This practice-based doctoral project investigates how tactile and dialogical art can convey and share experiences of chronic headaches (CH), fostering conversations about CH within the public sphere. Through a contemporary art practice which includes work in textile, with sound, and through installation, this research explores an archive of visual migraine aura imagery, amplifies voices of individuals with CH, and studies touch as a means to communicate about CH. Based on these three components, this thesis transforms previously isolated chronicles of CH into visible, audible, and tangible forms. CH affects many, yet it is seldom discussed in public forums, and our understanding of the phenomenon is limited. Medical research concentrates on the physical causes of pain, assessment and alleviation, with qualitative as well as quantitative studies often falling short in addressing the complexity and subjectivity of experiences of CH. Supplementing as well as challenging medical research findings, this project contributes to work in the critical medical humanities by emphasising the importance of integrating diverse forms of knowledge and practices to deepen our understanding of health-related issues. Drawing on my own experiences and on new knowledge generated through my conversations and workshops with individuals living with CH as well as with associated medical professionals, I develop and evaluate creatively descriptive methods to better comprehend and convey life with CH. Across three chapters, which focus on the three senses I identify as especially impacted by CH, vision, voice and touch, I explore these approaches to artmaking through visual, dialogue- and touch-centred artworks. This approach is set apart from and outside of clinical and therapeutic contexts. It offers a caring and critical perspective on existing hierarchies of knowledge by illustrating and giving voice to a diversity of experience presented by people living with CH and by associated professionals. In the chapter VISION, I analyse and interact with the little-known archive, the Migraine Art Competition Collection, creating an art history for people with CH. By creating artworks inspired by this archive, and by adding tactile and auditory elements to these visual representations of CH, I allow audiences alternative ways to interact with CH. In the chapter VOICE, I reflect on the conversations I have conducted, how these have informed my artistic practice, and how and why I have synthesised personal narratives from these into sound installations and a choir piece. In the chapter TOUCH, I discuss how I bring the archive and the conversations to life by creating sculptural installations. Engaging with CH through this sensory methodology revealed the complexity and vulnerability of dealing with these narratives while offering insights into the lives of those living with CH and influencing how it is expressed, perceived and navigated. Ultimately, this thesis suggests and demonstrates alternative ways to engage with pain and care through art and discusses ways of creating physical and mental space for vulnerability, reflection and communication.

Funding: A variety of funding bodies have offered me economic support: Augustinus, Beckett, Christian & Ottilia Brorson, Danish Women’s Society, Helle & Arenth Jacobsen, Hielmstierne-Rosencroneske, Knud Højgaard, L.F. Foghts, Lizzi & Mogens Staal, Louis-Hansens, L. Zeuthen, Nancy Christensen, Ragnvald & Ida Blix, RCA Conference Fund, and William Demant.