Testing Situations

About

Are the voices of people living with dementias diminished by cognitive testing materials? This installation highlights the prevailing will to communicate whilst exploring the creative, historical and aesthetic qualities concealed in a test of reading. Featuring 6 narrators who encounter a range of challenges with reading; from perceiving letters and words, to speaking aloud or understanding meaning, the project hopes to consider, discuss and extend the parameters by which a person is assessed.

The short passage read aloud in the narrations is commonly used by doctors and neuropsychologists when assessing reading abilities. It was devised by Emeritus Professor Elizabeth K Warrington as part of the Queens Square Screening Test for Cognitive Defects. The text includes details from Prof Warrington’s personal history and the installation at Jupiter Woods will explore these names, places and objects in association with the narrations.

Testing Situations is an ongoing research project led by artist Charles Robert Harrison, working at the intersection of diagnostic assessment and artistic practice. The installation will present the first screening of the ‘Neva’, an evolving film project due to tour the UK in 2019. This work is supported by Wellcome and Created Out of Mind, the 2nd residents of The Hub at Wellcome Collection in London; made in collaboration with Rare Dementia Support group members and researchers at the Dementia Research Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology. Please contact us for more information about the project and a full list of contributors.

Opening Hours
Private View - Thursday 10th January 6-9pm
Gallery Open - Thursdays / Fridays / Saturdays 12-6pm and by appointment

Exhibition runs until Sunday 3rd February. 

Discussion Event TBC.