SOUL PAINT: Where are you feeling?

Interested in the breadth of visual and material practice in healthcare? Keen to learn more about methodological innovation, critical enquiry and interdisciplinary collaboration? The ‘Lab Coat Lunches’ series will highlight diverse and often hidden methods and approaches from clinical, academic and community practice.

Brought to you by the Visual and Material Lab, Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities, Durham University. To subscribe to the Visual and Material Lab's newsletter, please visit our Lab site and scroll to the bottom of the page.

This Lab Coat Lunch introduces SOUL PAINT, an immersive reinterpretation of arts and health approach bodymapping that employs visual, somatic, and digital methods to examine emotional and embodied experience. Creator and co-director Sarah Ticho will discuss how this experience can support reflection, insight, and shared understanding, and will outline previous case studies across Soul Paint's application within public engagement, research and therapeutic contexts.

About Sarah

Sarah Ticho is an artist–researcher and strategist working at the intersection of immersive media, creative health, and healthcare innovation. She is the creator and co-director of SOUL PAINT, a multi-award-winning VR experience that investigates emotion, embodiment, and expressive digital artmaking. Her research-led practice is informed by collaborations with behavioural scientists, clinicians, and technologists, and her work has been presented internationally across cultural, academic, and healthcare settings. Sarah co-authored ‘The Growing Value of XR in Healthcare in the United Kingdom’ report which contributed to securing £20m in UKRI investment, and she co-directs the XR Health Alliance, supporting evidence-based adoption of immersive technologies in health and social care.

This event is free to attend. Please note that the Zoom link will be circulated closer to the date.

Explore the full Lab Coat Lunches 2026 programme:

Wednesday 4th February 2026, 1-2pm

Lab Coat Lunch 1: Bringing together glass art and tissue engineering to improve cancer care (Matt Durran, glass artist)

Wednesday 25th March, 1-2pm

Lab Coat Lunch 2: Maternal Machines and other fantasies of care (Paulina Yurman, designer and researcher)

Wednesday 29th April, 1-2pm

Lab Coat Lunch 3: After the War – Arts and film practice in hospice care (Steve Geliot, visual artist)

Wednesday 13th May, 1-2pm

Lab Coat Lunch 4: Combining 3D bioengineering technologies and arts practice for patient engagement (Giovanni Biglino, bioengineer)

Wednesday 8th July, 1-2pm

Lab Coat Lunch 5: SOUL PAINT: Where are you feeling? (Sarah Ticho, immersive reality designer)