Sarah Scaife

Department: Department of Communications, Drama, and Film
Discipline: Drama

Project Summary

Medicines of Uncertainty: in a more-than-human world, how might polyvocal, practice-based performance methods re-imagine spaces of hope following spells of illness? 

Thinkers increasingly point out that human health crises are closely entwined with the health of the planet. This practice-based research seeks medicines at the ecotone between health, environment & ecology and performative arts.

Here certain notions and relationships of medicine might be re-inspired through lived body-place-stories. What kinds of medicines of the imaginary might this enquiry reveal and share? 

Arguably, arts-based enquiry can embrace and work with health uncertainty in ways which are not available through the scientific method.

Supervisory Team

Dr Bryan Brown, University of Exeter (Department of Communications, Drama and Film)

Dr Maria Vaccarella, University of Bristol (Department of English).

Funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership (SWW DTP).

Wider Research Interests

Sarah came to this research after a career in arts and heritage. This left an enduring influence in her more-than-human aesthetic. She is intrigued by archaic objects such as materia medica, pop-up anatomy books and medieval folding almanacs. Referencing archaic sources draws attention to the notion of ‘medicine’ as culturally conceptualised and shifting across time. This is not least because a deeper historical perspective re-presences ecology and relationship alongside technology in the practice of medicine.

Walking as a research practice is another enduring interest. 

Authored Publications/Reports

Blackwell, Ian & Scaife, Sarah (2006) Networks and Partnerships: Building Capacity for Sustainable Audience Development, The Responsive Museum. Working with Audiences in the Twenty-First Century. C. Lang, J. Reeve & V. Woollard (eds) Aldershot, Ashgate Publishing, 61-73

Scaife, Sarah (1995) Welcoming Adults with Learning Disabilities at Wakefield Museums & Galleries, Museums and the Education of Adults. , A. Chadwick & A. Stannett (eds) Leicester, NIACE

Scaife, Sarah (2021) Fluxambol: Prototyping a Medicine of Uncertainty, The Polyphony. Conversations across the Medical Humanities., https://thepolyphony.org/2021/10/29/fluxambol-prototyping-a-medicine-of-uncertainty/

Scaife, Sarah (2020) Magical Aesthetics: Walking with Eight Legs., Walking Bodies. Papers, Provocations, Actions. , H. Billinghurst, C. Hind & P. Smith (eds) Charmouth: Triarchy Press, 1-10