Patients and Symtoms.

I have been told some of the patients I will be working with have mild symptoms of Schizophrenia and Depression. I did psychology for my A level and came across alot of studies in regards to these illnesses, however I thought it would be a good idea to read up on them again and familiarise myself with what I could be up against.

Information on Schizophrenia:
http://helpguide.org/mental/schizophrenia_symptom.htm

Information on Depression:
http://helpguide.org/mental/depression_signs_types_diagnosis_treatment.htm

First meeting at START

Went for a meeting with one of the artists in residence at START Manchester on 15/12/11, was shown a short powerpoint of the sort of work they do there, and was given some information on the project that I shall be helping on (these will be scanned in at a later date.)
The project I will be working on is portraiture through photography. I was given the opportunity to share my thoughts, views and experiences that would help towards the project. I am pleased that this project was chosen due to the closeness to my own individual practice, I feel that I can gain alot out of this towards my own work, and have alot to offer to the project myself.
I recieved an email from the artist, the main points from this essay are included below:


Dates for the courseMonday afternoons and Fridays are free for everyone, with a preference for Friday afternoons.

Areas of special interest:
Sarah - Concepts of beauty and portrayal of women in the media.  Self-image.

Other notesFinal portrait images could be made up using collage or layering techniques using acetates and a light box.
Course participants will be from Start and ‘Out in the City’.
Each of the sessions will start with a short mindfulness exercise.
We will make a date to familiarise Howard and Sarah with the equipment (lighting and cameras) before the start of the course
We discussed volunteer roles and responsibilitiesNext meeting – Thursday 12^th January 2012 at 10:30am

My special aims for the next meeting will be:

~Email essay and forward link to people imitating famous paintings to Cathy
~Look over materials from Start2 and Unspoken wellbeing trail
~Make a rough plan for a session on portrayal of gender (need to include the boys too!) in the media or art
~Think about what you want to get from the placement

Shall do these for the next session on January 12th.

School Activities

http://whitworthlearning.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/the-visit-of-wilbraham-primary-school/

'The Visit of Wilbraham Primary School'

School children Exploring the Whitworth Gallery as shadows.

Whitworth Gallery Talk

Today I visited the Whitworth Gallery on Oxford Road, Manchester (Website: http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/) for a talk with the education officer there. It was a talk about some of the projects offered there to school groups.

It was a really great space for children to express themselves artistically, and it allowed tehm to have fun whilst doing it. Although im hoping my practise will be focused more on damaged adults, it was a good insight into the work the gallery offers to these children to actually get them out of the classroom and into a different environment that will stimulate them in different ways.

Here are just a few photos from the space the children had been using to create work in responce to 'light and shadows'

This last photo is taken in the corner of the room called the 'Shadown Lab' where children can sit on the bean bag chairs and play creativly and create their art works in a fun environment that is outside the classroom. Some children may benefit from this so much, it really makes a difference about your surrounding environments and how they effect your work ability.

http://www.masterstudies.net/media/pdf/MBA%20Proj/workplace%20environment%20&%20its%20impact%20on%20employee%20performance.pdf

This is quite an in-depth study about environmental factors and their correlation with work and productivity. But it must be a crucial factor with some school children, especially when you are wanting to allow them to express themselves through something like art.

These are the notes I took down whilst having the talk.

Here are several links to programmes offered by the gallery towards different age groups:

Early years: http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/learning/earlyyears/

Key Stage 1: http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/learning/ks1/

Keys Stage 2: http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/learning/ks2/

Secondary School and Older learning:  http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/medialibrary/learning/W%20LI%20Mag%2015%20sept%20key%20stages.pdf

Whilst at the Gallery I took the opportunity to take a look at the current exhibition on at the moment entitled 'Dark Matters' [Video link below]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEoWcolBXIA&feature=youtu.be

Here is the actual link to the website for the exhibition below:

http://darkmattersart.com/

I actually really enjoyed the exhibition, especially the work done by a collaboration of artists known as 'BrassArt.' It was a really beautiful and haunting piece of work.

http://darkmattersart.com/?ha_exhibit=brassart 

[Information on the work exhibited]

It is very similar to the work of artist Wu Chi-Tsung who actually did a talk at university last year that I attended. It was such amazing work and is basically the same concept as has been done here at the Whitworth.

Video of Wu Chi-Tsung on his work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FMps0PVycM

Video of Wu Chi-Tsungs work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLnGMsudsoI&feature=related

Scan of the exhibition detail from the gallery booklet

Proffesional Practice Module - Introduction Workshop

This introduction workshop was carried out at 'Garden Needs' community garden in Salford (website: http://www.gardenneeds.org.uk/) which do community based projects. [below: a photo of the 'Garden Needs' garden]

We went on a short walk in the surrounding area along the River Irwell and were asked to think about who might use this site, here are some photos below of evidence that the site is used by people.

[evidence of drinking/smoking, all seem to be Polish brands]

[Evidence that there had been a fire lit, could have been a fishing trip? Cooked what they caught? This was found next to the Polish branded drinks]

[Another fire further along the walk]

[Vandalism - relatively quiet area, could feel like they get away with doing it here as they wont get caught? I feel like it makes the area feel unsafe and not somewhere you would want to be on your own.]

[Again more vandalism - notice boards not really kept well by the coucil, sign of lack of people coming to this particular area?]

As I can recall there were only about 3 people who walked past us on the walk and they were all dog walkers. There was evidence that cars/trucks had been on the path we walked on due to tyre markings. We also came across what appeared to be fox footprints, and a couple of rabbit warrens. This shows us that there are wildlife that are using the site.

We were also asked to think about what we would do if we were given the opportunity to bring a group of school children down to the site to do some site-based artwork. I took photos of things that I could think about using for this, photos are below.

I just thought about how I could use the landscape. Looking at natural forms, man made objects in the environment, sound, tracks, shapes and patterns. I think it would take alot of preperation to be fully competent to be at a stage where you could just go to the site and start doing work with a group full of children.

My note taking on the actual walk itself.