We were introduced to the subject matter of our piece- mental health.
This is a broad label, covering many different key issues and stories that I am
sure many people in the class will have a personal connection to. However I
feel the best work I do, is the work I am personally invested in. Therefore I
hope investigating a topic that effects me and others in a very raw, emotive
way will push us to make work reflective of this.
So, what is mental health? A question, too vast to answer directly;
especially on one blog post. A better question is perhaps, what is mental
health to me? Still a broad question, but one I think I can scale down. I
believe it is how you are feeling in your mind. In the same way you would say,
today I have a cold, I think you say, today my head has a cold. I think
everyone has good and bad days, whether they are diagnosed or being treated for
a mental health condition or not. When you go to the hospital with a bad leg it
can cover a range of problems- you may have burnt or bruised it slightly or on
the other end of the scale it could be broken; which is exactly what mental
health is in my opinion- a scale. I believe someone can have a day when they
feel depressed without suffering from depression. How this makes sense to me is
that I may feel down, but if I see something funny it will cheer me up because
I still maintain the ability to view things in a positive light. That is not to
say everyone suffering from depression is depressed 24/7 because that is
completely not the case; they will fall on the scale. Instead of falling into
cemented categories, I think people can float on a scale with the freedom to
move up and down. Reading back over this attempted explanation has caused me to
see how complicated it really is. Perhaps the answer to the initial question is
I have no a clue.
However as far as building a piece is concerned I believe there is a lot
of potential in this subject and a lot of input to be had. Although perhaps
illogical and mad, I had some initial ideas when introduced to this topic and
they were:
- A food fight- an expression of the madness that occurs in your head which is something not deemed appropriate in polite society.
- A physical piece- one of the hardest parts of discussing and portraying mental health is it is not something physical that we can hold in our hand and it hence becomes harder to explain and comprehend. By taking our thoughts, feeling and emotions in our head and making them physical, the barrier between head and hands is broken.
- Poetry or song lyrics- one song that came to my mind is Starry Starry Night by Don McLean, based upon the life and times of Vincent van Gogh- someone who was considered insane in both his art and actions. There is so many ways to tell stories, songs being one.
Although we are only mapping our ideas currently I think it is
imperative for us make our ideas come to life- because if not in experimental
term, when else can you exercise free reign on your piece? Too often I will
have an initial idea and then by the end of the piece it is a distant memory.
This could be for one of many reasons- perhaps I don't push my voice to be
heard enough or the idea was pretty bad. Whatever the reason, this term I can
discover, mould, polish and use my ideas to create a piece full of colour and
just a touch of madness.
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