Lauren Dennis Dissertation Section Summary Question (at this point) Is art therapy and the use of sketchbooks beneficial to improving mental health? Abstract? Intro (900) (wrote this roughly last year to help with my essay but it applies here too) What: What is the essay about, what is the question I will be asking in your research? Explain each section briefly, talk the audience roughly through what I will be discussing. How: How am I going to answer these questions? Essentially this is a short guide to the chapters. I.e By exploring ideas of Barthes in chapter two etc, we can look at the significance of…. Why: What is the point if everything I’m writing? What am I trying to achieve?
Main Body (7,200) : Section One: What: What art therapy is/mental health issues etc (Context) How: Explain with examples/quotes etc Why: to link to creativity. Section Two: What: Examples, case studies etc. Reference Shaun Mcniff’s work here. How: The examples… how art therapy can be beneficial etc. Why: to go on to look at how this links to theory. Section Three: Case Study: What: Interviews with modern day practitioners and their experiences with mental health, what they do, how they combat it, how does being a creative help? What is their relationship to sketchbooks and studios (reference Shaun Mcniff “Art Heals” and the relationship between environment and art therapy) How: By hopefully contacting illustrators/artists and creating a dialogue. This will provide solid primary human research. I will need to discuss with Theresa the ethics of this, especially as mental health can be a sensitive subject. Section Four: What: Reference 2nd year essay, Cain and Woolf, and the metaphor of “A Room of One’s Own” and elaborate on the importance of space and sketchbook in art therapy.
How: Through Woolf (historical context) and Cain (present day) Why: To understand how this critical theory can link to examples of contemporary practise and help gain an understanding of my own practise. Section Five: Does sketchbooking and space have more importance to practitioners suffering with mental health issues? Upon writing this simple summary I’ve noticed that I will probably need to address this so as not to be biased. What: A case study (?) that is more generalised, talking to practitioners that don’t necessarily need art therapy, what is their relationship to their sketchbook? How: Conduct more interviews, possibly over skype or email to gain a wider perspective. Why: So the essay isn’t biased and paints a fuller picture of what I’m trying to achieve. Section Six: What: A reference/summary of level 5 essay: Introversion and social media/rise of the digital age, to see if there is links to introversion/mental health and sketchbooking, where do they put the work once its finished? I see a lot of people posting sketchbook pages and work on social media (facebook, tumblr and instagram especially) that is very personal, often dealing with depression or other mental health issues, does the internet allow illustrators to be more open, and share more freely? Personally, I post sketchbook pages similar to this, but cringe at the thought of people physically looking through the book itself. Is this more about censorship? How: Full of quotes and references, revisit sources from 2nd year essay. Why: I DON’T KNOW YET BUT IT SEEMS TO MAKE SENSE
Conclusion (900) What have I said? Repeat intro of what I talked about, what was discussed. End on a BANGING quote.