In late February, I took part in a workshop at the University of Durham, hosted by the Department of Anthropology and the New Immortalities network. Liz Hallam, Anna Maerker and Douglas Davies gave presentations on their work with historical and contemporary practices of understanding, gaining knowledge and meaning from the body, in life and in death.

The central part of the event was run by Barrie Ormsby, a visual artist, who worked with a group of twenty participants to undertake a series of exercises exploring the partibility of the body. Having created a series of composite bodies the group then encountered the larger scale social and moral imaginaries that com into play when these are put into circulation. There are some great pictures from the event on the New Immortalities network website.