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The latest Research Excellence Framework (REF) results have now been released and REF2021 awards Lab4Living and ADMRC research 4* and 3* for impact. We are delighted to share results from the Art, Design & Media Research Centre (ADRMC) and Lab4Living which demonstrate the impact that our research is having on society, culture and the economy.

Key findings from REF2021:

• 90% of our research is World leading or internationally excellent (4* and 3*);
• 83.3% of our impact case studies were judged to be World leading (4*);
• 100% of our impact case studies were judged to be World leading or internationally excellent (4* and 3*);
• 100% of our research environment was judged to be World leading or internationally excellent (4* and 3*).

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the UK’s system for assessing the excellence of research in UK higher education. The last REF was in 2014. ADMRC and Lab4Living submitted its research jointly to Unit of Assessment 32, Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory.

The results confirm the Art, Design & Media Research Centre and Lab4Living as two of the strongest performing research centres in Sheffield Hallam University.

Overall, Sheffield Hallam University has been rated as 72% ‘world leading’ (4) and ‘internationally recognised’ (4).

Impact Case Studies

Three impact case studies formed a significant part (25%) of the ADMRC and Lab4Living’s joint REF2021 submission.

Lab4Living

Research undertaken by Lab4Living has underpinned the development of a new generation of products for individuals living with long-term conditions. These have improved quality of life for people with motor neurone disease, cancer and dementia by promoting dignity and independence. This case study details impact in four areas:

• Head-Up Neck Orthosis
• Support4All 
• Journeying Through Dementia 
• Life Café 

Read more…

Prof Virginia Heath

How a film bringing 20th century Scotland to the screen has become a touchstone of Scottish identity

Read more…

Prof Lise Autogena

How a film about a planned uranium mine helped empower a small community in Greenland

Read more…

Covid-19 has led to global change on a level rarely witnessed over the last century. The devastating impact of this pandemic on the world has yet to be fully understood. As new strains evolve, we will continue to be faced with other challenges which will shape both our research and who we are as researchers.  

The journal team felt it important to take a moment to pause, to acknowledge this time, and to reflect on the how the pandemic has shaped the research we have undertaken across the design for health community.  We are interested in exploring the creative strategies, insights and innovative approaches that design for health researchers have adapted and adopted during the pandemic.

Design For Health invites short papers from all those involved in undertaking, supervising or examining PhDs during the pandemic in relevant disciplines i.e. researchers working at the intersections of design, health, science, creative practice, wellbeing and related fields.

We are particularly interested to receive contributions from PhD students and early career researchers. Accepted papers will be published over the next two volumes of the journal.

It is hoped that through this special theme this we can address questions such as:

• What did it mean to do a PhD during the pandemic?
• How was design-led research able to respond to the extreme circumstances we found ourselves facing?
• Were researchers able to find novel, innovative solutions to the constraints they faced, leading to new discoveries and avenues for investigation?
• What did the pandemic mean in terms of our understanding of inter-disciplinarity?
• What were some of the moral and ethical challenges we faced when working with the public and patients where physical contact was impossible?
• How did researchers undertake practice-based research when they were unable to access the workshop, lab or community?
• What messages do we want to communicate to future generations about this research?  

Lab4Living Cinema Club is a cultural networking group consisting of screening short films from all over the world on topics related to the research inquiries of the 100 year-life and the Future Home. The purpose of these events is to discover, reflect and debate together on the representation of health, ageing, human psychology and death through audio-visual media.

Researcher and artist Noémie Soula has curated a series of screening sessions, each with a different theme. Screenings are informal events, aimed at staff and post-graduate students, which take place each week in the White Building. Screenings are followed by a discussion. Please contact us if you would like to join us. For those unable to attend, we provide details of the themes, films, and discussion points for you to explore.

Week 3 – Death and Cinema

The subject this week is Death and Cinema and we explore how cinema represents and tells stories about dying, past memories, and loss with four short films. Employing different genres, from drama to animation and science-fiction, this selection lets us experience different perspectives on love, death, grief and loss.

How can cinema and moving images help us experience lost and mourning, share complex emotion and embodied feelings and understand what is mean to be human?

Week 2 – Ageing and Cinema

The subject is Ageing and Cinema, where we explore how cinema represents and tells stories about ageing, illness, and body’s changes through time with four short films. Employing different genres, from drama to fantasy and documentary, this selection lets us experience different perspectives on the passing of time in a human life.

How can cinema and moving images help us experience, share and understand what is ageing and going through life?

• Bunny, Megha Ramaswany, India, 2015 (https://mubi.com/films/bunny-2015)
• Lost Connections, Raja Hussina, UK, 2021 (https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-lost-connections-2021-online)
• Ill, Actually, Zoë Hunter Gordon, UK, 2019 (https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-ill-actually-2019-online)
• Last Birthday, Hannah Gautrey, UK, 2015 (https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-last-birthday-2015-online)

Week 1 – Health and Cinema

Our first subject is Health and cinema, where we explore how cinema pictures and narrates healthcare’s systems, patients’ experience and medical practitioners with four short films. From animation to charity appeal, this selection of short films looks at health from different perspectives.

How can cinema and moving images help us experience, share and understand what is health within society?

