Energy Limiting Conditions – University of Liverpool

This is an animation for academic research led by Dr Bethan Evans at the University of Liverpool, sharing key findings from a project on the gendered experience of health and social care for people with energy-limiting conditions and chronic illness. It looks at the impact medical disbelief has on people’s lives, and at how sexism, racism, homophobia and transphobia feed into who gets believed and who gets dismissed. The project ran across Liverpool, Liverpool Hope University and Chronic Illness Inclusion, and you can read more about it at disbeliefdisregard.uk.

Working with Bethan was a real gift. She was so generous with her insights that I was able to craft visuals attuned to the complicated politics of living with a condition the world so often dismisses, for a whole range of troubling reasons. That trust is what let the animation hold the subject honestly rather than flattening it.

When I’m booked across several projects at once, I sometimes bring in another animator, and here I was lucky to work with Ell Rose. After developing the project with Bethan and her team, I storyboarded and created the artwork and assets, then passed things to Ell to bring into motion. It was a wonderful collaboration throughout.

This was part of a wider body of work I made with Bethan at Liverpool, alongside a related series of illustrations on inclusive academic workplaces for people with energy-limiting conditions.

If you’re a researcher or organisation working in health, disability or inclusion and you’d like to bring your findings to life through animation for academic research, I’d love to hear from you. Get in touch.