Exploration of Depression
Learning Agreement The Divine Disease: Exploration of Depression
2012 Lisa Lorenz Manchester Metropolitan University
THIS IS AN OUTLOOK ON THE PRACTICE THAT WILL BE UNDERTAKEN WITHIN A YEAR, SEPTEMBER 2012 UNTIL SEPTEMBER 2013, BY LISA LORENZ DURING HER FULL-TIME DESIGN AND ART DIRECTION MASTER PROGRAMME AT MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF CLINTON CAHILL.
© Lisa Lorenz Manchester 2012 All sources used can be found in the appendix. All images used are either property of the author if other specified in the appendix. For further information on topic or content please contact the author: hej@frau-lorenz.de or www.fraulorenz.com
INTRODUCTION
Letter of Motivation for a Master´s degree in Design and Art Direction July 22nd, 2012 Dear Sir or Madam, Life is full of possibilities. Life is constant learning. And life is of course an adventure. It is my aim in life to never succumb to boundaries and to always learn from experiences gained in order to keep improving my personal and professional qualities. To be properly prepared for my future as a graphic designer and researcher I would like to apply for the Master´s degree at Manchester Metropolitan University and take part in the “Design and Art Direction” program offered with the School of Art in autumn this year. In July 2012 I completed my Bachelor degree in Communications Design at the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz, Germany. During my four years of study in Germany I was first and foremost fascinated by the boundless possibilities we as designers have to communicate ideas, facts and feelings to the recipient. Utilizing countless forms of expression, every creative task to me is a positive challenge and there is nothing more rewarding than successfully completing a project as a team. Throughout my degree at Mainz I strived to achieve as much variety as possible with my class selection ranging from conceptual, editorial and computer generated design to illustration. During a six month exchange with our partner university in Sweden, Malmö Högskolan, I learned the incredible value of working with people from different cultural backgrounds. This experience also helped aid my decision to attend a university abroad for my Master´s degree.
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Incorporating my passion for travel and people interaction, one of my key interests is in how design, culture and the social background of people connect and work together. I know this in itself is a vast area but most interesting I find the transformation of society we can scent in undeniable strength. Is it possible to capture the old values and failures somehow through photographs or words? Can we as designers work for a change of society, can we make things better? Are we truly enabled to intervene? Through my fieldwork for my former projects I had the honor of talking with people from different social backgrounds and of different ages. Somehow it appeared to me that the younger the generation the greater the confusion and lack of passion for anything. Where did the spark get lost on the way? How is it possible that even though nowadays people have so many opportunities in designing their lives, we are losing quality of life? I want to investigate how we can re-implant positive thinking into the heads of people. Already artists and designers are talking to us. I feel very much inspired by the work of Miranda July and Stefan Sagmeister. Their communication with the recipient is natural and honest, easy and at eye level. Being confronted with their work means being confronted with yourself. Your forgotten dreams. Your hopes and fears. This is a good thing, this makes a small change. I see my task as a designer also in documenting our present like it has been done by others so many times before. I adore photographers like August Sander or Diane Arbus. Sander tried to capture the different kinds of people in the 1930s and did not only succeed but also created a contemporary document of German society. Arbus‘ eye on the other hand is more seeing the individual. She is not searching in the first instance. She is observing her surroundings. Arbus is seeing behind the curtain and by that is giving the viewer a chance of experiencing something he or she may have overseen or ignored. Both aspects I find intriguing and fascinating.
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Finding immense inspiration in the unknown and unexpected, the experiences I gained whilst conducting fieldwork for my Bachelor thesis in rural Germany, my exchange in Sweden and an internship in Beijing in 2010, encouraged me to learn how different people view and adapt the world around them. I see myself as a mediator and researcher using design as a tool, rather than designing for the sake of it. In as early as September 2011 I decided to apply for a scholarship for a Master of Arts and in doing so I informed myself of the possibilities and benefits of studying in the United Kingdom. It was always my intention to avoid the large, hustling and bustling city of London unlike most people, as I would rather be involved in a vivid and familial city. I find so much intrigue in cities like that of Manchester with their interesting history, varied population and great share of students. Manchester Metropolitan University, in my eyes, offers a great range of technical and professional possibilities to its students. During my visit in May, for the Open Day, I really enjoyed the informal and inspiring atmosphere on campus. I found the well equipped and spacious facilities impressive as they offer room for experimentation and this also highly motivated me to apply there. I was especially inspired by the textile workshops as I have a keen interest in illustration and intend to expand my skill set by including embroidery in my work. Prior to attending the Open Day I was not sure about my choice of Manchester as a study destination. However, as soon as I arrived in the city I was instantly struck with a very good feeling. It just felt right to be there. After getting to know the university better and having met current students I am positive that Manchester Metropolitan University is the right place for me to finish my academic training. I look forward to a positive response and would highly appreciate the opportunity to complete my Master´s degree with MMU. Sincerely yours, Lisa Lorenz 7
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LEARNING AGREEMENT PROPOSAL
“But if you could just see the beauty - these things I could never describe, these pleasures a wayward distraction. This is my lucky prize.� Depression - a state of mind producing serious, long-term lowering of enjoyment of life or inability to visualize a happy future. A pretty bad diagnose. We know that many ingenious artists and thinkers suffered from depression and even needed their extreme downs for their creativity and inspiration as a catalyst. But what about the people who are not able to use creativity as a profession and valve? I am sure everyone knows at least one person suffering directly or indirectly from depression. This is extreme! Are modern times encouraging these extreme mental downs in people? How? Can we twist the disease from disgrace to an integrated part of our society? Is there an easy way to give an instant help in everyday life by music and visual stimulation? By getting in touch with affected people online in forums, exploring blogs, interviewing professionals working in this field as well as people who experienced depression directly or indirectly I will explore the everyday life and ways of dealing with the disease. The first step will be a publication displaying the exploration and my research the second step an installation that will show ways out of depression as well as offer the audience a greater understanding of the disease by making it possible to get a glimpse of the physical and psychological effects a depression may cause through simple key imagery as e.g. the bed or a room.
