© conboy-hill 2015
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.
From the recycler: ‘‘If it ain’t broke …’
For World Down’s Syndrome Day, March
21st.
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.