TRAMHAis an international network devised to foster and develop interdisciplinary dialogues, research and exchange on creativity and mental health. One of our main aims is to broaden our knowledge and understanding of the relationship between individuals, their environments and mental health in specific contexts.

 

Last year our First Seminar Series took place in the cities of La Paz (Bolivia) and Carlisle (UK), and the event brought together colleagues from different disciplines and cultural backgrounds to discuss the connections made between arts/creativity and mental health in different contexts, and the problematic issues experienced by those working in this field. Amongst the issues discussed were: the role of music to support schizophrenic individuals, and the role of community arts for maintaining or achieving mental health in different contexts, the potential of artistic educational, cultural and economic strategies in poor rural contexts, and the general relevance of creativity for people’s mental health. While some of the cases presented last year as examples of successful arts and health endeavours in different contexts will be displayed in this year’s event, we will also reflect and continue the discussion of many issues raised last year on both sides of the Atlantic.

 

This year the event will be held at the University of Cumbria in Lancaster (UK), and we are delighted that our Brazilian colleagues have secured the Nise da Silveira Municipal Institute in Rio de Janeiro as the Latin American host institution. This is particularly good news, given the role of Dr da Silveira (1905-1999) and her Museum of Images of the Unconscious in the transformation of psychiatric services through the use of expressive activities in the first half of the 20^th Century in Brazil. While we will all have the chance to learn about the research developments of our Brazilian colleagues, those attending the event in Rio will also be able to visit this historical museum.

 

In this opportunity we will hold creative workshops which will complement paper, artwork and poster presentations, and it is expected that they will also encourage us all to reflect upon the ways in which we ourselves perceive our bodies and minds trans-formed through creative activities. Finally, we would like to include reflections and discussions on some of the main obstacles and potentialities of the links between arts and mental health, which were identified and highlighted during last year’s event:

 

Similar obstacles were observed by colleagues working in the field of mental health and the arts both in the UK and South America:

 

The opportunities of working in the field of mental health and the arts were in some cases different in the UK and South America:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chair*: Annibal Coelho de Amorim (Educateur)

            Lula Wanderley- Director

            Epaco Aberto ao Tempo (Space open to Time)

11:15  Coffee break

Museum of Images of the Unconscious

14:00  Guided tour to the Nise de Silveira Municipal Institute

15:30  Musical Performance – The Altered Nervous System presents

           Lula Wanderley

           Epaco Aberto ao Tempo/Nise da Silveira Institute, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil          

Chair: Gonzalo Araoz (CHRPD, University of Cumbria)

            Gordon Dalgarno

            Honorary Researcher at the University of Cumbria,

            Chair of Enabling Through Sound and Music, Morecambe, UK

           University of Cumbria, Brampton Road, Carlisle

           Geraldine Ling

           Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company, Gateshead, UK

Lula Wanderley is a Brazilian psychiatrist working as a therapist at Espaco Aberto ao Tempo/ Nise da Silveira Institute, Rio de Janeiro. He has been using artistic strategies for many years now since the earliest days he was introduced to Nise da Silveira’s teachings. He is also a contemporary artist and has been using Lygia Clark’s artistic work influences within the mental health field. His work with schizophrenic patients combines ‘body's and art techniques’ to have the patients re-experience their inner selves.

Lula Mello (Luiz Carlos de Mello) has been one of the closest collaborators of Nise da Silveira, since her earliest presence at  the Museum of Images of the Unconscious within the Nise da Silveira Institute. For many years Lula Mello, as he is well known in RIO, is one of the top organizers of many exhibitions from the Museum throughout the world. He also has helped Nise da Silveira to review several of her publications in the field of mental health. Lula Mello is the Director of the Museum which gathers the hugest contribution of arts and psychiatry' interface in the field of mental health.

Annibal Coelho de Amorim is a neurologist and a social psychologist, joining the National Humanisation Policy at The Ministry of Health and FIOCRUZ. For many years Annibal has worked at the Nise da Silveira Institute (formerly Pedro II Psychiatric Centre) and as a result of his direct work many projects have become notorious in the field of mental health. As a result of that he was appointed "Fellow of  ASHOKA - Innovators for The Public" within of Mental Health. He has invited to join several international organizations such as the Japanese International Cooperation Agency/JICA and the Japanese League on Developmental Disabilities/JLDD in courses in many countries such as Japan, Cambodia, Costa Rica. At this point Annibal Coelho de Amorim (M.D.) was invited to become a Honorary Lecturere at the |University of Cumbria, joining a Course on International Health. Annibal is the Coordinator of a Brazilian NGO (Educateur) in the field of Mental Health and Rehabilitation."

Honorary Researcher at the University of Cumbria.

