by Miriam Aziz
I am a British / European artist based in Milan, Italy. I am also a lawyer and, between 1993 - 2015, I was an academic specialising in European law and law and humanities. I moved to Edinburgh in 1993 to do what was originally supposed to be an MPhil before returning to London to finish my training as a barrister. Margot Brazier, with whom I had studied during my undergrad degree, and who first inspired and encouraged my interest in law, medicine and ethics at Manchester, had advised me to apply to Edinburgh. A couple of weeks into my MPhil at the Faculty of Law in Edinburgh, I realised that I would not be going back to London as I had originally planned. Ken agreed to take me on as a PhD student, and there really was no looking back. He took his role as my supervisor to heart, encouraging me to apply for funding (which I obtained), to attend a variety of lectures and seminars on offer at the Faculty of Law, to conduct field research in Dundee and was also enthusiastic about the comparative element of my research which enabled me to move to Berlin for a few months.
It was whilst I was in Berlin that I injured my back, for which I needed surgery. I had to take time out from my PhD and decided to have the surgery done in Edinburgh. Ken was incredibly supportive and taught me how to navigate my own medical care. Oddly enough, my back surgery also influenced my PhD, as I moved away from a civil law approach to regulating medical research involving human subjects to embracing a public law model for medical decision-making based on participatory democracy. My back surgery was also the first moment I realised that I could not neglect my health, as I had been doing. The sedentary lift-style of academia was actually making my back problems worse. It took me some time to find my way to dance and to embracing a different life-style; that is another story but one which I shared with Ken, as I gradually began a career as a multi-media artist. I was able to combine my legal training and my arts career through some law and humanities research, but gradually I moved away from the law and set up my own arts brand, MAstudioLAB in Milan which enables me to pursue my own arts projects as well as creating works for hire.
When I heard Ken had died, I had just had foot surgery and was unable to attend his funeral - something which we had both sensed might happen, so we had already said good-bye the last time we met - but I found so much of what we talked about during our supervisions and the subsequent years coming back to me as I recovered. I started to suggest designing a multi-media protocol package to my medical team, to enable patients to take an active part in designing their own post-op care. The link is to a film I made for my physiotherapist, to create a format that he can use with other patients. It is a work in progress but one which has also enabled me to grieve for Ken in the only way I really know how: through art.
Post-Operative Protocol [Bunionectomy / Chevron Technique] by Miriam Aziz (2017) from MA for MAstudioLAB on Vimeo.
This film is dedicated to Ken, with love, Miriam
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