UCL200 Artist in Residence
for the Student Community

Transcript of Pattern Portraits Podcast - UCL Episode

INTRO - LAUREN

Hello. My name is Lauren Godfrey. I'm the UCL200 artist in residence for the student community. Over the past year, I've been running drawing workshops in which students pick patterns that are special to them, whether they relate to their personal histories or their academic courses. These patterns bring together all these different perspectives and create a huge tapestry of lots of different people's backgrounds, journeys, research areas and interests. After the workshops, we had the most amazing opportunity to use the UCL paint frame, which is a resource that's a dying art, and it sits behind the Bloomsbury Theatre in the backstage area. It's an 11 by 7 metre wall, which has a lift 11 metres wide that goes up and down across the whole canvas. And we transferred the pattern portrait that we created onto this enormous backdrop for the theatre stage.

It was a really special experience. Over the five week period, two students every morning and two students every afternoon helped to paint these enormous canvases.

In this very special episode of Pattern Portraits podcast, you're going to hear from some of the students from UCL who were involved in the drawing workshops and the painting process, telling you the story behind their patterns.

The music that you hear interspersed throughout is from a piece artist and conductor Benji Jeffrey and I made called Derek Jarman's Rock, based on one of the patterns drawn by public anthropology student Hyden Shi, who you can hear talking about his pattern later on. Over to the students.

#1 AUSTIN - PATTERN IS A FRIEND

Hello, my name is Austin. I'm coming from the Department of Epidemiology and Healthcare. I currently study population health, science or public health, whichever you prefer. Pattern is a lot like a friend. You know, you can recognise them in a crowd when you have something you know, to be able to distinguish them. I think patterns can be found anywhere in the world, both natural and man made. There are a whole host of cultures that can instil values, beliefs and integrity within patterns. Patterns can be used for both good and evil to represent good and evil. From a psychological point of view, patterns could also relate to behaviour. So there are lots of different types of patterns that sometimes you can't even see but perhaps you can feel or, think of or smell or touch.

#2 RUQAIYA - PURPLE CIRCLES

Hi, my name is Ruqaiya. I'm a blind artist and disability advocate. I'm studying BA at the Slade School of Art.

And, can you tell me what pattern is important to you and what you've drawn today?

So a pattern that's important to me, which might sound a bit strange, is purple circles. With my visual impairment, I have something called Charles Bonnet Syndrome, where my brain really wants to see, so it kind of hallucinates different images, which is quite fascinating. And something I've always seen is purple circles. So I've decided to do a pattern of that today.

Amazing. Thank you so much. That's really brilliant.

#3 CRISS AND SELMA - PANCREATIC CANCER CELLS

My name is Criss. I'm studying an MSc in Human Tissue Repair here at UCL.

And I am Selma. I'm also studying human tissue repair, but I'm a master of Research, M.S. right now we're drawing ductal adenocarcinoma of pancreatic cancer. So we're drawing the cancer cells and stroma cells around it and how stroma cells are going over fibrotic states.

Yeah. Usually the tissue needs to be smooth, to be able to move on past different things, the blood vessels, everything. But when it goes into like a fibrotic state, this like kind of stops. So we can see the pattern there, like the change from something that should be smooth to something that hardens and looks fibrotic in that sense.

And the kind of materiality of the pattern. It's like, it's almost like a kind of petal shape and the kind of structure that that takes in nature, I guess.

I think with tissues, it's mostly like ovals and like Different types of ovals, rectangles. Even the nucleus is like kind of circular. It's not really like a perfect circle. It's like you can see, uh, patterns and shapes that are things that we see in our every day, but they just like they are not with like solid lines and solid lines.

#4 HYDEN - DEREK JARMAN’S ROCK

I'm Hyden from public anthropology department. And my program is ethnography and documentary film. Okay, so I need to study documentary and anthropology theory.

Nice. And the pattern that you've chosen today, can you tell me a bit about it?