• More Than Two Hours, Ali Asgari, Iran, 2013 (https://mubi.com/films/more-than-two-hours)
• Branches of Life, Katerina Athanasopoulou, UK, 2016 (https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-branches-of-life-2016-online)
• These Are the Hands, Tim Langford, UK, 2020 (https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-these-are-the-hands-2020-online)
• Modern Day Nightingales, UK, 1979 (https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-modern-day-nightingales-1978-online)

Dr Kaisu Koski‘s new work Interspecies picnic (2022) has been selected for a group show, Significant Other by Sweet ‘Art, in London on June 8-19. The photograph is part of the body of work created during Ars BioArctica Residency at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station in subarctic Finland, January 2022. The residency focused on permafrost thaw and how interspecies relationships are entangled in both causing and preventing it. The picture is a snapshot of a durational invitation for non-human animals to join a picnic, a common cultural form for human animals to interface with nature. 

Significant Other exhibition

Exhibition Open: 8th – 19th June 2022, 12.00 -18.00 daily

Opening Party: 9th June 2022 6pm-9pm (tickets via Eventbrite)

Address: The Art Bypass Gallery, 261a City Road, London EC 1V1AJ

Sweet ‘Art is dedicated to the promotion of artists through the delivery of regular site-specific exhibitions. Sweet ‘Art operates from a feminist ethos and exhibits art that is thought provoking, intelligent and challenging in aesthetic and concept, with a specific emphasis on working with artists who are marginalised from the marketplace.

https://www.wearesweetart.com/significant-other

Lab4Living researcher Dr Remi Bec is collaborating with a University of Surrey researcher at a workshop on wellbeing through tangible interaction at a prestigious human-computer interaction conference in May.

At the workshop, Remi and Dr Sarah Campbell will explore the role of technology in promoting social and physical health and wellbeing. They have been selected to take part in the one day workshop, part of this year’s Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) conference in New Orleans in May 2022. The Tangible Interaction for Wellbeing workshop aims to create a manifesto documenting ideas and demonstrating the importance of interaction for wellbeing in a post-pandemic context.

Technology-supported games

Remi and Sarah are interested in exploring the use and role of technology in supporting social and physical wellbeing, drawing on their respective projects. Their approach to promote Health and Wellbeing is to use the fun that games provide.

Independently, they have created two games: ‘Boost Up!’ and ‘Dragons of Afterlands’. Both games are technology-supported yet implemented differently.

In Boost Up!, tracking devices measuring and feedbacking physical activity levels are used to develop a currency to play a series of large scale games.

In Dragons of Afterlands, an app available on phones/tablets is used to play an augmented reality board game.

Boost Up! is therefore on the lower end of the ‘no-tech to high-tech’ spectrum while Dragons of Afterlands is situated on the higher end.

The physical aspects of the games are crucial to encouraging interactions with other players to promote wellbeing. Remi and Sarah draw on their respective games to discuss the role of technology in promoting social and physical health and wellbeing. During the workshop, they will explore the drawbacks of developing and prototyping games which embed technology. They will also discuss the implications when evaluating the games, both for designers and end-users.

CHI conference

The ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) series of academic conferences is generally considered the most prestigious in the field of human-computer interaction. CHI has been held annually since 1982 (including once at Sheffield Hallam University) and attracts thousands of international attendees.

About the researcher

Remi Bec‘s research explores the use of games to promote engagement and behaviour change. He has co-developed, prototyped and evaluated iteratively Boost Up!, and created social enterprise GoFit4Fun CIC. GoFit4Fun CIC acts as a vehicle to translate the knowledge gained through research into solutions that are implemented into the real world.

Thinking and talking about death, end of life arrangements and loss can be daunting and difficult. How do we discuss death? Where do we begin?
If you have been wondering about these matters, come join us in one of our sessions to get to know the Life Café and Death Café. 

The Life Café is a set of guided group activities designed to promote and support conversations about what individuals find meaningful in life and in care. A Death Café is a group directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes.

You can look forward to experiencing one of these cafe formats as a participant in a relaxing and supportive setting. You will explore, with others who may be in similar positions, how these approaches might ease you into taking the first step to consider and talk about what matters at the end.

This month, the White Building hosts the first in a series of exhibitions continuing with themes of ageing. ‘Re-imagining ageing‘ is a collaboration between Lab4Living and Sheffield artist Laura Page. It presents films and photographic portraits and stories which reimagine ageing and defy stereotypes of what it is to be older. 

Key to Lab4Living’s approach is the use of exhibitions to helps us seek out and frame questions about how we live, and how we see ourselves as we age. Through this exhibition, viewers can reflect, challenge and perhaps re-imagine what it means to grow older. 

The 100-year life is a programme of research in Lab4Living which explores the role of design and creative practice in disrupting existing medical, social and cultural discourses around ageing.  

Re-Imagining Ageing

Over the last two years, film, photography and creative writing have offered methods to give voice to different perspectives of ageing and in doing so to build understanding of the diverse experiences of individuals across the UK.

As part of a series of linked exhibitions, titled ‘Re-imagining ageing’, we are inviting people from across Sheffield to hear these stories. We hope that in doing so, we will create space to help viewers to reflect, to challenge and perhaps to re-imagine what it means to grow older. 

The work has been created through a collaboration between Lab4Living and Sheffield artist Laura Page. Alongside a number of films of older people, we host a series of photographs generated by local communities in and around Sheffield. These include Roshni South Asian Women’s Resource Centre, Poet Debjani Chatterjee and Longley Park College. 

A sister exhibition of Laura’s work, Hidden Depths, will be shown simultaneously at Persistence Works, Yorkshire Artspace between 4th and 24th March 2022.

