Bionic eyes and artificial tongues: major new exhibition opens

Thackray Museum of Medicine is thrilled to announce the launch of a major exhibition exploring personalised medicine and how personal choices, preferences, and needs can influence health and wellbeing. ‘You Choose’ opens at the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds on Saturday 20 July 2024 and will run until Sunday 5 January 2025.

What if we could 3D print our own medicines? How could AI help us spot disease earlier? What if you had a digital twin who could test treatments for you? The exhibition showcases how everyday choices impact health and wellbeing, highlights new technologies transforming medicine, and demonstrates how simple decisions can improve our health, reminding us that everyone is unique. ‘You Choose’ is part of the University of Leeds’s LivingBodiesObjects (LBO) project, funded by the Wellcome Trust. LBO seeks to shape the direction of research in medical humanities and involves partnerships with the Bhopal Medical Appeal, Blueberry Academy, and Interplay Theatre. The project emphasises the importance of experimentation to better understand the relationship between bodies and health technologies.

What is personalised Medicine?

At its most technical, personalised medicine is an emerging practice that uses an individual’s genetic profile to guide decisions about the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. You Choose explores a wider understanding of patient and consumer choice and how patients might be able to influence their own health through their choices.

The Exhibtion

‘You Choose draws upon historic objects from Thackray’s collection – such as artificial eyes, pill packaging, glasses, and glucose monitoring equipment – as well as cutting-edge medical devices like 3D printing that makes custom pills. The exhibition will also highlight the views of local communities and people who have lived through different health conditions, such as diabetes.

Highlights from the exhibition include Meet Your Digital Twin. This interactive element visualises visitors as a mass of data. It shows how information about our bodies and our health can be used to make a digital “avatar” – a digital twin—which can be used to develop personalised treatments. Change your eye colour, another interactive part will let you change the colour of your eye in real time, each time you blink and discuss how important eye colour is in your identity. The Community Pharmacy comprises different-shaped pills designed by members of the local community and made using a 3D printer. These reflect their personal choices and come in a huge range of shapes – from pineapples to saxophones! Glass eyes, explore handmade eyes from specially designed pull-out drawers of artificial eyes from the past that have a huge range of complex, hand-painted designs.  

The exhibition will also feature creative contributions on the theme of personalised medication from volunteers, members of the local community in Harehills and young people from the region, as well as the views of people who have lived through different health conditions, such as diabetes. Museum visitors also had their eyes photographed to be featured in the exhibition by local photographers from The Lens Lab Project during a free open day for the local community.

The museum will celebrate the opening of this immersive family exhibition with a full programme of activities for all ages during the summer holidays. For any budding surgeons, there’ll be the return of their infamous Hands-on Eye Dissection experiences on Fridays and Saturdays. There will also be explosive science shows by the Thackray Boffins all about ear drums, live from the museum every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. For the smaller members of the family, free Storytime sessions for the under 5s will take place in the museum’s dedicated role play area Sparks! Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning. 

Enter an immersive and unmissable experience for all the family and explore how cutting-edge technology can level up your healthcare.

Dr Jack Gann, Curator of the You Choose exhibition, said:

“We have had an enormous amount of fun going on a journey of personalised medicine and med tech with the LivingBodiesObjects team. It’s been a really rewarding collaboration between a range of academics, creatives, and members of our museum community and has delivered an exhibition that tackles big issues in the future of medicine in a way that is playful and accessible to all.”

James Stark, Professor of Medical Humanities in the School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science, said:

“Personalised medicine is an area of huge expansion in health and healthcare, but it has been around for centuries. In the past, apothecaries would mix pills to order, and those who could afford it would have access to a personal physician. It’s been a huge privilege to collaborate with staff at the Thackray on this exhibition, which brings together the past, present and future of choice in medicine and health. Creating something which incorporates cutting-edge approaches in medical humanities and appeals to museum visitors has been such a thrilling experience.”

Exhibition Details:

Title: You Choose

Dates: Now until  5 January 2025

Venue: 141 Beckett Street, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS9 7LN