The Rainbow Passage

Lines of Communication is an artist's research residency, exhibition and public event examining communication structures through the interrelationship between visual arts practice and speech therapy science and applications. The project was based in the Speech and Language Therapy Department of Addenbrooke's Hospital Cambridge, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh and Bristol and York NHS Hospitals. The residency culminated in artwork that was exhibited within Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge and The Babylon Gallery, Ely in 2005 together with a performance in Ely Cathedral entitled Voice Human Action (illustrated as a separate work on this website). An exhibition at The Old Hospitium, York in 2006 was accompanied by a research presentation given to the North of England Otolaryngology Conference. The project was funded by Arts Council England and Artsadmin and supported by Addenbrooke's Hospital, Norwich School of Art and Design and Willis Newson Arts and Health Consultancy.

The project aimed to: research the voice as a means of communication: its function and malfunction, foster a professional interface and identify common ground between artists and scientists, develop through interchange with scientists a mutually relevant aesthetic language to communicate ideas, express the outcome in an artistic form that provides a gateway for comprehension and engagement with others and address the impact of technology on the conversation and traditional forms of communication.

The Rainbow Passage is a short piece of text that is used by speech therapists in clinic to assess the vocal ability or patients. It is full of alliteration, unusual consonant and vowel combinations and short and extended passages to test breathing and speech patterns. One of the many works made, this short film shows the artist's larynx from a nasal camera as she reads the rainbow passage text.