Exhibition details

• Exhibition details: The exhibition runs 4^th March – 24th March, 2022 at The White Building, Fitzalan Square, Sheffield S1 2AZ
• Opening times: Tuesdays to Thursdays between 10am and 3pm.
• Project partners: A sister exhibition of Laura’s work, Hidden Depths will be shown simultaneously at Persistence Works between 4^th and 26^th March 2022. Hidden Depths is at Persistence Works Studios, 21 Brown Street, Sheffield S1 2BS

About the artist

The exhibition features work from Roshni South Asian Women’s Resource Centre, Poet Debjani Chatterjee and Longley Park College. It is a collaboration with Laura Page.

Laura Page is an artist, photographer, photojournalist and socially engaged practitioner. Her artwork is a mixture of photography, film, sound and mixed media and she often collaborates with others.  Much of her work explores people, society, politics, culture and philosophy.

Last week, Lab4Living hosted a reading and exhibition showcasing new poetry which explores themes of ageing. The event in the White Building was led by Lab4Living researcher Dr Joan Healey, an occupational therapist at Sheffield Hallam University.

Over 100 pieces of poetry were written by participants in writing groups in Sheffield and beyond. Participants were invited to reflect on what ageing feels like and what it means to be an older person. The event was the first opportunity for the writing group participants to meet and share their work in person since the pandemic began.

As part of Lab4Living’s Research England funded research on the 100-year life we are developing the use of creative methods to give voice to different perspectives of ageing. We aim to build understanding of the experiences of individuals and to examine the role of objects in shaping what it means to be an older person. Work currently on view in the White Building spotlights enquiries from different perspectives, one led by occupational therapist Joan Healey, and the other by product designer Tom Maisey.

Written word and the lived experience

Dr Joan Healey is an occupational therapist and writer in the Faculty of Health, Wellbeing and Life-Sciences at Sheffield Hallam University. Her work with Lab4Living explores how the written word can illuminate the lived experience, helping to facilitate meaningful engagement and contribute to health and wellbeing education.

Joan began this project by contacting some writing groups who were meeting online during the pandemic and inviting them to participate in some creative writing. She provided some writing prompts as a starting point for people to write prose or poetry about issues around ageing, the mismatch of external views of ageing and the personal feelings of ageing; people’s experiences of time; the lived experience of their own ageing. Joan facilitated some of the groups and other groups ran the workshops themselves. People were invited to contribute any of their writing to the project.

Exhibition and event

A selection of pieces of writing from over 100 contributions is currently on show in the White Building.

We want to celebrate the thoughtful, challenging and beautifully evocative writing from the participants and to use the writing as prompts for debate and discussion about how we view ageing.

Joan Healey

At last Tuesday’s event (held during the afternoon and in the evening), writing group participants were able to meet for the first time since the pandemic. They were able to read from their work and view the pieces on display along with members of the Lab4Living team.

Following the exhibition, Joan hopes to produce an anthology of the all the work which will celebrate the work of the participants and support undergraduate teaching in Health and Wellbeing.

• Further info: For more information about how you can view the exhibition and / or get involved, please contact Joan Healey.
• Project partners: Sheffield Libraries, Sheffield Women’s writing group, SWit’CH Swinton writers group, Guildford U3A

This month, we showcase work which explores and responds to themes of ageing. We host an exhibition of poetry work re-imagines ageing, reflecting on the lived experience. In the windows, we display existing products for older people as prompts for examining the role of objects and what it means to be an older person.

Key to Lab4Living’s approach is the use of exhibitions to helps us seek out and frame questions about how we want to live and how the 100 year life might look. Through exhibition, objects and words act as prompts and provide a forum for conversation. The objects and exhibition in the White Building this month are themed around ageing.

As part of Lab4Living’s Research England funded research on the 100-year life we are developing the use of creative methods to give voice to different perspectives of ageing. We aim to build understanding of the experiences of individuals and to examine the role of objects in shaping what it means to be an older person. Work currently on view in the White Building spotlights enquiries from different perspectives, one led by occupational therapist Joan Healey, and the other by product designer Tom Maisey.

Re-Imagining Poetry

Work work by Joan Healey explores how the written word can illuminate the lived experience, helping to facilitate meaningful engagement and contribute to health and wellbeing education.

Dr Joan Healey is an occupational therapist and writer in the Faculty of Health, Wellbeing and Life-Sciences at Sheffield Hallam University. She has joined the Lab4Living team and has been exploring what ageing feels like.

Joan began this project by contacting some writing groups who were meeting online during the pandemic and inviting them to participate in some creative writing. She provided some writing prompts as a starting point for people to write prose or poetry about issues around ageing, the mismatch of external views of ageing and the personal feelings of ageing; people’s experiences of time; the lived experience of their own ageing. Joan facilitated some of the groups and other groups ran the workshops themselves. People were invited to contribute any of their writing to the project.

Exhibition

A selection of pieces of writing from over 100 contributions is being exhibited as posters in the White Building.

We want to celebrate the thoughtful, challenging and beautifully evocative writing from the participants and to use the writing as prompts for debate and discussion about how we view ageing.

Joan Healey

One intention is to use the collection of writing with Sheffield Hallam students in the College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences (including Occupational Therapy students) and with the public. 

Lab4Living will host an event on Tuesday 16 November which gives a chance for the participants to meet and see some of their work presented. The event will include live poetry readings. Following the exhibition, Joan hopes to produce an anthology of the all the work which will celebrate the work of the participants and support undergraduate teaching in Health and Wellbeing.

