Author Information
Vanessa Bartlett is a researcher, writer and curator currently based between London, Liverpool and Sydney, Australia. She is a PhD candidate at University of New South Wales, where her research explores digital art as a way of prompting audiences to reflect on their own mental health in the gallery space.
Vanessa's writing has featured in The Guardian and she has given lectures internationally in Belgrade, Ljubljana and Helsinki, as well as at prestigious UK venues like Tate Liverpool, The Arnolfini and The Science Museum, London.
In the past she has worked as a researcher and producer for two of the UK's most exciting digital media festivals: FutureEverything, Manchester and Abandon Normal Devices (part of the programme at FACT, Liverpool). She has also curated a number of successful exhibitions, including Slowness at Red Wire Gallery, which was highlighted as a must see exhibition by Times critic Rachel Campbell-Johnston.
Vanessa's research is motivated by her personal experience, which she first began to document April 2010 on a blog that was called Group Therapy. This blog explored the relationship between contemporary art, mental health and technology and laid the conceptual foundation for the Group Therapy exhibition. Vanessa is currently in the process of developing a project called What Can Art Do? that will serve as a platform for her ongoing work in art and mental health.
Contributors:
Artists:
Katriona Beales
Dora Garcia
George Khut
Neeta Madahar & Kate Owens
Melanie Manchot
Lauren Moffatt
Jennifer Kanary Nikolov(a)
Members of Freehand (FACT's young people's programme) and Erica Scourti
Superflex
Ubermorgen
the vacuum cleaner
Quintan Ana Wikwo
Contributors:
With Masters Degrees in Women's Studies and Social Work, Victoria Betton is currently undertaking PhD research in the field of social media and mental health. She directs an NHS programme of mHealth in Leeds, with a focus on mental health and long term conditions www.mhealthhabitat.co.uk. She sits on Mind's External Relations Committee and is a fellow of the Y&H Improvement Academy. Victoria founded the award winning Love Arts Festival - the first of its kind in England, exploring the relationship between arts, mental health and wellbeing.
Amanda Cachia is an independent curator from Sydney, Australia and is currently completing her PhD on the intersection of disability, phenomenology and contemporary art in the Art History, Theory & Criticism program at the University of California, San Diego. She is the 2014 recipient of the Irving K. Zola Award for Emerging Scholars in Disability Studies, issued by the Society for Disability Studies (SDS). www.amandacachia.com
Paul Dean works across three roles as an art psychotherapist; for the NHS Military Veterans' Psychological therapy service, for FACT as a therapeutic support worker and as an artist for their Veterans in Practice group and for Tom Harrison House who are running a residential program for veterans struggling with alcohol and substance misuse. Prior to this he worked at Oldham CAMHS (children and adolescent mental health service) as an art psychotherapist where he was involved in assessment and therapeutic interventions for children and adolescents who were experiencing a range of mental health issues; substance misuse, abuse, self-harm and suicidal ideation and a whole range of undiagnosable but life impacting issues.
Mark Fisher is highly respected both as a music writer and a theorist. He writes regularly for The Wire, frieze, New Statesman, and Sight & Sound, where he was acting deputy editor for a year. He is a Visiting Fellow at Goldsmiths, University Of London. k-punk.org
George Khut is an Australian artist, academic and interaction-designer working across the fields of electronic art, interaction design and health, at UNSW Australia, Art & Design. For the past 12 years he has been working with biofeedback technologies, creating intimate, body-focussed interactive artworks experiences, that re-frame experiences of embodiment and presence.
Peter Kinderman is professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Liverpool. He has published widely on the role of psychological factors as mediators between biological, social and circumstantial factors in mental health and well-being and in particular psychological factors in psychotic phenomena such as delusions and hallucinations. He is also interested in the application of such psychological science to public policy. He was twice elected Chair of the British Psychological Society Division of Clinical Psychology.
Benjamin Koslowski is a designer and researcher with a background in architecture. He is currently doing a PhD at the Royal College of Art in London with the Creative Exchange Hub, an AHRC-funded knowledge exchange hub investigating digital public space. His research is into architecturally informed communication design to develop ways of better understanding privacy in online social media; this uses the theatre as a tool to explore shifting relationships in mediated interaction. Benjamin teaches on the undergraduate programme in Interiors at Middlesex University and in the Critical Historical Studies department at the Royal College of Art.
Seaneen Molloy is a 'mentally interesting' writer and activist from West Belfast. Her blog, The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive, was adapted for BBC Radio 4 and won a Mind Media Award for best Radio Drama. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the Guardian and the Independent. She lives in London with her husband, two cats and eight million other people. http://thesecretlifeofamanicdepressive.wordpress.com
Clive Parkinson is the director of Arts for Health. Based at Manchester Metropolitan University, it is the longest established organisation of its sort. He is a founding member of the National Alliance for Arts, Health and Wellbeing, and is currently a co-investigator on the Dementia & Imagination project in the UK, which is exploring the links between the visual arts, wellbeing and sense of community. He is interested in the unexpected outcomes of arts engagement and currently works in arts and health development in Italy, France, Lithuania and Turkey. He is currently working with people in recovery from substance addiction to develop a Recoversit Manifesto and he regularly blogs at: http://artsforhealthmmu.blogspot.co.uk/
the vacuum cleaner (James Leadbitter) is an art and activism collective of one. Through site-specific performance, street-based intervention and film, the vacuum cleaner empowers his audience to address socio-political issues including consumerism and mental health discrimination. From one-man shows to large-scale participatory actions, his approach is variously subtle and extreme, but always candid, provocative and playful. His work has been exhibited throughout the UK, including commissions from Tate Modern, ICA and the Nottingham Contemporary as well as for BBC4, Channel 4 and Arte. He regularly presents work internationally both on the streets and in art spaces.
Charlotte Wealthy is a student Diagnostic Radiographer at the University of Liverpool. She was a member of the team of young people who helped to create In Hand - a new application for smart phones designed to act as a personal interactive recovery guide - at FACT between June 2013 and June 2014.
