about the relationship between the self and the now dead other, while donor families understandably wish to see the donor living on in another. Through art we found we could tackle these emotive aspects of transplantation that resist verbal or textual communication in new and accessible ways.

CreatorsWright, A.
Description

In 2017, Wright was awarded an AHRC Research Network grant to bring an interdisciplinary study into the effects of heart transplantation on donors’ families that originated in Canada to the UK for the first time. The Network grant enabled Wright to develop a wider interdisciplinary network, enabling further insights into the effects of heart transplantation on recipients and donor families. Key questions asked include: How might art act as a bridge between the experience of heart-donor families and medical professionals? What forms and methods of artistic practice are most appropriate in this context? What are the implications of considering organ transplant as a form of inter-corporeality? Through exhibitions, symposia, workshops and other activities, the project shows that as well as blurring the boundaries between self and other, organ transplantation has deep implications for our understanding of the relation between death and “staying alive”. Recipients of donor organs often find the experience of surviving an otherwise certain death is fraught with complex emotions about the relationship between the self and the now dead other, while donor families understandably wish to see the donor living on in another. Through art, Wright and collaborators found that they could tackle these emotive aspects of transplantation that resist verbal or textual communication in new and accessible ways. Comparison between Canada and UK transplant regulations led to new insights on future policy.

Portfolio itemsMessy entanglements: research assemblages in heart transplantation discourses and practices
Hybrid Bodies at KKW
Hybrid Bodies
Heart of the Matter
Cadenza
BBC Radio 4: interview and excerpts of audio from Heart of the Matter in Print Me A new Body programme
The Heart Project (exhibition and symposium)
Cut
Not Gone Not Forgotten
Still Live
Heart of the Matter - The Flesh of the World
Heart of the Matter PHI exhibition
Heart of the Matter - Crafting Anatomies
Hybrid Bodies laser talk
When Words Fail, an interdisciplinary investigation into the phenomenological effects of heart transplantation
Hybrid Bodies Chiasma Exhibition
Sutured Selves, Remapping the Boundaries between our bodies, our selves and our kin
Art/Sci Nexus, 9 Evenings Revisited
Papworth Hospital Heart Transplant Recipient Workshop
Parallax, a story in two parts
Hybrid Minds, Hybrid Bodies
Object Stories
Donor Family and Recipient Anonymity: Time for Change
Year2014
PublisherUniversity of Westminster
Web address (URL)http://www.hybridbodiesproject.com
Keywordscollaboration; interdisciplinary; art science
CREAM Portfolio
FunderAHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council)
Arts Council England
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.34737/qqw60

Portfolio items

Messy entanglements: research assemblages in heart transplantation discourses and practices
Shildrick, M., McKeever, P., Abbey, S., Poole, J., Wright, A., Bachmann, I., Carnie, A., Ross, H., Jan, E., De Luca, E., Dal Bo, Dana and El Sheikh, T. 2018. Messy entanglements: research assemblages in heart transplantation discourses and practices. Medical Humanities. 44 (1), pp. 46-54. https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2017-011212

Hybrid Bodies at KKW
Wright, A. 2016. Hybrid Bodies at KKW. Kunstkraftwerk, Leipzig, Germany 18 - 26 Sep 2016

Hybrid Bodies
Wright, A. 2016. Hybrid Bodies. Silent Signal. University of Derby, Derby 26 Feb 2017

Heart of the Matter
Wright, A. 2014. Heart of the Matter. London

Cadenza
Wright, A. 2014. Cadenza.

BBC Radio 4: interview and excerpts of audio from Heart of the Matter in Print Me A new Body programme
Wright, A. 2017. BBC Radio 4: interview and excerpts of audio from Heart of the Matter in Print Me A new Body programme. BBC Radio 4.

The Heart Project (exhibition and symposium)
Wright, A. 2017. The Heart Project (exhibition and symposium). London Gallery West 20 - 24 Nov 2017

Cut
Wright, A. Forthcoming. Cut. Winchester; Montreal

Not Gone Not Forgotten
Wright, A. Forthcoming. Not Gone Not Forgotten. Winchester

Still Live
Wright, A. 2019. Still Live.