• Further info: For more information about how you can view the exhibition and / or get involved, please contact Joan Healey.
• Project partners: Sheffield Libraries, Sheffield Women’s writing group, SWit’CH Swinton writers group, Guildford U3A

The Assistive Product and Activities for People with dementia

Work by Research Associate Tom Maisey is exploring the role of objects in the context of ageing, and the responsibility of designers to consider issues of dignity and respect when designing assistive products for older people. The items in the windows of the White Building are examples of products currently on the market and the audience is invited to respond to the following questions.

The Assistive Product

Are these products desirable?

As we age, we have to make changes to meet our health needs. We might need objects to help us in our daily lives. It’s vital that design responds to this in a sensitive way.

We all want the objects we own and use to look good and be desirable, whatever our age and abilities. Designers have a responsibility to make sure dignity is maintained for those using the products they create. It’s important that products aren’t patronising and have the right look and details. However, many products associated with later life don’t yet meet those needs. There is a need to establish a new aesthetic. The artefacts on exhibition here are examples of the limited product range currently available. We use them as a starting point for discussions about the role of objects and what it means to be an older person.

Activities for people with dementia

Can design provide a better experience for people living with dementia?

Taking part in meaningful activities as we age is crucial in maintaining physical and mental wellbeing as well as quality of life. A lack of desirable, age-appropriate products for people with dementia reduces opportunities for residents in care homes to take part in meaningful activities. It can have a big impact on residents by increasing boredom and depression.

This presents us with an opportunity to respond with design. The artefacts on exhibition are examples of the limited product range currently available.

• Further info: Tom Maisey
• Linked projects: Future Care Home; Future Bathroom

Today, Prof Paul Chamberlain has been presenting Lab4Living’s Design and the 100-year life work to researchers and students at the Universita luav Di Venezia in Venice. 

Paul coincided the visit with the Time, Space, Existence exhibition, part of the Venice Architectural Biennale where he is currently exhibiting. 

Professor Paul Chamberlain will give a keynote this week at an Occupation Therapy conference on the Evolution of Home. His talk on the Future Home will draw on over 10 years of Future Bathroom research and current work focussing on the 100 year life. This invited keynote is on the first day of the annual Royal College of Occupational Therapists conference on Housing which takes place during Occupational Therapy Week 2021.

The conference is for members of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists Special Section on Housing (RCOT SS: Housing). RCOT SS: Housing provides a forum for occupational therapists and occupational therapy staff that have an interest in housing, inclusive design and accessible home environments. This year’s conference focuses on how good design and aesthetics play an important role in how we use and interact with our living spaces. It takes place online on 4th and 5th November 2021.

Kaisu Koski’s wearable garment prototype HUG is being shown at an exhibition showing new work produced in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The HUG photograph is exhibited as part of Immune Nations, an evidence-based exhibition about the constructive role that art can play in public discourse around life-saving vaccines. The exhibition runs at the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, Canada from 14th September to 10th December 2021.

In her ‘pandemic work’ during 2020, Kaisu has been considering how social distancing could be seen as part of disease prevention in the absence of vaccines.

The wearable garment prototype HUG creates the tactile sensation of a hug without the presence of another person.

While one of the primary gestures in expressing love and care, a hug has now become a potential health hazard, leaving many of us deprived of the human touch.

Kaisu Koski

The exhibition brochure and a virtual tour are available at the McMaster Museum of Art’s website. The exhibition continues until 10th December 2021.

HUG is also being presented at other exhibitions and events throughout the year – see the project page for more details.

Kaisu recently gave a talk on her work at the Nordic Edge Expo, in Stavanger, Norway as part of an Innoasis “Art Science Cocktails” event. These in-person events create an interdisciplinary mingling opportunity for researchers, artists, students with short talks and an exquisite cocktail menu. The “Caring Futures edition” on 21 September was a brainteaser to introduce the concept of how technology might aid, challenge or change our concepts of care and caring in the future.

Kaisu Koski is Associate Professor of Art and Design at Lab4Living. She is currently filming in the White Building with Lab4Living collaborator Noemie Soula for a joint project, to be announced soon.

Lab4Living researchers Heath Reed and Matt Willox’s work on Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) masks for young people has been recognised at the Yorkshire and Humber regional healthcare innovation hub awards. Their project was awarded Runner Up prize at the Medipex Innovation Awards ceremony on 22nd September.

Medipex Innovation Awards

The awards celebrate the ways in which NHS colleagues have gone over and above, this year more than ever, to find ways to improve patient care. Entries were submitted into 4 categories and were judged by representatives from Medipex, Medovate and the YHAHSN. This project, also known as the the COMFORT project, was in the category for Innovations that are designed to improve the outcomes for patients and/or service delivery organisations.

The COMFORT Project

The COMFORT project (Custom-made Masks for Overnight Respiratory Therapy) for Children requiring Non-Invasive Ventilation is a collaboration between Lab4Living, NIHR Devices for Dignity, Sheffield children’s NHS Foundation Trust and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust.

Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) is breathing support delivered through a facemask. Well-fitting masks are difficult to find for children. Inadequate ventilation can have significant health and quality of life impacts. 

This project aimed to investigate 3D technology to improve comfort, fit and performance of NIV masks for children.

Co-design events helped the project team to understand the patients’ needs. 3D scanning methods were assessed and the best performing scanner selected. The final design involved a 3D printed frame, covered with silicone. Mask materials and manufacturing processes met the required quality standards. 

73% patients reported comfort and fit that was as good or better than their usual mask. Oxygen levels and sleep quality were improved. Appearance of the mask received positive feedback. Health economics demonstrated that a custom-made mask would be cost effective at a price below £500. Further work on integration of the process into NHS services is planned.

Read more about this project here.