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FIRST STEPS: FOCUS ON RESEARCH
I do not know much about depression. I think I know what it could feel like but then again: Do I really know? During the first part of my one year master’s programme I want to find out more about the topic. For the start I intend to start my research in the library, find out if and how somebody in the design field has already done work on the topic depression. Are there any inspirational persons? Artists, graphic designers, famous people? Usually I would just start producing work on a subject but with my project for the master’s programme I will break this habit and become an ‘expert’ first. I am curious if this will affect my practice. Also: What is the usual approach to the topic depression? I want to find out more about the therapies used to help people and explore the local and online community. Is there something like a help centre already existing in Manchester? Is there a possibility to work or cooperate with these groups? Simultaneously, I am planning to capture what I will find out in a visual way. Maybe for this first stage I will stick to my usual practice: illustration as this appears to be an adequate method as I find that no trouble and can focus more on the content, the development of my knowledge, not so much on my skills development.
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SECOND STAGE: FOCUS ON EXPERIMENTATION
In the second stage finally I will have become an expert. I will have had talked to organisations, people being involved in the field around depression and created some basic work which will give me and recipients an introduction to the topic. Afterwards at the following stage I will have more time in experimenting with my knowledge on ways to transfer not only facts, words and numbers but also the emotional experience which will hopefully make it easier for a layman getting attached to the topic depression. I am interested if one could achieve this effect with sound and moving images? Is there already somebody using these kind of methods in the field of mental health? Also, I am thinking of a cooperation with master stdents from textiles or contemporary curating as I want to move the subject depression from the paper to the real world. Produce work you can touch and feel.
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FINAL STAGE: COMBINATION
I suppose after having worked on the topic depression for almost eight months, I will have gained the expertise to decide what, for me, would be the most adequate and right way to create an interactive tool. This implement will finally promote the acceptance of depression in society. Possibly, this could be a portable information installation which would make it possible to feel and explore for oneself what depression feels like and make it more tangible. In this way I will apply my theoretical knowledge I have gained through interviews, research online and offline in the library, reading magazines and books on the topic, but also my new skills I will have trained in practice two. In the best case, in the end of stage three I will have had enough time also to test my work on an audience and evaluated the reaction and feedback.
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HOPES & FEARS
As I will be dealing with a sensitive topic I very much will have to pay attention on the ethics surrounding the topic depression. Will I be able to establish enough and fruitful contacts? Will people be scared of as I may be to fast forward and invasive to their comfort zone? My hope is that the enthusiasm and interest of people will outweigh. Also I expect the audience and participants being rather eager as I expect the topic to be not only concern of society in general but also touching nearly everybody’s lives. Regarding my personal development I hope to step out of the illustration habit I am normally using and explore other fields more intensively. Also I am looking forward in getting to know students from related areas, learn from them and share my skills with them.
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SOURCES BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 Gradin/Scariano (1986), Emergence: Labeled Autistic; Warner Books 2 Thwaites (2007), Reading Freud, Psychoanalysis as Cultural Theory; Sage Publications 3 Clark (2008), Depression and Narrative; SUNY Press 4 Adler (2009), Hanne Darboven: Cultural History 1880-1983, Afterall Books 5 Woolf (1925), Mrs Dalloway, Hogarth Press FILMOGRAPHY 1 Control (2007), 122 min, R: Corbijn, W: Curtis, Greenhalgh; The Weinstein Company 2 Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic-Depressive (2006), 120 min, R: Wilson; TV documentary 3 The Hours (2002), 114 min, R: Daldry, W: Cunningham, Hare; Paramount 4 Story Rooms: interactive networks (2005), 35 min, exhibition documentary 5 BBC Hello Culture - Madness 6 BBC 2, ArtWorks Scotland, The Madness of Peter Howson (2011), 60 min MUSIC 1 Finn Peters/Matthew Yee-King, Music of the Mind, http://bit.ly/drQLa4 2 The Smiths (1986), Hatful of Hollow, Heaven Knows I Am Miserable Now 3 Joy Division (1980), Closer, Isolation
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CONTENTS
LETTER OF MOTIVATION............................................................................5 LEARNING AGREEMENT PROPOSAL....................................................9 FIRST STEPS: RESEARCH.........................................................................10 SECOND STAGE: EXPERIMENTATION...............................................11 FINAL STAGE: COMBINATION...............................................................12 HOPES & FEARS.............................................................................................13 SOURCES.......................................................................................15
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