Heart of the Matter - The Flesh of the World
Wright, A. Forthcoming. Heart of the Matter - The Flesh of the World. Toronto 25 Jun - 10 Oct 2015

Heart of the Matter PHI exhibition
Wright, A. Forthcoming. Heart of the Matter PHI exhibition. Montreal 23 Jan - 15 Mar 2014

Heart of the Matter - Crafting Anatomies
Wright, A. 2015. Heart of the Matter - Crafting Anatomies. Nottingham 07 Jan - 04 Feb 2015

Hybrid Bodies laser talk
Wright, A. and Carnie, Andrew Forthcoming. Hybrid Bodies laser talk. London Laser 23. Central St Martins, London 18 Oct 2017

When Words Fail, an interdisciplinary investigation into the phenomenological effects of heart transplantation
Wright, A. 2018. When Words Fail, an interdisciplinary investigation into the phenomenological effects of heart transplantation. Art Materiality and Representation (Royal Anthropological Society). British Museum/ SOAS, London 01 - 03 Jun 2018

Hybrid Bodies Chiasma Exhibition
Wright, A. 2018. Hybrid Bodies Chiasma Exhibition. The Winchester Gallery, Hampshire 14 - 27 Apr 2018

Sutured Selves, Remapping the Boundaries between our bodies, our selves and our kin
Wright, A. and Redler Hawes, Hannah 2019. Sutured Selves, Remapping the Boundaries between our bodies, our selves and our kin. Representing the Medical Body. London Science Museum 28 Mar 2019

Art/Sci Nexus, 9 Evenings Revisited
Wright, A. and Carnie, Andrew 2016. Art/Sci Nexus, 9 Evenings Revisited. 9 Evenings Revisited, in Theory as in Practice. KKW, Leipzig, Germany

Papworth Hospital Heart Transplant Recipient Workshop
Wright, A. 2018. Papworth Hospital Heart Transplant Recipient Workshop.

Parallax, a story in two parts
Wright, A. 2020. Parallax, a story in two parts. in: Tammer el Sheikh (ed.) Entangled Bodies: Art, Identity and Intercorporeality Wilmington, USA Vernon Press. pp. 64 - 90

Hybrid Minds, Hybrid Bodies
Wright, A. 2019. Hybrid Minds, Hybrid Bodies. Concordia University Gallery, Montreal 07 - 09 Aug 2019

Object Stories
Wright, A. Forthcoming. Object Stories.

Donor Family and Recipient Anonymity: Time for Change
Poole, J., Shildrick, M., Abbey, S., Bachmann, I., Carnie, A., Dal, D., De Luca, E., El-Sheikh, T., Jan, E., McKeever, P., Wright, A. and Ross, H. 2019. Donor Family and Recipient Anonymity: Time for Change. Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. 38 (4, supp.), pp. S92-S93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healun.2019.01.214

Related outputs

Piecing it Together- curator and facilitator of exhibition from participatory project
Wright, A. Forthcoming. Piecing it Together- curator and facilitator of exhibition from participatory project. St Pancras Hospital 29 Apr - 04 Jul 2016

Some Reflections on the Practice of Research
Wright, A. 2020. Some Reflections on the Practice of Research. The International Journal of Creative Media Research. 4. https://doi.org/10.33008/IJCMR.2020.09

Parallax, a story in two parts
Wright, A. 2020. Parallax, a story in two parts. in: Tammer el Sheikh (ed.) Entangled Bodies: Art, Identity and Intercorporeality Wilmington, USA Vernon Press. pp. 64 - 90

Object Stories
Wright, A. Forthcoming. Object Stories.

Hybrid Minds, Hybrid Bodies
Wright, A. 2019. Hybrid Minds, Hybrid Bodies. Concordia University Gallery, Montreal 07 - 09 Aug 2019

Hybrid Bodies laser talk
Wright, A. and Carnie, Andrew Forthcoming. Hybrid Bodies laser talk. London Laser 23. Central St Martins, London 18 Oct 2017

British Journal of Psychiatry, cover image
Wright, A. Forthcoming. British Journal of Psychiatry, cover image.

