Genomics Language Toolkit

Genomics Language Toolkit

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  • The Challenge


    Reinvent the way language use is reviewed in genomics, especially with terms relating to race, ethnicity and ancestry in genomic data diversity.This grew out of the insight that no one could articulate the problems associated with lack of diversity in datasets because everyone had different ways of understanding the terminology associated with this data usage.

    Team:Originally a self-initiated prototype,this grew to me leading a part-time team of 2 (academic researcher, bioinformatician) and co-ordinating expert reviews with 18 experts across genomics.


  • Secrets Worth Sharing Comic

    Secrets Worth Sharing

    Secrets Worth Sharing: How to Talk about Child Sexual Abuse

    This book is to help non-abusing adults and teens to have supportive conversations with people who have experienced sexual abuse as a child. I have included stories from others victims and survivors*, as well as guidance from clinical psychologists, councillors and healthcare professionals. Please feel free to read, download and share!

    ITV: On The Mend

    ITV, On The Mend

    Celebrating NHS staff coming together by mending the ITV logo.

    4 months, 1 day filming, 1 week live on TV

    The Challenge

    The Problem

    Creating a framework for a group of NHS staff to make an ITV ident together and celebrate the contribution of healthcare professionals across the UK.


    The Outcome

    The framework for a workshop where a group of NHS staff was given broken sections of the ITV logo and had to mend the logo by using a craft related to their profession. A surgeon, for example, glued and stitched pieces back together with filler and thread. The participants constructed the logo live in front of cameras, in order to create the ident. The piece emphasised the journey of the shapes from broken pieces into a ‘fixed’ whole and celebrated the important role that creativity plays in supporting our health and wellbeing.


    https://youtu.be/V741FT2XfvY
    On The Mend & NHS Staff – ITV Creates

    Research and development

  • Context and restrictions


    • Must be made and filmed entirely in one day
    • Must allow for different levels of participation
    • Must look good as an ident and as a finished ITV logo
    • Must have a cohesive theme that will work well visually but also have room for surprise

  • Our methodology


    Concept Development

    When approached by ITV and Imperial Health Charity, our only guidance was creating an ITV ident collaboratively with a group of NHS staff, which celebrated Britain coming together. We spent lots of time brainstorming what that meant to us and how it could be visualised. We wanted to highlight the NHS coming together but also the importance of making something fun. After pitching to Imperial Health Charity and ITV Studio different concepts, we decided to work with a cut-out ITV logo that would be mended using different foam shapes.

    Product design

    The main part of the project was spent on designing and producing the pieces used for the workshop. We designed everything ourselves and got the different foam shapes cut from a local mattress company and the ITV cut-out in plywood from a local laser-cutting studio. We created shapes that evoked body shapes and organs but still looked playful and organic. We then tested various materials and ways of mending things together such as stitching, taping, gluing, paining, etc. in order to give the NHS staff different ways to express their creativity through mending.

     

    Delivery

    The workshop was facilitated entirely by us and filmed by the ITV film crew. We gave simple instructions to the NHS staff and showed them how the materials and tools could be used and played around with but then erased ourselves from the process as much as possible. This allowed them to have full autonomy on what the finished product would look like and give them the confidence to show and use their own creativity.

  • The Impact


    Quotes

    “I think it’s incredible to see how good we were working together.”

    — Workshop Participant

    “It’s really nice to be working with colleagues whom I don’t normally see.”

    — Workshop Participant, ___ (Orthopedic Surgeon)

    “It’s just a release really. It’s been a really positive experience.”

    — Workshop Participant, Carol (Dementia Care Nurse)

    “I probably haven’t done something this therapeutic in a long long time.”

    — Workshop Participant, Harvey (Child Physiotherapist)

    “We’ve produced something fantastic and that’s pretty much what we do everyday in the NHS.”

    — Workshop Participant

    “We were delighted to work with On The Mend and our NHS colleagues to bring this fantastic interpretation of the logo to life. The finished artwork beautifully represents the invaluable role of the NHS in looking after the nation’s health.”

    — Lucy Zacaria, Head of Arts at Imperial Health Charity

    The Insights

    That design and making really can bring people together and that creativity plays such an important role in supporting our health and wellbeing.

    Results

    • Working relationship with Imperial Health Charity
    • Exposure through ITV channel, the third most popular TV channel in the UK with more than 5 million viewers weekly

  • If we could do this again...


    We are honest about our successes and our failures. We know that we can never fix every single problem with a single interaction. Below are some of our key reflections, and things we would change if we could repeat this work: 

     

    Sustainability

    Let’s be honest, the materials we used for this ident were not sustainable and were only used for a one time event. It would have been great if we could have spent more time looking for more sustainable materials or reusing old materials other companies were not using. Ideally we would have also liked to give the final piece a second life and install it somewhere so it didn’t go to waste straight away.

     

    Feedback from all workshop participants

    It would have been really useful to send out an anonymous survey to all NHS staff who participated to understand a bit more about which aspects of the workshop they enjoyed and which we could have improved.

  • People and press

  • The Team


    Workshop development and facilitation – Sophia Luu and Mathilda Della Torre

    Charity partner – Imperial Health Charity (Lucy and Kate)

    Workshop participants –  Harvey, Carol, Lily

    Film crew – ITV Studios

    Generously supported by ITV Studios.

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