15 research outputs found
Supplemental Material - <i>Coalescing</i> Cross-Pollinating, Crystalising Developing and Evaluating an Art Installation About Health Knowledge
No full textSupplemental Material for Coalescing Cross-Pollinating, Crystalising Developing and Evaluating an Art Installation About Health Knowledge by Chloe Watfern, Zoi Triandafilidis, Priya Vaughan, Barbara Doran, Ann Dadich, Kate Disher-Quill, Peter Maple, Louise Hickman, Michele Elliot, and Katherine M. Boydell in Qualitative Health Research.</p
Thom Roberts Reads Crowns : Musing on Art and Neurodiversity through the Lens of One Artist’s Practice
No full textAt Studio A, a supported studio for neurodiverse artists, the prolific painter, performer, photocopier, and installation artist Thom Roberts frequently reaches out to connect with friends and fellow artists by running his hands across the backs of their heads; “reading” their crowns. It’s a blessing I have been lucky enough to receive countless times over the course of my ethnographic engagement with Studio A, and as my relationship with Thom has developed. During my research, I have witnessed Thom read crowns in all kinds of contexts, from pubs to art galleries, in a performance artwork that could also be understood as an experimental artist talk. Here, I trace the narrative of this facet of Thom’s practice. I consider how such embodied encounters have the potential to open avenues of communication and connection between people who might experience the world in very different ways
How Art Works: A Tale of Two Studios
No full textThere are studios all over the world where neurodiverse artists work together in a supportive way. This thesis is an inquiry into how art works in two of these organisations—Studio A in Sydney, Australia, and Project Art Works in Hastings, UK. It draws from traditions of narrative inquiry and ethnography to understand the lived experiences of the people at the heart of these studios, and the role that art has played in their storied lives. As such, the thesis contributes to knowledge in three ways: 1) It documents the important practices of makers and organisations whose work has not yet received significant critical or academic attention. It explores the dimensions of these practices that hold potential for reshaping normative understandings of both art and disability; 2) It conceptualises the role of art as a point of connection between neurodiverse people, and as a way of coming to express and understand lived experience. It maps the resonances across different fields that help articulate empathic encounters with and through art; 3) It demonstrates, through its written form, an ecological mode of creative inquiry that resists reductionism—an inquiry that is, like the practices it studies, embodied and relational. It interrogates the value, and ethical implications, of this mode of research. To contribute to knowledge in this way, the thesis assembles many forms of pre-existing knowledge, including the lived experience of its subjects, and the academic literature preceding it. It is grounded in an ecological understanding of cognition, informed by theories that help situate thought in the world, as a dynamic system of relationships between self, others, and the environment. It draws links between disability aesthetics, care ethics, and an ecological approach to empathy, through detailed insights into the social and aesthetic dynamics operating in the work of the two studios. These insights were built up over three years of fieldwork, including over one hundred interviews, and hundreds of hours spent looking, listening, and making alongside artists in the studio. This thesis is an invitation to enter the world of the studios, and of some of the people who work there. It offers a way of paying attention to art, and to other people, that is attuned to the senses, and that allows us to be comfortable with not knowing—or, knowing differently. It argues that this is a practice of ethical importance, in a world where both disability and art are still poorly understood
How not to talk about it: Using digital storytelling with children with anxiety
No full textThis paper explores the benefits and challenges of using digital storytelling (DST) in mental health research with children. By using DST to centre children's experiences, the study empathetically deepens our understanding of children's complex mental health issues. DST involves a gradual process that fosters safe self-expression and imaginative storytelling. The DST process can help convey difficult or stressful stories coherently and creatively to support both researchers and participants in understanding mental health issues. However, a narrow focus on neat endings and resolutions may limit authentic expression, indicating a need for more open-ended narrative structures to capture the complexities of children's mental health experiences.This is a story about three stories. This is also a story about the discoveries and challenges of working alongside children (ages 10–13) as they used digital storytelling to share their anxiety experiences through short self-made videos. Our journey began with two questions: How would children portray their anxiety through digital storytelling? What aspects of the digital storytelling process would be the most fruitful for both participants and researchers, and why? In this paper, we weave three of the children's stories within our own narrative of using digital storytelling as a research tool to better understand children's experiences of anxiety. Rather than present the children's stories as the results of our research, we use their stories as springboards for articulating and interrogating digital storytelling as a tool for understanding anxiety. We intertwine the first-person accounts of each child with our academic prose, deliberately highlighting the different ways of knowing that our approach enables
