INTERFACING was a project bringing together scientists and patients to discuss the current role of data in pancreatic cancer research.

The aim of the workshop was to spark new conversations and re-frame the context of qualitative research whilst creating a piece of new artwork that represented this. The workshop acted as a safe and open online space to discuss the use of personal data in a medical research setting, explaining it’s current role in training AI models to diagnose and predict pancreatic cancer at an earlier stage. We also encouraged candid conversations about the worries and fears surrounding the concept of sharing our personal data, using the visual cues and questions as a vehicle to guide what can be very personal and difficult topics to talk about openly with strangers.

Workshop instructions example Page 1

Workshop instruction example page 2

Through a series of qualitative research questions participants created their own ‘data self portraits’ during a virtual art workshop. These self portraits were then photographed microscopically to create a dataset of 1000 images. This dataset was then used to train an AI model similar to those currently used by medical researchers to improve early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

INTERFACING (2021) framed prints

Interfacing Data self portrait 3

Interfacing Data self portrait 6

Interfacing Data self portrait 9

This created a film of new, shifting, hybrid images that represent how the scale of datasets used in medical research unify the contributors as they become anonymized by the process, representing the disparity between the macrocosm of big data and the microcosm of personalised individual patient care. This film is a collaboration between artificial intelligence, artist, medical researchers, pancreatic cancer patients and their carers.

This project was a collaboration between artist Molly Macleod, Senior Research Fellow at WEISS & UCL Ester Bonmati, Clinical Research Fellow at WEISS & UCL Alexander Ney, Professor of Hepatology & Gastroenterology at UCL Stephen Pereira, Postdoctoral Training Fellow at UCL Alexander Grimwood.

This project was managed and overseen by Simon Watt & made possible with funding from UCL and WEISS: Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences.

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Website www.mollymacleod.com

Instagram @mollymacleodstudio

Art, Education, Science, video