After two years of preparation and four busy months, our Durham exhibition draws to a close this week. This post originally appeared on our Catch Your Breath website. Curator David Wright reflects… It is an often-observed phenomenon among museum curators … Read more…
This featured guest post was originally published under the title “Gasp! A breathing puzzle” on Noticing, a science blog by Aatish Bhatia and Robert Krulwich. Aatish is a science writer, educator, physicist, and Associate Director of Engineering Education at Princeton … Read more…
How do we understand the relationship between tobacco and humans in light of the fact that tobacco has become one of the most widely used and traded commodities on the planet? In Anthropology of Tobacco, Life of Breath researcher Andrew … Read more…
What defines “coal identity politics” and what role might they have had in the election of Donald Trump? In this article, Arthur Rose examines the works of bell hooks, Elmore Leonard, and the television series Justified—based on Leonard’s fiction— to … Read more…
Life of Breath Principle Investigator Prof Havi Carel explores themes of breath and illness in Sam Guglani‘s novel Histories (Riverrun, 2017)… Histories begins with a consultant, Dev Bhatia, walking into the hospital. It ends, six days later, with the same man … Read more…
Life of Breath researcher Krzysztof Bierski writes… We are sitting together on a hospital bed. You have your legs crossed in front of your body. You try to keep your spine erect even though the weight you carry at work … Read more…
For World COPD Day 2018 and the publication of Life of Breath’s new Policy Report, consultant respiratory physician and honorary senior lecturer at the the Academic Respiratory Unit (University of Bristol) Dr James Dodd writes… What is COPD? Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary … Read more…
At a key moment in Hamlet’s duel with Laertes, Gertrude cries out that Hamlet ‘is fat and scant of breath’ (5.2.287). Was Hamlet fat, we may ask, as we recall the more memorable Hamlets, cinematic and dramatic? It depends, some … Read more…
Life of Breath collaborator Elspeth Penny writes about her experience facilitating a “Letter to my Breath” workshop at Barton Hill Settlement in Bristol as part of Fun Palaces 2018… It’s like a present when I’m invited to run a workshop, … Read more…
As part of the Fun Palaces campaign in October this year, Life of Breath collaborated with local Bristol artist Sophie Rae and the children of Shirehampton Primary School to create a breathing-themed mural. Sophie writes about the 5 days she … Read more…
Life of Breath collaborator Dr. Megan Wainwright introduces her new paper “Exploring ambivalent human-oxygen technology-world relations through the lens of Postphenomenlogy” published in the Journal of Material Culture as part of a special issue on Ambivalent Objects in Global Health (Eds. … Read more…
A new book on phenomenology and illness entitled Existential Medicine: Essays on Health and Illness is now out, with a chapter by Life of Breath Principle Investigator Havi Carel and PhD student Tina Williams. The book’s editor, Professor Kevin Aho, is the author of Existentialism: An Introduction, Heidegger’s … Read more…
Brian Callender is an internal medicine physician from the University of Chicago interested in the health humanities, with a focus on the theory and practice of “graphic medicine” to understand and improve our understanding of health, illness and the delivery of … Read more…
The Life of Breath project was delighted to host Professor Lundy Braun in Bristol recently to speak at our bi-annual team meeting “Breathing Space” along with a special public lecture. Life of Breath researcher Coreen McGuire reflects on Lundy’s visit… … Read more…
A new book on the philosophy of breathing entitled Atmospheres of Breathing is now out, with a chapter by Life of Breath Principle Investigator Havi Carel. The above image “LUNGTREE VI” by photographer Maja Bjelica is featured on the cover. One … Read more…
Breathlessness is far broader than a physical symptom. It affects people’s mood, self-esteem and social links and often involves feelings of guilt and shame. Breathlessness can also be a symptom of a range of mental disorders, such as panic and anxiety disorders. There … Read more…
Music & Mindful Yoga Therapist Kate Binnie joined Life of Breath as a researcher in January 2018. She writes: I am delighted and honoured to be officially part of the LoB team at Bristol! How I found LoB I stumbled … Read more…
This post was originally published by CDJ Plus. Pradeep Narayanan is Director of Research and Capacity Building at Praxis Institute for Participatory Practices, New Delhi and is collaborating with Life of Breath team member Andrew Russell for research on tobacco farming … Read more…
This post was originally published by The Conversation. Anthropologist and Life of Breath team member Andrew Russell writes: New figures show that more than half of all teenage smokers in the north-east of England have bought illegal tobacco. The figures, from the 2017 … Read more…
People living with breathlessness and those interested in how the arts-in-health approach may help make breathlessness less invisible, were invited to join researcher Dr Alice Malpass from the Life of Breath Project and arts-in-health specialist Elspeth Penny to explore how … Read more…
Header image: “Baby at Play” by Thomas Eakins, 1876. Puppeteer Chris Pirie was recently invited by LoB collaborator Elspeth Penny and LoB researcher Dr Alice Malpass to to speak at their event Gasp! Exploring Breath through Creative Arts as part of the Being Human … Read more…
Life of Breath post-doctoral researcher Rebecca Oxley writes: There’s something in the air in London: a growing awareness and concern with the things that permeate the air we breathe, namely the high levels of fine particulate matter linked to environmental … Read more…
Dr William Wootten, who spoke at our last Life of Breath poetry reading event, writes: The rhythm of breathing, like the rhythm of the heart or the movements of the body in action, is one of those basic rhythms of … Read more…
Music therapist and writer Kate Binnie writes: Friday 29th September saw Oxford’s City Centre transformed by the Curiosity Carnival. This University-organised event sought to bring together researchers across fields of study to share knowledge, answer questions, and interact in creative ways with … Read more…