Researcher Blog by Dr Claire Craig: Lab4Living 10th Anniversary, Looking Back, Looking Forward
About the author
Claire Craig is Reader in Design and Creative Practice in Health in the Art & Design Research Centre (ADRC) and Co-Director of the interdisciplinary research group Lab4Living. Claire’s research focusses on the role of creative practices in improving quality of life and well-being for people living with dementia.
Claire recently took part in a number of events to mark the 10th anniversary of Lab4Living. This milestone has offered Claire the opportunity to reflect on her work as a researcher at the intersection of Healthcare and Creative Practice and to consider Lab4Living’s achievements over the last decade.
Photo copyright: Richard Hanson
Lab4Living is an interdisciplinary research cluster at Sheffield Hallam University which draws together researchers across design, creative practice and health. Founded in 2007, we recently we celebrated our tenth anniversary with an exhibition, various seminars and a short film. I wanted to use this blog as an opportunity to share some of my own thoughts about the events and about what being a researcher within Lab4Living has meant to me.
Research in many ways caught me by surprise. It was never part of my grand plan. However when I arrived at Hallam to take up a lecturing post thirteen years ago I was invited work half time on a one-year research project co-designing an intervention with older people to support active ageing. Way led onto way and I never really looked back. The experience of being part of our research was life-transforming for many of the individuals we worked alongside but it was also life transforming for me. It made me see the world differently and made me realise what research can contribute.
L4L researchers in action
Ten years on and I still feel as enthusiastic and committed to what we do as I did on that first day of being involved in research at Hallam. In Lab4Living no two days are ever the same. Our research uses design and creative practice as methods to build understanding, to problem set as well as problem solve and through this work to create products, services and interventions that impact on quality of life.
Over the last two weeks activities have included: interviewing individuals about end of life care in order to consider the role of design at this integral point, hearing ideas developed by health students about the design of a school environment, consulting with practitioners who want to set up an intervention to promote mental wellbeing in London, helping to support developments around the formation of a living lab in the Netherlands and being part of an exhibition at the Waag in Amsterdam. Next week I’m examining a PhD, facilitating workshops around designing a dementia friendly eye-clinic and supporting the hosting of the creative dementia arts network which will bring artists and musicians from all over the country to Hallam.
Lab4Living Partners
People often describe research as being quite ‘glamorous’. I don’t think people really see what happens behind the scenes. It’s often a real juggle. No-one speaks much about the hours it takes researching and assembling a grant application or the practicalities or of putting together an ethics proposal or ensuring that safeguards are in place to protect the health and safety of participants. There is also the matter of all the financial accounting, ensuring that grants spending is on target and that data is being stored appropriately. Then there is the need to share findings, to exhibit and write about what we do. I’ve learned that there is a level of obsessiveness that can be useful in research.
I do not ever under-estimate the responsibility that comes with what we do. I met a person the other week who held my hands, looked into my eyes and told me that without the intervention we had designed that she ‘would not be alive’. It is at times like this that you know you aren’t just playing at research. I know that everyone in the lab4living team has these experiences. I have visited other countries who have replicated and who are using products and interventions we have developed and at these times it feels incredibly rewarding. There are also the times where you have worked with a person with a life-limiting illness and they have contributed so closely to creating a solution that will make their life better and then their life is cut short because of the condition. This can be very challenging; particularly when the community of people we work with are so much part of what we do.
It helps that we have such a brilliant team. Our very different perspectives and skill-sets gives us great strength and always keeps us on our toes. We are fed and nurtured daily by our PhD students and community who are constantly challenging our thinking, asking questions which means that we are constantly moving forward.
I am often asked what advice I would give to new researchers. I tell people that the last ten years have taught me to start small but dream big, to trust the process and above all within your research, whatever approach you take or questions you seek to ask, to find your own dance.
Please note: Views expressed are those of the Author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of SHU, C3RI or the C3RI Impact Blog.
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