© conboy-hill 2017
Right Brain
Art, writing, being an alien
Once upon a time ...
I designed scenery for two major events at
Bradford ice rink in 1966/67 while I was
still at school. I fell out of art college
(Brighton - see Zouch, A Tale of Two
Sixties) in 1968 and worked in a factory in
Worthing, designing the packaging for
Mary Quant make-up. Before that, I had
studied biological sciences at A level,
played hockey as a sprinting, dexterous,
left hander, and stared vacantly throughout
all and every maths lesson - which caused
me to be linked with the saucer-eyed alien
in ‘A for Andromeda’. Luckily, I was better
at stats.
After a fair old stint as a secretary, nurse,
psychologist, and virtual world researcher,
I’m back into imagineering as a writer. The
Open University does modules in creative
writing. Lancaster does an MA by distance.
These are wonderful things for minds and
brains and thinking and memory and ikigai.
And as of October 2018 I’m back in
school. This time it’s a real full circle, a BA
in Fine Art with the Open College for the
Arts. The first folder has arrived; I’m a
Fresher again.
Welcome
Where my several online identities collide.
Left Brain
Science, psychology, being
responsible and sensible
A brief interlude ...
I have worked as a filing clerk, PA, barmaid,
chamber maid, and interpreter (French ‘O’
level and limited to directions to the toilets).
When common sense kicked in, I took nurse
training, worked in intensive care, and
received back from theatre, Prof Sir Magdi
Yacoub’s very first quintuple bypass graft.
Obviously, that makes you go off and study
psychology. First, Goldsmiths College (BA)
then University College, London (PhD).
Clinical training (MPhil), Institute of
Psychiatry/Maudsley hospital, and out into
practice at Bromley and Horsham. Then back
to Brighton, where the sea seems to be higher
than the land, an MSc (Leicester - forensic
psychology) and some of the best times of my
life.
I have ended my 24 years there in research -
investigating the utility of virtual reality
(Second Life) as a way of helping people with
intellectual disabilities understand and
remember more about hospital procedures.
Winning research grants is very left brain but
the ideas are pure imagineering. Full,
satisfying circle.
By the way, the left brain right brain thing isn’t
a thing; the whole brain thing is a thing.
The photos: 16, 21, 65.