vanitas

ID Collaborate Brief

http://www.pagesleftblank.gdnm.org

Field of Study | Describe your chosen subject area and your particular themes.

Rationale | Why is project important to you and to Graphic Design: New Media

For my brief i have decided to collaborate with a psychologist. From talking to him about the possibilities a designer could bring to helping wither his practice or explaining a little but about the way that the practice of psychology could be described through a design orientated project. The certain themes this brings about are expression, more specifically art therapy or art showing the possible benefits of cognitive psychology.

Growing up i have always had an interest in psychology, and the treatment of it. My brother is studying to be psychologist, as well as i have known a few people who have suffered from issues of this nature and in turn it has effected me.

I have also undergone treatment for therapy and have seen positive results, and do not see why the national health is removing the treatment of these problems.

Design Focus/Question/Problem/Proposition | Identify your design focus/question/problem/proposition.

My question is how could a designer influence or change the way a psychologist or therapy practitioner delivers a service. How could a designer change the way that people perceive mental illness or the treatment of psychology or psychological problems?

Context | What is the wider social, cultural, historical, economic context for your project.

The wider more social context of this project could be the way a design or a poster could change the way people see or look at mental illness or the treatment of psychological problems or therapy. With the national health cutting funds for treatment for problems such as depression or other psychological problems should there be more influence or emphasise put on these medical conditions.

Methods | Describe how you are planning to carry out your project.

I am going to do an interview with two psychologists, i will look at the way art can influence therapy through the medium of art therapy. I hope to create a collection of works dedicated to this research as well as a more broad collection of art that is to do with the process of psychology, the definite outcome has yet to be defined but a few of the key concepts include. A mental health campaign, an app design to put a small gadget into the hand to check their mental health. A taboo changing the way that we see mental health.

Skills Evidence | Describe the practical and theoretical skills necessary to carry out the project.

I will need to analyse the information i find through the eyes of a designer and see how i can turn them into a positive project. I will need to use my design skills in the adobe suite to craft the propaganda, and the visual outcome. I hope

to use my experience with mental health professionals and create a good body of research and visual material to create a well rounded project.

Predicted Resolutions | Describe what you are working towards producing.

I hope to produce materials that raise awareness and break taboos for mental illness, as well as the possibilities of showing the way a designer may be able to change the way a psychologist may practice there health by using design as a possible tool. I hope to show an insight into art therapy and the way that it helps people.

Bibliography | Use the Harvard Method to compile your references.

Edwards, David. Art Therapy. London: SAGE, 2004. Print. http://www.arttherapyalliance.org/ArtTherapyNews.html http://psychology.about.com/od/ cognitivepsychology/f/cogpsych.html http://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive. html http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cognitivescience/ http://ipsych.net/ http://www.ephru.nhs.uk/content.asp?page_ id=236 http://www.nhs.com Demorest, Amy. Psychology’s Grand Theorists: How Personal Experiences Shaped Professional Ideas. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005. Print.

Psycology What Is Vanitas?

In the arts, vanitas is a type of symbolic work of art especially associated with Northern European still life painting in Flanders and the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries, though also common in other places and periods. The word is Latin, meaning “emptiness” and loosely translated corresponds to the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of vanity. Ecclesiastes 1:2 from the Bible is often quoted in conjunction with this term. The Vulgate (Latin translation of the Bible) renders the verse as Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas. The verse is translated as Vanity of vanities; all is vanity by the King James Version of the Bible, and Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless by the New International Version of the Bible.

Vanitas Research

1. Possibilities for technology in influencing mental health treatment.

I know that they use bluetooth occasionally for schizophrenic patients so that if they mutter to themselves it doesn’t draw any attention to them. I think also that they have created programs that are used to talk through problems in a CBT style but they are still testing the theory, i am pretty sure no one uses them actively in therapy. Also with schizophrenia some patients are advised to play music because of the view that sometimes “voices” are misinterpreted background noise and the music makes available a distraction that the patient can focus on and no longer hear “voices’.

2. In your opinion how important are the id, ego and super ego in modern psychology.

The id, ego, and super ego are theories by Freud. They are not really used directly except for ion psychoanalytic therapies. However superego represents like social constructs that influence your behaviour and these are apparent in most theories of psychology. Id, the evil sexually aggressive internal drive is pretty much discredited, i think it is probably more reflective of freud himself.

3. What possible references?

I really can’t think of any i never took this topic. But a good area to look into might ill-

ness cognition or clinical communication. I think generally a doctor would view a patients appearance as reflective of their personality and situation. I.E. dirty, old clothes demonstrates lethargy and possibly a drop in self-esteem as they aren;’t taking the same pride in themselves and their appearance.

