Exploring the problem space in the designing of a Therapeutic Mask for Diabetic Retinopathy using Empathic Imagination and use of Somatic Perceptions

Morehead, Sarah (2019) Exploring the problem space in the designing of a Therapeutic Mask for Diabetic Retinopathy using Empathic Imagination and use of Somatic Perceptions. Polyphotonix Medical.

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Official URL: https://noctura.com/

Abstract

This research is a reflection on the process of making a medical therapeutic mask housing and the role of the knowing body in understanding materials and 3 dimensional pattern cutting. It explores the somatic presence and embodied knowledge of the designer and the stakeholders from Noctura in perfecting an artefact more suitable and comfortable than their existing product. That is to gain greater compliance in the wearing of the therapy in order to arrest or improve the diabetic retinopathy condition in the patient/user. https://noctura.com/ The work is situated in new and emerging discourses in design and knowledge about the senses and how we learn through our bodies. I draw on research methodologies from Richard Shusterman on Somaeasthetics to Blakeslee and Blakeslee in understanding the neuroscience behind somatic bodily knowledge to Sian Builock in how the ‘Body informs the mind’. How experiences through our own bodies shape how we build and ‘feel’ knowledge about ourselves. How we ‘Feel’ as in emotional resonance and ‘Feel’ as in Tactile, proprioceptive somatic knowledge of self. Sensorial Design is about the body for the body and how we use this knowledge to reflect and understand others experiences and their somatic presence with felt empathy. Alfred Margulies in his publication The Empathic Imagination, talks of Keats “negative capability”. He explores Keats' interest in empathy and his pursuit in the ‘goal of feeling himself into the reality of the other, as if to illuminate the object contemplated from within.’ Connecting with this pursuit, I aimed to elicit clear felt experiences about each person’s somatic understanding in using the mask. It was important that I became part of the Noctura team. I volunteered my own felt experiences, where valuable, in medical and interpersonal interactions to allow for meaningful dialogue that was not restricted to the normal formalities of a business meeting. The relationship-building and congruence in this collaboration aided my understanding of the different sensibilities to illness, to the body as subject and the body as object. The design processes and understanding were inclusive leading to the use of empathic imagination in the creation of the mask.

Item Type: Other
Uncontrolled Keywords: Multi-Sensory Experience, Body Perceptions, Sensorial Design, Authenticity, Empathography
Subjects: B900 Others in Subjects allied to Medicine
W200 Design studies
Department: Faculties > Arts, Design and Social Sciences > Design
Depositing User: Paul Burns
Date Deposited: 08 Jul 2019 14:53
Last Modified: 08 Jul 2019 14:53
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/39900

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