'Material Cultures of the NHS hospital: Exploring Historical Spaces through Historical Objects

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Following advancements in manual wheelchair technology in the 1930s, wheelchairs havebecome increasingly central to the movement of individuals within the hospital environment.The significance of the wheelchair, however, extends far beyond transportation. As materialobjects, they continually cross boundaries between the medical, the sensory, and theemotional. Nor do wheelchairs solely shape and change users' sensory experiences of hospitalenvironments and perceptions of illness; they also change how individuals in their presence,consciously and unconsciously, behave, feel, and act.Utilising the wheelchair to access sensory phenomena provides the project significant scopeto examine, for example, how changing NHS and governmental policy since 1948 hasaffected the accessibility of the hospital setting. The project will also provide excellentopportunities for public engagement and has the potential to assist museums' increasing driveto widen accessibility, using an interactive sensory exhibition to uncover the everydayexperiences of the NHS hospital.