Heart of the Matter PHI exhibition
Wright, A. Forthcoming. Heart of the Matter PHI exhibition. Montreal 23 Jan - 15 Mar 2014

Heart of the Matter - The Flesh of the World
Wright, A. Forthcoming. Heart of the Matter - The Flesh of the World. Toronto 25 Jun - 10 Oct 2015

Not Gone Not Forgotten
Wright, A. Forthcoming. Not Gone Not Forgotten. Winchester

Cut
Wright, A. Forthcoming. Cut. Winchester; Montreal

Still Live
Wright, A. 2019. Still Live.

Donor Family and Recipient Anonymity: Time for Change
Poole, J., Shildrick, M., Abbey, S., Bachmann, I., Carnie, A., Dal, D., De Luca, E., El-Sheikh, T., Jan, E., McKeever, P., Wright, A. and Ross, H. 2019. Donor Family and Recipient Anonymity: Time for Change. Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. 38 (4, supp.), pp. S92-S93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healun.2019.01.214

Sutured Selves, Remapping the Boundaries between our bodies, our selves and our kin
Wright, A. and Redler Hawes, Hannah 2019. Sutured Selves, Remapping the Boundaries between our bodies, our selves and our kin. Representing the Medical Body. London Science Museum 28 Mar 2019

Hybrid Bodies Chiasma workshop
Wright, A. Forthcoming. Hybrid Bodies Chiasma workshop.

Hybrid Bodies Chiasma Exhibition
Wright, A. 2018. Hybrid Bodies Chiasma Exhibition. The Winchester Gallery, Hampshire 14 - 27 Apr 2018

Papworth Hospital Heart Transplant Recipient Workshop
Wright, A. 2018. Papworth Hospital Heart Transplant Recipient Workshop.

When Words Fail, an interdisciplinary investigation into the phenomenological effects of heart transplantation
Wright, A. 2018. When Words Fail, an interdisciplinary investigation into the phenomenological effects of heart transplantation. Art Materiality and Representation (Royal Anthropological Society). British Museum/ SOAS, London 01 - 03 Jun 2018

Messy entanglements: research assemblages in heart transplantation discourses and practices
Shildrick, M., McKeever, P., Abbey, S., Poole, J., Wright, A., Bachmann, I., Carnie, A., Ross, H., Jan, E., De Luca, E., Dal Bo, Dana and El Sheikh, T. 2018. Messy entanglements: research assemblages in heart transplantation discourses and practices. Medical Humanities. 44 (1), pp. 46-54. https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2017-011212

The Heart Project (exhibition and symposium)
Wright, A. 2017. The Heart Project (exhibition and symposium). London Gallery West 20 - 24 Nov 2017

BBC Radio 4: interview and excerpts of audio from Heart of the Matter in Print Me A new Body programme
Wright, A. 2017. BBC Radio 4: interview and excerpts of audio from Heart of the Matter in Print Me A new Body programme. BBC Radio 4.

Art/Sci Nexus, 9 Evenings Revisited
Wright, A. and Carnie, Andrew 2016. Art/Sci Nexus, 9 Evenings Revisited. 9 Evenings Revisited, in Theory as in Practice. KKW, Leipzig, Germany

Visual Narratives of Embodied Experience at RPsych Conference
Wright, A. 2016. Visual Narratives of Embodied Experience at RPsych Conference. Royal College of Psychiatrists Annual Conference. Cardiff 25 - 27 Apr 2016

Phantom Limb
Wright, A. 2016. Phantom Limb. Victoria Museum and Gallery, Liverpool 09 Jul 2016 - 11 Feb 2017

Hybrid Bodies at KKW
Wright, A. 2016. Hybrid Bodies at KKW. Kunstkraftwerk, Leipzig, Germany 18 - 26 Sep 2016

Seeing Things As They Are : Visual Narratives of Embodied Experience
Wright, A. 2016. Seeing Things As They Are : Visual Narratives of Embodied Experience. Disability, Arts and Health Conference. University of Bergen, Norway 01 - 02 Sep 2016

Hybrid Bodies
Wright, A. 2016. Hybrid Bodies. Silent Signal. University of Derby, Derby 26 Feb 2017

Piecing it Together
Wright, A. 2016. Piecing it Together. St Pancras Hospital.

