Over the past 4 years, an interdisciplinary team of artists, social scientists, neuropsychologists, and people living with or affected by rare dementias have been working together to develop a line-drawing methodology to better understand experiences of rare dementia diagnosis and support.
Talking Lines is a research project which combines both visual and verbal modes of communication, taking the concept of the drawn line as a starting point to promote communication and narrative construction.
Building on pilot research which has explored line making in relation to accessibility, visual perception and the body, Talking Lines invited 27 people living with or caring for someone with a rare dementia to draw lines and talk about their experiences; reflecting on deeply challenging situations such as maintaining identity in the face of diagnosis, the realities of care, and wider social and cultural narratives about dementia.
Read the Talking Lines research protocol paper
‘Talking Lines’: The Stories of Diagnosis and Support as Told by those with Lived Experience of Rarer Forms of Dementia
Find out more about the exhibition at Drawing Room library (Sept-Dec 2023)
Talking Lines has been jointly funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). This research forms part of the RDS Impact Study which started in 2019 and will be running until 2024. It is a collaboration between University College London (UCL), Bangor University and Nipissing University in Canada, led by Professor Sebastian Crutch from the Dementia Research Centre, UCL. The artistic component for the Talking Lines project is led by visual artist Charlie Harrison, who is working alongside a team of social scientists and people with lived experience to devise, analyse and evaluate this method. Further research team members include Dr Emma Harding, UCL, Sam Rossi-Harries, UCL, Dr Adetola Grillo, Nipissing University (Canada), Prof Mary Pat Sullivan, Nipissing University (Canada) and Prof Paul Camic, UCL.