Yeah. It's a unique stone. From Derek Jarman's cottage, in Dungeness. Because, my tutor invited us to see his famous film Blue. And I was totally, totally obsessed with his extraordinary work, so I respect him. And when I heard about his story about, in Dungeness, especially the garden he built by himself. He used a lot of stones…because I also read his diary which is called Modern Nature. So I knew how he collected these unique stones from the sea because the sea is very close to his cottage. And because he was a famous artist and he specialised in film and drawings he collected these unique stones to build some amazing sculptures around his garden.

Yeah. The garden sculptures are beautiful.

Yeah. So when I see these stones, I think is very. I can build the image that, I can see how he that deliberately built his sculpture by putting these stones together. Yeah, yeah. I can imagine that scene.

Yeah. And the attention to detail of each stone being selected for its particular patterning. Yeah. And also, I suppose it's that thing of an object as a souvenir, holding all that energy of a place, it kind of carries it through.

Yeah, yeah.

It's symbolic.

It's very touching. When I saw these stones because I also been through his cemetery in Dungeness at the church. And I noticed that there are so many stones on his tomb.

Right. People have placed flint on his tombstone. Oh, wow. I didn't know that.

Yeah, It's very moving when I saw this because Derek has not just gone away, even his body feels it. Yeah, but people always remember him.So I think the stone is another…How can I say it's a container for his existence?

Yes.

So we can touch his story through these stones. Yeah. Yeah.

Derek Jarman is with us.

Yeah, exactly.

Amazing.

Exactly. So I carried it with me when I come to London.

Nice. Oh, thank you so much. Thanks for your story, and thanks for bringing that pattern.

#5 MAHAMED - FRACTALS

My name is Mahamed. I do history. I drew a fractal. A fractal is basically a complex geometric shape that can go on for infinity and it shows up throughout nature as the most efficient way for stuff to grow. So plants, leaves and yeah.

Awesome. So it's like infinitely repeatable and does it just keep adding on and on and on?

Yeah. Kind of, but that's only like, that's a theoretical, I think. I saw this thing called the Mandelbrot set. It's basically a set of numbers that are used to make these infinite fractals.

What's it called Again?

Mandelbrot set.

Mandelbrot set. Okay, I'm gonna look that up. That sounds interesting. Can you describe what that is? Is it really complicated ?
It’s a formula. So where I think I'm pretty sure you change one thing of the formula and, it just explodes into this infinite pattern.

#6 NAOKO AND MELISSA - NEURONS

I'm Naoko and I'm studying neuroscience.

I'm Melissa. I'm also doing neuroscience.

We've drawn neurons today because I believe that's like the core principle of neuroscience. It's how everything is interconnected with each other and how in the world you kind of perceive things and they all kind of have association with each other. Yeah. What do you think?

Yeah. It's very repetitive. The connections. We were just saying everything is connected in the brain. And that applies to a lot of other things and yeah, in life too. And also the idea of association. Yeah. I think that's very interesting because there's in every single person there's like a certain point of unpredictability and the fact that neurons, you can like actually visualise it, it kind of lets you see what actually is like in the brain chemically. It kind of gives you something to grapple on. Yes.

Yeah. Because I feel like when you come at it from like a psychology perspective or something, because I considered studying psychology, it's just so abstract. And I really wanted like a more like physical, like scientific perspective to explain behaviour and things like that. Yeah, definitely. You know, these neurons that we're drawing right now, they provide that physical explanation for all of our feelings and thoughts and behaviours. Yeah. It's so cool.

It's amazing to see that kind of made visual. So can you describe the pattern, like physically what it looks like?
Oh, So we've got the cell body here, and then we've got dendrites and axons. And they're connected here at the synapse.

So yeah, like chemicals kind of go through the synapses and they kind of diffuse through the gap to another synapse. So it's a lot of about using energy to kind of propagate these chemicals along the axis.

#7 MATTEO - BLIND SPOT

I'm Matteo Carandini, I'm professor of visual neuroscience at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology. So being a visual neuroscientist, I'm always interested in how the brain responds to images. And one thing about the patterns, we wear, like black and white stripes for football players or plaids and tartans and all sorts of, you know, checkers, Checkered shirts and so on. The patterns we wear, we probably selected them because they drive our brain like crazy. When you're wearing stripes, black and white stripes, for example, there are some neurons in your visual cortex that like those stripes and they fire like crazy. And all the others are quiet. And the contrast between the ones that are firing and the ones that are quiet is so strong that it's really easy to see the stimulus in this case, the shirt and the visual system seems to be really geared towards seeing patterns everywhere to the point that it makes them up even when they're not there.