4. Common signs of mental illness in a patient?

Common signs are trouble thinking, confusion, stress, depression (direct or as a result of their illness). Loneliness (because they are physically alone or feel emotionally alone).

Lethargy, withdrawing oneself from social situations. Loss of interest in hobbies, ect....

However, the number one criteria would have to be said to be that the illness is making their life difficult to control and live in happily.

5. Potential for more regular discourse via technology?

SKYPE! skype might be better because they don’t have to leave their comfortable situation and also don’t have to leave and also, if a patient doesn’t feel like going to therapy they may miss a session but with skype you could start at any point even if you were 15-20 mins late.

6. Could doctors use technology to monitor patients through forms?

Forms sound like a bad idea. An important part of therapy is the ability of the therapist to react actively to what a patient is saying in reference to his/her problems. It is important technology isn’t used to depersonalise the activity and in turn lose some of the important empathetic and therapeutic aspects of the sessions.

The Thoery

My Second Interview is more of a conversation with a therapist. I asked him a few questions about the treatment of different conditions the most common being depression.

During this session he mentioned the need of an i phone application for his practice with a few of the songs that he gives his patients to try and promote a pro active approach to stress. I thought about this a lot and the initial idea for the project was to create stills of an iPhone app for the Therapist that would hold the songs and information his patients needed. However after some more research into these illnesses i began to try and elaborate on the ideas.

From my interview with the psychology student you can see that they are using blue tooth in treatment of patients with more outward illnesses like schizophrenia or turrets that cause disturbances to the people around them.

This is a technique of understanding between the patient and the people he may be situated in the presence of. However what i wanted to do was create a easy discourse that would not take to much of the doctors time as well as the patients time. I think the important thing to recognise when taking part in therapy is that it is a short burst of intense conversation that usually stems from the therapists patients and is being driven and processed by a therapist. With people with schizophrenia or depression from my interview with the student and my conversation with a therapist Dr. Ajit Parrera, they both mentioned appearance as being one of the traits they look for as signals to a change in emotion or in a persons health. Hence the project name Vanitas, appearance is one of the fundamental building blocks of who we are, from the way we do our hair to the clothes we wear down to the shoes and so on even the health of our skin can say a lot about our diet or stress levels.

Now most therapists set up a schedule with a patient usually once a week for a number of months in an attempt to try and help or guide a patient. My plan is to try and open this window up using a small i phone app

that the therapist can check when his patients come to see him and evaluate the results. call it a weekly experiment to see how seriously the patient is taking his or her’s treatment as well as how they are daily. As i found in my questionnaire with the psychology student form’s are not a good way of evaluating a persons mental well being. What therapy is about is evaluating the way the patient is responding to questions and the kind of thoughts that they have while in therapy. Which is all well and good when your in a session, Dr Ajit Parrera is try’s to get his patients to spend ten minutes a day listening to relaxation tracks to try and calm ones nerves in an attempt to alter the way a person approaches stress levels. Another key sign of depression is that people get so carried away thinking about other thoughts that they forget about simple things like showers and personal appearance.

My application hopes to try and fight this battle one day at a time.

Rather than giving a patient the task of sitting and relaxing every day for a span of 10 minutes, why not just take a quick bust portrait in the form of a photograph. The photograph is then stored onto ones smart phone awaiting the next session. What makes this app different however is that it is trying to change our actions in a way that alters our approach to the exercise.

I often use applications like photo booth on my i phone to check how i look as they’re is no mirror around but i promptly delete the photo in an attempt to just move away from it as i don’t want it for future use. Its the human nature that this app is trying to alter.

Before i explain the application in detail i want to give a bit more backing to the appearance and its importance in treating people seeking therapy or who have pre determined mental illness. Depressions and schizophrenia, these mental health issues lead to a bad appearance or a fluctuating appearance, usually out of laziness and not washing ones clothes down to not being able to think far enough in advance, preventing one from doing

a normal activity such as going to the shop and buying soap or face cream. Also the activity of forgeting when they are at the shop therefore going without these necessities after a number of weeks. These are common signs of depression usually mixed with munitary problems as well as life style issues such as working to hard or not having enough time to ones self. According to Web MD, depression is caused when a change of emotions happens in a brain it can be as simple as loosing a pet that you look forward to seeing every day, once he disappears that emotion has gone and can send people on land slides.

