Cripping the Archives

Cripping the Archives is our archival work package through which we are co-producing archival research together that explores respiratory health and illness in and across different archival collections. Two of our community researchers Haffizah Ali and Ruth Bridgens, and our Principal Investigator Kirsty Liddiard, with the guidance and support from the project's Artist-in-Residence Louise Atkinson, are working as archival researchers via online collaborative workshops exploring collections related their  individual interests. 

The aims of the Cripping the Archives are: 

• To situate people with lived experiences of respiratory illness and ventilation as Archival Researchers to draw upon broader themes of embodiment, emotion, access and representation; 
• To virtually explore different archives together (including our very own project the Museum of Breathing on Instagram);
• To co-produce and exhibit creative responses to archival collections, materials and/or objects which rewrite or re-story chronic respiratory illness from the perspectives of those with lived and embodied experiences.
• To document our approaches to co-production, virtual methods and rethinking accessibility within archival research.

In March and April 2027, we will be participating in an exhibit at the Florence Nightingale Museum in London. You can keep up to date with this work by following our Newsletters.

To learn more about our Museum of Breathing please click here.