Lab4Living has hosted the first public sharing of a new play by award-winning playwright tackling issue of depression and suicide in men. The play was performed on Tuesday to an invited audience and aims to help raise awareness and encourage discussion on difficult topics.

The play has been written by Brian Daniels following the suicide of 31 year old Ross McCarthy, originally from Sheffield. Ross took his life following ten years of struggling with severe depression and then being put on a six month long waiting list for therapy.

Ross McCarthy’s story

Mr Daniels, who lives in Leeds, said he was so moved by a news report on Ross’s death that he felt compelled to write the piece inspired by Ross’s story.  He has previously written plays covering important health and social issues including dementia, palliative care and historical child abuse which have been widely performed for organisations including NHS Trusts, Hospitals, Hospices and Universities.  He said that drama is an impactful way to create an environment of discussion and debate.  

First event at the White Building

The play, performed by professional actors, was the first public event to be hosted by Lab4Living in its new premises in the White Building, in Fitzalan Square. The White Building provided an intimate and informal space for this poignant play, which was performed in the afternoon and again in the evening. The invited audience included researchers and city council representatives, as well as friends and members of Ross’ family. Audience members spoke of the power of the play and took part in a discussion following each performance.

“This was an incredibly moving event. It felt wonderful bringing together communities and audiences to witness the role the arts play in highlighting the hugely important topic of suicide.”

Prof Claire Craig, Co-Director of Lab4Living

Young Men and Mental Health

Suicide is the biggest killer of UK men under 45. The stark statistic tells us little of the backstory. In his farewell letter Ross McCarthy, who left behind his fiancée Charlotte, 4 year old son Charlie and his parents and sister, asked his family to campaign for better mental health support. He wrote ‘It’s just not there’.

My family and I know that our lives will never be the same again.  Losing Ross is unbearably painful but we are heartened beyond words to think that something so positive can come from our tragedy and the tragedy of thousands of others.  I believe that this play can help shine a light on something that is largely overlooked.  We are so grateful to Brian Daniels for his care and humanity in researching our story and for being bold enough to present a play based on a subject which has remained taboo for far too long.  

Ross’s dad Mike, a former TV reporter and presenter

Hosting this play represents the ongoing collaboration between the renowned playwright Brian Daniels and Lab4Living, including hosting an earlier play in 2019 which focussed on accessing end of life care. Lab4Living’s approach to using creative practice to explore health and wellbeing issues includes previous work creating objects to help young people visualise and manage chronic pain.

The performing arts provide another powerful tool to help us understand mental health issues and barriers to support services.

Claire Craig

TalkClub

In discussions following the performances, audience members noted Sheffield’s large student population includes many young men who might find it difficult to discuss their mental health. Mike McCarthy has set up a Sheffield branch of TalkClub, a mental fitness movement for men, which meets every Wednesday evening at Sheffield United Football ground between 6 and 8 pm.

Support organisations

• CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) – suicide prevention www.thecalmzone.net
• TalkClub – a mental fitness movement for men         www.wetalkclub.com : Sheffield branch held every Wednesday evening at Sheffield United ground 6-8 pm.
• www.samaritans.org 
• www.papyrus-uk.org – prevention of young suicide
• uksobs.org – survivors of bereavement by suicide

Sheffield Hallam University: Press Release 22 Sep 2021

For more information on this and other original plays on themes of health and wellbeing, contact Brian Daniels, Artistic Director: Pluto Productions, brdan@icloud.com 

The windows of the White Building are a window into the world of Lab4Living, providing a snapshot of our activity in Sheffield’s civic centre. Artefacts on display include internationally exhibited pieces, current prototypes and emerging projects. This month, work from the HOSPITAbLe furniture collection and playful artefacts from the Future Care Home project are on display.

Key to Lab4Living’s research is the role of objects. We make artefacts that do not necessarily present solutions but help us seek out and frame questions about how we want to live and how the 100 year life might look. Through exhibition, objects can therefore act as prompts and provide a forum for conversation. We also understand the value of objects which can facilitate meaningful engagement for people in a range of settings.

HOSPITAbLe

This research draws on the value of thinking with things through physical metaphors. It explores the value in taking everyday experiences as a starting point when developing products for healthcare at home. The HOSPITAbLe collection reflects upon and imagines an ambiguous future domestic landscape. This work has previously been exhibited in Amsterdam, Prague, Edinburgh, Yorkshire Art Space and Nottingham.

Future Care Home

In the Future Care Home project, design researchers are investigating the development of playful artefacts to support the wellbeing of older people. This builds on existing work and ongoing collaborations with residents and staff in Sheffield care homes. Here we have created research-informed products which promote meaningful engagement between residents in care homes, their families and care staff. Currently we are working with residents and staff to evaluate the artefacts.

This week, a team of Art and Design students present their concepts The Living Sponge at the Biodesign Challenge Summit. The postgraduate students have worked with a range of experts including Lab4Living researchers to compete in the international Biodesign Challenge. They will join students from 20 countries in showcasing their biotech projects before an international audience and panel of 60 pioneers in art, design, and technology.

The Living Sponge

The Biodesign Challenge is an international education program and competition which challenges students to envision and develop applications in biotech. Students are challenged to develop ideas which bridge art, design, and biology to reimagine a more sustainable and equitable future.

It is grounded in the UN Sustainable Development Goal 13 (taking action to combat climate change) and provides an opportunity for Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) students, one of only three universities in the UK to take part in the competition, to engage in work which could have real world impact and make a positive contribution society globally.

