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CRICBristol: Artwork

This collection of permanently installed artefacts was commissioned for the opening of CRICBristol, a leading cutting-edge Clinical Research and Imaging Centre developed as a joint venture by the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Bristol. A 20-minute video piece, designed to be watched by patients undergoing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanning to alleviate stress, was also produced during the residency and disseminated to c.40 clinical research centres across the UK via the ‘Magnetic Resonance Summer School’ (July 2011), University of Bristol. The non-fixed artefacts and the video work were recently exhibited as part of the ‘Bristol Neuroscience Festival: 10th Anniversary’ (11-12 October 2013).

Alongside the residency, aspects of the research crossing the disciplines of Fine Art, Neuroscience and Computer Sciences were presented by Baker and Professor Iain Gilchrist, in the 2008 peer-reviewed CHArt International Conference ‘Seeing…Vision and Perception in a Digital Culture’, Birkbeck, University of London, and published in the conference proceedings (CHArt Newsletter 11, ISSN 1473-2157). These will be extended through a new body of research ‘Under the Skin’ that will be developed with Gilchrist and curator Bronac Ferran. Through the creation and exhibition of new artworks exploring biomedical imaging, this project will focus on ways in which the imagery these methods generate is used as a communicative tool between doctors and patients.

Developed through collaborative research into drawing as scanpaths (Norton and Stark 1971) undertaken with Gilchrist, the artefacts were produced during a one-year residency in the University of Bristol Department of Experimental Psychology, funded by the University, which also resulted in the production of a short-run book. Through the CRICBristol residency Baker worked with clinical researchers including Emeritus Professor Andrew Whitelaw and Professor Risto Kauppinen. In addition Baker was also provided with access to the Radiology Unit at St. Michaels Hospital, Bristol.