https://yeswecahn.cargo.site Critical Arts in Health Network Sun, 24 Oct 2021 13:35:23 +0000 https://yeswecahn.cargo.site en https://yeswecahn.cargo.site/MAGGIES-CENTRE Tue, 15 Jun 2021 11:27:47 +0000 Critical Arts in Health Network https://yeswecahn.cargo.site/MAGGIES-CENTRE An exemplary model? In 2017, CAHN decided to test out the idea of critiquing an ‘exemplary model’ through a visit to a new Maggie’s Cancer Centre, recently built by Richard Rogers, in Manchester. Unlike discreet works of art placed on any hospital wall, Maggie’s Manchester had been conceived as ‘non-institutional institution’ (Charles Jencks). Not only does it boast high-quality art works (borrowed from the Whitworth Gallery) but the building was designed by the world-renowned architectural firm, Norman Foster + Partners. Whilst running our fingers through shag-pile carpets and the fronds of spider plants, one researcher in our group asked: when we are being critical, what place and position are we able to do that from? Are we doing it from an assumed utopian space that we don’t quite know we are occupying? Where do you stand when you are doing the critical thing? Aren’t we also coming from the position of - it could be better, it should be different - which is also a kind of utopian position? These questions led to the development of some essays, published in an electronic publication titled, Double Agency. Artist&nbsp; and Radiographer - and doctoral student - Sarah Smizz, used this phrase to frame her own critical standing within the interdisciplinary field of Arts and Health, curating a series of events off the back of this book. She edited and designed the final anthology, which explores competing and hidden form of knowledges. Further speculations on the role of aesthetics and design in making us feel ‘comfortable’ were developed by Becky Shaw as part of a conference presentation titled “Class, Cool and Care: The Maggie’s centre and the discomfort of criticising the ‘Well-being’ aesthetic”. This was presented at the Space and Place group conference at Sheffield Hallam University, on ‘The Comforts and Discomforts of Place’ 10th July 2019. In this presentation Becky Shaw humorously focused on the Orla Kiely hand towel she found in the Maggie’s Centre bathroom, questioning whether Maggie’s ‘middle class taste’ was comfortable for everyone, and asking whether the exquisitely tasteful design of the centre was designed for patient’s comfort or as a visual signifier that encouraged investment from private funders. To criticise Maggie’s feels sacrilegious as it is so established as the pinnacle of good cancer care, but also because it caused us to reflect on the distance and privilege of a critical position. This brought to life the complexity of trying to think critically about the often warm and cosy terrain of arts in health &nbsp; interesting + related things https://yeswecahn.cargo.site/ARE-YOU-FEELING-BETTER Wed, 07 Jul 2021 21:43:59 +0000 Critical Arts in Health Network https://yeswecahn.cargo.site/ARE-YOU-FEELING-BETTER No-place (Utopia) Are You Feeling Better? CAHN core group of members first met through working together on a project titled Are you Feeling Better? This 2016 education and exhibition programme was curated by Frances Williams and commissioned by The Cultural Institute (Kings College London). Aspects of this work were exhibited in the UTOPIA 2016&nbsp;London festival at Somerset House. The theme of utopia was a peg on which to hang a series of relationships and conversations which sat somewhere between informal, experimental learning, healthcare and the arts. <img width="4000" height="2248" width_o="4000" height_o="2248" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/53b67c1f51449f64b05223f43d523e7a581321d12feabc44788d7d9f844d21aa/bex1.png" data-mid="122489639" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/53b67c1f51449f64b05223f43d523e7a581321d12feabc44788d7d9f844d21aa/bex1.png" /> Together with student nurse Tim Owen Jones, artist Anthony Schrag established The Secret Society of Imperfect Nurses, an informal, confidential, social space by which to explore our imperfections with one another. It was the acknowledgment of imperfection which served to make these students ‘feel better’ about themselves in an academic context - one of enormous pressure as they strived to succeed in exams, fuelled by their own (and others) high expectation. Artist Becky Shaw was supported by research midwife Mavis Machirori and a wider group of PhD students. Together they explored the – sometimes difficult– gap between the role of dispassionate researcher and active interventionist. What kinds of revealing and concealing are necessary in the distance the researcher travels from ‘workbench to bedside’? A film playfully explored searching and finding through an unusual game of ‘Hide and seek’ held in a medical simulation ward. <img