The animation addresses the visual conventions of the female interior and the normality and standardization of the body in medical education. It asks what kind of cultural and emotional values are projected onto the female reproductive system. The animation explores medical students’ 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, a taboo-like topic related to sex, as well as self-portraits of the female students creating the images. Additionally, the animation rethinks the relationship between data analysis and dissemination in arts-based research projects by introducing a dialogic way to examine the drawing data.
Thanks to all those first-year medical students who donated their drawings in the Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry. Thanks to Dr Sam Regan de Bere and the Medical Humanities theme group for facilitating my fellowship in Plymouth. This work is part of the postdoctoral research project financed by The Academy of Finland. The animation has been financially supported by The Arts Promotion Centre Finland. |