“Cancers, stories and objects of resistant women: oncological disease between society, art (s) and science (s)” , with Susana de Noronha.

The first session of the permanent Seminar on Science with and for Society was held on June 6 on “Cancers, stories and objects of resistant women: oncological disease between society, art (s) and science (s)”, with Susana de Noronha. In this session, Susana de Noronha presented a research series about women, cancer narratives, art and material culture, conducted between 2005 and 2017.

A first part borne out of a work with twenty-four international art projects on feminine experience of breast cancer.
This research explored art projects and objects as constitutive parts of cancer experience itself, embedded in the way cancer is lived and understood.

A second part redefined material culture as a portion of cancer, looking at the medical, personal and domestic objects that take form and gain relevance in one hundred and fifty artistic projects made by or with women.

In a third project, the researcher studied the cancer stories of eight portuguese women from her relational circle, reinventing social science, scientific illustration and ethnographic design. From these investigations, Susana outlines what she frames as “another ontology”, a “third half” where spaces, objects, people, experiences and knowledge form an undivided sum.