This blog was set up as part of Action Research, funded by Longhouse, the bursary has now ended and I would like to thank all the people that have helped me through this period of research. If you want to keep up to date on what I am doing please visit my website

www.katiemayshipley.blogspot.co.uk

I'm going to end my blog with a short reflective essay I wrote as part of my course 'Developing Art for Health.'


Reflection

‘Scientific discovery is, and always will be, an inherently clumsy matter as scientists attempt to fit the round peg of humanity into the square hole of objectivity.’

I sit with a woman showing her different objects that are taken from a box, we engage in very light conversation where I’m asking her questions, most of which she understands but some confuse her. There is a pause in conversation, she plucks at her cardigan and tells me, for the fifth time, that she used to make her own clothes. I react with surprise, as I did the previous four times, then I think to myself ‘how could I ask this woman to evaluate this project?’ For a start she probably doesn’t even realise that this is a project, although it was explained to her when I walked in the room and we were introduced. There is every chance that she thinks I’m simply there to talk, or that I’m a member of staff at the home, or even a relative. If I asked her if she had enjoyed talking about the objects, there is a high chance that she would turn around and ask ‘what objects?’ I certainly couldn’t ask her to rate out of ten how she felt before, during and after our conversation.

What I could do is comment on how she smiled whilst we talked and she reminisced about the past. I could tell you about how she dressed in her Sunday best to come to the table to talk to me and how she kept a keen eye on her mug of coffee, grabbing it quickly when she thought others might take it away. I could write about how she was much more focussed when we came in and delivered a Christmas Pomander activity, much more able to follow the conversation that was related to the activity she was doing and much happier when she left the table knowing that she had accomplished something.

What I don’t know is how much she smiles on the days that I don’t come in to talk. I don’t know how often she talks about making her own clothes on every other day and I don’t know what she is like after I’ve gone. Is she happier after an activity, or conversation, or is she happier after sitting quietly for a couple of hours? I am unable to compare her behaviour in the way that care home staff or regular visitors could. It would be interesting to see the results of Dementia Care Mapping with this woman. Comparing the amount of times she smiles when she is discussing objects from the museum to when she is sat watching television, or eating her lunch. Then we could see what effect, if any, that the activities are having on her and if it is improving her well-being in the way that we had hoped. By observation we could do this without confusing her with questions that she might not understand, without giving her a task that she may be in fear of failing. The results probably will not tell the scientists with accuracy that arts and health projects definitely help all people with dementia, but we still will have learnt something and more importantly the woman will end the project with the same positive attitude that I see every time someone takes the time to talk to her.

*Shenk, D. (2003, p.245) The Forgetting London, Flamingo.

Life History

I went to the life history training today. Again, as with all training I go to, it was not what I expected and yet it was still really interesting.

The course firstly focused on how important it is to use life history within care homes of any kind, though more specifically in those that care for people that live with dementia. There were lots of small exercises to get us thinking about what memories we have, how we use those memories and what we keep in order to help us remember.

Truly knowing the people that you are working with and caring for, knowing their histories, their families, relationships and jobs, as well as good and bad experiences helps you to understand them more. It makes sense of the things they might be saying or doing and equips you with the tools to make them more comfortable.

'The goal of person centered care is to promote well-being.'

Again the name Tom Kitwood came up so I'm going to have to get myself a book!

As with the dementia awareness training course I heard a lot of scary facts about care homes that makes me want to do a Gerry Robinson. Although I do feel better that I now have new skills and ideas to take into homes when we are doing our activities.

If I write in yellow performance

On Monday I did a performance that I've been meaning to for a couple of months and finally got the opportunity. It is based on a piece I have posted about before 'If I write in yellow III' which illustrates the a desperate attempt to communicate with a loved one through writing in yellow ink on the inside of a window.


The performance took place at in the AirSpace Gallery window and will only be up for a few days. I was persuaded to film the performance although I'm not sure I'll do anything with it.


I'm really pleased with how the piece turned out and I enjoyed that the exercise forced me to pay more attention to my surroundings.

