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    Julie Born Schwartz: "APPROACHING DEATH: transforming our conversations around fear of dying" (2024)

    Music instrument under blue cover. Fieldwork at Zurich Lighthouse hospice in Switzerland (2024) copyright: Julie Born Schwartz
    Music instrument under blue cover. Fieldwork at Zurich Lighthouse hospice in Switzerland (2024) copyright: Julie Born Schwartz

      This artistic practice-based PhD project explores the fundamental question facing of all those who live, yet one which many feel unable to address - how do we talk about death?

      Throughout the project I will explore how the participation in, and also the documentation of, conversations can be used as an artistic material.

      An overall interest is to expand the conversations between sciences and research in art and end of life care.

      The first cornerstone was the preliminary sensory fieldworks in different palliative care departments in both Switzerland and Denmark. Here I observed non-medical treatments including dog therapy, sound therapy and art therapy and how it is being used in different ways in the two countries.

      Interested in exploring embodied ways of gathering and producing knowledge the second crucial cornerstone in the project was a Death Doula training course, where I was trained to become a certificated Death Doula myself, also known as a Soul Midwife. It is someone who helps emotionally and supports people at the end of life through; conversations, being present and creating environments for empathy.

      The third cornerstone was the preparations and conceptualisation of an artistic participatory event called “What Matters To You?” that will take place in 2025. I took time to find inspiration from my grandmother and grandfathers archives. They were both medical doctors that made workshops about communication between doctor and patients in the 1970’s, that is documented though texts, images and old recordings. In Denmark I also followed a palliative doctor in a hospital throughout her working day to observed her conversations with some of the terminal ill patients.

      Another aspect in order to prepare for the event was to experiment and make tests with different textile materials in order to find the right colour palette and fabrics to sew the new textile works that will be used in the event. 

      • Clock, The Palliativ Department at the hospital in Affoltern, Switzerland (2024)  copyright: Julie Born Schwartz Clock, The Palliativ Department at the hospital in Affoltern, Switzerland (2024)  copyright: Julie Born Schwartz
      • The smell of newly baked cookies in the common room. Fieldwork at The Palliativ Department at Bisbebjeg Hospital, Denmark. (2024) The smell of newly baked cookies in the common room. Fieldwork at The Palliativ Department at Bisbebjeg Hospital, Denmark. (2024)
      • Recording with a therapy dog and patients at The Palliative Care Department, Stadtspital Waid, Zürich. (2024) Recording with a therapy dog and patients at The Palliative Care Department, Stadtspital Waid, Zürich. (2024)
      • A sound massage session with sound therapist Danny Hass.  Fieldwork at The Palliativ Department at the hospital in Affoltern, Switzerland, 2024 A sound massage session with sound therapist Danny Hass.  Fieldwork at The Palliativ Department at the hospital in Affoltern, Switzerland, 2024
      • Colour palette and materials found for textile works. Colour palette and materials found for textile works.

      I started the project being interested in communication that was human language based, but a surprise finding in the process was the meaningful and effective communication that goes beyond the human language which I observed in the sound therapy and dog therapy sessions.

      Throughout the whole process  it has been crucial for me to question different ways to gather and produce knowledge as an artistic researcher. Therefore it was very meaningful to go through the Death Doula training myself. Here I learnt about other ways to communicate that sometimes is more about silence and being present, and I also learnt about the impact scent can have in the dying room. This discovery has fuel an idea for a new work for the doctoral project about scent. The training overall had a big impact on the process of preparing, thinking and creating the artworks for the doctoral project.