Rina Dave had stage 4 breast cancer and, during her treatment, made studio photographs of the people keeping her alive at Charing Cross Hospital and beyond. They were exhibited Imperial College London, 2014: 24 larger than life portraits that included a man on a motorbike, a father with his young child, a woman in a carnival headdress.

In 2015, Rina peacefully passed away at home in India. Inspired by her project, we designed a feedback wall for Imperial’s 2019 Great Exhibition Road Festival around Rina’s question ‘What makes you feel alive?’ We tested the device subsequently at a training session for cancer researchers, an open day and in a chemotherapy day unit. Since it helped spark conversations about research, we then made this video.

You can read more about this project on Imperial’s PERC blog, and in our PLY Blog.