The Grey Space - Collaborative Work - Yas Crawford Photography

THE GREY SPACE.

My experience of working collaboratively has been only one of success. Its led to development of research papers, imagery for PhD research, front covers for journals, animated videos for exhibition and extended my knowledge and ability to delve deeper into a variety of subject areas. Working collaboratively has so many benefits, new thinking, new ideas, improved mental health and wellbeing, a new perspective.

Working in the 'grey space' or the 'space in-between' art and science and other disciplines can be challenging. Accuracy of science and the abstraction of art can only intertwine as one when we overcome the fear of those anomalies and revel in the beauty of its ambiguity. Inaccuracies and ambiguity after all feed our enquiring minds, whilst the experience of failed images and failed science offers new direction and new results. To narrow our field of expertise narrows our imagination, our creativity and space to learn.

If we have been lucky enough to dip in and out of the art and sciences or a mix of disciplines during our careers, as I have been, we might describe ourselves as 'multi - or intra- or inter- or anti- or trans- disciplinary'. Each description suggesting a new category and a separation of work which we need to avoid. Being careful about how we describe the future of collaborative work will ensure we work openly in the present and through which we can anticipate our future.

THE EYE

2021 - Present.

I am presently working with with the John Curtin School of Medicine, Canberra and the Neuronal Signalling Group at the Eccles Institute of Neuroscience of the Australian National University Mapping Neurons and exploring threatening visual stimuli in rodents, and how they can evoke innate defensive behaviours, freeze and escape. Images were produced for a front cover for journals and for others to understand scientific concepts.

My discussions with Yas have provided me with better insight into how my work is perceived and I find it intriguing to see her interpretation of the science in the form of visual art_Dr R. Broersen.

This work continues at the Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

All Images ©Yas Crawford. 2020-present. The Eye I-III

Archival images sourced form Neuronal Signalling Group, Eccles Institute of neurosciences.

CELLULAR FLOW, I'VE BEEN THINKING.

An animation created for the Solo Exhibition Cellular Flow... Ive been thinking., Barge, Turin, Dec 21 - Feb 22 with S Dorosti an MSc Graduate from Tehran University of Art, a new media and multidisciplinary artists.

Photographer and Visual Fine Artist, Yas Crawford describes her musings behind a new series ‘Cellular Flow_ I’ve been thinking’. The images describe an unsettling journey of chronic illness, its complexity, beauty and uncontrollable flow are delicately combined in an otherworldly biological space. Read more here....

Joint Copyright: © Yas Crawford. 2021-22. Cellular Flow Images https://www.yascrawford.com/cellularflow © Sarshar Dorosti. 2021-22. Video animation.

All images © Yas Crawford. 2020 - 2021

THE HONEY BEE

This emergent mixed media is created in response to the Pint of Science Open Call for collaborative artwork related to scientific topics. Working with and Sophie Evison, Evolutionary Biologist Assistant Professor at Nottingham University and her work on the Honey Bee and its environmental plights.

Yas Crawford using 2D and 3D photography creates imagery that acts a backdrop for the production as well as reveal the directional flow of the honey bees. The sun’s position essential for how the swarm navigates. As the sun rises and the pesticides cause devastating effect, the gentle flow of the bees and their navigation systems are interrupted.

Amy Bonsor’s animated element responds to patterns in the structure of the combs, the bees’ processes and lifecycle, and the disruption caused by the prevalence of disease. Paper, stitch, hand drawing and wax were used to reflect hive activities capturing first the methodical pattern, then a disease-disrupted pattern.

Amy Corcoran employs sound as an emotive means of representing processes central to healthy honey bee hives: foraging, communication, and role differentiation. Subsequent disruptions to these sonic patterns symbolise the threats of pesticides, which can ultimately result in a breaking down of hive.

All images © Yas Crawford. 2019 - 2021

POST EXERTIONAL MALAISE.

A CLINICAL TRIAL

Working with the Clinical Imaging and Sciences Centre, Brighton in 2019, a selection of images were created to reflect an ongoing trial on Post Exertional Malaise in M.E/cfs patients. One aspect of the investigation looked at neurological Interoception in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E) patients.

Interoception is considered to be The 8th Sense, a link between bodily sensation and emotional reactions. In recent decades the idea of how the body processes information and bodily sensations has created the idea of the experienced phenomenologically lived body as the basis of consciousness. Limited computational and cognitive theories suggests that the study of interoception remains enactive.

THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

Working with PhD Researchers from the Quadram Institute of Biosciences Norwich on the immune system of M.E/cfs patients, a series of images were created to support their individual research. The artworks were later used for press release and for an international scientific exhibition in London, the IIMEC14 attended by scientists, researchers, carers and patients.