Story

SURGE III: Matchmaking UAL artists with UCL researchers

a viewing console with two holes for eyes to view a screen through

Written byPost-Grad Community
Published date 19 June 2023

SURGE III, the third edition of Post-Grad Community's collaborative artist and researcher residency with UCL's WEISS, launches with a matchmaking session at UCL

UAL’s Post-Grad Community, in collaboration with Wellcome / EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences (WEISS), have launched SURGE IiI: a project bringing together scientists, artists, and the public to explore the complexities and application of technology in surgery.

With an emphasis on meaningful public engagement, up to 3 interdisciplinary partnerships will be commissioned to identify and explore themes with patient groups in workshop settings, facilitated by the artist. It is from these conversations that creative outputs will be made over the next year, culminating in a collaborative showcase at UAL, coordinated by Post-Grad Community.

Selecting Artists

Post-Grad Community held a call out for UAL artists to express their interest in taking part in this year's SURGE programme. After an overwhelming response 15 were selected to join the launch matchmaking session. Before the event, all participants at this early stage were invited to introduce themselves and share photos and work that inspired them and their practice.

a group of students sat around a table talking — **Introductions**

Creating partnerships

15 postgraduate artists and 3 researchers gathered at WEISS’s building at UCL for an afternoon of discussion and ideation, identifying common grounds between the research within surgical technologies and its creative portrayal.

To kick things off, each participant introduced themselves, their practice, and their urge to be part of SURGE III. The cross-disciplinary nature of the project was unveiled. Artists were picked from courses in Fine Art and Performance, right through to Photography and Data Visualisation, all with the ambition of being mediators between the science and public.

The strength of WEISS’ engineering and clinical sciences is demonstrated in the work being carried out by the clinicians and computer scientists taking part in the project. The communal drive to apply their practice in an accessible and personable manner to enrich the patient experience, lays the foundations for which the artists can meaningfully contribute and make the often invisible, visible – pain, recovery, trauma, movement.

By creating these partnerships and integrating each respective discipline, patient groups will have the space to holistically unpack their experiences and inform the collective journey.

Opportunities for bonding

The group were assigned various tasks throughout the 3-hour session to learn more about each other, their ways of working and thinking, and to understand more about each other's artist practices and scientific research.

One such example was an ideation session based on ways artists would use the WEISS da Vinci Surgical System in an art piece. The da Vinci is a robotic piece of surgical equipment that allows surgeons to operate via a screen and viewing console in another room. The possibilities of using the robot can go as far as the futurism of imagination allows.

a robot surgical piece of equipment — **da Vinci Surgical System**

written ideas on a piece of paper about replacing sweatshops — **da Vinci ideas**

What could an output look like?

For a disciplinary union to align, the space to learn from others and understand new perspectives is essential. Conversations and speculative research often will be the output.

Previous final projects and artworks have included photo essays, video games, short films and tapestries. View previous SURGE projects here.

The next stage of SURGE involves matching researchers and artists together, they will then work collaboratively on an application outlining their desired project, aims and process.

Successful matches will be announced soon.

Find out more about each artist who joined us at the matchmaking session: