ART OBJECT
AS SCIENTIFIC
DEVICE
The process of scanning phantoms at The Francis Crick Institute and Future Technology Centre transformed my work from art objects into scientific specimens. Phantoms were prepared in line with laboratory protocols and my practice became both an artistic and scientific endeavour. Throughout 2019, early 2020, in autumn 2022, and Spring 2023 I scanned phantoms with Dr Bernard Siow: the MRI wizard at the Francis Crick Institute. Science-in-action merged into my creative work as Siow and I prepared the phantoms for the scanner in full PPE as required by laboratory protocol. We decontaminated the surface of my phantoms and sealed them in sterilised sealable plastic bags. After scanning they would be stored in a fridge in the lab along with other samples and specimens.In November 2019 I made a collection of phantoms to scan using CT at the Future Technology Centre (FTC) with Dr Anush Kolakalur. In these laboratories, I was able to ‘play scientist’ through an interruption of usual routines where my phantoms and I were “technocorporeal unit[s]” and non-standard laboratory subjects (Oslon, 2018, p. 120). I incorporated visits to the lab as part of my practice and interpreted ideas proposed by scientists as creative input.
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