\"home\" talk at AirSpace

Last weekend I went to a talk at AirSpace Gallery in Stoke on Trent. It was a talk about the exhibition that has just ended \"home\" and included the curator Rachel Marsden, two artists from the show Chinmoyi Patel and Kashif Nadim Chaudry and David Schischka-Thomas the Senior Curator at the New Art Exchange.

The talk was mostly focused on the idea of 'home' and what that is. Though the most interesting part of the discussion for me was about Chinmoyi Patel's art work. Her piece for the exhibition 'B.P. & S.P.' is a pair of head phones hanging on an orange wall. When you listen to the audio you hear, as she described it, her grandmother telling stories that she used to tell Chinmoyi as a child. Whilst these stories are told Chinmoyi speaks about the memories that these stories evoke.

'B.P. & S.P. specifically examines how memories are formed during childhood then remembered as adults. It is about retaining a certain feeling or emotion, rather than the explicit details and particulars. Patel is fascinated to see how one's mind then tries to fill in these blanks - reality merges with fantasy to form a rich and multi-layered narrative.'

This reminds me of work that I was creating about a year ago, where I was discussing the labyrinth of memories that builds up in our mind through our lifetime, one memory triggering a seemingly unrelated one causing a chain of memories. It also hints at the idea that two people can remember the same event in such a way that it sounds like two completely different events.

Developing Arts for Health

I am currently studying the Developing Arts for Health course at Staffordshire University, it's not quite what I was expecting but it is proving to be quite interesting.

The course has helped me to better understand the project that we are doing at the dementia care home in Stoke on Trent and is making me a lot more passionate about the project. I'm using it as a case study for the research I'm doing as part of the course.

I've also had a look at the Dementia Studies courses that Stirling and Bradford Universities do, these look really interesting, especially this module at Stirling:

'Working with people with dementia: This module investigates different approaches used when working with people with dementia, focusing strongly on the role of communication. The roles of life story work and the arts, as well as design and technology in dementia care, are explored.'

I'll be doing some Life History training in work next week, so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

Yellow Wallpaper

With this poster I am attempting to disguise the changes that have been made to the city of Stoke on Trent with wallpaper, a technique used in dementia care homes to prevent residents from entering rooms they are not meant to. By covering doors with wallpaper the doors become almost invisible to the residents, this is a proven technique to avoid unnecessary confusion. This use of disguising is similarly seen with the use of hoarding in city centres, the knocking down and rebuilding of city spaces is masked from the public with huge boards for our own protection.

Yellow is the last colour in the spectrum that a dementia sufferer loses, by using yellow images from the City’s past I am offering a visual memory of a time that many dementia sufferers may still remember, an alternative view to the now constantly changing city that would perhaps confuse those that only remember the times gone by. Alzheimer’s is a regressive disease that takes you back in time through your life, slowly removing the people and places that you know.

The Map: First Attempt

So I've had a go at putting all of the images that match my research into a map. Take a look to see where each piece of art was created/existed. you can scroll around to find the little camera icons, then click on an icon to see the image. There are some in Wrexham, Stoke-on-Trent and Leek (to the left and right of where the map seems to settle).



View Listening To Your Eyes in a larger map

If I write in yellow III

If I Write in Yellow III is a list, something that many of us use as an everyday tool, small reminders of what we have to do or things we have to buy. But this list is full of small, seemingly insignificant, things that most of us would take for granted. The list is written on a pane of glass and describes the area seen through and surrounding the glass, as well as events that might happen as the list is written. The artwork becomes a memory, a snippet of a diary in the day of the window, or the person looking through, and exists only temporarily until it is wiped away.

If I Write in Yellow illustrates a desperate attempt to communicate with a loved one. The list, written in yellow ink, becomes a description of life and experience for the sufferer. It visualises attempts to allow a person to remain independent for as long as possible. For the onlooker the list is written backwards, it shows an outsiders view of a relationship between a carer and a sufferer. A relationship that is not understood by many but may only be avoided by a few.