Research Program

Researching through art

In my research, I investigate how art can help make experiences visible, shareable, and socially negotiable that are difficult to translate into language or scientific categories.

The starting point for my work is chronic illness – especially migraine. Migraine is highly physical and shapes perception, movement, work, relationships, and everyday life, yet it usually remains invisible to others. This tension between experience and visibility, subjective knowledge and societal understanding, forms the basis of my artistic research.

I don't understand art as simply an illustration of existing knowledge. Rather, I'm interested in what kind of knowledge can emerge through artistic processes.

Drawings, textile works, sculptures, installations, digital media, and participatory formats become research tools. They make it possible to investigate experiences for which established forms of scientific description or everyday communication are often insufficient.

My long-term goal is to develop a research practice at the intersection of artistic research, research creation, participatory art, health communication, and disability art.

From individual experience to shared knowledge.

It combines creative design, reflection and understandable medical information into an easily accessible tool for everyday life with chronic pain.

The book straddles the line between art, science communication, and self-help. It is neither a traditional coloring book nor a medical guide, but rather an open format that supports those affected by migraine in making their condition visible and reflecting on their own experiences.

The exercises range from simple doodles during mild attacks to visual pain scales and reflection and learning formats on neurobiology, triggers, and self-care. The focus is not on performance or "correct" drawing, but on perception, expression, and making individual experiences visible.

The result is a book that combines medical knowledge with artistic practice and opens up new possibilities for talking about migraine – with oneself, with relatives or in a medical context.

LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK

Invisible illnesses and subjective body knowledge

How can experiences of pain, exhaustion, limitation, insecurity, or loss of control be captured artistically?

I am particularly interested in what becomes visible when people describe their illness not using medical categories, but using their own perceptions and everyday lives.

In this context, I also investigate how artistic representations can change existing ideas about illness: away from visible physical deviation and towards experiences that are not immediately recognizable from the outside.

Art and health communication

How does communication about health change when art is not only used to illustrate scientific content, but becomes the starting point of communication itself?

I am particularly interested in the role of emotions, ambiguity, and personal involvement.

An artistic work can do more than just impart knowledge. It can create irritation, foster empathy, leave questions open, or prompt people to question their own perspective.

I want to investigate which of these processes can contribute to perceiving and discussing complex or stigmatized health issues differently.

Participation and Research Creation

My research does not arise solely from the examination of finished artworks. The artistic production itself is part of the research process.

In participatory projects, affected individuals, scientists, medical professionals, or other social groups become contributors.

I am interested in:

What changes when people not only talk about a topic, but create something together?

I understand participation not merely as involvement in a finished art project. Rather, participants can contribute their own knowledge, perspectives, and questions to the research process.

Emotions and science communication

Another area of research in my work develops from the question of what role emotions play in the reception of scientific and medical information.

How do emotional reactions to scientific topics arise?

How do these reactions change over longer periods of time?

And what role do different communicative and artistic formats play in this?

Here I see a special connection between artistic research and empirical research: artistic processes can open up new questions and spaces for experience, while empirical methods can help to systematically investigate changes in perception, emotion and communication.

Artistic Research
RESEARCH Creation

My research lies at the intersection of artistic research and research creation.

In my artistic work, insight arises from working with materials, bodies, and situations. I often begin with a question or an impulse—for example: What does dependence on medication feel like? What does protection mean in the case of chronic illness? How does pain become visible in the material?

In the work process itself—crocheting, hammering stone, assembling blisters, embroidering paths—insights emerge that I didn't have before. The material "responds": It resists, it breaks, it takes shape, it surprises. These moments are research for me.

It's about allowing unexpected connections.

At the same time, I observe what happens during the work: What bodily reactions occur? What decisions do I make? What associations arise? What connections to other experiences become visible?

I am particularly interested in an understanding of research in which knowledge is not solely derived from the analysis of existing data. Knowledge can also arise from doing, testing, interacting, and creating.

Therefore, for me, a work of art is not necessarily the result of a completed research process.

It can itself be a research tool, a model of thought, or a place of encounter.

This also means that the method is not always predetermined. Depending on the research question, textile techniques, drawing, installation, photography, video, digital media, archives, or participatory formats, for example, can be used.

The form arises from the question.

My theoretical framework develops from practical experience. Key references include the works of Hito Steyerl, Tomás Saraceno, Otobong Nkanga, Chris Salter, and Riva Lehrer.

Methodological practice

My methodological practice combines artistic research with qualitative, visual, and empirical methods. In my work, materials, spaces, and participatory situations become research tools. They allow me to investigate bodily experiences that cannot be fully translated into medical categories or language.

My academic background encompasses neuropsychological research using electroencephalography (EEG) and related methods, quantitative methods and statistics, as well as mixed-methods approaches. In my doctoral research in Science and Technology Studies, I combined observations, video sequence analysis, and interviews with the visualization of communication processes. I then processed the insights gained using grounded theory. In my professional practice, I have also evaluated digital educational formats in museums using observation diaries, interviews, and questionnaires.