So my favourite example is what we see through the blind spot. We don't realise it, but each of our eyes has a blind spot, which is a spot where the optic nerve enters the eye and, and goes to the rest of the brain. And in that spot, there are no receptors. The two blind spots, the left one and the right one are in different places. So as you walk around, you don't realise that there is a spot where you're blind because one eye sees them or the other eye sees them. But when you close one eye, you can discover that you have a blind spot and it's really easy. You close one eye and start raising and lowering a finger, and you move it around your visual field until you stop seeing the up and down and the moving the raising of the finger. But you don't see that you're blind there.

So for example, if you go to a bathroom where there's a very clear pattern on the floor, the tiles, even through your blind spot, you still see the pattern of tiles. But if you now drop something on the floor, I don't know, a coin or something fairly small, you won't see it in the blind spot. You will keep on seeing tiles. It's because your brain is making the tiles up.

#8 VISH - AUTHORSHIP OF PATTERN

I’m Vish, I am a student on the MA museum and gallery’s in education program at UCL. I think patterns are part and parcel of culture for me. So, I don't think that's that that's something that can be separated from it. Patterns come through culture and nature. I think culture as not just like people and people living together, but people with nature and sort of them interacting with each other creates patterns.

I was really interested in what you said before about, um, how patterns can become depoliticised. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Patterns are always a part of a culture, some culture or some way of being that is repeated over time and hence becomes a certain way. And I think when you first look at some patterns, you you don't instantly recognise that. And that can lead to probably seeing it - not that it's wrong, but only from an aesthetic angle. And that may not always be how it is viewed by the people who probably came up with that pattern or, practice that pattern. So I think it's important for us to understand that context of how patterns originate as well as much as just appreciate them for their beauty.

Yeah. Can you give a little example of a pattern that's sort of misunderstood or differently interpreted?

I mean, I think even tie and die for that matter, because tie and die is usually done by women at homes as, as a way of patterning their bed sheets, their pillowcases, their tablecloths and all of that. And I think till the time it was, it was a women led practice. Until the time it was domesticated inside homes, inside places and also in not urban areas like rural areas. It was not given that importance until like, say, H&M or Zara takes it up. And I think that would be an example of just like depoliticizing it like, because this is not just an act of like, oh, I was inspired by this pattern and now I want to try this out as much noble as that is. Who are you inspired from? Where did you get it from? Are you crediting those artists as you would have say? Probably, I don't know, like Yayoi Kusama or something, for their patterns.

It loses its origin.

Exactly. And why is it that every time we have patterns from Third World, from women, from Domestic spaces. We never see their names. We never see the names of the people who make that pattern.

Yeah.

But whenever it's, oh, somebody's European, a man, I've always seen this in galleries. They're always there. There's always a name with the pattern. They're related to whenever there's a man or a white man who makes it. Even white women, for that matter. But when it's women, it's always anonymous. It's just the what hurts me is that there's no effort to know who.

To seek that out. Yeah. Totally agree.

Some patterns have authorship and others don't.

#9 MARIA - MORE IN COMMON THAN WE THINK

My name is Maria, and I study on the MEng course in the biochemical engineering department at UCL. For me pattern is I would say, a way of expressing oneself, which is which can be said about a lot of things, I think. But pattern specifically would be a way to get an insight into what other people's ideas are about something. Potentially people would use patterns to express cultural, political aspects.

