Complex Systems, Wicked Issues and Big Ideas: Where do we start, where do we end? Art is Everywhere and REALITIES lead, Dr Marisa de Andrade, was asked to speak to the United Nations (UN) Development Programme in September 2023. Here’s what was Marisa was thinking in the lead up to the event…. [Marisa’s internal monologue to her Publisher/Editor/Funder/Manager etc] “I need to find an entry point that REF will accept and humans, non-humans and more-than-humans will flourish… (I’m very glad no one’s reading this).” For about 10 years (I think – time’s just a non-linear construct), I’ve been collaborating with various international (WHO, [...]

In the spring of 2021, I was invited to assist on a global health project, supported by the Scottish Funding Council Global Challenges Research Fund grant, that sought to address key pervasive health inequities in Brazil through the use of innovative creative methodologies. The project afforded me the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills I had developed from the recent MSc Research in Health Humanities and Arts  course I completed at the University of Edinburgh. I was hired as a research assistant on the project; which partnered the University of Edinburgh with the Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Universidade Federal do Rio [...]

How can we radically change the way places in Scotland are planned?  How can we re-imagine the future of Scotland?   These questions have been on our mind as we’ve been inspired by the power of art and artists coming together in North Lanarkshire through Art is Everywhere. We asked Jim MacDonald, CEO of Architecture & Design Scotland (A&DS) for his reflections… As someone nearly said once, places have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody. Sadly, that’s not really how we do things which means not all of our places do work for [...]

by Leah S Public Health, Humanities and Magical Realism came into the published world on July 29, 2022. An essential read for any public health researcher, it sets out to challenge traditional research methodologies and its definitions of “evidence” using magical realism as a vessel to ask necessary questions. The day it was available online, I happily congratulated Marisa—the author, my old supervisor on the MScR Health Humanities and Arts programme at the University of Edinburgh, and the proud parent of the new piece of work (did that make me the midwife? Maybe I was more like the doula? Or the family member [...]

In 2018-19, Measuring Humanity worked with Behind The Noise, a real-world music and business education programme that works with around 100 young people in Glasgow and Renfrewshire. The project aims to inspire, encourage and support young people with a keen interest in music and the various career opportunities that exist within the industry. The project consists of nine workshops, three rehearsals, two open days, a recording session and two live shows that take participants through the process of forming a band, writing and recording an original track, rehearsing and promoting a show. The project culminates in a live performance in front of 500 [...]

Thanks for landing here! By now you may have read the introduction or heard a bit more about the thinking behind Measuring Humanity. This is a space filled with resources and opportunities for interaction on some of the big questions in health policy and practice. A space for exploring creative community engagement particularly with marginalised communities. Take a look around. If you haven’t heard our very our Measuring Humanity soundtrack ‘Dear Human’ by the award-winning Belle Jones, Lauren Gilmour & Audrey Tait, please do check it out on our Home page. Belle came to one of my Asset-Based Indicator training days with practitioners [...]

In August 2017, I decided to take Measuring Humanity to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as part of the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas. It was properly terrifying! Switching my office and the community for a stage, I put forward that Measuring Humanity questions ‘what is evidence’? I suggested that the arts – all forms of art and the act of humans coming together – is a type of ‘evidence’ that can be systematically captured and used to ‘measure’ changes in health, wellbeing and inequalities. It’s a way of thinking, a way of being, a way of doing, a way of collecting data, a way [...]