Chair of the charitably supported voluntary organisation

‘Enabling Through Sound and Music’. 

www.ETSAM.org.uk; e mail.   AttuneToHealth@Yahoo.org.uk

Therapy with music is well established and used both to treat mental illness and to support learning disabled people. The paper describes how the therapeutic effect can be enhanced through technological means. The author’s research leads him to state that three factors are important.  (1) The appropriate choice of music; (2) Music played through the whole body, not just the ears; and (3) Music adjusted so as to contain the personal frequencies of the client.

(1)  Is universally agreed. Just a few extra pointers from my research will be given.

(2)  Suitable transducers for this are required along with signal processing to give appropriate dynamic range compression and equalisation.  The frequency and dynamic response of the body is quite different from that of the ears.  This work was largely developed at Keele University from 1997 to 2002 and will be only briefly outlined.

(3)  This is our current research work. The key was how to find the personal frequencies of the individual client.  Having done this we already had the know-how as already there to modify the music

Jan Kelsey and Paul Taylor

Lecturers at the Faculty of Arts,

University of Cumbria, Brampton Road, Carlisle

 

The Haven project was initiated as a commission from Copeland Borough Council for an interactive community based element in an exhibition of work by artists from West Walls Studios in Carlisle, at the Beacon Museum and art gallery in Whitehaven in 2005. It was partly inspired by a display in the museum on the Mount Pleasant estate, a utopian housing development of the nineteenth century that quickly degenerated into a slum, and was also a chance to examine the very specific notion of local identity in Whitehaven. Two hundred years of industrial decline have forged a very strong sense of community and mutual dependence, which are both a tribute to human resilience and also an obstacle to social, economic and geographical mobility for much of the population.

 

Using the simplest archetypal template for a house shape, die cut from paper, the community was encouraged to reflect on home, belonging and security through drawing, collage and modification of the basic shape, and add their personal ‘Haven’ to the group to form a ‘town’.

 

This model of practice has subsequently been modified and adapted to the specific circumstances of Carlisle in the aftermath of the January 2005 floods^[1]; Somerset House, London in September 2006; a summer house in the forests of Sweden; the ‘independents’ section of the Liverpool Biennial of 2006; and numerous smaller scale contexts. In each incarnation the project addresses issues of local identity, the role of the artist as originator and facilitator, the uses of archetypes and process as metaphors for larger social interactions, and the use of drawing as a fundamental and common impulse for expression.

 

Through the use of a simple archetype and process as metaphor, it is capable of endless variation depending on situation, interaction between the artists and participants and between participants and the artwork itself. This bears significant resemblance to the ‘Relational Aesthetics’ proposed by Nicolas Bourriaud as art that facilitates human relationships, a factor common to all our collaborative practice.

 

Geraldine Ling

General emotional numbness is a notable social symptom of mental ill health, and madness can be seen as an effect or a reflection of socio-economic and political circumstances. Forum Theatre is an interactive theatre form invented (or discovered) in the early 1970s by the Brazilian Augusto Boal. An audience is shown a short-ish play in which a central character (protagonist) encounters an oppression or obstacle which s/he is unable to overcome; the subject-matter will usually be something of immediate importance to the audience, often based on a shared life experience.

After this first showing, there may be a brief discussion amongst the audience, mediated by a figure known as 'the Joker' (as in a pack of cards, belonging to no particular suit, on no-one's side). Then the play is restarted, usually from the beginning, and runs as before - but this time, whenever a 'spect-actor' (active audience member) feels the protagonist might usefully have tried a different strategy, s/he can stop the action, take the protagonist's place, and try his or her idea. The other characters in the piece will react as they feel their characters would react, on a bad day i.e. they will not make it easy for any new tactic to succeed; but if an idea works, the intervening spect-actor can win, the game is not rigged.

In this opportunity, we will deliver a workshop to illustrate how methods of Theatre for Change can help us to look at our own mental health and wellbeing, using games and exercises to enable us to see our own needs and the different features (policies, reflection, communication, changes in attitude, etcetera) required to support them.

 

 

Playing The Voice is a way of working with voice and improvising to explore emotional dynamics at intrapersonal, interpersonal and group levels. I developed it as part of a More Music In Morecambe Fellowship in 2005 and have been refining it since in both music and therapeutic settings.

You’ll have your own feelings about your voice and being heard both literally and metaphorically. You’ll have your own feelings too about what do you do when you don't know what's going to happen next. Put them together and a potent field is created in the opportunity for play and self discovery.

In this condensed version we'll make together pieces of vocal music focusing on playfulness, listening, being present and the thrill of making it up as you go along. Using particular structures that create a stimulating and supportive environment, you'll have the opportunity to become more aware of how you respond to uncertainty and what this has to do with the rest of your life. It's an experience people often find challenging and liberating.