SLEEP
A Good Night's Sleep
Laura chose the topic of sleep for this project because although it is essential for our health and survival, many of its mechanisms remain a mystery. Clinical and translational research explores multiple factors that regulate our sleep, and what happens when these processes become disregulated.
Alongside this, there is public health interest in sleep, in part because the relationship between sleep and health is circular; poor sleep can be both cause and consequence of other health problems including physical and mental health difficulties. Sleep is also something we can easily take for granted, or restrict, by living in a 24/7 society, if we don’t recognise its importance for our health and wellbeing.
The work for A Good Night’s Sleep was developed using data from Laura’s personal overnight sleep study (Polysomnography - “PSG”). Polysomnography enables sleep technologists and clinicians to understand the quality and quantity of an individual’ sleep in a clinical setting, and makes the invisible processes of sleep visible. This dataset includes electroencephalography EEG, heart rate, blood oxygenation and Electrocardiogram (ECG). Working with it enabled conversations with medical technologists, and clinicians about how PSG data is used in diagnosis.
BEHIND THE MAKING
During the project Laura became interested in the line that was created from the EEG signal. She selected a section of the data, and worked with the line to create a range of images using different print processes including Lino cut, etching, and plaster.
Over time she started to think of the line as a horizon, or cityscape, and explored the idea of sleep as a place we inhabit. I experimented with laser cutting to create models, which I am continuing to develop, and also used the templates for relief printing.
Alongside printmaking Laura also experimented with collage, creating images from different methods of representing the data (graph, raw signal, textile). From these she developed screen prints, and created the designs which have been used for in the installation.