In my current artistic research, I combine these experiences with drawing, textiles, sculpture, object art, installation, and participatory formats. I understand the resulting works as material experimental setups: they not only make experiences visible but also create situations in which perceptions, emotions, and forms of knowledge can be shared and negotiated. The specific design of the method develops from the respective research question and is reflected upon through process documentation, observations, discussions, interviews, open-ended surveys, and qualitative analyses.

My practice engages with artistic research, research creation, participatory art, and disability art. I draw important inspiration from both artistic works and methodological and theoretical debates on embodied knowledge, materiality, participation, and illness.

LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK

DIALOGUE ROOM PAIN

Together with partners from medicine, medical history and science studies, I am currently developing an interdisciplinary research project on how art can contribute to destigmatizing migraine.

Building on my solo exhibition HEAD LANDSCAPES, the project develops participatory formats that enable a dialogue between those affected, medical professionals and those not affected.

Starting point

The project builds on the exhibition HEADLANDSCAPES, which took place in June 2026 at the Pop-up Pavilion in Kiel. As part of the exhibition, participatory stations were set up, inviting visitors to actively engage.

Sound Pieces: A participatory puzzle artwork that translated individual experiences of people with migraines into 22 puzzle pieces.
Body map: An interactive station where visitors could mark where they felt migraine.
Knowledge graph: A visual representation of the subjectively perceived change in migraine knowledge before and after visiting the exhibition.

The collected materials form the empirical basis for a pilot study on how art can contribute to conveying knowledge about migraine, reducing prejudices and promoting social dialogue.

Research question

The project investigates the conditions under which artistic visualizations and participatory formats make migraine pain so tangible and negotiable that new epistemic approaches to suffering, subjectivity and corporeality emerge, thereby reducing stigmatization.

Methodology

The project combines artistic research with qualitative methods:

Analysis of the participatory materials from HEAD LANDSCAPES (sound pieces, body map, knowledge graph, dialogue wall, whisper box)
Qualitative content analysis of the collected data
In-depth interviews and focus groups with affected individuals, non-affected individuals, and experts
Historical-philosophical reflection on the results in the context of medical humanities and science studies

Integration of further work

In addition to the materials from HEAD LANDSCAPES, insights from other artistic works are also incorporated into the project:

BROKEN ECHOS: An audiovisual installation that delves into the inner topography of migraine. The accompanying visitor reactions form a reception archive that is incorporated into the analysis.
Migraine Management: An interactive online game that serves as a prototype for a possible survey on the impact of playful formats in health communication.

Making the invisible visible

A participatory art project exploring migraine as an experience and communication.

How can we make visible experiences for which words are often lacking? “Making the invisible visible” is an artistic dialogue space in which patients and medical professionals jointly develop artistic forms of expression for aspects of migraine that are difficult to describe.

Program

A series of eight workshops is planned from autumn 2026 to January 2027. Under the guidance of Dr. Andrea Geipel, patients and professionals will work together on paintings, photographs and mixed-media works that make experiences with migraines visible.

The resulting works will be used to develop an exhibition at UKSH Kiel, which will continue the dialogue between those affected, specialists and visitors.

Research questions

What aspects of migraine become visible through art?
How does art change communication about migraine?
Can art contribute to destigmatizing migraine?
What role can creative dialogue spaces play in healthcare?

Financial support

The project is supported by the European Culture and Health Platform, the Healing Culture Network and humaQ.

→ View project

Online Migraine Archive

With the Online Migraine Archive, I am currently developing a long-term artistic research and archiving project.

The archive aims to collect and make accessible subjective experiences with migraine as cultural knowledge. Artistic works, personal accounts, photographs, drawings, and other forms of personal documentation become diverse traces of life with a chronic illness.

The archive is not intended to be a medical information portal. It aims to create a space where different experiences can coexist and where the diverse ways in which chronic illness is experienced become visible.

In the long term, I would like to open the archive to international perspectives and contributions from different artistic disciplines.

LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK

Working title:

Making migraines visible - coloring · reflecting · understanding

A coloring and activity book for people with migraines

Author: Dr. Andrea Geipel

With a foreword by Prof. Dr. Dagny Holle-Lee

Brief description:

“Making Migraines Visible” is an artistic-medical coloring and activity book for people with migraine. It combines creative design, reflection, and easily understandable medical information into a low-threshold tool for everyday life with chronic pain.

This book is neither a traditional coloring book nor a medical guide, but rather a hybrid format combining art, science communication, and self-help. It supports those affected by migraine in visualizing their experience, better understanding themselves, and expressing their experiences – including within a medical context.

Why this book now?

Migraine affects approximately 15% of the population and is one of the most common neurological disorders worldwide. Despite new therapeutic developments, many sufferers continue to experience stigmatization, a lack of understanding, and significant distress in their daily lives. At the same time, there is a growing desire for accessible health information, empowerment, and new approaches beyond traditional self-help literature. Creative, hands-on formats are gaining importance, particularly for those with chronic conditions—both for emotional relief and for improving communication with medical professionals. "Making Migraine Visible" addresses this need and translates medical knowledge into images, forms, and creative strategies.

Scope & Features:

approx. 120–150 pages
Format approx. 22 × 20 cm
Work-friendly binding (e.g. spiral or lay-flat binding)
sturdy paper (approx. 120 g/m²)
Optional extras: removable postcards