Making emotions to reimagine mental health
This residency, titled Making emotions to reimagine mental health, will investigate through art how emotional behaviour, as it happens in the brain, may lead to the development of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.
The aim of the project is to create a series of material samples that explore how different emotions involved in the experience of psychosis can be communicated through materiality. The material samples will then be used to test whether they evoke certain emotions in audiences through the facilitation of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience (IoPPN), the Maudsley BRC Service User Advisory Group and the Young People’s Mental Health Advisory Group.
From the feedback gathered, Izzy will design a workshop that allows participants to create their own material sample to express an emotion experienced during psychosis. This workshop will engage more public interest to the research subject and will explore whether using the tool of making provides a stronger understanding of people's experiences during or in the lead up to a psychotic outbreak.
The residency will be used to develop a future project exploring how immersive installation can be used to express different states of emotion and perception in relation to mental health. It will act as a springboard for a longer-term project aimed to reduce the stigma often associated with mental illness. More specifically, the goal is to develop a community engagement project in South East London, home to the IoPPN and where the prevalence of common mental health problems is twice as high as the English national average (Hatch et al. 2012). The project will use interior and spatial design to create emotive spaces and experiences related to mental health.
Izzy Parker is a designer and artist based in London. She completed a First Class Bachelor of the Arts in 3D Design, Materials and Critical Practice from Camberwell College of Arts in 2007 and a Master of the Arts in Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewellery from the Royal College of Art in 2013. In 2014 she founded her own design studio specialising in set design and installation art.
Her set design practice focusses on playful yet refined sets and contemporary surrealist props styling for stills and film for the fashion industry. While her art practice focusses on exploring how interior and spatial design can be influenced by materiality to create emotive spaces and experiences. Displacement of ready-mades is a common theme within her artworks.
Izzy has extensive experience in set design, art direction, prop styling, prop making and installation art. She is currently art director for film studio Girafingo
Dr Gemma Modinos is a Sir Henry Dale Fellow and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. She completed a BSc in Psychology followed by an MSc in Applied Neurosciences in Barcelona (Spain) and then moved to the University of Groningen (Netherlands) where she completed a PhD in Neuroscience (Cum Laude). She is also Visiting Scholar at the Department of Neuroscience of the University of Pittsburgh (USA).
Gemma is the Principal Investigator at The Modinos Lab (Social Neuroscience in Psychosis), based at the Department of Psychosis Studies. The lab focuses on the combination of translational state-of-the-art animal and human neuroimaging methods to dissect the molecular pathway linking psychosocial stress to the GABA and glutamate systems in psychosis, towards the discovery of new molecular targets for disease prevention.