width="4000" height="2248" width_o="4000" height_o="2248" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dd5aa1760d75c78ef3ed559d06df5c8dfbf446becd4c73217ab398b0279448ad/SHAWA-.jpg" data-mid="113312922" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dd5aa1760d75c78ef3ed559d06df5c8dfbf446becd4c73217ab398b0279448ad/SHAWA-.jpg" /> A film playfully explored searching and finding through a game of ‘hide and seek’ held in a medical simulation ward (Hiding in Plain Sight&nbsp;[FW1] ). Through exploring the material environments of care and the ways staff disappear or become visible in them, the work proposed a form of escape from, or a way to re-form, institutional forces; and a way to work with others to develop shared cross-disciplines forms of criticality. These works - and others - were brought together in a publication and exhibition titled, Are You Feeling Better? which includes writings and images from this programme. In 2022, we co-wrote an academic paper titled ‘Enstranglements: entering and existing the Arts in Health Setting’ which also drew on this experience, published in Frontiers, 2022. Image 1, 2, 4 &amp; 5. Playing hide and seek on the simulation learning ward, (for the making of the film, Hiding in Plain Sight, by Becky Shaw and Rose Butler.) Image 3. Setting for The Secret Society of Imperfect Nurses, part of The Cultural Institute’s Utopia Season at Kings College London in 2016. <img width="4000" height="2248" width_o="4000" height_o="2248" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7885f29f00791c8164d37146ed7eca6400db0293e0b32d62eaa6615e64f9dc79/SHAWDbw.png" data-mid="122489660" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7885f29f00791c8164d37146ed7eca6400db0293e0b32d62eaa6615e64f9dc79/SHAWDbw.png" /> <img width="4000" height="2248" width_o="4000" height_o="2248" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/78ebe034f55f902de168cef651d381c83b61bd57db45b650cd7c30a5112f5a33/SHAWA.png" data-mid="122489658" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/78ebe034f55f902de168cef651d381c83b61bd57db45b650cd7c30a5112f5a33/SHAWA.png" /> <img width="4000" height="2248" width_o="4000" height_o="2248" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fc85364a6e4e2979e5329de1f2515095c0ff1caff1eef1d9613ba3a6bb53e932/bexbw.png" data-mid="122489656" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fc85364a6e4e2979e5329de1f2515095c0ff1caff1eef1d9613ba3a6bb53e932/bexbw.png" /> <img width="1000" height="859" width_o="1000" height_o="859" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/096e8f73d5dae207ebc76fdd4f68f1db0df30e768ae06f261188255231ee8c91/ANT.png" data-mid="122489640" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/096e8f73d5dae207ebc76fdd4f68f1db0df30e768ae06f261188255231ee8c91/ANT.png" /><img width="1260" height="936" width_o="1260" height_o="936" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0d6d545ea28ffbf56e04daf36a6cd870b3fa411b49e2db884a8114ec39d00ee1/hiding.png" data-mid="122489641" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0d6d545ea28ffbf56e04daf36a6cd870b3fa411b49e2db884a8114ec39d00ee1/hiding.png" /> <img width="1296" height="956" width_o="1296" height_o="956" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f7bfcdd4095506d4ec7cb7224302041f08d4af7677afd90ae6db4d7ed5020ccd/hidding.png" data-mid="122489642" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f7bfcdd4095506d4ec7cb7224302041f08d4af7677afd90ae6db4d7ed5020ccd/hidding.png" /> https://yeswecahn.cargo.site/DOUBLE-AGENCY Sun, 24 Oct 2021 13:24:53 +0000 Critical Arts in Health Network https://yeswecahn.cargo.site/DOUBLE-AGENCY Double Agency <img width="1166" height="1654" width_o="1166" height_o="1654" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/68f27925235ecd18dd1d85037429fbb1f2a5adb01883f48ca7d8427f6cf7d024/tumblr_pdypp9U6Kn1xbc6ilo1_r1_1280.png" data-mid="122488929" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/68f27925235ecd18dd1d85037429fbb1f2a5adb01883f48ca7d8427f6cf7d024/tumblr_pdypp9U6Kn1xbc6ilo1_r1_1280.png" /> <img width="1280" height="1280" width_o="1280" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3266e84ba65bd04b62d6222053f875dd685943c37d30997b8a96c26fe7babfcb/tumblr_pcmtguDpo11xbc6ilo1_1280.png" data-mid="122488931" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3266e84ba65bd04b62d6222053f875dd685943c37d30997b8a96c26fe7babfcb/tumblr_pcmtguDpo11xbc6ilo1_1280.png" /> <img width="1280" height="960" width_o="1280" height_o="960" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c1bceb30a1c0c53a0ec48eac0c8229f79a7b45dce67f8c3b0e112c61e6cd2ebe/tumblr_pcmtgbp3dv1xbc6ilo1_1280.png" data-mid="122488930" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c1bceb30a1c0c53a0ec48eac0c8229f79a7b45dce67f8c3b0e112c61e6cd2ebe/tumblr_pcmtgbp3dv1xbc6ilo1_1280.png" /> https://yeswecahn.cargo.site/FUTURE-SPECULATIONS Thu, 08 Jul 2021 10:34:47 +0000 Critical Arts in