Vertigo: Creative and Therapeutic Resources for Living with Vestibular Problems

Raychaudhuri, Anindya (Participant)

School of English

Impact: Health and Welfare Impact, Cultural, Creative Impact

Description of impact

This multi-disciplinary creative and therapeutic project will create a range of resources to support people who live with balance disorders. We will commission creative writing and performance pieces, as well as arts therapy workshops. We will also produce self-help resources designed to encourage people to use their own creative practice as a way to respond to their vertigo. All outputs will be hosted on an open-access website, accessible for balance therapists and their patients. The website will also provide a forum for people to engage with the project, submitting their own testimonies and creative engagements.

Who is affected

People living with vestibular problems.
Vestibular Rehabiliation therapists.

Impact status	Open
Category of impact	Health and Welfare Impact, Cultural, Creative Impact
Impact level	Involvement - mid or active stage

Documents & Links

What’s so good about balance? Dr Anindya Raychaudhuri investigates different notions of 'balance' to consider why we prize it so highly. Anindya suffers from Meniere’s Disease, a condition with symptoms including sudden dizziness and vertigo. His experiences have led him to think about the role balance plays in our lives, both physical and metaphorical. In this documentary he explores the vertiginous city of Edinburgh to seek different perspectives on balance - navigating science, the arts and philosophy and the work of Edgar Allan Poe, Bridget Riley and Erasmus Darwin, amongst others, as well as vertigo sufferers Anindya has met in his studies. His journey begins at Camera Obscura, Edinburgh's longest running tourist attraction. He'll attempt to pass through the Vortex Tunnel, a spinning tube of light and sound, designed to disorientate and make those who walk through it feel upside down. Andrew Johnson from Camera Obscura offers his view on why we seek out opportunities to get dizzy for pleasure. Wandering through Edinburgh's sheer cliffs, stairwayed closes and tall spires, Anindya seeks out Dill Hurwitz, balance physiotherapist, to find out what's going on in our bodies when we lose our balance and how it shapes our experience of the world. Contributors: Andrew Johnson, general manager of Camera Obscura; Dill Hurwitz, balance physiotherapist and research participants Sean, Louise and Marissa.