Making and exhibiting: reflections from the sensing spaces of healthcare exhibition

The Sensing Spaces of Healthcare project explores the sensory past, present and future of the NHS hospital. The project involves two strands of study, and this reflexive piece draws upon the creative study that involved working with NHS staff, patients, and service users to explore sensory experiences within the hospital environment. This work informed the Sensing Spaces of Healthcare Exhibition. Rather than use the project’s research findings and commission artworks in response to such findings, we used the project’s creative research methods as the starting point for the commissioned artworks. I reflect upon tenets underpinning the Sensing Spaces of Healthcare project to explore how this informed the artworks commissioned. Alongside this I share details about the artworks that I created, and the ways in which making allowed me to re-engage with the research and my role within the project. These reflections involve considering what artworks and the exhibition can offer those concerned with embodied and sensory encounters with health/care environments. I draw upon these reflections to explore the exhibition as a site for research.