The Big Anxiety: Taking Care of Mental Health in Times of Crisis (Thinking in the World)

305 Pages·2022·19.281 MB·English

The Big Anxiety
THINKING IN THE WORLD
Series editors: Jill Bennett and Mary Zournazi
Thinking in the World combines the work of key thinkers to pioneer a new
approach to the study of thought. Responding to a pressing need in both
academic and wider public contexts to account for thinking as it is experienced
in everyday settings, the series explores our thinking relationship to everything
from illness, to built environments, to ecologies, to other forms of life
and technology.
Other titles in the series
Thinking in the World, ed. Jill Bennett and Mary Zournazi
Practical Aesthetics, ed. Bernd Herzogenrath
An Anthropological Guide to the Art and Philosophy of Mirror Gazing,
Maria Danae Koukouti and Lambros Malafouris
The Big Anxiety
Taking Care of Mental
Health in Times of Crisis
EDITED BY
JILL BENNETT
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2022
Copyright © Jill Bennett, 2022
Jill Bennett has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as Editor of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. xvii constitute an extension
of this copyright page.
Cover design by Ben Anslow
Cover images: Edge of the Present (Photo © Jessica Maurer); Parrragirls Past,
Present (Photo © Silversalt)
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accept no responsibility for any such changes.
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ISBN: HB: 978-1-3502-9778-4
PB: 978-1-3502-9779-1
ePDF: 978-1-3502-9775-3
eBook: 978-1-3502-9776-0
Series: Thinking in the World
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CONTENTS
List of figures viii
List of contributors x
Acknowledgements xvii
Introduction
1
1 The politics of experience – and the function of art in the
expanded field of mental health Jill Bennett 3
PART I Suicide, felt experience and what works
15
2 Why do art therapies work? Siri Hustvedt with Jill
Bennett 17
3 Edge of the present: Mixed reality, suicidality and future
thinking Chloe Watfern, Jill Bennett, Stephanie Habak
and Katherine Boydell 28
PART II Culture and experience
39
4 Knowing from the inside Lynn Froggett and Noreen
Giffney 41
5 Radical creativity: Breaking the cycles of
trauma Marianne Wobcke with Jill Bennett 55
PART III Dialogue and embodied encounters
67
6 The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western
Lapland and Open Dialogue in the work of
Ridiculusmus David Woods and Jon Haynes 69
vi CONTENTS
7 The Visit: A collaborative confabulation Gail Kenning,
Jill Bennett and Volker Kuchelmeister 80
PART IV Designing for experience
91
8 Facilitating environments: An arts-based psychosocial
design approach Jill Bennett, Lynn Froggett and
Lizzie Muller 93
9 I have a thing about tables Lois Weaver with Laura
Hunter Petree 112
PART V Resistance, racism and decolonization
123
10 Narratives of resistance from indefinite detention:
Manus Prison Theory and Nauru Imprisoned Exiles
Collective Omid Tofighian, Behrouz Boochani, Mira* and
Elahe Zivardar 125
11 Poetic solidarities Claudia Rankine with
Evelyn Araluen 139
PART VI Reparative action
151
12 Designing reparations: Creative process as reparative
practice Andrea Durbach, Jill Bennett and Pumla
Gobodo-Madikizela 153
13 EmbodiMap I: Trauma survival and refugee
experience Lydia Gitau 166
PART VII Thinking in action with creative resources
after trauma
179
14 Unnerved Anita Glesta 181
15 Wau-mananyi: The song on the wind Pantjiti
Imitjala Lewis, Rene Wanun Kulitja, Angela Lynch
(Uti Kulintjaku), translated by Beth Sometimes 191
16 EmbodiMap II: An auto-ethnography Sophie Burgess 197
CONTENTS vii
PART VIII Soundwork/earwork
209
17 Held Down, Expanding: An exchange on trauma
through acousmatic sound art practice Thembi
Soddell 211
18 Hold me in a circle of tender listening: Entangled
encounters with women survivors from the Mental
Health Testimony Project archive Amanda McDowell 223
PART IX Lived experience, activism and survival
237
19 Being together in a neurodiverse world: Exploring
with Project Art Works Kate Adams, Sonia Boué and
Chloe Watfern 239
20 Pathologize this Dolly Sen 250
21 Super-fast augmented anxiety Clive Parkinson 260
Index 275
FIGURES
3.1 Edge of the Present, mixed reality installation, 2019. Photo by
Jessica Maurer/Alex Davies, courtesy The Big Anxiety 30
5.1 Left: Marianne Wobcke, Grandmother Dreaming 2011; Lino cut,
30 × 30 cm, edition 2/10. Photo courtesy of Jenny Sanzaro; Right:
Marianne Wobcke, Baby in a Cage – The Second Matrix – No Way
Out, 2009. Polystyrene, felt and wire sculpture. Photo courtesy the
artist 56
6.1 The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland at Battersea
Arts Centre, 2014. Left to right: Jon Haynes (patient), Patrizia
Paolini (Mum, through window) and David Woods (doctor).
Photograph by Richard Davenport 70
7.1 The Visit, immersive media (still), 2019. Courtesy fEEL UNSW 81
7.2 The Visit, 3D LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scan of a
physical kitchen with props created using photogrammetry, 2019.
Courtesy fEEL, UNSW 81
8.1 Left: Awkward Conversations in Customs House; Right: Debra
Keenahan’s Awkward Conversations walk. The Big Anxiety, 2017;
photographs by Gisella Vollmer, Skyline Productions 96
8.2 Parragirls Past, Present, 2017 (viewer in immersive 3D film). The
Big Anxiety, 2017; photograph by Saeed Khan/AFP 104
10.1 Film still of Behrouz, Manus Island (left) and poster (right),
Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time (2017), Sarvin Productions
2019 131
10.2 Left: Render image of a 3D model of the Nauru detention centre
created by Elahe Zivardar for the film Searching for Aramsayesh
Gah (2022); Right: ‘What am I?/ Nothing. A number? Maybe. The
number of a boat/IVL-57’, Elahe’s ID card. Both images courtesy
Elahe Zivardar 135
13.1 EmbodiMap, felt Experience and Empathy Lab (fEEL), 2020.
Courtesy fEEL, UNSW 169
14.1 Untitled, oil on canvas, 48 inches × 72 inches. Anita Glesta,
2017 182
14.2 Still from the animation, UNNERVED. Anita Glesta, 2021 187
15.1 Uti Kulintjaku, 2019. Photo Volker Kuchelmeister; courtesy fEEL
Lab 192
FIGURES ix
15.2 Wau-mananyi: The song on the wind, Stills from VR and
installation, 2019. Photo Volker Kuchelmeister; courtesy fEEL
Lab 195
16.1 EmbodiMap, fEEL Lab (screenshot from VR session). Photo: Sophie
Burgess/Volker Kuchelmeister; courtesy fEEL Lab, 2021 200
19.1 The Not Knowing of Another (Adams 2008), still and installation
view at MK Gallery, 2011, Courtesy Project Art Works 240
19.2 Illuminating the Wilderness film still (Project Art Works 2019).
Courtesy Project Art Works 242
20.1 The Lost Sheep, 2017. Courtesy Dolly Sen 256
20.2 A young girl telling Dolly that her brother made her mad, Bedlamb,
Bethlem Hospital, 2019. Courtesy Dolly Sen 258
21.1 Vic McEwan and Clive Parkinson, Boree Creek, 2019. Courtesy Vic
McEwan 261
21.2 Still from Still Life, Sam Taylor-Johnson, 2001. Courtesy Sam
Taylor-Johnson 272