Another side to this equation are people who concentrate on they’re appearance too much, according to MedHelp.org some people spend one hour a day every day contemplating and working on they’re appearance this does not include hours in the gym, any exercise is good. Body dysmorphic disorder is a disorder that is predominately found in young women and can lead to more serious complications like anorexia or bulimia. These illnesses and in some cases diseases, are the parallel opposite to a persons with depression who may forget completely about there appearance. People who fall into this category of haveing BDD are actually depressed, but it is not a depression like loosing someone or mental trauma, it comes from the constant focus on ones appearance so much so that they begin to forget about eating and other daily tasks like seeing friends or family, they become completely and utterly fixated on they’re appearance. The vanities application is trying to create a small daily task that can help identify different forms of mental illnesses through a daily photograph, you know what they say a photograph can speak a thousand words. Through the explanation of the Vanitas app i hope you begin to see how a portrait of a patient is a simple and effective way of getting a reading of how well a person is as well as a low taxing and easy procedure for a doctor to carry out during his weekly meetings with patients.

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Concept

The Vanitas IPhone Application Mock Up [12]

Password :

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************** Submit [3]

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097351230001

42 Vanitas Drive Long Vanitas Way Cheltnham, UK G0010FYU [8]

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The Vanitas IPhone Application, is an application designed to not only act as a therapist or psychologists reach point but as a treatment aid for any practicing therapist or psychologist. It has a multitude of interfaces but at its core it is very simple, but there’s a few features that are going to try and aid or alter a persons human nature in an attempt to alert the doctor of a patients condition or hopefully lack there of. [1]To begin with we have a loading screen this screen is simply there to load the app due to its size this process should not take very long. The speed of this app is integral to its usage, the aim is for this process to take no longer than one minute in an aim to create an easy and effective application that doesn’t take very long but reveals a lot about a patient. [2]On the Home screen pictured with three icons. [3]The first Button on the bottom of the interface is the photo button this takes the patient or user to the photo screen, imagine photo booth. [4]The second button on the bottom of the home screen is the contact button this button navigates to the more business side of the application. [5]The third button is in the top right corner of the home screen interface.

This button is very important and is the part of the app that is locked away from the patient and can be unlocked via password by the doctor to view the contents of the application.

[6]The 3rd interface in the photo interface that the photo button on the home screen takes the viewer to. This interface is unique to other photo taking applications in the sense that it allows one photo submission per day. On the top of the Photo Interface you see a date this date is the current date, and will be locked and the date will turn red to remind the patient that he or she has submitted for that day.

Next to the day you see a little arrow this simple takes the user back to the home screen. In the

middle of the interface you can see a [7] portrait this is simply a image representing what will in the real application be a camera feed from the patients in built camera of they’re chosen smart phone. This view enables the user to look directly at the output of the photo and position it accordingly to whatever angle or view the patient chooses. [8]Below that interface you see two buttons take/ reset. This Take/Reset button is a toggle button to enable the user to take a few photos before submitting for the day, this prevents the accidental submission of a mistake photo or an accidental photograph. On the right of that button you find a [9]submit button. This is is the final step in completing the daily task set for the patients, once this button is hit the photo gets locked away and is un editable or dilatable by the patient. This is where the human nature comes in, most people like to be able to view things back or check on what they have submitted this app takes away that power as if to try and push people into not thinking about it. Hopefully you can begin to see how this might alter the two sides of that mental health equation i discussed earlier. On the one side you have people that care to much about they’re appearance and may feel uncomfortable not being able to look again at the photo submitted and on the the other side people who have lost care of their appearance this process may make them think more about it or in some cases ignore it all together.

[10]The 3rd Interface is the result of the Phone button on the home interface.

This interfaces integral for patients who may have forgotten the number of the therapist or are need of changing dates of appointments or alerting the doctor that they intend to miss appointments. Call it a business card inside of an application. This is great for people who miss lay the referral notice or are disorganised another sign of depression.

[11] The final interface picture at the bottom of the page is the result of the lock button on the home screen. On pressing the lock button picture on the top right of the home screen the doctor and user will be prompted with a password form. [12]Only the doctor knows the password to this part of the application and is an important part of the integrity of the medical side of the application. Upon entering the correct password. The Doctor or anyone who posses the password will be confronted with an interface. At the top of the interface there is a date used for showing the date the photo in view was taken. Next to it another black arrow to take the User back to the home screen. Bellow it is a simple picture viewer that shows the picture from that day and shows the corresponding image to the date below.

The doctor can then quickly flick through the pictures lets say at the beginning of the session a begin analysis and view them.

In all that is the Vanitas iPhone Application however, i want to spend a little but more time talking about the psychological aspects of the application. Its design is simple which therefor means it is quick and to the point. It can provide the doctor with a discourse that reaches beyond the session and is quick to check. From the photos gathered you can see whether the appearance is consistent.

The time of day the patient choses to take the photo is important in an attempt to see if there is any pattern or constancy. Whether the persons face is consistent or if the pose or facial gesture changes.

This in a nutshell is the Vanitas Application. Through a simple design and a few features it is possible to get a little insight into a person from a simple daily test. I hope you enjoyed reading my project / theory.