Arts/Health Research Group

A research group in the School of Art, Design and Architecture
Between Us (2019). Illustration by Skye Liu Tianzi 2018.
Between Us (2019). Illustration by Skye Liu Tianzi (2018)
The Arts/Health Research Group's work explores how placemaking and creative practice can lead to changing health-related behaviours and attitudes, thereby increasing awareness of the benefits of the symbiotic relationship between arts and health.
The Arts/Health Research Group works collaboratively to advance wide-ranging research and practice, network with individuals and institutions, connect with communities beyond the University, and inform policy at the dynamic intersections of art and design, science, technology, and health justice. Our mission is to challenge and disrupt conventional perspectives in health, care and ethical practices and to imagine and create conceptual and methodological approaches which push the boundaries of placemaking and knowledge-making practices at the confluence of arts and health (including wellbeing, care, relationalities, ethics, psychology and medicine).
Advocating a strong collegiate research culture that seeks to nurture and support innovative, dynamic and responsive research and pedagogic practices across a breadth of disciplines, our group encourages expansive exploration and experimentation. The Arts/Health Research Group thrives on collaboration, embracing both the Plymouth Institute of Health and Care Research (PIHR) and the Centre for Health Technology , while also extending our reach into broader transdisciplinary spaces and communities, both locally and globally. At the heart of our work is the belief that creative practice plays a critical role in enhancing wellbeing and advancing wellbeing toward society's resilience. 
 

Research areas

  • ?Digital health and innovation

  • ?Visual, immersive, experimental, and participatory art and design

  • ?Practice as research methodologies, research-informed practice

  • ?Quantum computing in relation to health

  • ?Trauma and memory studies related to all forms of art and performance practices

  • ?Imaginative futures of health justice

  • ?Meta-health and trans-technologies

 

Explore our research projects

Senior couple looking at an iPad.

EPSRC: Intergenerational Codesign of Novel technologies In Coastal communities (ICONIC)

Ruptured Domesticity: mapping spaces of refuge in Iraq

BA: Ruptured Domesticity

Community care worker joins an an elderly woman for a cup of tea while sitting at her kitchen table.

EPSRC: RadioME

Elderly person in wheelchair exercising using a virtual reality (VR) headset

ESRC: Generating Older Active Lives Digitally (GOALD)

Seascape of Whitsands Bay, Clouds in a blue sky.

Fresh Air World

carers 

There 2 Care Project

Photograph by Amsha, Ruptured Atlas participant

AHRC IAA: Ruptured Atlas

Hope in Plymouth artwork depicting a boat in the sea heading towards Smeaton's tower in Plymouth UK. 

NIHR: Routes to Wellness

 

Our researchers

PhD students and candidates
Miss Merrydith Russell – PhD candidate in Architecture; Doctoral Teaching Assistant 
Shadab Bahreini – PhD candidate in Built Environment
Patrycja Loranc – PhD candidate in Art and Media, Associate Lecturer in BA Filmmaking and Creative Media
Gail Flockhart – PhD candidate in Art and Media
Yiyun Li – PhD Student in Dance
Johara Bellali – PhD candidate in Transtechnology Research
Frieda Gerhardt – Practice-as-Research PhD candidate in Art, Technology and Health, with Transtechnology Research
Christiana Kazakou – PhD Candidate in Digital Arts and Technology
Yue Dong (DY) – Practice-as-Research PhD student in Dance
Miss Olasumbo Olaniyi  – PhD Student in Architecture
Frankie Baker – PhD student in Theatre 
Yin-Wen Lin – Practice-led research PhD student in Art and Media
Kumi Oda – PhD research in Arts and Health
 
Justice and Imagination in Global Displacement

Research in the School of Art, Design and Architecture

Our researchers work across the arts and humanities fields, from fine arts to game design to architecture and environmental engineering. We have particular strengths in interdisciplinary collaboration from a local to a global scale to advance knowledge and catalyse change. The focus of research in the School is on addressing global and societal challenges, and researchers are actively engaged with stakeholders outside the University context to contribute to meaningful and tangible impact for people, the environment, and communities.
Four Tet performs in the midst of a Squidsoup light installation in 2019 (courtesy: Rikard Osterlund/Squidsoup)

SHAPE disciplines address global challenges associated with marine, health and sustainability through the lens of place

Through five place-based research themes, we investigate the intricate relationships between communities, the natural world, and technology.
Locally, we co-create sustainable solutions to complex problems in order to build resilient and thriving neighbourhoods, cities, and regions. This work transcends geographical, social and political boundaries to become applicable on a global level.
 
Place-based research concept: crowd of people standing on a computer motherboard (full-bleed)
SHAPE – Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts for People and the Economy
 
rlb night view

Arts/Health Research Group

Dr Sana Murrani, Research Group Lead

University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA