All workshops are taking place on Day 3 of the conference.
Workshop 1
Michelle van Wyk, Mariluz Soto, Chakirra Claasen and Melanie Sarantou Re-stitching the Double Diamond: Visualising thoughts, perceptions, apprehensions and emotions through improvisation and materiality (90 mins)
Design processes are regularly described according to the Double Diamond design process model (2004) of the Design Council of the United Kingdom. This model is based on four linear stages titled ‘discover, define, develop and deliver’. The Design Council improved their model in 2019 to visually represent a more circular model. However, the basis of the model continues to represent the linearity of the 2004 model.
This workshop looks at the value that materiality unlocks in the conversation around the Double Diamond, as well as how the pandemic has revealed disconnects that can serve as discussion points for bringing ‘everyone into the room’ and evoke reflections on Design that is intuitive within the context of the ‘new normal’.
Please note: To participate in this workshop, each participant will need paper (newspaper, tissue and re-usable paper) or textile (off-cuts, dishcloths, textile scraps) from their home. Other materials and media can be collected for mark-making (needles and threads, pens, paints, markers, pencils, craft materials). The workshop activity will involve communal making with each participant making a component of a larger piece intended to be roped or pieced together digitally. This will form the core of the reflective discussion in the last phase of the workshop.
Workshop 2
Erminia Colucci and Lily Kpobi Visual methodologies as tools to deconstruct and represent the underrepresented in mental health research and human rights activism (90 mins)
Globally in the last decades we have witnessed an increase in mental disorders and suicidal behaviours. People experiencing mental illnesses are often subjected to various human rights abuses and social injustice paired with often unavailable or inadequate care. A Global Mental Health movement is being built across the world to improve access to care and eradicate such abuses. However, this movement has been criticized for using an imperialistic approach and imposing Western/Anglo perspectives and tools in achieving its aims.
During the workshop, the participants will reflect and share learnings about the benefits and challenges in using visual methodologies, particularly ethnographic documentary and participatory video, to explore these complex and often misrepresented issues as well as using creative forms of engagement to ignite social and system changes.
The facilitators will first provide an overview of different kinds of visual methodologies that can be used to disrupt existing narratives about mental health/illness and show footage and other data from interdisciplinary projects in countries such as Indonesia, India, Ghana, Australia and the Philippines. In particular, they will refer to their ESRC/GCRF-funded project “Together for Mental Health: Using collaborative visual research methods to understand experiences of mental illness, coercion and restraint in Ghana and Indonesia” (a collaboration with King’s College London, University of Ghana, University of Gadjah Mada, Indonesia and partners from local mental health advocacy groups and arts organisations). This project aimed to use ethnographic film and participatory visual methods to explore attempts by mental health workers to establish collaborations with faith-based and traditional healers to prevent the use of coercion and provide care for persons affected by mental illness.
Extracts from these projects will be used as prompts to debate and gain reciprocal knowledge around key ethical and methodological concerns in carrying out applied visual research in mental health and human rights. If the full 90-minutes time slot is allocated, participants will also be invited to use the examples provided to develop an applied visual research concept and share their potential or current projects to receive feedback from the facilitators and other participants.
Timeline of Activities
Introductions – 10 min
Overview of visual projects – 20 min
“Short synopsis pitch:’Small group activity on using arts-based/visual methods on collaboration best practice – 30 min
Group ‘pitch’ sharing and feedback/suggestions – 20 min
Closing thoughts -10 min
Workshop 3
Katy Boom, Wendy Corbett and Sian Evans: Using visual methods to communicate and decolonise climate inequity (45 mins)
We propose a creative participatory workshop exploring conference attendees’ ideas and suggestions for visual methods around the subject of global disparities in those contributing to the climate emergency and those feeling its effects. The use of participatory methods is based on an emergent trend in participatory media production, where a community organically come together to give voice to a particular topic (Brown, 2018). Visual imagery and methods are essential for engaging people with climate issues and giving meaning to frequently abstract ideas, they also have potential to exert power and inform dominant narratives (O’Neill, 2017). It is imperative that opportunities to generate imagery around climate inequity are available to all. Participants would be encouraged to use a variety of techniques for sharing their thoughts including sound, voice, movement, painting, making and drawing. The content of the workshop would be video captured and appear as an unedited reflection of the session’s creative output on the digital platform ‘susthingsout.com’ and any other spaces that contributors elect to share it to. The platform susthingsout.com seeks to engage a wide range of users in decolonised discussions around sustainability issues and disrupt narratives of exclusion using a variety of visual and written methods.
Brown, J. (2018) Participatory media production as a tool for research. Available at https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/communicatingresearch/2018/02/06/participatory-media-production-as-a-tool-for-reseach/
O’Neill (2017) Visualising Climate Change. UK Research and Innovation Grant Documentation. https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FK001175%2F1#/tabOverview
Workshop 4
Henrik Teleman and Chris High Love in Arabic: Work-in-progress exhibition and online workshop (60 mins)
In a small studio deep in Swedish countryside, an ethnological art project called Vad Händer Sedan is taking form. The title means “What happened next?”, and the project combines artistic methods with visual and participatory research to express the experiences of refugees since they arrived in Sweden. What has happened to them and what has happened in them? How can Love in Arabic be expressed in words, projections and experiences that challenge all of us to get more in touch with what means to be human? Is that a cubical disco ball?
The project builds on an earlier work “The mobile contains the whole human”, and involves ethnographic fieldwork, mobile-based micro-documentation, seminars, laborations, media engagement, student training and various scholarly outputs. It will culminate in a year’s time with a 1000 m2 immersive exhibition opening in Malmö. The exhibition is envisioned as a frozen film, a spatial fictionalization where the informants’ experiences become universal through the subjects that they touch: loneliness, breakup, longing, love, gender, vulnerability, fear & security.
We invite you to explore this work-in-progress by trying out the micro-documentation methods for yourself during the conference. Then join us in the studio to see which scene in the frozen film is yours. Look in the mirrors of comfort and fear, as we discuss the intersection between art, research, love and politics. We will be running a demonstration of the micro-documentation process for workshop participants in the week before the workshop. If you would like to take part, you’ll need to have access to WhatsApp.