Louise Emma Whiteley

Short presentation

I’m an Associate Professor in Medical Science Communication at Medical Museion and the NNF Center for Basic Metabolic Research, and my position involves research, teaching, and museum work. One of my key research interests is how biomedical research that implicates the mind affects peoples' understandings of themselves, in part through its representation in popular culture. A second key research interest is how museum exhibitions, artworks, and performance can engage with and illuminate the relationship between science and the subjective experiences it invokes, acting as a form of public research that allows different disciplinary practices to 'make something together'.

My current project is a combined exhibition and research study, focusing on how science has attempted to understand our 'gut feelings' over time. In particular, the implications of contemporary research into connections between the brain, gut, and microbiome for understandings of mental illness. The exhibition we are currently producing, Mind the Gut, is supported by the Bikuben Vision prize 2015, and involves a 'co-curation' process that invites artists and scientists to join the curatorial team. We are also researching this process, investigating how the co-curation methodology might push the boundaries between science, art, and cultural history exhibitions. 

I’m also interested in the ethics of science communication as public engagement, and the conflicts of motivation that can occur when public engagement draws on or intersects with artistic methods.