Graphic Medicine

Here's a short break from blogging about the creative process to mention this exciting conference that I'll be presenting at next week. If you're in or near Brighton I'd highly recommend coming along. I first discovered Graphic Medicine through Andrew Godfrey, who mentioned the website to me not long after we first met. I had the great pleasure of attending (and speaking at) their conference day in Leeds in 2011, where I met many lovely people with creative and/or academic interests like mine, exploring and discussing the interface between comics and medical practice. This year's conference theme is ethics, and I'll be presenting a paper about some of the questions I faced during work on Lighter Than My Shadow. In particular my ethical concerns were about how much detail to share. I'll talk about why I never reveal my lowest weight, but having made that decision, whether it's then contradictory to show illustrations of an emaciated body: don't they amount to the same thing? And my questions about sexual abuse: what do and don't I need to show to make the story both clear and impactful without being gratuitous? I won't give too much away as I'll probably share some of the presentation here after the conference: I'm sure it will also be made available as a podcast, too. It's a great honour to be presenting at this year's conference, and I'm really excited about it (nervous, too). I'm part of a panel call Moral Risks, speaking alongside Andrew Godfrey and Emma Mould, Ravi Thornton and Matthew Green, and John Swogger. I'm also looking forward to presentations from Paula Knight, Mita Mahato, Simon Moreton, Sarah Lightman, MK Czerwiec and Ian Williams, plus a workshop with Hannah Berry. And that's without even mentioning the keynote speakers, Nicola Streeten, Paul Gravett and David B! Also, if last time is anything to go by, the weekend will be a whirlwind of making new connections with people from all over the world with lots of different backgrounds, sharing ideas and enthusiasm. I can't wait.