Paper short abstract:

Illustrated by sounds and images from two artist research projects based in major transplant centres in the UK, this talk will look at how patients medicalise themselves and how/when emotions surface in their personal narratives.

Paper long abstract:

I have been artist-in-residence at two world-leading centres for organ transplantation and have worked with heart, lung, kidney, liver and pancreas transplant recipients. These projects have focused primarily on the patient experience; my audio recordings are intimate and revealing and sometimes make uncomfortable listening, but are not, I hope, intrusive, sensationalist or voyeuristic. This presentation will look at how patients medicalise themselves and how and when emotions emerge. I have recently begun to collaborate with a linguist, Professor Elena Semino, and a researcher in emotional psychology, Dr Hedwig Eisenbarth, to carry out detailed analyses of the transcripts and recording of transplant recipients, made either at their hospital bedside or in their homes. We are looking at the moments in many of the recordings when emotions surface, exploring the sonic and linguistic cues that accompany and, in some cases, precede such emotional breaks. Using diagnostic tools based on machine learning techniques, we will explore the crossover between information we can get from vocal sounds and the information we get from the words themselves. We will use computational methods to analyse the extensive data set I have recorded, looking for metaphors, pronoun use (how you and I are used), and networks of words, as well as making comparisons with broader, more general data sets to learn more about the expression of emotions and identity when dealing with traumatic, life-and-death medical circumstances. This talk will be illustrated with photographs by my collaborative partner on these projects, Tim Wainwright, as well as by my own high-quality audio recordings.