scholarly journals Enstranglements: Performing Within, and Exiting From, the Arts-in-Health “Setting”

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Williams ◽  
Becky Shaw ◽  
Anthony Schrag

The following text explores performative art works commissioned within a specific “arts and health” cultural setting, namely that of a medical school within a British university. It examines the degree to which the professional autonomy of the artists (and curator) was “instrumentalized” and diminished as a result of having to fit into normative frames set by institutional agendas (in this case, that of “the neoliberal university”). We ask to what extent do such “entanglements,” feel more like “enstranglements,” suffocating the artist’s capacity to envision the world afresh or any differently? What kinds of pressures allow for certain kinds of “evidence” to be read and made visible, (and not others)? Are You Feeling Better? was a 2016 programme curated by Frances Williams, challenging simplistic expectations that the arts hold any automatic power of their own to make “things better” in healthcare. It included two performative projects – The Secret Society of Imperfect Nurses, by Anthony Schrag with student nurses at Kings College London, and Hiding in Plain Sight by Becky Shaw (plus film with Rose Butler) with doctoral researchers in nursing and midwifery. These projects were situated in a climate of United Kingdom National Health Service cuts and austerity measures where the advancement of social prescribing looks dangerously like the government abnegating responsibility and offering art as amelioration. The text therefore examines the critical “stage” on which these arts-health projects were performed and the extent to which critical reflection is welcomed within institutional contexts, how learning is framed, expressed aesthetically, as well as understood as art practice (as much as “education” or “learning”). It further examines how artistic projects might offer sites of resistance, rejection and mechanisms of support against constricting institutional norms and practices that seek to instrumentalise artistic works to their own ends.

Author(s):  
Daisy Fancourt

This chapter explores what we mean by ‘research’ in relation to arts in health: what its purpose is and how it differs from evaluation or audits. It questions whether arts in health research is ‘exceptional’ or different from other sorts of research in health, examining some of the most frequent misconceptions about research in this field. It also considers some of the debates around issues such as whether the arts can be assessed using randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and how quantitative research can capture the essence of an arts intervention. It explores different types of disciplinary working and proposes how the arts and health can be researched effectively together. Finally, the chapter provides top tips for research and recommends journals and conferences for keeping up-to-date with research findings.


Author(s):  
Ida Bagus Candra Yana*

Dance  photography  is  a  photo  shoot  on a  dance  movement  which  has  a  characteristic as  it  shows  on  a  particular  movement  with unique costumes. The arts of dance photography specifically describes through a specific thematic effect  with  an  aesthetic  and  creative  oncoming. Based on the photographer experience to capture the  light  together  with  his  aesthetic  expression on  movement  photography,  he  finally  presented the  visual  arts  on  Baris  Tunggal  Dance  in  art photography expressions using strobe light. Basically,  the  creative  works  focused on  the  dancer  movements  and  transformed  into photography  expression  which  blended  with aesthetic  and  creative  idea  (ideational)  also  the technical photo shoot capability (technical) of the photographer. The photo shoots technique chosen through a variety of consideration which oriented on practical implementations possibilities, resulting photographs  in  freeze,  blurred,  and  multiple-images  as  art  photography.  The  art  photograph includes  extrinsic  and  intrinsic  aesthetic  values through photo presentation. With the presence of this photography art works it was not only present Gerak Tari Baris Tunggal dalam Fotografi Ekspresi Menggunakan Teknik Strobo Light in the form of mere documentation but it was the art photography expression on creative and aesthetic level. Keywords:  movements,  Baris  Tunggal  Dance, photography expression, strobo-light * Dosen ISI Denpasar


Author(s):  
Ellen Winner

This book is an examination of what psychologists have discovered about how art works—what it does to us, how we experience art, how we react to it emotionally, how we judge it, and what we learn from it. The questions investigate include the following: What makes us call something art? Do we experience “real” emotions from the arts? Do aesthetic judgments have any objective truth value? Does learning to play music raise a child’s IQ? Is modern art something my kid could do? Is achieving greatness in an art form just a matter of hard work? Philosophers have grappled with these questions for centuries, and laypeople have often puzzled about them too and offered their own views. But now psychologists have begun to explore these questions empirically, and have made many fascinating discoveries using the methods of social science (interviews, experimentation, data collection, statistical analysis).


Author(s):  
Daisy Fancourt

This chapter outlines the first four stages in the process of designing and delivering arts in health interventions. Using business models from industry, management, and health care, it provides a step-by-step guide to conceptualizing and planning effective arts in health interventions that meet a real need within health care. It shows how to scope national and local opportunities, identify specific challenges that the arts could address, select appropriate target groups, understand the needs of patients, public, and staff, undertake consultations, identify relevant research, develop initial ideas, plan for a pilot, and model the impact that the intervention could have. These steps will provide the foundation for a creative and novel intervention with the potential to have real impact and sustainability.


