Visual storytelling above and below the skin

Microscopic skin studies from the Emmerson Lab, CRM | © Emily Fong 2020

As an artist in the laboratory and hospital it has taken some time to become comfortable with the new surroundings and for those surroundings to adapt to me in them. On this particular occasion in the Emmerson Lab at CRM, I felt very excited to be trusted with a sample of skin in section to observe in my own way and time under the microscope. I’m delighted to discover this epithelial landscape and it appears that this organ enveloping the body is designed to help things rise to the surface and shed when the time is right. Recently I learned that the mouth is considered an ‘external environment’ in the medical and scientific realm. This took me a while to wrap my head around as to me it feels very much like an intimate and internal place in my own body. However the path from the mouth to the anus really is the site of an external journey that our food and drink ‘walks’ every day. Daily we are filtering the environment around us with the air we breathe, the conversations we engage in and the meals we prepare and share. Amazing, no? The salivary glands aid in the smooth transition of this digestive journey and if the body were a building they help to maintain a healthy and welcoming front door. These special glands are the driver of this art-science conversation, where we are spending time to be grateful for them, questioning what life is like without them and exploring what the possibilities are for their eventual return to the body. Join me in exploring the journey the salivary gland specimen takes from patient to laboratory and beyond. I’m not sure how it has taken me 30 odd years to discover that science is amazing but I am glad I am here now and that through my creative practice I can share what I’m seeing with you. I wonder what stories your skin could share, both from above and below the surface.

Thanks for reading,

Emily

You can contact/find me at:

emilyfongstudio@gmail.com

@emilyfongstudio 

• To discover more about Dr Elaine Emmerson’s research you can visit  http://crm.ed.ac.uk/research/group/manipulating-stem-cell-niche-promote-regeneration

• For support or more information about head and neck cancer, or to make a donation, you can visit the Throat Cancer Foundation website at https://www.throatcancerfoundation.org

• To get hands on and creative with the tools of science, you can drop into an open session at the ASCUS Lab at Summerhall in Edinburgh, Scotland’s publicly accessible laboratory. You can find out about their many courses and opportunities here http://www.ascus.org.uk

• For insight into human pathology and physiology, you can visit Surgeons’ Hall Museums  https://museum.rcsed.ac.uk

A Temporary Arrangement of Matter in Space and Time

Emmerson Lab CRM: An experiment in growth and perspective When observing scientists in a research laboratory, one thing to note is that this experience is very much non-linear. There are a lot of apparent pauses in-between experiments as cells need time to be processed and ideally grow. What this means for me is that I will often begin a drawing and return to it later in the process. I begin with the most static element - the bin with four languages used to describe the disposal of bio-hazard waste - and wrap lines around the moving parts as they come and go. In this way, I am exploring drawing as an experiment too and adapting my methods and timing to suit the situation.

The following drawing is of Cecilia Rocchi, one of the key researchers in the Emmerson Lab. It is a collage of about three different time periods in one day located at the fume-hood inside The MRC CRM Tissue Culture Facility, a space that is super clean and well ventilated. Here she is working with a sample of about 20,000 salivary gland cells in the hope that they will grow under the right circumstances. What sounds like a large number to me is a pellet the size of a sesame seed, transparent and barely visible to the naked eye.

My drawing is strange in perspective and has me thinking about the nature of collaboration. In science as in any good team, a lab is not one person but a collection of minds bound together by trust and a common goal. I am enjoying patching together moments inside the lab and sharing them here in this subjective and temporary arrangement of matter in space and time. 

Next week I am a fly on the wall inside an MDT (multi-disciplinary team) meeting, where together a team of surgeons, pathologists, oncologists, dentists and nurse specialists converse and make decisions about each individual head and neck cancer patient’s course of treatment. Another non-linear environment, another amazing team in the G-Lands, the landscape inside and outside of the salivary gland. 

Thanks for reading,

Emily

You can contact/find me at:

emilyfongstudio@gmail.com

@emilyfongstudio 

• To discover more about Dr Elaine Emmerson’s research you can visit  http://crm.ed.ac.uk/research/group/manipulating-stem-cell-niche-promote-regeneration

• For support or more information about head and neck cancer, or to make a donation, you can visit the Throat Cancer Foundation website at https://www.throatcancerfoundation.org

• To get hands on and creative with the tools of science, you can drop into an open session at the ASCUS Lab at Summerhall in Edinburgh, Scotland’s publically accessible laboratory. You can find out about their many courses and opportunities here http://www.ascus.org.uk

• For insight into human pathology and physiology, you can visit Surgeons’ Hall Museums  https://museum.rcsed.ac.uk