There's So Much More I Want To Tell You
Wright, A. 2016. There's So Much More I Want To Tell You. Visions in The Nunnery, Bow, London

Heart of the Matter - Crafting Anatomies
Wright, A. 2015. Heart of the Matter - Crafting Anatomies. Nottingham 07 Jan - 04 Feb 2015

Piecing It Together Blog
Wright, A. 2015. Piecing It Together Blog.

Heart of the Matter
Wright, A. 2014. Heart of the Matter. London

Cadenza
Wright, A. 2014. Cadenza.

Monstrosity: the human monster in visual culture
Wright, A. 2013. Monstrosity: the human monster in visual culture. London I.B. Tauris.

A View From Inside
Wright, A. 2012. A View From Inside. London White Card.

A view from inside: portraying the experience of psychosis
Wright, A. 2012. A view from inside: portraying the experience of psychosis. Harris Gallery, Preston 6 - 19 Oct 2012

Cover story
Wright, A. 2010. Cover story. DaDaFest International, St George, Liverpool 12 Nov - 03 Dec 2010

Alter Ego
Wright, A. 2010. Alter Ego. Kreuzberg, Bethanien, Berlin, Germany 22 May - 8 Aug 2010

After Image
Wright, A. 2010. After Image. 21_21 Design Sight Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 16 Jul - 3 Nov 2010

Conversation Piece
Wright, A., Linney, A. and Lincoln, M. 2009. Conversation Piece. Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast 07 - 29 Aug 2009

Out of Order
Wright, A. 2009. Out of Order.

Alter ego
Wright, A. and Linney, A. 2008. Alter ego. BM Suma Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey 07 - 16 Nov 2008

Opera interna
Wright, A. 2008. Opera interna. Centro the Historia , Zaragoza, Spain 18 Mar - 11 May 2008

Cover story
Wright, A. 2008. Cover story. Bow Arts Trust, London 06 - 15 Jun 2008

Conversation piece: a speech-based interactive art installation
Wright, A., Linney, A., Evans, A. and Lincoln, M. 2007. Conversation piece: a speech-based interactive art installation. Augsburg, Germany 25 - 27 Sep 2007

Alter Ego
Wright, A. and Linney, A. 2007. Alter Ego. SESI Art Gallery, Sao Paulo, Brazil 13 Aug - 09 Sep 2007

Semblance and resemblance: the face in art and medicine
Wright, A. and Clarke, A. 2007. Semblance and resemblance: the face in art and medicine. Intersections of Life and Death: Artistic and Philosophical Representations of Organ Donation and Transplantation Conference. University of Toronto 26 - 27 Apr 2007

Opera interna: first act
Wright, A. 2007. Opera interna: first act. Incheon Multicultural Centre, Korea 10 Oct - 16 Dec 2007

Interactivity and identification: alter ego and conversation piece
Wright, A. 2007. Interactivity and identification: alter ego and conversation piece. FILE Symposium. SESI Arts Centre, Sao Paolo, Brazil 14 - 17 Aug 2007

Interactivity and identification: a discussion of conversation piece and other recent works
Wright, A. 2007. Interactivity and identification: a discussion of conversation piece and other recent works. Healthcare, Technology and Place Conference. University of Toronto 03 - 04 May 2007

'I'
Wright, A. 2007. 'I'. National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh 06 Jun - 02 Sep 2007

Cover story
Wright, A. 2006. Cover story. The Forum, Norwich 05 - 30 Sep 2006

At the edge of my-self
Wright, A. 2003. At the edge of my-self. Digital Creativity. 14 (3), pp. 139-143. https://doi.org/10.1076/digc.14.3.139.27869

Intimate strangers
Wright, A. 2003. Intimate strangers. London, UK CARTE, University of Westminster.

'I'
Wright, A. 2001. 'I'. Public Culture: society for transnational cultural studies. 13 (3), pp. 506-510.

Permalink - https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/portfolio/qqw60/hybrid-bodies-the-heart-project


Heart of the Matter, at the Phi Centre, Montreal: voices emerge from the felt jackets as viewers approach
Heart of the Matter, at the Phi Centre, Montreal: voices emerge from the felt jackets as viewers approach