Author(s):  
Daisy Fancourt

In recent decades, there has been an increasing number of national policy and strategy papers discussing arts in health in countries around the world. Some of this activity has been driven by national arts bodies, championing the value of the arts in health and wellbeing and advocating for their inclusion within core arts funding and practice. Other activity has been led by health bodies, including health departments within governments and health services themselves. This chapter explores some of the most influential documents and considers their implication for research and practice. It draws on case studies of activity within Ireland, the UK, the USA, Australia, and Nordic countries.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 451
Author(s):  
Rebekah Lamb

This essay introduces and examines aspects of the theological aesthetics of contemporary Canadian artist, Michael D. O’Brien (1948–). It also considers how his philosophy of the arts informs understandings of the Catholic imagination. In so doing, it focuses on his view that prayer is the primary source of imaginative expression, allowing the artist to operate from a position of humble receptivity to the transcendent. O’Brien studies is a nascent field, owing much of its development in recent years to the pioneering work of Clemens Cavallin. Apart from Cavallin, few scholars have focused on O’Brien’s extensive collection of paintings (principally because the first catalogue of his art was only published in 2019). Instead, they have worked on his prodigious output of novels and essays. In prioritising O’Brien’s paintings, this study will assess the relationship between his theological reflections on the Catholic imagination and art practice. By focusing on the interface between theory and practice in O’Brien’s art, this article shows that conversations about the philosophy of the Catholic imagination benefit from attending to the inner standing points of contemporary artists who see in the arts a place where faith and praxis meet. In certain instances, I will include images of O’Brien’s devotional art to further illustrate his contemplative, Christ-centred approach to aesthetics. Overall, this study offers new directions in O’Brien studies and scholarship on the philosophy of the Catholic imagination.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Valberg

Being-with is an artistically based research project aimed at applying and studying participatory and relational practices within the arts as well as addressing the esthetical and ethical questions that such practices generate. The participants in Being-with – researchers and artists as well as children, parents, grandparents, siblings and other residents in the small town of Høvåg in Norway – gathered weekly for half a year to experience how aesthetic production may interact with social space and vice versa. The article reflects on what consequences such interaction may have for the conception of art, and its arenas and agendas … when we consider art not only as a reflection of our lives, but also as an agent shaping our lives and changing the social surroundings we are part of. The article relates discourses of aesthetics penned by continental philosophers over the last 50 years to a specific setting in a Nordic contemporary art practice.


Leonardo ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Anna Ledgard ◽  
Susannah Hall ◽  
Sofie Layton ◽  
Mark Storor ◽  
Nicky Petto ◽  
...  

Abstract As the profile of the arts-and-health sector grows and interdisciplinary projects with public outcomes become more common, it is important to explore roles and ways of working at the interface between different disciplines. The complex role of producer, likely to become increasingly relevant in this landscape, is here analysed. While incorporating aspects of existing roles (e.g. hospital arts manager, cultural venue participatory producer, independent creative producer, public engagement manager), the producer has a very specific raison d’être and could be defined as ‘relational producer’. This role is not well understood and yet central to this field of practice.


2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 487-501
Author(s):  
Surendra Kumar

Independent regulatory authorities have become an important component of the governance landscape in India and elsewhere. Some regulators have achieved useful outcomes in India. However, the creation of independent sectoral regulators in India has not been accompanied by critical reflection on their role, or attention to the political, legal and institutional contexts within which they operate. Lessons can be learnt from mature regulatory policy countries, such as the USA, the UK and Australia, that the regulatory environment needs to be constantly evaluated to make sure it is keeping pace with the changing technology, business environment and consumer needs and demands. Despite the number of bodies in India that are involved or responsible for regulatory reform, there is one function that seems to be missing and that is of a central oversight function. Most countries have an explicit whole of government regulatory policy and an oversight body, sometimes more than one, that is/are responsible for embedding some of the systemic tools across different parts of the government machinery.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 124
Author(s):  
Sofia Lindström Sol ◽  
Cia Gustrén ◽  
Gustaf Nelhans ◽  
Johan Eklund ◽  
Jenny Johannisson ◽  
...  

This article explores the broad and undefined research field of “the social impact of the arts”. The effects of art and culture are often used as justification for public funding, but the research on these interventions and their effects is unclear. Using a co-word analysis of over 10,000 articles published between 1990 and 2020, we examined the characteristics of the field as we have operationalised it through our searches. Since 2015, the research field of “the social impact of art” has expanded and consists of different epistemologies and methodologies, summarised in largely overlapping subfields belonging to the social sciences/humanities, arts education, and arts and health/therapy. In formal or informal learning settings, studies of theatre/drama as an intervention to enhance skills, well-being, or knowledge among children are most common. A study of the research front, operationalised as the bibliographic coupling of the most cited articles in the data set, confirmed the co-word analysis and revealed new themes that together form the ground for insight into research on the social impact of the arts. As such, this article can inform discussions on the social value of the arts and culture.


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