Bone Flute: An Art-Science Research Project

This chapter explores an art-research project that uses biomedical imaging to produce an artwork and exhibition while investigating a research topic. The author is the artist-researcher who designed and produced the project in collaboration with an orthopedic surgeon and a musician, while a research fellow investigating the use of emerging technologies in healthcare in Africa at the University of Cape Town. The author became a medical patient due to a diagnosis of illness during the course of the project, and brought this material into their work. The project centers on the production of the artwork Bone Flute, a replica of the author’s femur made into a flute, that was made in a public hospital using the surgeon’s tools and three-dimensional printing (3Dp) processes. This object formed the centerpiece of a public exhibition in conclusion of the research fellowship, in an artist-run gallery space. The chapter takes the form of a personal essay which explores each of the author’s roles as researcher, artist, and patient. It focuses on a number of collaborative relationships that enabled the realization of the artwork, and frames the project, and the chapter itself, as a form of storytelling.