Drawing Water, Drawing Breath, Drawing Thread, A synthesis of clinical and creative practice through space-time

This practice led research demonstrates the synthesis of clinical and creative practice through the concept of space-time, by addressing the idea of transferable skills and language across science and art. Clinical practice is focussed on the work of a highly specialist respiratory therapist. Creative practice includes a hybrid of land and textile art situated in the littoral, using the body as a transformative medium, writing and drawing.

The work is underpinned primarily through the writings of Mikhail Bakhtin, Henri Bergson and Henri Lefebvre and interrogation of the Japanese aesthetic of ma

The study explores two dualisms, time and space and mind and body, appraising research that challenges the separation of each binary. Space-time, evaluated through the Japanese aesthetic of ma, is considered alongside Bakhtin’s concepts of unfinalisability and chronotope. Bergson’s key writings on space and time (durée) and Lefebvre’s The Production of Space and Rhythmanalysis are reviewed and linked to chronotope, unfinalisability and space-time.

‘Drawing Water’ references work on location where the interaction of the body with the sea and the littoral served as a metaphor for clinical practice. The chapter on mind and body addresses advances in the cognitive sciences, encompassing neuroscience, psychology and philosophy of the mind.

Connections are made between the concept of space-time and the human body through ‘Drawing Breath’, representing both clinical and creative activity. Links between the two areas are developed further by identifying and examining the significance of a common terminology.

A wide range of drawing methods and theories is examined and related to both clinical and creative practice. The portfolio comprises work on paper including text images, photography, videography and cloth; ‘Drawing Thread’.

The key lines of enquiry for the research are space, time, space-time, rhythm, the body, embodiment, emplacement, enaction and experience. Medical terminology is used throughout.