Research informed teaching

Students from across the Art & Design MA courses worked in cross disciplinary teams to prepare projects in response to the BioDesign Challenge brief, with input from teaching staff, researchers from Lab4Living and invited external experts. Teaching staff from the Department of Art and Design, led by Dr Eve Stirling, have been supporting the teams of students with input from Lab4Living researchers Prof Peter Lloyd Jones, Noemie Soula and Marika Grasso.

Press release: Hallam students named as finalists for Biodesign Challenge

At an internal selection process in May, one team was picked to develop their project, The Living Sponge, and present it online at this year’s BioDesign Challenge Summit on 23rd June.

The Living Sponge

The Living Sponge is a dystopian futuristic fiction that uses living calcareous sponge properties to create an artificial living sponge that interacts with the external environment by collecting and purifying water. This concept was developed by a team of MA students from Interiors, Packaging, Illustration, and Jewellery and Metalwork.

Hannah Morley, one of the design students who will be presenting the project said:

“The Biodesign Challenge was such a potential and transformative opportunity for us, as a team; and a challenge in itself. We hope The Living Sponge can help address global issues or reverse biodiversity loss with newly minted design innovation, relating to the damaging effects climate change has had on the planet regarding water scarcity.

Developing the biotech ideas

The team had begun by thinking about cleaned water and contamination, and ideas of water absorption and metabolism, which led to the image of the sponge. They explored the narratives of sponges absorbing and collecting water, and discovered the sponge’s ability to ‘purify’. As they observed the sponge’s properties, they began to explore how sponges could be created and designed to filter water and prevent it from being filtered again.

The team speculated on the possibility of using calcareous sponge DNA (which is very capable of filtering water and prevent it from being filtered again) in order to create an artificial ‘living’ sponge that could interact with the external environment. They looked at the context of inhabited Karst regions and how sponge technology could improve citizens’ quality of life by collecting and purifying water.

Nanning: a Karst landscape in south China

Karst landscapes are made up of limestone which can be worn away from the top or dissolved from a weak point inside the rock, resulting in caves, sink holes, and underground rivers. The city of Nanning in south China is in such a landscape and has significant problems with waterlogging during rainy seasons. Building a “sponge city” is an attempt by Nanning to solve waterlogging. Sponge cities use permeable pavements, water storage and roof planting methods to make the overall urban structure like a sponge that can absorb and store rainfall to reduce the risk of waterlogging.

Inspiration

The team was inspired by a range of arts and science projects from around the world. Talking with Peter Lloyd Jones led them to look at ‘Ice Stupa‘, an artificial glacier in the desert of northern India. Rachel Armstrong ‘Future Venice’ is a project about creating artificial Coral reefs), and Lab4Living’s Playponics project, led by Heath Reed, provides a way for people to interact with their environment and allow them to participate in its improvement.

Final concepts

The final concepts explore wearable weather water sponges and imagine a future cityscape where the sponges adapt to weather changes. The sponge properties mean that they can not only absorb excess water but purify and filter it so that it can be stored until needed.

Preparing for the summit

Working as a cross disciplinary group, the team have used their different expertise and developed effective ways of working together; as Hannah Morley says, “We have leaders, organisers, and implementers in our group.”

The team is looking forward to sharing and discussing their designs with the expert team of biological design and other finalist teams from all over the world.

BioDesign Summit

At the livestreamed summit, viewers will be able to see the students showcase their biotech projects before an international audience and panel of 60 pioneers in art, design, and technology. There will also be live Q&As with judges, and talks by keynote speakers. While this year’s event will be held online, previous summits have taken place at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Further info on The Living Sponge @ BDC Summit 2021

• Press release 21 June 2021: Hallam students named as finalists for Biodesign Challenge
• Radio Interview: BBC Radio Sheffield Howard Pressman show 22/06/2021 Listen again from 15:13 (available until 29 June 2021)
• Press contact: Greg Mattocks-Evans | g.mattocks-evans@shu.ac.uk
• Subject Group Leader for postgraduate Art and Design: Dr Eve Stirling 
• The Design Team: Hannah Morley | MA Design (Interior) @hannah_morley_designs ; Inés De Cueto Escobar | MA Design (Packaging) @agnesdecueto ; Xiaozhao Ban | MA Design (Illustration) @bannnxz ; Xiaoyue Ma | MA Design (Jewellery and Metalwork).
• Biodesign Challenge 2021

Following on from a recent online residency, Marika Grasso has been accepted to exhibit in CHI Interactive Experiences at CHItaly11^th – 13^th July 2021. Marika is currently studying for her PhD within Lab4Living. Her exhibit “Touch/Matter Beyond Touchscreens” asks the question “Have you ever really touched your touchscreen?”

Beyond Touchscreen

The installation is a tool to reflect beyond the materiality of technology throughout the marks of touch. It focuses on the relationship between the hand and the computer and the special interaction with the screen. The small rectangular scale of the screen and its continuous presence in human life interlaces thinking and engagement in a very particular manner. The engagement with the layers composing the touchscreen is superficial, the glass layer is marked by human activity through time until the touchscreen is broken by human activity. The glass surface becomes part of the past and it is replaced, while actually, the other inside layers unbroken and soft are forgotten.

The installation is a provocation and discourse about the materiality of daily touched computers (smartphones), by decomposing and relayering and showing the untouched layers. 

The materials/layers of the smartphone are therefore organized according to the softness, elasticity, smoothness, stiffness, and thickness to expose the hidden layers of the daily touching of screens. The un-layering and exposition of all the layers such as glass film, isolation layer, ITO (transparent metal deposit), and LCD serve to look differently at the materiality of technology daily interactions.

