OUAN502 - PPP2: NetWORKING with Others

OUAN502 - NetWORKING with Others:

To get a little bit of confidence and practice at branching out and working with others on projects or for research and information, I decided to use anonymous social networking sites such as Tumblr (you don't have to share any personal information and can use an alias) to collaborate with others to create works of art and illustrations based around our experiences with mental health. By working with people suffering from all kinds of disorders and symptoms, I was able then to work on illustrations, one in particular for a Responsive project for UCL in London for a NeuroArt exhibition with the topic of mental illness. Some of the illness (albeit just labels and should only be treated as such and not as a means to define the people who have these experiences) I looked at were depression, Schizophrenia, psychosis, and Bipolar Disorder.

I wanted to raise awareness for such a sensitive subject and by remaining anonymous yet supportive, I was able to gather experiences and make a small bond of trust between other users regarding this subject. It allowed us to open up to each other and share experiences which then in turn informed my physical practice. I looked up mental illness art online and noticed they all had things in common such as colour schemes, use of multiple personalities and faces, dark, bleak atmospheric feelings, and personal symbolism such as eyes, televisions, super powers, and so forth.

I can not for obvious reasons post any conversations I may have had with such people, but I did spend quite some time getting to know them and their individual stories. In total I only reached out to about three or four different people, but all their stories varied vastly and allowed me some valuable insight into their lives. I;m grateful for their correspondence and willing to take part. This mini-project could also inform COP3 next year as it's something very dear to me and I have a passionate interest for anything psychological as my aspiration of one day being an art therapist might lead on from this research and development.