So like some of the stuff I'm here making right now is a cultural pattern, I'd say, because in Colombia, the people from the north in in the rural cities, rural towns, they would make patterns like this, and they would usually spend hours sitting there making patterns. And they're all very unique because everyone would just come up with it on the spot as they start, start making them. And so I'm not from the north. I'm from the southwest of Colombia, and even down there. We even see these patterns all the way down there, so they reach quite far. And when I was doing some research into it, I found that they originated from a specific group of people from the north of Colombia called the Wayuu, or the Arauca, which are, I'd say, like a like tribal group of people. And I found that quite interesting because even in London, you'd see like patterns too, which are not very similar to those, but much, much different and much more modernised, I'd say. And when I was doing my research on these patterns, I saw that they would be selling them for like sixty pounds and above, which is to me was crazy because when I'm in Colombia, I'd see them for much cheaper, maybe like fifty thousand pesos, which is about ten pounds. So much, much cheaper. So yeah, that's a form of people, I guess, using patterns also as a source of income or a way of making a living in Colombia or in other rural areas of the world. So yeah, if people are making a living of out of patterns, I think it would be quite important culturally and, and ethically.

I’d be really interested for you to describe them a little bit.

I was quite drawn to this because I quite like how these colours go together. It’s a purple, a red, orange, yellow and then blue. So excluding the green from the rainbow. And then so they're all stripes. And within these stripes it's almost like a negative space. so there's, there's extra patterns on top of this pattern of colours of stripes. And it's just a lighter version of the stripes underneath of that, if that makes sense. I don’t know if I explained that correctly.

Yeah, yeah. Sort of bleached.

That's a much better way of saying it. Bleached, bleached pattern on top of a pattern of stripes. Another thing, Vish was also talking about the depoliticisation of patterns. Yeah, that actually made me think about braids in African culture because I'm also of African heritage. And in the past people would use braids as a way of, of signifying to others during the slave trade, methods of escaping. And so nowadays, obviously when people see people outside of those cultures wearing braids for fun, it's kind of kind of, I guess, insulting or offensive, insulting because of the the roots of patterns of braids that were used in the past.

So it would almost be like a covert code.

Yeah. Even nowadays, people wear braids in various different patterns, but obviously not for the same reasons, I guess showing that, a pattern that in the past was quite like quite a dark thing is now a liberating thing because now you can choose to wear them however you want. Obviously braids aren't only of African heritage. They also they also seen worn by in the past by like Vikings or pirates, which I never thought. I never thought pirates were real. Until recently I, I like kind of came across that. Yeah, pirates were actually real pirates in the UK actually. That also goes to show that patterns are not always only relevant to one group of people. They can span across different groups of people. And I guess that also would bring people together. So yeah, people have more in common than they think.

#10 LEXI - TRUE RANDOMNESS

I'm Lexi and my Chinese name is Xinle and I'm from Human Computer interaction. it's my master's degree here.

Could you tell me about the patterns that you've drawn today?

Yeah. So I draw like four and elements of the patterns today. They're all from my photos. One of them is last year when I visit this museum in my hometown. And they made some newly discovered artifacts about this really ancient culture called Sanxingdui. And and they can't really interpret what the patterns and the meanings of this artifact right now, because they have no writings of it. And yeah, but those artifacts is really amazing. And when you consider about people in like three thousand years ago could build this stuff. It's just mind blowing. And also there's elements of like mystery and like, like worship for bird and sun. And I think they say that they're using this artefact for like ceremony and stuff. It's just really nice to know about like the places where I was born. Like the ancient culture of it.

Can you describe that? The drawing.

And so this drawing is from a mask they discovered in the pit. And it's like a face of a human and it got a horn on its top. And this is the ear and this is the teeth and got eyes on it. And like, the brows bit kind of deform into like a horn things. Yeah. It’s just mysteries. Yeah. And the second part is a lava lamp. I find it extremely interesting of the lava lamp is like, it doesn't use a lot of technology, but it creates like this flowing like motion of it, just with like heat and wax. I find it really fascinating about how people just create and those like amazing effects just using very low technology.

Also, I think it's like a pattern maker, but kind of by chance. So like you sort of look for patterns in the kind of globules of the oil and the sort of the movement, but you can't really control it. So there's an element of like randomness. Yeah.

Yes. I heard about like people using lava lamps to generate random numbers. In computer science, because they need random, like actual random numbers in computer science.

And the lava lamp, how does that inform it?

I think they have loads of like shelves of lava lamps. And then they use a camera to capture the movement of the lava lamp. And just based on that, to generate numbers.

