#CelebratingEngagement
with Bella Spencer
"Could you hop onto the plinth?” I ask.
It’s an odd request but I’ve spent an hour or so with Bella and get the feeling she’s comfortable going along with bizarre suggestions. Bella Spencer is the Public Engagement Officer at the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) for Smart Medical Imaging and was the 2021 winner of the Inspirational Partner award for the President’s Awards for Excellence in Societal Engagement.
She was nominated by the academics she works with for bringing together artists and researchers to create pieces of digital art to engage wider audiences with the Centre’s work.
She duly hops onto the plinth - embracing the element of absurdity entailed - and smiles for the camera.
“The work that the centre does is so fascinating – some of it has the potential to revolutionise healthcare,” Bella says. “So, it’s really important we engage the public with this work.” Among a wide variety of projects, the Smart Medical Imaging group looks at how big data and artificial intelligence can be used to optimise imaging and diagnosis in medicine.
“The research raises important questions and concerns, so creating a safe space for these to be explored is key to the development of the technology. I find engaging with the arts can really help create that safe space. Art and science are both about exploring topics really – they just have different approaches and the ability to reach different audiences.”
Artwork by Jonathan Jackson from the 2020 ART x SCIENCE project, which saw Imperial researchers team with students from the Royal College of Art to produce unique works of art.
Artwork by Jonathan Jackson from the 2020 ART x SCIENCE project, which saw Imperial researchers team with students from the Royal College of Art to produce unique works of art.
Bella’s award came in recognition of her work on the 2020 ART x SCIENCE project, but she has recently worked on an even larger, 2021 iteration – an in-person exhibition at the Science Museum featuring art installations exploring medical imaging research. Artists from the Royal College of Art collaborated with scientists from Imperial and King’s College London to produce awe-inspiring works such as In Utero. This piece, by RCA post-graduate students Stiliyana Minkovska, Sarah Schrimpf and Wushang Tong, and Perinatal Imaging & Health PhD student Julie Sigurdardottir, was inspired by conversations with parents from the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Maternity Voices Partnership, and explored the impact that maternal mental and physical health can have on the development of babies in the womb.
Meanwhile, Hidden Stories of the Heart from Biomedical Engineering PhD student Marica Muffoletto and RCA post-graduate students Elizabeth Olukoya and Sophie Richter explored the ways that trauma can impact the shape and structure of the heart over time, using both cutting-edge medical imaging and first-person accounts of women from the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry. An audience of more than 1500 attended the exhibition, with visitors describing the installations as “powerful”, “fascinating” and “emotional.”
“This shows the interwoven nature of everything in life” says a visitor's comment card. Which makes Bella’s role seem all the more important – creating opportunities for interaction between art and science.