Bringing Breathlessness into View Exhibition

The Bringing Breathlessness into View exhibition, created in collaboration with artists and local people living with breathlessness, aims to raise awareness of what it is like to live with breathlessness and enable people to access support to manage breathlessness well.

Our research shows that patients with breathlessness feel poorly understood, stigmatised, and less able to participate in life. Hull is an area with high rates of respiratory disease and yet breathlessness management is not routinely offered.

This multi-media mobile exhibition was co-created by local people living with breathlessness, photographic and sound artists and health researchers. The striking images and engaging sound recordings to help people understand what it is like to have breathlessness.

The thought-provoking exhibition went on display across Hull and the East Riding and helped visitors develop a greater understanding of the difficulties breathlessness causes and provided information on how to live better with breathlessness so that people know there is something that can be done.

This project received funding from Hull City of Culture 2017, the Wellcome Trust and the University of Hull. For more information please read our blogs for the Asthma + Lung UK, British Journal of General Practice and the European Association for Palliative Care.

Listen to the BBC Radio Humberside interview with Joe Hakim, Ann Hutchinson, Anna Bean and Janice Tonge talking about using art to show what it is like to live with breathlessness.

Interview with Dr Ann Hutchinson

Dr Ann Hutchinson explains the background to the Bringing Breathlessness into View exhibition, raising awareness of what breathlessness is and what help is available so people can live better with breathlessness.

Participants

The participants were Else Johnson, Shaun Winter, Peter Hardman, Sue Clyne, Janice Tonge, Sue Dobson, Linda and Eric Broughton, June Pitt and Brian Lamb.

A huge thank you to the participants of this project, without whom this exhibition would not have been possible.

Dr Ann Hutchinson

Dr Ann Hutchinson is a Research Fellow at the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre at Hull York Medical School. Working with local people and the artists, Ann has led the development of this exhibition to show what it is like living with breathlessness.

Professor Miriam Johnson

Professor Miriam Johnson is Professor of Palliative Medicine at Hull York Medical School and Director of the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre at the University of Hull. Miriam is also honorary consultant palliative physician to Scarborough General Hospital and Saint Catherine's Hospice, Scarborough where she set up and continues to lead one of the UK’s first integrated palliative care services for people with heart failure.

Dr Rob Mackay

Dr Rob Mackay is a Reader in Music at the University of Hull where he is director of HEARO (Hull Electroacoustic Resonance Orchestra) which is a collective of artists at the University of Hull, dedicated to public presentation and engagement with sonic arts and electronic music, ranging from concert and gig performances, to gallery installations, public interventions, talks, and workshops.

Anna Bean

Anna Bean (aka Bluebeany) is a freelance photographic artist. Her photographic work recalls a long tradition of staged narratives and theatrical role-playing in art. She utilises the camera and various tools of the cinema and theatre, such as makeup, costumes, props, and scenery, to create dream-worlds filled with Gothic horror and surreal humour. She is inspired by cinema, theatre, television programmes, old masters and music. Within her work she is interested exploring the possibilities of the transformation of the everyday. She also quite often appropriates existing images and re-imagines them in a new context. Her most recent work has been experimenting with transforming her 2D created worlds into 3D immersive theatrical experiences allowing the audience to walk in and become part of these imaginary spaces.