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Creators/Authors: | Caccavale, Elio and Woods, Simon |
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Abstract: | This project was funded through an Arts Council England ‘Interact’ award. The aim of the placement was to engage with PEALS Research Centre research activities and to interact with researchers to explore transdisciplinary design collaborations. With this in mind, I spent time at the Institute of Human Genetics to learn about the work carried out in their labs and to visit some of the research facilities, such as Functional Genetics, Human Developmental Biology Resource and the zebrafish facility. I also visited the Newcastle Fertility Centre to discuss different ways to ‘create families’ in the 21st Century. The Interact Placement provided me with the opportunity to establish a dialogue with Dr Simon Woods (Director of Learning, PEALS), Professor Erica Haimes (Executive Director, PEALS), Professor Alison Murdoch (Director, Fertility Centre at LIFE) and Professor Mary Herbert (Scientific Director, Fertility Centre at LIFE). The focus of our collaborative dialogue was an exploration of the issues surrounding assisted conception, surrogacy and new family forms, leading to a body of work and engagement activities in collaboration with PEALS and the Newcastle Fertility Centre. The main areas where the Future (Now) Families design research investigation focused upon was the social relationships that are emerging between the various “actors” in the field. These include gamete donors, recipients, surrogates, commissioning parents and children who are growing up or could grow up in families with other “parents”. In addition, there are progenitors - who do not have a social connection to their biological children. The research was centred on these social relationships and used hypothetical products to reflect on this new scientific and social landscape. The hypothetical products explored the relationship between biological and social connections, and suggested new reflective social exchanges between surrogate mothers, egg donors, sperm donors, commissioning parents and children. During my successful Interact Placement with PEALS, I was able to utilise the extensive PEALS research network to make contact with scientific and clinical research groups thus laying the foundation for the Future (Now) Families transdisciplinary approach. In addition, I made a contribution to a range of PEALS activities including running a workshop with students from the MSc in Medical Genetics, an interdisciplinary seminar at the Culture Lab and attended conferences and meetings with the PEALS team. The collaboration for the Future (Now) Families project resulted in the design and production of educational dolls designed to explain to young children their biological and social origins. |
Official URL: | https://www.ncl.ac.uk/peals/ |
Output Type: | Artefact |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Science and Society, Bioethics, Science Education, Science Communication |
Media of Output: | Educational Dolls |
Schools and Departments: | School of Innovation and Technology |
Dates: | Date Date Type 1 September 2007 Published |
Funders: | Arts Council England |
Related URLs: | |
Projects: | Future (Now) Families |
Output ID: | 6506 |
Deposited By: | Elio Caccavale |
Deposited On: | 04 Mar 2019 15:39 |
Last Modified: | 13 Nov 2023 10:00 |