Stemistry inquiry
Stemistry exhibition - "My Voice"
Over a weekend in June 2009 a group of adults and young people met at Shepherd’s Dene in Riding Mill, Northumberland, to discuss and reflect upon stem cell research and the impact it has on their lives and communities.
The resultant exhibition of photographs and text is – on one level – a document of what happened at the event. However, on a deeper level the images address not only the specific science but also the challenging and oft-asked question: "what is public engagement?"…
Read on, and view photographs from the exhibition »
Accompanying poems by Lisa Matthews
Shamshad
She deserves this crown
Harvested from the stems of the fields under evening clouds…
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Ask us
Decisions are not solely yours to make.
Where are our voices, our faces…
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The Ballad of Public Engagement
In time you will contribute
In time your voice will count
But until then you need to trust
Your views we will not flout…
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Mega magnetic poetry
In March 2008 Stemistry joined Life! in their stem cell dome in Durham and tried out their new Mega Magnetic Stemistry Poetry Boards.
The aim of our stall was to encourage members of the public to leave small poems, quotes and ideas on huge magnetic boards. We were trying to be like a huge oversized fridge that we hoped people would find eye-catching.
There was a large selection of individual words - words all associated with stem cell research/technolgy - and we got all sorts of responses from the public…
Fragments from the magnetic poetry board
- translating
- a
- biological
- grey
- area
- one
- is
- bone
- two
- is
- spine
- stem
- cells
- are
- wrong
- are
- stem
- cells
- wrong
- ?
My Voice: the exhibition's title image
Where are our voices, our faces…
Visiting scientist Chris Hutchinson
Exploring science with word-play