Festival-goers participating in the Helix Centre study
The festival featured four of the Institute of Global Health Innovation's streams of work.
What can bring together capturing climate emotions on camera, creating interactive art using stroke rehabilitation technology, building your own robot and planning the sequel of a film? It could only be the Great Exhibition Road Festival.
This year, the annual festival of free events celebrating how awe and wonder can inspire science and the arts featured four of the Institute of Global Health Innovation’s streams of work.
Climate Cares
Climate Cares, where our researchers work to understand the mental health impacts of climate change, supported a photography exhibition. Neal Haddaway’s exhibition ‘Hope? And how to grieve for the planet’, included 42 black and white photographs capturing the emotions of people who work in climate and ecological fields. 
Visitors to the exhibition were asked to reflect on their own emotions in response to the climate crisis. Feeling ranged from despair to hope, and questions about future generations (“How will my grandchildren cope?”). One visitor described how they found it interesting to see how the photographed researchers were so affected by their emotions about the climate and ecological crises. Recording those feelings was a springboard for conversations about the importance of coming together and taking action in response to the crises.
Healthcare design
Our Helix Centre offered festival-goers the chance to try their hand at being a designer - reviewing real designs from healthcare or everyday life. The Helix Centre’s work focuses on human-centered design, and works with people to understand their challenges and design products or services that have a positive impact on healthcare. Our 'designers for a day' considered who the designers hadn’t thought of when creating their product, or what works well and why.
Meanwhile, those over 16 were invited to participate in the GAMe (Gross Arm Motion Sensing) study. Participants’ arm, hand and finger movement was recorded through a smart watch, in order to improve an algorithm that will ultimately be used for arm rehabilitation for stroke survivors. With thanks to the 100s of visitors who participated, we collected data that will tell us more about what movements the smart watch can and can’t collect.
With the same technology, attendees created interactive digital art using the smart watch – with colourful shapes flying over the screen in relation to the direction and size of their movements.
Next Generation
In the Next Gen Zone at the V & A Museum, we screened Nexus, a short film drama about the mental health impacts of COVID-19 and the power of connection, based on our CCOPEY study. The first screening of the film had people from around the world watching, and deciding what comes next in the film. Researcher Dr Lindsay Dewa and co-producers Pelumi and Simi discussed potential future stories to tell, based on real life experiences of the film’s audience – ideas ranged from long Covid, to eco-anxiety, to what action the central character would take.
Viewers of Nexus consider what happens next in the film, and discuss with co-producer Pelumi
Collecting ideas for the Nexus sequel
One visitor, in considering the question “What happens next?” in the film said it was “very astute that the eating disorder was experienced y a young man.” The young people who co-produced the film had made that decision to break down the stereotype about who experiences eating disorders: not only women.
Awe and Wonder
The Hamlyn Centre offered a creative family workshop where participants designed and built their own robots from recycled materials throughout the weekend. On the Sunday of the festival, Dr Claire Asher hosted A live recording of the Robot Talk podcast and with guests Dr Glyn Morgan (curator of the Science Museum’s Science Fiction exhibition), Prof Thrishantha Nanayakkara (Imperial College London) and Prof Bani Anvari (University College London).
Inspiring awe and wonder among the thousands of visitors was all thanks to our wonderful IGHI volunteers who planned activities, chatted with visitors, explained our work and engaged the public with innovation in global health.
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Reporter
Victoria Murphy
Institute of Global Health Innovation
