In this chapter we talk with Hannah Cornish, curator at the Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL with Thomas Kador, Lecturer in Creative Health on the UCL Arts & Sciences programme. Hannah provides intellectual access to a collection of 68,000 specimens. She designs and facilitates museum teaching, collaborating with researchers and artists, managing collection documentation, and working on events, exhibitions, and projects. Thomas has a background in archaeology and chemical engineering. His research and teaching interests include object-based learning, culture, health and wellbeing, public and community-based approaches to heritage and everyday practices. Together we discuss body stones as liminal objects, their preservation, collection, and biographies. We explore the many layers of meaning that can be read and see what we can add to their story.
Date of episode recording: 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z
Duration: 46'34''
Language of episode: English
Presenter:alfonso borragán and Sarah Bayliss
What is Body Stones and Other Bodies?
Body Stones and Other Bodies is a series of conversations led by artist alfonso borragán with artist Sarah Bayliss. These discussions explore the strange gems generated inside our bodies: kidney stones, bladder stones, gallstones, rhinoliths, pancreatic stones, and sialoliths. The stones, sedimented within us, defy conventional definitions. Neither stone nor tissue, they exist in a state of in-between. These ambiguous entities, currently housed in the UCL Pathology Museum, represent the "other body"—the otherness of our matter, and maybe a possible material form of Spinoza's trans-individual.