Project 3. Place in Art Exercise 3 Gallery or Site visit 1

Jennifer Kanary Nikolov(a) (Netherlands), Labyrinth Psychotica, 2013 FACT Centre, Liverpool, Merseyside. Installation.

Jennifer Kanary Nikolov(a) (Netherlands), Labyrinth Psychotica, 2013

http://www.fact.co.uk/projects/group-therapy-mental-distress-in-a-digital-age/jennifer-kanary-nikolov(a)-(netherlands),-labyrinth-psychotica,-2013.aspx (Accessed 1/5/15)

I visited the FACT centre, Liverpool and spent some time walking around the ‘Group Therapy: Mental Distress in a Digital Age Exhibition 5 Mar – 17th May 2015. As my interest is bedded within ‘Art Therapy’ I had a great interest in this exhibition.

‘Unlike a maze, a labyrinth consists of a single path that twists and turns towards a centre. It is believed that to walk a labyrinth is to embark on a spiritual journey towards oneself.’

Nikolov had used a combination of light sensors, directional sound and LED ‘Hallucination’ poles to create a physical and mental translation of how it might feel to experience psychosis.

It was an amazing experience. I was asked to leave my coat and belongings behind and wear a white coat. This added to a feeling of slight vulnerability. The labyrinth was made up of a series of different fabrics; some smooth, some textured, heavy, light, dark, shiny that were hung very close together and attached down each edge with safety pins. Whilst I did not know what to expect at each turn I found the experience exciting. I could hear a voice as a neared the centre saying “please pick up” at the middle there was a telephone hanging down. I had passed flashing lights, which I did not like and a series of red LED lights.

When I emerged back out of the labyrinth I spoke to the gallery assistant about my experience. I explained that my experience had been positive and fun! He shared with me that out of the hundreds of people who had walked through the labyrinth only himself, me and one other person had found the experience positive!

On reflection, I considered this piece in relation to What is Art, Impermanence, Time, Place and Space. Whilst this piece of Art is not actually reflecting on death, so therefore not impermanence, it does focus on mental health. It allows us to experience and consider for a short time what it may feel like to be suffering from a state of psychosis.

Psychosis Definition

Psychosis is a symptom or feature of mental illness typically characterized by radical changes in personality, impaired functioning, and a distorted or non-existent sense of objective reality. (http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/psychosis) (Accessed 1/5/15)

The experience may have been subjective, depending on the state of mind of the person walking through the labyrinth. The experience may be different for one person on different days. Each experience may be time specific. Is the place relevant ? Possibly, I visited the exhibition in a near by city that was familiar to me. What if the exhibition had been placed with Auschwitz or an old Asylum, perhaps the experience would have been very different. More scary, more disconcerting.

Jennifer Kanary Nikolov(a)

Artist

Jennifer Kanary Nikolov(a) is an artistic researcher. Her art practice roomforthoughts investigates the physics of thought with installation art. Her PhD research Labyrinth Psychotica – Simulating Psychotic Phenomena presents two projects The Wearable and The Labyrinth. Together they form a ‘do-it-yourself psychosis kit’, a form of digital LSD that has been implemented in mental health care organizations around the world to help better understand what if feels like to be in psychosis.

http://www.fact.co.uk/people/artists/jennifer-kanary-nikolov(a).aspx (Accessed 1/5/15)

I was intrigued about other work Nikolov(a) had produced, so researched further via a google search. I found a Youtube video of her work THE WEARABLE, which is an interactive augmented reality cinema walk that functions as a do-it-yourself-psychosis-kit. A form of serious gaming that aims to stimulate our understanding of the subjective experience of being in psychosis. The project also aims to stimulate discourse regarding psychosis simulation projects that have been developed in a scientific context.

(Accessed 1/5/15)

On reflection, I found that after watching this piece of video my heart was racing, I felt tense, uncomfortable and needed a break from my computer screen. I considered the idea that could being stuck in psychosis be a more scary frightening thought than considering death. For me the answer would be yes. I am inspired to look up more Art work that involves mental health illnesses.

I have an interest in Autism and Sensory overload which I suffer from myself at times. I wondered if it would be possible to produce an installation to reflect the experiences of sensory overload. The following YouTube video illustrates this very well.

(Accessed 1/5/15)

I was reminded of some entries into my journal last year both when suffering with depression and sensory overload.

Spirilling

Chaos…

Sensory Overload

Creativity, Musicality and Improvisation….

http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/performingarts/research/professor-raymond-macdonald/ (Accessed 23/4/15)

I attended a lecture at Edge Hill University ‘Arts for wellbeing’ studio by Professor Raymond Macdonald. His lecture was entitled ‘What is human musicality and why it is important:   Daniel Barenboim, Willie Wonka, Billy Connolly, jazz bastards and the universality of improvisation’.

Although his lecture was predominantly about musicality, I listen with an open mind, comparing his ideas with creativity ‘in Art’. Prof. MacDonald began by reading a quote ” If you don’t live it, it wont come out of your horn” by the legendary Jazz musician Charlie Parker. This was interesting to consider in relation to Art. Can an Artist produce Art about something they haven’t experienced, lived or visited?

Prof. MacDonald’s view is that we are all musical, it is an innate ability in all of us and our lives are meshed with musicality. He explained that our early experiences can be internalised for years , often leaving us with the opinion that we are ‘tone deaf’ or ‘do not have the musical gene’. He compared this to a toddler learning to walk, their falling over and not succeeding at first is not down to the lack of ‘gene’ but simply the fact that the skill must be practiced, learned and motor co-ordination improved over time. I agree with his ideas and also think that the same applies to Art and creativity, we are all creative, but often sadly soon believe that ‘we cannot draw’.

Prof. Macdonald described music as being emotional (allowing us to be emotionally moved), engaging, distracting, physical, ambiguous (filtered through life’s experiences), social, communicative (to reach out and touch people), effecting behaviour and a key role in identity. Again I agree with his ideas and think that all of these apply to Art and Creativity.

Sound can have a positive influence on health and that whilst working with a group of people with learning difficulties and Autism, it was found that their self esteem, communication, and music skills all improved. Experiments have taken place which show that listening to a favourite piece of music reduces pain, increases recovery and reduces anxiety.

Improvisation is the most wildly practised, least acknowledged and understood form of music according to (Bailey, 1992 p-ix). Our very first communication with our parents involves ‘cooing’ and improvising. The same could be said for early ‘mark-making’ and drawing. There are three trials of thought on why improvisation is important, the first is that in order to improvise , a musician must be an expert in his field as it is the highest form of musicality. The second thought is that improvisation is a ‘parlour trick’ according to Willy Wonka in the famous Willy Wonker and the chocolate factory. The final trail of thought came to light during a conversation between Prof. MacDonald and Billy Connolly in which they discussed the idea of improvisation being ‘non-conformist’ (using techniques outside the norm). I love this idea and hope to practice this in my artist practice.

There seemed to be three possible stages to improvisation in music; a conventional tune with improvisation, a conventional song with an improvised tune, and then a non-conformist unknown tune and song. It seems that in order to improvise it helps to start from a place of knowing, sameness and then using the opportunity to go on and improvise.It struck me that this process is often the same for Artist, starting from a place of being inspired by something familiar, then improvising with the idea and finally producing something completely new.

https://uk.video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIieujtVpVcAPSF2BQx.;_ylu=X3oDMTByZWc0dGJtBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDMQ–?p=Professor+Raymond+Macdonald+Youtube+Music&vid=8d1d1eba1340ec0e64bae060940352e9&l=6%3A37&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DWN.L73n0NpERVbz2X3ZmWsEPA%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DmRwn1-mw3p0&tit=Marilyn+Crispell%2CRaymond+MacDonald+%40+Le+Weekend+2010&c=0&sigr=11bik8bi8&sigt=11kmqspm6&sigi=11v91g32d&age=1287525905&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&fr=mcafee&tt=b (Accessed 24/4/15)

Is improvised music the same as contemporary Art……?

Wassily Kandinsky Improvisation – More Art, oil paintings on canvas. Less
400 x 402 75.5KB
http://www.book530.com

Improvisations’ played out: Kandinsky’s pioneer work sets record …

I  love Kandinsky’s improvised work.

Possible book to read for further research.

‘Because time is not like space’ Christopher Boone.

Whilst reading ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time’ by Mark Haddon London (2014) the main character Christopher Boone who is aged 15 and has Autism explains his concept of time…

Christopher explains his concept of time.

I love the way the character describes a Timetable as a map of time. He says that “a map is a representation of things that actually exist”. He also says “time is only the relationship between the way different things change, like the earth going around the sun…”.

He goes on to say ” And because nothing can travel faster than the speed of light this means that we can only know about a fraction of the things that go on in the universe…”. I find this concept amazing. He ends by saying “And this means that time is a mystery, and not even a thing, and no one has ever solved the puzzle of what time is, exactly. And so, if you get lost in time it is like being lost in a desert, except that you can’t see the desert because it is not a thing. And this is why I like timetables because they make sure you don’t get lost in time“.

I think this explanation is amazing and the exact reason we need time to function in todays world!