UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS (2020) is a project bringing together patient ambassadors for Blood Cancer UK and stem cell researchers working at the Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre. Through a series of 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. Animation materials included paper, velvet and issues of National Geographic published in 1960, the year Blood Cancer UK officially became a charity.
Commissioned by the Wellcome - MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute as part of its Public Engagement programme, project 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 Mountains Moved, 2020).
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The Prototype Shortlist, Image No. 4: Smart Phone (2019), collage detail
The Prototype Shortlist: Images 1-5 and Hidden Track
Paper, vinyl, velvet, acrylic
2019
The Prototype Shortlist is a set of six hand-cut paper collages representing a democratically selected shortlist of ‘the most significant developments to life on Earth over the past 40 years’. Each collage is framed within an individual Perspex vitrine.
These works are the outcome of a year-long collaborative social project during which the artist worked with over 470 Cambridge residents to create the prototype for a sequel to NASA’s 1977 Voyager Golden Record. Proposed as an update for the extraterrestrials, the project asked people to consider the most significant developments to life on planet Earth since 1978, and how we might communicate the story of who we are now.
The Prototype Shortlist, Image No. 3: The Internet (2019), unframed
The Prototype Shortlist, Image No. 1: IVF (2019), unframed
The Prototype Shortlist, Image No. 5: Personal Computer (2019), unframed