Wow. That's really cool. So the lava lamps are kind of like in a world of everything being somehow formulaic and the pattern always following some sort of structure. The lava lamp is a truly random process.

Yes. Yeah. I do think patterns make my life more colourful and more beautiful.

#11 ABIRA - ANTHROPOLOGY OF PATTERN

Hi I'm Abira. I am studying social anthropology, but it's anthropology and professional practice. Okay. It's based out of the UCL East Campus, but I have classes here as well I’m doing design, anthropology and a bunch of other things. Pattern is like I think pattern to me is quite repetitive. So like, for example, I started this pattern with, the inspiration of the circles, the bubbles. But when I even try to automate my hand and create the same repetition, there is a way that it goes out of the boundary and eventually it kind of creates a thing of its own. So no matter like how much we try to create patterns, there is always ways of breaking patterns. And like, you know the perforations and, and how the objects, the people, everything interact. Yeah. Like contaminate. Sure. So or is it like, it's not, it's not contamination, but also a kind of interaction. How patterns can be used can be changed, can basically be who we are or also be who we were. Because everything that we talk about, think about, aspire to be about is also about patterns. So my research is going to be about how the younger generations think about jobs or like, that's a very oversimplified way, but we all have like multiple selves, like multiplicity of a self and we are all trying to navigate how we are different, but we portray a certain kind of a personhood when we are trying to look for a job.

Fall into the pattern of the expectation.

The younger generation, like for example, we can talk about basically it includes us. It's about like they want to be in the pattern because of course, like survival is important, but there's also this resistance against the pattern, right? About like, there's some resistance of not being the typical ideal worker, not being able to wear what they want at the workplace or say what they want at the workplace, or there are multiple negotiations that happen, especially if you're from a diaspora community. And so it's about like the nuances of breaking pattern in a way understanding pattern. Because I think like before you break the pattern, you have to understand the pattern.

And have you got thoughts about the pattern that you've made because you've kind of combined, as you said, like this bubble and then the sort of fractious pattern of this skirt.

I think this reminds me of food and how food is like also like food making. It looks so delicious to me.

Yeah, it looks like sweets, actually.

Like a pattern of how we consume food, how we make food. Yeah. And someone like if, for example, we break that pattern, it becomes experimental, like fusion food. Yes. Like luxury food. Breaking patterns is luxury as well. It's also like how you share food.

This also looks a bit like a kind of pea pod or something. Yeah.

This looks to me like some like tutti frutti, like with with very colorful. Yeah, this one looks like a weird hot dog.

And yes, it does. And I guess we can't help as humans to look for those sort of recognisable things within an abstract form. So you're sort of finding yourself hunting for what it reminds you of or how to like, latch on, right?

Like retrofitting our knowledge and wisdom into what we experience as new.

#12 ALINA - WAVES

My name is Alina, and I'm studying medical science. The pattern is based on the pattern of the wave in the ocean. When I was young, I lived beside the ocean. And sometimes I can see the waves at afternoons or at the morning. This really makes me, like, deep memory about that. And so that's why I draw it.

And the way that the wave patterns kind of reflect on the water and like jump up in the air.

Yeah, it's jump out in the air. It's like a circle.

Yeah. Nice. And can you tell me a little bit about your anatomy illustration as well?

Oh, that's just part of my hobby. I got anatomy to learn in my university course. But when I was a bit a little bit stressed out or overwhelmed, I would just draw the structure of anatomy. Like the human structure is so fascinating. And the bones, the cartilage, the joints, it's like a well designed machine. It's so beautiful. So that's why when I draw it, I can feel the connection between the science and art. And honestly, they are something together for me.

#13 JAZZY - ART NOUVEAU

My name is Jazzy. I've just graduated from studying human sciences, and, pattern to me is like the intersection between humans and the natural world. So in particular, I'm thinking of the art Nouveau movement about how people interpreted the nature. And that kind of mixture between nature and people's minds came up in these beautiful patterns. And I just remember seeing them in my grandma's house, like all sorts of patterns, mostly from art nouveau and that kind of flow that you get that is emphasised in these patterns. And it kind of draws your eye towards other aspects of the natural world too. Things that you might not have noticed before. So in a way, it's kind of, human interpretations of patterns help you develop more patterns from an artistic sense, just seeing patterns. It's very comforting. And when you start to recognise them, it means that, I think humans always like to make sense of the world and always find some meaning behind things that happen. That's probably why we’re so good at pointing out patterns in nature as well as in ourselves.

