A Different Kind of Different
- Submitting institution
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Royal College of Art(The)
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Baseman1
- Type
- M - Exhibition
- Venue(s)
- London/Online
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of first exhibition
- -
- Year of first exhibition
- 2015
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- A Different Kind of Different (ADKoD) is an animated film that creates greater awareness of the psychological impact of physical difference, disfigurement and post-surgical trauma, with particular reference to the wearing of mastectomy tattoos by people with breast cancer. These issues are explored through the hand-drawn animation which features the main character, Alicia, undergoing double-mastectomy surgery, declining breast reconstruction and instead adorning her chest with a tattoo, camouflaging and decorating her surgical/radiation scars, marking her survival.
ADKoD is written by Jordan Baseman with Sally O’Reilly. The script is based on field research interviews conducted by Baseman with wearers of mastectomy tattoos, tattooists and academics who share an expertise in tattoos and our relationships to body politics and skin. The Clinical Health Psychologist Dr Becky Coles-Gale (NHS Major Trauma and Critical Care Services) also played a role in the development of the script.
ADKoD actively contributes to ongoing conversations about the body, consent, and agency within contemporary culture and within clinical environments where ADKoD is being used as a catalyst for discussion by cancer groups.
Because of Covid-19 we changed the initial delivery of the film from physical screenings to an online delivery (kindofdifferent.org). ADKoD was screened publicly in January 2021 with accompanying presentations from leading Breast Surgeons Anees Chagpar (Yale Medical School) and Fiona MacNeill (The Royal Marsden); curators George Vasey and Professor Gemma Blackshaw; and filmmaker Mania Akbari, among others. ADKoD was screened privately in late 2020 and early 2021 at various Maggie’s Centres and at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. In March 2021 a programme of events and screenings will be delivered around ADKoD by the MAC in Belfast.
ADKoD is funded by a Public Engagement Award from the Wellcome Trust and is produced by Matt’s Gallery London and Nerve Centre Derry.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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