Lab Coat Lunch 2: Maternal Machines and other fantasies of care

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.

In this Lab Coat Lunch, Paulina Yurman will talk about her design research approaches, adopting speculative design, drawing, making and participatory workshops to explore understandings of health and care. Paulina will present the visual and material methods at the heart of her Wellcome Trust-funded project Maternal Machines: Design Speculations about Fantasies of Care at University of the Arts London, Central Saint Martins, where she is also lecturer in Industrial Design.

About Paulina

Paulina’s background is itself an interdisciplinary masterclass – she studied first mechanical engineering and then specialised in industrial design. She worked at LEGO in Denmark and at various design studios. Her PhD explored the role of smartphones for mothers and young children, adopting a research-through-design approach using speculative artefacts and drawings as design probes. She is interested in our ambivalent relationship with technology, experienced as both empowering and intrusive, that feed into users’ imaginaries, dreams, fantasies and fears.

Read more about Paulina’s work at www.yurman.co.uk.

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)