Surface Echoes: Bringing the Realities of Eczema to Life Through Art, Sound, and Storytelling
In April 2025, we gathered at the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) to celebrate the culmination of Surface Echoes, a powerful, multi-year collaboration at the intersection of art, science, and lived experience. The atmosphere was warm, joyful, and deeply moving, as many of the contributors to the project saw the completed resources for the first time.
Led by Professor Sara Brown and artist Beverley Hood, Surface Echoes explores the emotional and physical realities of living with eczema. The project’s goal was to foster understanding, spark conversations, and build empathy around a condition that affects so many yet is often misunderstood or overlooked.
Audio listening stations invited guests to sit and experience the soundscape of Surface Echoes, while printed scripts were available to page through and reflect upon. It was a space for conversation, reconnection, and discovery, where collaborators across disciplines - from healthcare and academia to art and lived experience of eczema - came together to celebrate the work and its impact. Attendees were also invited on to the Dermatology Department in the Lauriston Building to view the collage from which the Surface Echoes script was developed.
From the onset, Surface Echoes was shaped by people with lived experience of eczema. Their stories formed the foundation of a creative process that involved working with texts and verbatim quotes to develop a layered collage, a narrative script, and a soundscape. This collaboration ensured that the resources portrayed the condition with accuracy, emotional depth, and integrity.
Throughout the evening, the energy was one of shared achievement. The voices, stories, and visuals that shaped Surface Echoes resonated throughout the room, making the event a powerful testament to what collaboration and care can create.
These Surface Echoes resources are now publicly available to explore and download here.
As an organisation rooted in collaboration, we at ASCUS are thrilled to have been part of this project. It has been a joy seeing the project evolve from the initial idea 3 years ago to the remarkable outcomes we see today.
Images © Sally Jubb Photography
We are very grateful for the ScotPen Wellcome Engagement Award (220875/Z/20/Z.) which funded this work and to the many people who shared their lived experience with us. With thanks to Catherine Street and James Brook for the development of the collage and PDF design, and Liam Russell for the sound design of the audio (with support from Dave Miller). Additional thanks go to James Brook, Elicia Daly, Claire Doyle, Dyfan Dwfor, Pauline Goldsmith and Sarah Rose Graber for giving their voices to these experiences.
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