UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS (2020) was a project bringing together patient ambassadors for Blood Cancer UK and stem cell researchers working at the Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre. At the beginning of the project the participants were each mailed a mystery box that included everything they needed to create a home animation studio, along with a stack of sealed envelopes (to be opened weekly in our sessions) that provided a variety of animation materials including scissors, coloured paper, yarn, fabric swatches, and individual issues of National Geographic published in 1960, the year Blood Cancer UK officially became a charity. Through a series of creative conversations and stop-motion animation workshops held via Zoom, participants developed hand-cut animation sequences exploring their experiences of ‘the unknown’ in relation to living with blood cancer, the challenges of research and the global uncertainties of Covid-19.
Commissioned by the Wellcome - MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute as part of its Public Engagement programme, the project was curated by Kettle's Yard in partnership with Blood Cancer UK. Artwork outcomes include an animated film featuring participants’ stop-motion sequences (Futuramic Unknown, 2020) and an installation for the Jeffery Cheah Biomedical Center at Cambridge Biomedical Campus (The Night the Mountain Moved, 2020).
This project archive features some of the stop-motion animations made by the 12 participants.
Unknown Unknowns Session 1
OBJECT ANIMATION
Participants explored the theme 'future unknowns' and used a self-selected personal object to create individual animation sequences.
Unknown Unknowns Session 2
CUT-OUT ANIMATION
Working with the theme 'transformation', participants created hand-cut animation pieces from a selection of velvet paper and fabric, which they then animated into individual sequences.
Unknown Unknowns Session 3
COLLAGE ANIMATION
Working with the theme 'dwelling in the unknowns', participants created hand-cut collages, which they then animated. For their source material, they were each given a single issue of National Geographic from 1960 - the same year that Blood Cancer UK officially became a charity.
Unknown Unknowns Session 4
ANIMATION STORYBOARDS
Responding to an extended conversation about the symbiotic relationship between cancer treatment, research funding and the possibilities of charitable action, participants created animation storyboards to honour the 60th anniversary of Blood Cancer UK.