Human Echoes is a Glasgow School of Art staff research project that seeks to give voice to the lived experience of women in Glasgow who received obstetric ultrasound scans in the 1960s, when Glasgow led the world in its development. This project aims to shine a light on the stories of the women who were themselves pioneers of ultrasound.

This research was initially part of a larger project led by Professor Alastair Macdonald (Senior Researcher in the School of Design at Glasgow School of Art). Professor Macdonald’s research project and exhibition Ultrasonic Glasgow celebrated Dugald Cameron – artist, industrial designer and former Director of Glasgow School of Art and the pivotal role he played in trying to make better design, aesthetic and ergonomic sense of the early ultrasound apparatus. The objective of our study within the wider Ultrasonic Glasgow project was to locate women who had encountered, in 1960s Glasgow, the pioneering obstetrician and the innovative scanning technology he and his team were introducing into Glasgow’s hospitals, and to record and reflect on their recollections of these encounters.
The study drew from 27 interviews that Roan and Keogh conducted in 2019 with women who had ultrasound scans during their pregnancies between 1963 and 1970 in Glasgow, as well as with doctors, midwives and nurses who supported the new service during this time. These interviews were transcribed, analysed and the audio tapes edited into a sound work which formed part of an associated exhibition and which was used to support a participant event. An analysis of these testimonies provides insightful glimpses into the lived experiences of the individuals at that time, of the complexity of the narratives around this innovative but unfamiliar technology. These hint at issues later explored in depth in feminist and critical writings such as the doctor-patient hierarchy, consent, and the medicalisation of the body.
The presentation also includes ephemera and sound clips from interviews in relation to the newly designed Queen Mother’s Hospital, Professor Ian Donald and his colleagues, the early days of ultrasound scanning in pregnancy, the mystery and joy surrounding the process and the complexity in the narratives around consent and this emerging technology.