conversation

The Angel of the North and a microphone — Photo credit: David de la Haye

It’s been a busy week as we have focused on trying to reach as many people as we can who have left objects, messages or tokens at the memorial site near The Angel.

David and I went to out to The Angel on a blustery day to meet the university photographer for a press release. You can read the piece here.

I spoke to local journalist Tony Henderson, who could help us reach out to people who live nearby, and who either visit the memorial or might know more about its origins and history. This interview was covered by the Newcastle Journal as well as by The Chronicle. I also had the pleasure of being in conversation at the Angel with Gilly Hope for Radio Newcastle, and Gilly hopes to follow the progress of the project as we develop the sound piece.

We were delighted that there was interest in this story beyond the region, that might help us reach a wider audience. I spoke about the project in the last few minutes of Radio 4’s Today programme as well as on Radio 5 Live. The Guardian covered the story today.

We’d love you to get in touch if you have left memorial objects, messages or tokens at The Angel of the North, at any time. We’d like to record a short conversation with you, the content of which would be defined by you, and we are particularly interested to know what The Angel means to you and the significance to you of what you have placed at the site. All contributions can be anonymous.

We are seeking to create a record of the memorial through a sound work, which will combine extracts from recorded conversations with the sounds of the site, including the resonance of The Angel itself. The piece will be played as part of the Sound Project in the Arches of Newcastle University, and Antony Gormley’s sculpture ‘Clasp’ – which represents two people embracing – is nearby, so anyone listening to the work will be able to see it. Everyone who is recorded for the project will be invited to a launch event in July 2024.

We’d also love to hear from anyone who knows more about the origin and history of the memorial site, so that we can understand it more fully.

If you are interested in participating in the project, please get in touch with me at: anne.whitehead@newcastle.ac.uk

Dune with sea and cliffs in background — Photo Credit: Anne Whitehead

The podcast series Conversations about Arts, Humanities and Health, hosted by Dieter DeClercq and Ian Sabroe, is well loved by many who work in the medical and health humanities. The series, supported by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, develops meaningful dialogue and connection between the humanities and medicine. The conversations take place online, and scholars, health professionals and the public discuss how the arts and humanities can inform healthcare. The recording of the conversation is then published as a podcast, together with a reflective summary by Dieter and Ian.

Having enjoyed listening to many episodes, I was honoured to be invited as a guest on the third season of the podcast. I had already had the pleasure of working with Ian, who was a contributor to the Edinburgh Companion to the Critical Medical Humanities, and the care and thoughtfulness with which the conversation was conducted therefore came as no surprise. I met Ian, Dieter, and Jennifer Pien for a preliminary online chat about what areas Jenn and I would like to cover in the conversation, and about topics of common interest, and we agreed a loose series of questions, which would still allow space for the conversation to take its own direction on the day.

It was a pleasure to talk with Jenn about her work with medical professionals as well as her own creative practice. Our conversation focused on the role of writing and personal stories in the medical and health humanities. We explored the relation between the personal and the critical, and we thought about how bringing the personal perspective into academic work does not mean losing a critical voice. More broadly, we thought about the value of lived experience, the meaning of creativity, and the varied craft of writing.

Thank you to Dieter, Ian and Jenn for such a generous, and generative, conversation.

You can listen to the podcast, which is episode 23 of Ian and Dieter’s series, here.

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