A sad tree: visualising ecological emotions through bodies in place
No full textIn this time of climate and ecological crisis, we engaged with young people and their families to articulate feelings in and about the natural world. Our research question: how might the arts-based method of body mapping enable families to explore ecological emotions together? By drawing, collaging, and placing found objects from the local environment, families’ body maps evoked complex relationships to each other and the more-than-human. Here, we share images of their work and reflect on their meaning and process of creation
Thinking and Caring With Arts-Based Research: An Assemblage of Methods to Promote Public Health
No full textWhat do we learn when we invite others to make and create? How can drawing, cutting and pasting, repurposing objects, and photography enable us to explore complex, or hard-to-talk about experiences? What do we miss when we ask only with words, and not with action? This article explores these questions, demonstrating how to enact different arts-based research methods in practices of inquiry to open the process of thought and care in research related to public health. With reference to one line of inquiry as an exemplar – namely, how to promote care – this article reveals the complementary value of several arts-based research methods – these include: found objects; body mapping; collective collage making; and photography. This article: presents an overview of arts-based research methods, explaining what they are (and are not) and their purpose; demonstrates how arts-based research might be used to promote care; clarifies the benefits, limitations, and ethical considerations associated with arts-based research; and invites readers to consider how they might incorporate arts-based research in their scholarship, highlighting particular questions that warrant consideration
Growing and fostering knowledge translation : recommendations for health organisations from the SPHERE Envisionarium
No full textObjectives: Despite considerable investments in health research, there is a disconnect between what is known to enhance healthcare and how healthcare is delivered in situ. Knowledge translation (KT) plays a vital role in addressing this disconnect. Some governments promote KT via initiatives that encourage collaboration between researchers, clinicians, communities and others; this includes Maridulu Budyari Gumal SPHERE (Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise). To promote KT and address the knowledge-to-action gap, we held an envisionarium with SPHERE members, to generate recommendations to promote KT in, and beyond, SPHERE. Methods: To discern these recommendations, an envisionarium was facilitated with SPHERE members. Participants included researchers, healthcare providers and others (n = 16). Participants considered how KT can be fostered and promoted. Discussion notes and participant responses were thematically analysed. Results: Four recommendations were identif ied, accompanied by practical steps to action these to enable health and research institutions to foster KT. These include the need to: provide access to resources; reconceptualise impact and innovation; promote the legitimacy of different knowledges; and engage everyone in KT. Conclusions: These recommendations are important for three reasons. First, they demonstrate that KT requires more than funding– it also requires networks that buoy the dynamic flow of knowledge in its varied manifestations. Second, the recommendations demonstrate the importance of supportive organisational mechanisms that inculcate positive, KT-friendly structures or cultures, while affording individuals the opportunity to organically foster innovation. Third, they demonstrate the methodological value of envisionariums to disrupt the status quo and envision different ways to promote KT
Positive organisational arts-based youth scholarship : redressing discourse on danger, disquiet, and distress during COVID-19
No full textThis methodological article argues for the potential of positive organisational arts-based youth scholarship as a methodology to understand and promote positive experiences among young people. With reference to COVID-19, exemplars sourced from social media platforms and relevant organisations demonstrate the remarkable creative brilliance of young people. During these difficult times, young people used song, dance, storytelling, and art to express themselves, (re)connect with others, champion social change, and promote health and wellbeing. This article demonstrates the power of positive organisational arts-based youth scholarship to understand how young people use art to redress negativity via a positive lens of agency, peace, collectedness, and calm
Edge of the present: Mixed reality, suicidality and future thinking
No full textThis book takes a creative approach in examining of the biggest crises of our time: that of mental suffering, distress and anxiety
