Exhale and Exchange is a pilot event series from the National Heart and Lung Institute and Royal Brompton Hospital which invites people to share their stories and experiences about breathing and the lungs in creative ways.
This series brings together respiratory researchers,, clinicians, people affected by lung conditions and their family, friends and carers, and members of the public with each workshop taking a creative approach to sharing experience, knowledge and stories about breathing and lung health.
The series explores the potential of arts methodologies such as singing, creative writing and visual art, to stimulate engagement and understanding between the different participants.
Making use of the space in the Wellcome Reading Room as part of their Open Platform events we have run three workshops so far, each using a different methodology and led by a different artist facilitator.
Exhale and Exchange 1: How do your lungs feel?
Phoene Cave introduced soundscapes, and helped us to explore how our lungs feel through making different sounds and noises. Groups of participants responded to words and images that evoked a variety of feelings, creating short sound pieces. These were then shared with the other groups and reflected upon. One of the groups used lyrics composed by a participant, Jenny Famber:
“My lungs let me know, how I am today, with the wheeze of my chest and the cough that I rasp and the rattle of the cough, that gives to me a sweet release that brings a peaceful breeze”
Exhale and Exchange 2
Responding to words associated with difficulties in breathing, Grace Holliday introduced participants to collage, using a wide variety of different textured materials to express these feelings on small three dimensional lung constructions. During the activity, researchers, members of the public and people with respiratory diseases shared their experience with each other. Their final collaborative creations can be seen below.
Exhale and Exchange 3: This Brave Machine
Patients, public and researchers discovered playful and experimental poetry techniques. Together they generated new perspectives on their own breath, their relationship to it, the idea of breath and its importance in poetry. Caleb started the workshop with breath words and moved through word association and free-writing before moving on to explore these concepts and share them with the group. A number of the participants’ work is captured below.
Caleb wrote about the workshop on his blog which you can read on the 'Could Be the Moon' website.
A selection of poems from Exhale and Exchange event
December 2017
Taking the sharpest of breaths
I spoke the text of one
thousand words using ventriloquism
My respiratory senses went blue
as I hope the words come
as I wanted
My cat listened intently and
began purring
The sun was setting when I
finished and I dashed to my
computer to send this
by Lawrence Lewis
All I need is the air pump that I breathe
Hi my life before
Remember me?
Sorry to gate crash this little sun celebration
But there are a thousand and one things to slay
Are you man or mouse enough
To face the red dragon of
Tuberculosis
Expanding till you burst
See you later
I left the air pump flowing
By Jonathan Cohen
Dear lungs
Tuberculosis
Let’s avoid that shall we?
You are my
Ventriloquist
You invisible creatures
Mean I can sit here
Or play football
Without being dragged off to
The morgue
Where all the air gone?
There’s plenty of it outside
Yet I step into
An office
A bus
The tube
A plan
A pond
And for the life of me
I can’t find any
By Bertie Herman-Smith
Fresh air
There’s nothing better
Why drink?
Why smoke?
Why dab, shoot or sniff
When the world’s greatest substance
Is free
Is healthy
And is just above
your lips
By Bertie Herman-Smith
Muffled shifting
Soft steps
Breathe, breathe, snuffle
Cough and wheeze
Air sucked and squeezed
Circled in the air con
Windows doubled sealed
Bodies sink into red
Cushions on chairs
Are they Velcroed on?
Why don’t they slide?
By Kathryn Healey
Awake for breath
No man
No child
No woman
Does walk
Who walks
But breathes
Not
Hearts that beat
But feel
Not
Minds that work
But think
Naught
Humanity that loves
But feels naught
By Satyen Singh
Acknowledgements:
Thank you to all the participants in each workshop for their creativity, conversation and willingness to participate. Thank you so much to our artist facilitators for their hard work and enthusiasm in keeping those conversations going.
Phoene Cave, facilitator of Exhale & Exchange 1. Vocal coach, writer and trainer for Singing for Lung Health.
Dr Adam Lewis, co-facilitator of Exhale & Exchange 1, NHLI.
Grace Holliday, facilitator of Exhale & Exchange 2. Collage artist.
Caleb Parkin, facilitator of Exhale & Exchange 3. Poet, performer, facilitator & filmmaker AKA Could be the Moon.
Valerie Brown, Wellcome Reading Room
Dr Mike Cox, NHLI
Zahra Aidan, Royal Brompton and Harefield Foundation NHS Trust
Ellen Dowell, NHLI
Contacts
Ellen Dowell
Public Engagement Officer
e.dowell@imperial.ac.uk