Bodies and Socio-Histories -- An Interdisciplinary Colloquium for Postgraduate Students, Goldsmiths University of London

This conference happens in February 2010 and will "...explore the relationship between physical practice and historical narrative."

Well. Gosh darn it. If physical and narrative aren't my two favourite words...


Life Lines: Rupture and Healing in the Personal and Social Body

Abstract:
As the boundary between the inside (body) and the outside (world), the skin plays an important role in the creation of identity [1]. Paint, burns, inscriptions and areas of exposure all convey information about oneself and one’s body. As zones of both rupture and healing, scars are multivalent markers of this social information. Life Lines, an interdisciplinary and multimedia project that collects and exhibits photographic portraits and autobiographical narratives of the scarred body, uncovers personal stories of skin rupture and healing. In doing so, it exposes the socio-cultural contexts from which bodily stories derive, and the social implications of sharing a personal medical history.

Since 2006, over 50 participants have either been photographed or submitted photographs to this project, which can be found online at http://www.onlinelifelines.blogspot.com. Participants are also requested to write or discuss their experiences of having acquired their scars, and the meanings they believe to be attached (both by themselves and society at large) to their scars. The project is exhibited online, at academic conferences, and in gallery settings.

Contrary to popular belief, there is no clear correlation between the size or appearance of a scar and the psychological distress that it causes [2]; generational divides have also been shown to indicate oppositional perceptions of scars’ appearances, meaning and importance [3]. As with other facets of bodily identity, the scar’s representation is fluid, determined by one’s location in place, time and larger socio-historical narratives. Life Lines participants demonstrate their efforts to navigate the ever-shifting personal and social complexities engendered by bodily experience.


REFERENCES
1. Bakhtin, M. M. Toward a Philosophy of the Act. Vadim Liapunov, Michael Holquist, Eds. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993.
2. Tebble, Nicola J., Robert Adams, David W. Thomas, Patricia Price. Anxiety and self-consciousness in patients with facial lacerations one week and six months later. British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery 44 (2006) 520-525.
3. Yanik, M., Gurel, Simsek, Kati. Psychological Impact of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis. Clinical and Experimental Dermatology 29 (2004) 464-467.