The display of the components of the touchscreens aims to reveal more of the entanglement between the materials and the meaning they have beyond our touch and interaction. Those hidden layers also carry their own meanings, which are expressed in the size, thickness and colour, but also by the imaginary built around it, by contemporary technological culture.

CHItaly

CHItaly explores the “Frontiers of HCI” through connecting research and geographical areas, and takes place this year as a hybrid physical and digital event including workshops, presentations and Interactive Experiences.

About the artist

Marika Grasso is one of 8 PhD students who joined Lab4Living in October 2019 following the Research England award which focusses on the Future Home and 100 year life. Her research uses art practice to explore the relationship between the human condition, touch and conductive materials.

Personal website: grassomarika.academia.edu

Project update: 9 June 2021

The design team has developed new pathways for patients to ensure more efficient testing for UTIs in primary care settings. The proposed pathways are more in line with user needs, and are based on participant insights and feedback from project participants (people who have had experience of UTI and healthcare professionals). We’ve developed a video to communicate the different pathways to project participants.

Pathways

The pathways were split into two potential locations, GP and pharmacy, with the criteria being as follows:

1. GP non complex (females aged 16-65 with no underlying conditions)
2. GP complex (repeat infections, underlying conditions, men and children)
3. Pharmacy (females 16-65, no underlying conditions or repeat infections)

Animation

We’ve developed an animation video, in collaboration with Nifty Fox, that depicts clearly the different pathways.

Project update: 2 June 2021

This week the team created an animation video of the final concept for the UTI testing device in primary care settings project. Due to COVID, we have been unable to create the physical prototypes in the workshop. The animation videos provide an alternative format to enable co-design and feedback.

Developing the concept

We have developed this concept for the device in line with participant needs, which were identified with people who have had experience of UTI and healthcare professionals during an earlier stage of the project.

The concept features a screen tilted at a 45 degree angle which allows for viewing at a comfortable angle, with only slight neck flexion required. The entire device features no crevices, and the interface is touch screen to ensure maximum ease when cleaning. This also reduces the possibility of bacteria build up.

The power button and the touchscreen buttons are sized at over 19mm so that they are easy for all adults to use. We have included a small slot at the base of the device. This will allow for sufficient ventilation of the tech when the device is in use, and also provides a hand slot to make the device easy to carry.

Next Steps

Next steps are to show this video to the healthcare professionals involved in this project team to get their feedback to inform the remainder of the project. We are also developing new pathways for patients to ensure more UTI efficient testing.

For more information, visit the UTI testing device in primary care page.

A chapter by Lab4Living researchers in a new publication offers some alternatives to the supposed digital dominance for co-design during the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter is published in a new two-volume set of Rapid Responses exploring the urgent need to put co-production and participatory approaches at the heart of responses to the pandemic.

The publication will be launched at an event hosted by the Centre for Public Engagement Tuesday 22^nd June.

“Challenging the digital default: in our chapter we offer a critique of an over-reliance on digital media for co-design, pointing out the exclusive nature of digital channels. We offer some alternatives that have arisen from our own practice as we explored different ways of reducing barriers to enable people to contribute to co-design.”

Dr Joe Langley, Lab4Living

“COVID co-design does not *have* to be digital” is co-written by a team of researchers from Lab4Living, the University of South Australia, and the University of York. The team have been sharing practice and building knowledge since the outbreak of the pandemic through their Co-design during COVID collaboration, exploring how to engage participants meaningfully through remote co-design. 

Background

Following an exasperated Twitter thread by researcher Joe Langley about critically challenging the “what platform should I use?” starting point for co-production during COVID, the team was invited by the editors to contribute to a new publication exploring co-production in health and social care during a pandemic. The two-volume set of Rapid Responses explores the urgent need to put co-production and participatory approaches at the heart of responses to the pandemic. It demonstrates how policymakers, health and social care practitioners, patients, service users, carers and public contributors can make this happen.

The chapter ‘COVID co-design does not *have* to be digital‘ is included in the second volume of Rapid Responses which focuses on methods and means of co-producing during a pandemic. It is available as an Open Access publication.

The editorial team has written a post for the Transforming Society blog about why the issues in the book are so important – it can be found via this link:

Publication details

‘COVID co-design does not *HAVEA* to be digital’ by Joe Langley, Niki Wallace, Aaron Davis, Ian Gwilt, Sarah Knowles, Rebecca Partridge, Gemma Wheeler, and Ursula Ankeny

In: COVID-19 and Co-production in Health and Social Care Research, Policy, and Practice
Volume 2: Co-production Methods and Working Together at a Distance

Editors: Oli Williams, Doreen Tembo, Josephine Ocloo, Meerat Kaur, Gary Hickey, Michelle Farr and Peter Beresford

ISBN: 978-1447361794

Imprint: Policy Press

Page count: 160 pages

Paul Chamberlain (Lab4Living) is exhibiting a new collection of work at Venice Biennial Architecture exhibition “Time Space Existence” which opens 22 May 2021 and runs until 21 November 2021.

The traditional structures of our every-day life and the spaces we inhabit are being challenged. Increased life expectancy, a global pandemic and technology pervading every aspect of our lives is blurring the boundaries of domesticity and work life, while spaces within the home become less delineated.

Through this collection of work Paul challenges traditional furniture typologies and morphs archetypal forms to create hybrid ambiguous artefacts that reflect the domestic quotidian. The work is part of a broader Lab4Living research enquiry funded through Research England’s Expanding Excellence in England Programme that explores the role of Design in the reconceptualisation of the 100-year life.