Health Network https://yeswecahn.cargo.site/FUTURE-SPECULATIONS Haunted Hospitals ///&nbsp;Future Speculations HM Stanley Hospital, Denbigh HM Stanley Hospital closed in 2011 and was in the process of being developed into a new housing estate when we photographed it here in 2020 (Sara Pagoda, Frances Williams). We were keen to capture the last evidence of the hospital before it was ‘cleared and cleaned-up’. We jokingly referred to our visit as a ‘ghost hunt’ (for the lingering memory of HM Stanley.) We had both previously written on the topic of ‘hauntings’ in hospital sites as part of their academic work into architecture and collective memory. We interpreted the ‘lost spaces’ here in light of the memory of Stanley, a controversial figure after whom the local hospital was named. ‘the only hospital in the UK named after a mass murdered’ - Wanda Zyborska We were interested in the site as one of ‘social cleansing’, not just of the decrepit former hospital site itself - though regeneration processes by corporate developers - but he white-washing of the legacy of Stanley himself, at that time a live debate in Denbigh through his memorialisation by way of a contemporary sculptor in Denbigh Town Square. Artist Wanda Zyborska credits the former workhouse - pictures here - as the place where Stanley was formed and showed (though the abuse he suffered here as an orphan boy.) She had recommended a visit to the site after picking up one the stones here to become the cold ‘heart’ of a sculpture of Stanley she made by way of alternate art work. In this way, the whole question of naming, remembering and forgetting (as well as as processes of commercialisation and ‘arts washing’ ) were somehow entangled at this site. Local people still refer to the site as Stanley hospital, despite the fact it has been re-named after Stanley’s rival explorer, Livingstone, with the housing development re-named Livingstone Place. <img width="3264" height="2448" width_o="3264" height_o="2448" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d1aa03c070dcf823cdc3216d9352bc57fabd7f07ce89e7c60a37dcc9439c0e90/IMG_0273.JPG" data-mid="113352703" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d1aa03c070dcf823cdc3216d9352bc57fabd7f07ce89e7c60a37dcc9439c0e90/IMG_0273.JPG" /> <img width="3264" height="2448" width_o="3264" height_o="2448" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/75f1cfc8ac28d061ce6dd848f3df033b19c88a3de08d21355c67ee13b98f76c5/IMG_0239.JPG" data-mid="113352711" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/75f1cfc8ac28d061ce6dd848f3df033b19c88a3de08d21355c67ee13b98f76c5/IMG_0239.JPG" /> <img width="3264" height="2448" width_o="3264" height_o="2448" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/64d5297b271349d7053e0b70447bcf37511e87e165d0a2e547c9239460b8eed1/IMG_0224.JPG" data-mid="113352701" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/64d5297b271349d7053e0b70447bcf37511e87e165d0a2e547c9239460b8eed1/IMG_0224.JPG" /> <img width="3264" height="2448" width_o="3264" height_o="2448" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/29d4a59c1a9b6fb45519e4dc5d9fe79517f6bda3927338d15216cd57c77c8916/IMG_0250.JPG" data-mid="113352706" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/29d4a59c1a9b6fb45519e4dc5d9fe79517f6bda3927338d15216cd57c77c8916/IMG_0250.JPG" /> <img width="2448" height="3264" width_o="2448" height_o="3264" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d576099d72c71f9c650c7f3d2bfa54ef8f7b4e62b51d0f285fdefb97d486ff23/IMG_0265.JPG" data-mid="113352705" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d576099d72c71f9c650c7f3d2bfa54ef8f7b4e62b51d0f285fdefb97d486ff23/IMG_0265.JPG" /> <img width="2448" height="3264" width_o="2448" height_o="3264" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/aa7c9f25c264f2c2fb27447b24b72e8290dff751e33cc9cbaf7e8b8704d07240/IMG_0243.JPG" data-mid="113352708" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/aa7c9f25c264f2c2fb27447b24b72e8290dff751e33cc9cbaf7e8b8704d07240/IMG_0243.JPG" /> <img width="2448" height="3264" width_o="2448" height_o="3264" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8b2dc7383879da91adc4fb45f3c4e69e6425d64db47e35ab7f736dd13cee1829/IMG_0242.JPG" data-mid="113352709" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8b2dc7383879da91adc4fb45f3c4e69e6425d64db47e35ab7f736dd13cee1829/IMG_0242.JPG" /> <img width="3264" height="2448" width_o="3264" height_o="2448" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c123a0cdebb65038d56895f6d0ea657539dc9345233fe3471046714e200bfa91/IMG_0231.JPG" data-mid="113352712" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c123a0cdebb65038d56895f6d0ea657539dc9345233fe3471046714e200bfa91/IMG_0231.JPG" /> https://yeswecahn.cargo.site/About-CAHN Sun, 24 Oct 2021 13:35:23 +0000 Critical Arts in Health Network https://yeswecahn.cargo.site/About-CAHN Beginnings What is CAHN? The Critical