#14 ZIMENG - MOBIUS STRIP

So my name is Zimeng and currently I'm a first year PhD student at the School of Pharmacy. I just started my studies in UCL in May. So I'm quite fresh here. So actually I don't have a lot of experience in painting before, but so this is the first time that I joined this kind of activity. And I find it quite fascinating. So it's consists of two colours. So the yellow one, the pink one. And in terms of the pattern, it reminds me of something that is a mathematical wonder, which is called the Mobius strip.

Yes. So the Mobius strip has a sort of continuous loop.

Yes. so at first glance, you found that it is like the figure eight, but it's quite different because, like, you just go from one way to the other and you go around and find that you will go to the other side of that strip. Yeah. So I think so for that one, it's kind of part of the scientific description of the whole picture. Yeah.

#15 IAN - FREEDOM FROM ACCURACY

So I’m Ian and I study robotics and AI in the computer science department. I think it could be very creative, especially I think when I'm doing my coursework, everything has to be very accurate in terms of, you know, data or mathematics every like, zero point zero zero one means. But I think today when I'm drawing by, like under your guidance, it's just like so lovely to see the general like expressions and even that accuracy can be something like more creative and like the, the ratios or the colours and we start from like lines, and then we fill in the yellow colour and then pink. So this process, just recall, like how people can be like not limited to very rational thinking, but it can also be very, very creative. And also like, think something in general in terms of not only looking at one spot at all the time. Yeah. I think especially for the yellow lines I saw there, and I really love like how they arranged like they cross each other. And I think it's just like people's idea, like we, the idea can be combined and it also has, can be special where we all have our independent ideas. So like those kind of like, kind of combinations while they are still connecting. And it just, some of them are big, some of them are thinner. It's just very, very cool.

#16 ABHISITH - PATTERNS OF PATHS

Hi. I am Mik, Abhisith, I'm from Thailand. Now I'm studying MA in Slade, first year media. For me, it's about a pattern that I thought the first thing pop up is about the path of my behaviour like walking in the daily life, my routine and reminds me about when I'm in my hometown, southern Thailand. I like to walk around at most to touching the tree, to touching my own cows from my families. And it is quite like about the directions here is just like maybe in the two dimensions, but in the forest the partition is not about the street or road or the house or the doors, but the way our pattern is expanding by the infinite directions. Like you can go any ways you can lay down on the field to see the moving of the branch and the whisperings of the woods, and also the beat of your heart or something like that. And that is about the thing that I see from pattern in daily life.

#17 ANAN - HONEYCOMB

My name is Anan and I'm currently studying an MSc in management. Specifically, I'm pursuing the corporate pathway at UCL School of Management. To me, pattern is about recognising connections and noticing how things repeat in ways that help us better understand the world around us. For me, patterns can be found almost everywhere, from nature and architecture to art and everyday life. One of my favourite patterns is the honeycomb hexagon pattern. I like it because it's both visually satisfying and incredibly practical. Despite being made of simple shapes, it creates a structure that's strong, efficient and balanced. I think it's a great example of how something simple can have a really big impact.

OUTRO - LAUREN

You've been listening to a very special episode of Pattern Portraits, in collaboration with UCL200, as part of the residency that I undertook during 2025 and ‘26 with the student community and the UCL Student Union. For more information about the residency and about the project in general, you can see my website, Laurengodfrey.co.uk and you can search Lauren Godfrey UCL online to find out more.

I want to thank all of the students and professors who engaged with me at UCL and were willing to talk to me about pattern, even when it seemed quite irrelevant to their subject matter. Amazingly, we managed to tease some pattern out of every corner of UCL. I also want to thank the incredible team at UCL, who supported my residency and helped make all of this possible. Thanks for listening.