Kaisu Koski
Female Reproduction
2014-2018
Output: Digital or Visual Media
This research addresses the visual conventions of the female interior and the normality and standardisation of the body in medical education. It asks what kind of cultural and emotional values are projected onto the female reproductive system. The work explores medical students’ hand-made drawings of the female reproductive system, employing the anatomical drawings created by 63 first-year medical students in the Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry. It considers the drawings as part of a ritual of becoming a doctor, taboo-like topic related to sex, as well as self-portraits of the female students creating the images.
Drawing here is considered a research method in collecting and disseminating data, as well as a typical method for teaching and learning anatomy. In this study, drawing is also a method for interrogating the data, asking how art and especially animation may inquire into and contribute to anatomy education (research). As an equally important aspect of the methodology, this research develops modes of collaborative meaning-making. To stimulate polyphonic analysis of the drawings, the artist-researcher invited a physician and an art historian to interpret the medical students’ drawings.
The research illuminates these different viewpoints during the data interpretation, and discusses how they were founded on, and disrupted, the collaborators’ professional roles in various ways. It also discusses the use of associations and humour in these interpretations, and the experiences of emotional discomfort during the process.
The output consists of the animation Not to scale at all (2014), a single-authored journal article in Studies in Material Thinking (2014), and a first-authored article in Art/Research International (2016). Dissemination includes one solo show, ten group shows, six film festivals (Honourable Mention), a screening at a Dutch conference for medical education, and a presentation in Mind the Body workshop at Maastricht University.
Research Output
Note to scale at all 2014
Due to restrictions, this project does not have a full submission available to view. However, please feel free to check out other projects from this author.
This collection of images displays the outputs from this project. Find out more details in the full case study below.
Research Method
Methods utilized in creating this body of work include drawing research, participant observation, performative inquiry, improvisation, and collaborative data interpretation.
Key Methodologies:
