Just under a week ago I attended a symposium at University of Bolton called “Performing Arts and Health.” The day long event celebrated a new research lab opening at the university which looks at the wider role of the arts in the the medical profession.
I met a lady called Jessica who works across theatre and health care and is writing a phd on (among other things) how theatre practice can release trauma stored in the body. http://www.jessicabockler.co.uk/. I must contact her soon and see if she wants to meet for a coffee.
During the afternoon I also took part in some workshops, when I made a collage and wrote a poem.
To complete the poem our workshop leader Jackie Hagan, who has been facilitating writing workshops in psychiatric hospitals for seven years, asked us to make a list of things that shine. Here’s what I put.
pennies
foil sweet wrappers
the sun
the eyes of a kind person
milk bottle tops
diamonds
polished silver
stars
the reflection of sunlight on water
glitter
fire
steel
Okay so the Internet isn’t morphing our brains into weird malfunctioning humanoid organs. Phew http://tiny.cc/6tyis
I’ve been feeling a bit shy about writing on here of late. Its because I know that I’m struggling a bit with my emotions at the moment and although this is supposed to be a blog where its okay for me to talk about the above, I really don’t want to constantly post big chunks of text featuring my melancholic self analysis. Its not that interesting! I guess I have to find a balance between honestly presenting myself as what I am (a depressive, introspective, obsessive) and also knowing that I have plenty more exciting, enlightening and rewarding things to write about!
ON THAT NOTE: next week Rachel and I are hosting Brian Catling http://www.briancatling.com/Site/INTRO.html at the Bluecoat. He’s doing a three day durational performance come installation for the opening of Liverpool Biennial. There is going to be so much going on in the city next week it’s mind blowing to think of. I’m actually really excited! I need to make sure that I don’t spend the whole time sat in my office and that I get out and see things across the city. I’m particularly looking forward to the Biennial conference which I hope will have some relevance to a few of my earlier posts on issues around trauma and embodiment http://www.biennial.com/articles/event/Touched%20C…
Also, after some encouraging words from Emily and Andrew who commented on my post from the 5th September I’ve managed to full my finger out this morning and piece together (another) MRes draft proposal. I’ve sent it off to Sid V for some stern critique. I’ve also sent it to my old dissertation tutor Ross Birrell who hopefully will see the connections with my undergrad work.
And just to prove that it really does exist and that I really am going to actually submit it this time….. I’ll post the synopsis as a sneaky preview….
Frankenstein’s Monster: Masculinities, mental health and new technologies
Synopsis
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein pioneered a literary archetype: a dangerous creature created as a result of reckless experimentation with new technology. Authored at the dawn of the industrial revolution, it warned against the dangers of replacing human workers with machines.
I propose to survey contemporary art and culture to identify 21st century Frankenstein’s monsters: archetypes that embody undercurrent fearfulness toward new technology. I expect that while some of these examples will be literary; most will not. The focus will be on the specter of Frankenstein haunting the popular imagination.
With Frankenstein as a model, my thesis will interrogate the present state of contemporary masculine archetypes and their relationship to new technologies. Within this I give particular attention to recent thinking on mental health of the male population and speculation that the overuse of technology may be changing human bodies and brains.
I’ve started to read this really interesting book called ‘The Melancholy Android’ by Eric G Wilson. It documents the practice of android making: when an inventor builds a robot or creature that emulates human form. Frankenstein’s monster would be the classic example although the practice extends to puppeteering and scary ghouls from horror movies such as Chucky from Tom Holland’s movie Child’s Play.
Wilson’s main assertion is that androids personify the repressed psychology of their creators. He says that “The humanoid embodies characteristics that its creator pretends to loathe. It is a register of what humans most desire and fear, what they hate in life and what they love in death.” As the title may suggest Wilson argues that what is manifest in this release of repressed desires is a deeper sense of melancholy. The role of puppetry in Spike Jonze’s film Being John Malkovich is used as an example of how narratives created by the film’s protagonist Craig Schwartz express his inner most longings: “Marionette forms of Heloise and Abelard from separate chambers, pine for erotic contact.” The puppeteer lives out fantasy via the products of his craftsmanship.
I’ve only read the first few chapters so far but I’m beginning to ponder in what sense this theory might apply to the work of the artist, or how much of an artists output could be understood as an actualisation of subconscious material. I’m thinking of artists like Paul Macarthy and his performance persona Bossy Burger, who managed to make me feel physically sick during his retrospective at Tate Liverpool a few years ago. While film directors such as Michael Haneke (who makes grueling and extraordinary films such as The Piano Teacher) may not create androids as such, I wonder how many of the actions of their lead characters could be interpreted as material out of the subconscious of the auteur. I’m thinking particularly of Hannke because in some ways he trumps my theory off the back of an interview I read with him last year where he boasts about his own psychological stability and his very happy childhood. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/oct/25/intervi… I’m not sure… I need to keep thinking on it.
