Hearts, Lungs and Minds

Sound artist John Wynne and photographer Tim Wainwright were artists-in-residence for one year at Harefield Hospital, one of the world’s leading centers for heart and lung transplants. They listened to patients, to the devices they’re attached to or have implanted in them, and to the hospital itself.

Hearts, Lungs and Minds explores the experiences of transplant patients and the extraordinary issues raised by this invasive, last-option medical procedure. It weaves intensely personal narratives, often recorded at the bedside, with the sounds of the hospital environment, which can have an enormous effect on patients, shifting unpredictably from comforting to irritating, from reassuring to alarming.

All of the people whose voices you will hear have had a heart or lung transplant — or both — or else were waiting for one when they were recorded. Some have died, most are doing well. All of the sounds originated in the hospital; sometimes they are abstracted as the piece explores the boundaries between documentary and radio art.

To listen online https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/betweentheears/