Learning How Not to Die: An Interdisciplinary Art Approach to Mental Health
Current research project aims:
How does the choice of medium/material affect the delivery of a concept in my work?
What does the labor of repetition do to a concept when an idea is reproduced in a different medium/material?
How will an interdisciplinary approach to my practice affect how I disseminate academic/scientific mental health data and research to the public?
Project goals:
Through this project, I hope to gain a better understanding of the role of medium/material choice in my studio practice and how that role shifts through repetition. I want to explore the bounds of an interdisciplinary approach to mental health concepts in my work. I also have the goal of growing my practice-based research methods in the studio to better answer other questions present in my practice.
Contextual review:
My research for this project sits at the intersection of exploring the elements of an interdisciplinary art practice and looking at the benefits and damages of different forms of mental health information dissemination. In 2013, Jay Asher published his first novel 13 Reasons Why about a girl who dies by suicide. In the initial years after the novel’s publication, it received mostly positive reviews and was used as a tool for many young people to relate to issues about suicidal ideation. In 2017, Netflix released its original series based on the book. In that same year, the novel became the no. 1 banned book in America after the release of the Netflix adaptation. A study by the National Institute of Mental Health about 13 Reasons Why “found that the rates of suicide for 10- to 17- year-olds was significantly higher in the months of April, June, and December 2017 than were expected based on past data.” (1)
The visual representation of suicide in media entertainment affects viewers in drastically different ways than other forms of suicide portrayal. As an artist who often makes work about suicidal ideation, this situation became a strong point of interest in my studio. While my work is conceptually based, and never shows a visual, violent representation of the act of suicide, I can’t help but think about scenarios like 13 Reasons Why in regard to my own work. I am very interested in how the medium I choose to fulfill a concept changes the viewers perception of such sensitive topics.
While some artists have long considered their practice to be interdisciplinary, there is a greater contemporary rise in practitioners considering their work to be interdisciplinary. In The Interdisciplinary Turn in the Arts and Humanities, William Condee conjectures that this shift to an interdisciplinary approach is due to “a reaction to two problems: the transformation of universities in the twenty-first century and the challenges posed by postmodernism.” (2) As interdisciplinary approaches to studio practices become more common, I am curious how an artist can distinguish where the priorities lie within the various disciplines being interacted with.
For a decade, I have been content to declare that I make drawings or prints or paintings. The broadest I get is to say I’m a 2D artist. But as the themes in my practice have expanded, I have arrived at a place where I now question if 2D artifacts are the most effective way of disseminating my ideas and what happens when I combine 2D mediums with other art-making approaches.
(1) Release of “13 Reasons Why” Associated with Increase in Youth Suicide Rates. (2019, April 29). National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). https://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2019/release-of-13-reasons-why-associated-with-increase-in-youth-suicide-rates
(2) Condee, William. “The Interdisciplinary Turn in the Arts and Humanities.” Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies, no. 34, 2016.
Methods:
Data Collection: My work in the studio always begins with mental health research. This data collection resides in three areas; reflecting on my own experience with the mental health struggle, reading and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data from the mental health research field, and engaging with works of humanities around that mental health topic, i.e. novels, movies, music, art, etc. This data collection provides me with the foundation needed to build concepts from which to work. While my projects always begin at this step, this data collection will continue throughout the whole project.
Repeated Body of Work no. 1: The first experiment as a research method in my project will be producing and repeating a body of work on one specific mental health struggle. The series will be produced in its entirety before moving on to the second, repeating body of work. I will then produce a second series about the same mental health struggle but in a different medium. If the experiment warrants it, I will produce a third body of work again, repeating the mental health struggle through a third lens.
Repeated Body of Work no. 2: The second experiment in the project will be similar to the first, but rather than completing each series in its entirety, I will produce individual works on the same mental health struggle in different mediums simultaneously. While the works being produced will be contemporary to one another, they will be kept in separate bodies of work in order to see how the conversation in process affects the work in the end.
Reflective Analysis: Throughout the whole project, I will engage in self-reflective analysis of the research project. Up to this point, my reflective analysis has been done mentally, and usually at the end of a series. In this project, the reflective analysis will take a more active and consistent role through diligent journaling and documentation in the studio.
Viewer Feedback: I will conduct a survey of reactions to the different bodies of work. Because my practice heavily involves audience reaction to ideas presented, it is important for me to learn from the viewer how they react to the material/medium choices in regard to the concepts and themes in the work. The surveys will comprise of two groups:
A group of individuals who share the mental health struggle presented in the work will be surveyed about their relation to the work and which bodies of work led to more tangible takeaways for the viewer.
A separate group of individuals who don’t have the mental health struggle will be surveyed about the understanding and empathy gained through the various bodies of work presented.
Timeline/structure:
The first six months of the project will be spent conducting initial data collection and exploring concepts and themes for the two main experiments. By the end of the six months, I will have a firm foundation for the mental health struggles that will be explored in the second phase of the project. Possible themes for the bodies of work are: self-medication, suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety, and body image.
I will begin building the first body of work in month six of the project and will continue to produce work in the studio for two years. The two repeated bodies of work experiments will be conducted in this two-year time span, with one year dedicated to the first process and the second year dedicated to the second process.
For the last six months of the project, I will conduct feedback from viewers of the work. I will also compare this feedback with my own self-reflective analysis during this last stage of the project, which will let me complete the project with a cohesive thesis about my findings.
Indicative bibliography:
Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz. Health. London, Whitechapel Gallery ; Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2020.
Condee, William. “The Interdisciplinary Turn in the Arts and Humanities.” Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies, no.
34, 2016.
Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization. Vintage, 30 Jan. 2013.
Gilles Deleuze, and Paul Patton. Difference and Repetition. New York, Columbia University Press, 1994.
Graham, George. The Disordered Mind. Routledge, 2013.
Holmes EA, Crane C, Fennell MJ, Williams JM. Imagery about suicide in depression--"Flash-forwards"? J
Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2007 Dec;38(4):423-34. doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2007.10.004. Epub 2007 Oct 13.
PMID: 18037390; PMCID: PMC2808471.
Kentridge, William. Six Drawing Lessons. Harvard University Press, 2014.
Kierkegaard, Soren, Howard Vincent, and Edna Hatlestad Hong. Fear and Trembling ; Repetition /. Princeton,
N.J., Princeton University Press, 1983.
King, Scott. Anxiety & Depression : Climb out of the Cellar of Your Mind... Zurich, Jrp Ringier, 2009.
Lange-Berndt, Petra. Materiality. London, Whitechapel Gallery ; Cambridge (Mass.) ; London, 2015.
Advisory team support:
The team I am interested in working was chosen based on their versatile and sensitive approaches to art-making. Because I work with such sensitive topics, often drawing upon my own experiences, support along the way is immensely helpful. I’m not looking for therapy through my advisory team, but an understanding and support of the sensitive nature of my themes is important to me. I also value critique and want to push my practice based on honest and transparent feedback from professionals I respect. And lastly, I need guidance on how to hone my practice-based research in the studio in a more formal way.