Exhibition: “Time Space Existence” 
Location: Palazzo Bembo, Palazzo Mora and Marinaressa Gardens, Venice, Italy
Organisers: European Cultural Centre – Italy
Dates: May 22nd – November 21st 2021
Website: https://ecc-italy.eu/exhibitions/upcoming

Paul Chamberlain will be presenting the work of the Lab4Living team on the NESTORE project alongside the 16 European project partners at an online event on the 27^th February to mark the end of the project.

Designers, developers, users, public authorities and businesses will come together at the final event to explore the lessons learnt in more than three years of activity on project called NESTORE (Novel Empowering Solutions and Technology for Older people to Retain Everyday life activities). They will exchange the knowledge built in relation to co-design, technology and user experience.

Paul Chamberlain, Claire Craig and Nick Dulake have been involved in the three year project, funded through the EU H2020 programme. Chamberlain et al. have been responsible for leading the co-design that has informed the development of an extensive system that supports health and wellbeing through the four domains of physical, nutritional, cognitive and social.

Co-design

The L4L team has engaged over 200 participants in co-design activities in the UK, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, and worked in close collaboration with technical partners in Switzerland.

The project has faced challenges engaging with older communities through recent restrictions imposed by COVID but recent events have highlighted the importance of role of technology in supporting wellbeing.

The outcomes of the project presents creative methods for co-design and highlight the value of engaging users in the process. Useful insights have emerged for the development of future systems.

Project update: 5 Jan 2021

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, face-to-face workshops to understand user thoughts on the proposed devices and pathways for the have not been possible for the UTI testing project. Lab4Living researchers have been exploring non-digital means of engaging participants meaningfully through remote co-design (see Co-design during COVID-19). Therefore, the UTI testing project team has developed a booklet of activities. We printed and sent out to all patient representatives in November 2020.

The project looks at devices for rapid testing of urinary tract infections in primary care settings (e.g. GP surgeries). The booklet activities are centred around scoping out possible pathways e.g. understanding peoples preferences around timings and methods of receiving information and understanding device requirements.

Booklet format

This format has enabled participants (who are taking part as they have had experience of UTI) to be actively involved in the design process from the comfort of their own homes. By using a booklet format, participants had the time and space to work through the different activities without feeling pressured or put on the spot. Participants filled out and posted the booklet back to the team, and we have been collating their insights.

Key insights

Key insights for the device included a preference for a smaller size, and issues around privacy of information in terms of screen display. In terms of the pathway, participants emphasised the information they would want to know in the result of a negative test. For example, what else could symptoms mean? What might worrying symptoms be? What are the next steps? The devices and pathways will be further developed based on these insights. The feedback has been valuable, and has helped the team to develop further the device and possible pathway.

Next steps

The team is now working towards developing some prototypes and exploring possible pathways that embody the user needs, to be ready for summer 2021 for further feedback.

For more information, visit the UTI testing device in primary care page.

During Dutch Design Week 2018, Creative Industries Fund NL and Waag are organising the Designing a Community of Care: From creative research to practice network meeting, in association with the Aedes-Actiz Knowledge Centre for Housing, Care and Welfare and the Who Cares team. Paul and Claire will give a keynote exploring the role of design and creative practice in understanding and tackling the challenges of an ageing population.

In the Netherlands a care reinvention is happening. An ageing population, decentralisation and technological advances are making new demands on the provision of care in communities. Creative Industries Fund NL and Waag believe in the power of design’s contribution to this process of transition within care in the community.

Designing a Community of Care
The reason for this meeting is the Open Call: Designing a Community of Care, which was issued by the Fund in the spring of 2018. Thirteen projects have been initiated, in which designers are tackling changes to care in the community in conjunction with municipal services, care providers and housing corporations. You can find further information via this link (Dutch only).

Keynote speakers 

Professor Paul Chamberlain – Design Director of Lab4Living at Sheffield Hallam University

Dr Claire Craig – Health Director of Lab4Living at Sheffield Hallam University

Good design can mean a lot for society, but how can design practices and processes help to tackle the challenges we are facing in the 21st century? Paul Chamberlain argues that design is as much about the definition of the question as it is about providing an answer, and that interdisciplinary collaboration is the starting point for new creative possibilities. In Claire Craig’s former role as an occupational therapist she gained experience in the advancement of the wellbeing of the elderly, and she believes that design plays a pivotal role in this field.

Designing a Community of Care: From creative research to practice
Monday 22 October 2018, 1PM – 5PM
Innovation Powerhouse (Strijp-T), Zwaanstraat 31a, Eindhoven

Chronic Health exhibition
The Embassy of Health is an initiative of Waag, VanBerlo, Philips, Máxima Medical Centre, U Create and the Dutch Design Foundation. The ‘Chronic Health’ exhibition reveals how these organisations are jointly shaping care and how care products or services are not autonomous, but interact within a complex care environment. The exhibition immerses visitors in an interactive environment and allows them to experience the current and prospective role of design for (health)care: now, as well as in the immediate and more distant future.

Professor Paul Chamberlain is a Professor of Design, Co-Director of C3RI at Sheffield Hallam University, Head of the Art & Design Research Centre and Co-Director of Lab4Living.

Claire Craig is Reader in Design and Creative Practice in Health in the Art & Design Research Centre (ADRC) and Co-Director of the interdisciplinary research group Lab4Living. Claire’s research focuses on the role of creative practices in improving quality of life and well-being for people living with dementia.

Photo above: Sander van Wettum.