scribes & live — Drawn to Medicine

Merlin has scribed for clients across UK, Europe, America and Africa on topics ranging from access to sanitation for female transport workers, through to increasing public engagement with historic palaces; from mapping the ageing brain and illustrating the art of failure. She specialises in graphic recordings that map the intersection of science and art, and holistic models of healthcare and education. Her practice has received numerous awards and she has lectured and taught internationally on this form and approach to visual communication, live drawing both digitally and via analogue illustrations to an expert standard. She is bi-lingual and can scribe in English & French.

Merlin holds the post of ‘Performer in Residence’ (illustrations & scribes) at the Centre for Performing Science (CPS). She regularly scribes events connected to Imperial University and the Royal College of Music charting the power of cross-discipline thinking.

From 2020-2022 Merlin live scribed over 150 ink paintings in collaboration with the groundbreaking SHARP project - see here for more information.

Most recently, from March 2022 - November 2022, Merlin drew hundreds of live testimonials coming out of Ukraine, Latvia and Lithuania during the Russian/Ukraine war, alongside psychological trauma consultant Nicola Lester. Merlin also scribes for the Peace Foundation, UN Women, International Labour Organisation and the International Transport Federation, advocating the use of using illustrations to support healing from trauma and campaigning for universal human rights to be upheld and respected globally.

Selection of previous scribe clients:

Imperial College London, University of Oxford, The Guardian, The Prince’s Trust, WHO, UN, ILO, ITF, Cancer Research UK, The Francis Crick Institute, The National Trust, English Heritage, The Royal College of Music, NHS, The School of Life.

Showcased below is a selection of scribes and drawings all done in ‘live time’ - responding live on the spot to conference speakers, guests, academics, performers, personal testimonials and trade union meetings through the medium of illustration. Meetings can range from half an hour, to multiple day long global conferences. The nature of live drawing, means that only the most salient themes; the the most pressing ideas and the most visual solutions, are drawn. It’s a tightrope of deep listening, fast drawing and curated visual problem solving. For this reason, Merlin sees her work as that of a visual translator, making conceptual illustrations for clients that showcase their own thinking and evolution of thought processes.

Over 130 drawings were made as part of a scribed animation for ITF Women (the department of the International Transport Workers’ Federation). This client works to strengthen the collective voice and win better conditions for women transport workers around the world. This illustrated animated film that featured a bespoke soundscape made to accompany the illustrations, aimed to communicate the multiple and layered barriers and forms of discrimination that women who work in the male-dominated transport industry often face. The illustrations were a key communications resource for our work to build women's economic empowerment through strengthening access to decent work in transport. Small selection of images below:

From March 2022 to November 2022, Merlin was hired to live draw testimonials of the Russian/Ukraine war. Many hundreds of images were made, (a small selection shared here and made anonymous for privacy and protection) and served as a form of therapeutic witnessing and listing to the traumas endured, and resilience nurtured. The illustrations formed part of a radical new practice of fusing a trained expert mental health nurse (and trauma consultant) alongside a live scribe to see how both areas of expertise could be used to advocate, empower and hold complex lived narratives.