Arts in Health Network (CAHN) began with sharing frustration over the narrowing terms of reference set by field of practice known as ‘Arts in Health’. We are researchers, patients artists and clinicians who meet to engage in critical dialogue around models of 'good practice’ (old and new). We want to go beyond asking what it is that makes specific arts-health projects successful in strictly biomedical terms to ask: what are the criteria, contexts, values, languages and assumptions that inform public assessment? This mission includes reflecting on our own values and also considering more broadly what ‘criticality’ is, and can do, today. CAHN emerged between people drawn across different disciplines at Sheffield Hallam, Manchester Metropolitan and Queen Margaret Universities. We developed an ugly acronym at this time to use for an (unsuccessful) funding bid, enrolling colleagues in Ireland as well as those already based in Wales, Scotland and England. We are unusual in working together across UK regions and nations. Despite our failure to secure funding - perhaps because of it - we continue to enjoy collaborating on events that can expand the scope of critical attention across and between arts-health places-people, building platforms between us. This has become essential in light of changes brought about by the pandemic. Armed with a new twitter handle, @yeswecahn, this website was developed in 2021, devised as to create virtual space to think about and build a wider, deeper network of people committed to re-making and ‘making better’ the field of Arts in Health. <img width="1280" height="960" width_o="1280" height_o="960" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/995045d69e3a998283b46ca4dd127ced6e66b5f2de7f14d9359842f024f07f67/SCHRAGB-1.jpg" data-mid="122489258" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/995045d69e3a998283b46ca4dd127ced6e66b5f2de7f14d9359842f024f07f67/SCHRAGB-1.jpg" /> Get Going with fun stuff here: ︎︎︎ ref ︎︎︎ link︎︎︎ quote︎︎︎ notes https://yeswecahn.cargo.site/Main Fri, 11 Jun 2021 13:45:26 +0000 Critical Arts in Health Network https://yeswecahn.cargo.site/Main THE BEGINNING&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;2015ARE&nbsp;YOU FEELING&nbsp;BETTER?2016 Programme &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 2022 OUR ETHOS Future SPECULATIONS ongoing MAGGIE’S CENTRE 2016 &nbsp; &nbsp; SITE VISITS 2O21&nbsp; &nbsp; Double agency 2018 New-OldPLACES2021 IMAGINATIONARYPLACES 1. Beginnings What is CAHN? We are a collective of researchers, patients, artists and healthcare workers keen to understand how 'creative health’ comes about, both in practice and theory. Rather than only asking if Arts in Health projects are successful, we want to unpick how criteria, languages, institutions and assumptions inform how ‘successful’ projects are defined and recognised. We want to facilitate open-minded and critical conversations where more nuanced understandings can be developed. This process includes reflecting on our own values and considering what ‘criticality’ can achieve across fields, professions and life experience too. The Critical Arts in Health Network (CAHN) began in 2017 with the sharing of frustrations over the narrow terms of success set by field of ‘Arts in Health’ - fiscal as much as biomedical, instrumental (making community), curative, palliative and ‘evidence-based’. CAHN - an ugly acronym that stuck! - emerged between people drawn from different disciplines including arts management, art, social science and radiography (based at Sheffield Hallam, Manchester Metropolitan and Queen Margaret Universities). Visiting selected sites, we use our different methods to pull apart some of the lumped together assumptions about Arts in Health, paying attention to differences in regional and national UK arts in health provision and the ways that practices are ‘haunted’ by past structures and values. The task of reflecting on the value of arts in health sensitively and critically has become more urgent, in light of the challenges brought about by the pandemic. It looks likely that the arts will be deployed to address (or conceal) profound inequalities considered intractable. The pandemic has also altered forms of convening and communicating so that every activity, whether for health or for the arts, can’t rely on old methods of reaching people. This context makes it especially important for us not to fall into easy or simplistic ways to understand what the Arts might have to do with Health. Armed with a new twitter handle, @yeswecahn, this website was developed in 2021, to create online space for people committed to re-making the field of Arts in Health through shared critical attentions. Image 1. Anthony Schrag demands perfection! (part of The Cultural Institute’s Utopia Season, Kings College London, 2016) Image 2. Mural of nurse with halo, Central Manchester spring 2020