COVID-19 CRISIS AS A CATALYST FOR CHANGE
Given the pandemic, the #MagicCarpet exhibition at the Manchester Craft and Design Centre has been shut ahead of its 4th April date, and the panel discussion cancelled. The Centre has however honoured the commission - so I will work with colleagues of Neurodiversity In/And Creative Research Network to redirect some of this funding for self-employed/early-career colleagues, in the form of a celebratory call for ideas/acts. Who's up for for a fun Craftiness Against COVID-19 haiku contest that also supports emerging colleagues? Look here for my other responses to and readings of the pandemic, including materials for an online performance-lecture for EU scientists, and my recommendation of a chonky Battle Cat for those struggling with social distancing. Contact me if keen to chat/share., or if I can help in any way. Tips by UK Adult ADHD Network and ADDitude may be useful too. Let us use the crisis as a catalyst for change for the better. Take care every body. Best wishes, Kai
Given the pandemic, the #MagicCarpet exhibition at the Manchester Craft and Design Centre has been shut ahead of its 4th April date, and the panel discussion cancelled. The Centre has however honoured the commission - so I will work with colleagues of Neurodiversity In/And Creative Research Network to redirect some of this funding for self-employed/early-career colleagues, in the form of a celebratory call for ideas/acts. Who's up for for a fun Craftiness Against COVID-19 haiku contest that also supports emerging colleagues? Look here for my other responses to and readings of the pandemic, including materials for an online performance-lecture for EU scientists, and my recommendation of a chonky Battle Cat for those struggling with social distancing. Contact me if keen to chat/share., or if I can help in any way. Tips by UK Adult ADHD Network and ADDitude may be useful too. Let us use the crisis as a catalyst for change for the better. Take care every body. Best wishes, Kai
|
|
|
Nomination for Sovereign Asian Art Award 2019, the largest and most established
art prize in Asia Pacific |
Winner, Public Engagement Images Award 2018 for Culture Change
|
View 55-page summary booklet here, launched at the solo exhibition, Craft and Design Centre 2020
|
Welcome to the website of We Sat On a Mat and Had A Chat and Made Maps! #MagicCarpet, an award-winning art-psychiatry artistic research programme (2017 onwards) exploring mind wandering and neurodiversity by artist Dr Kai Syng Tan in dialogue with Professor of Psychiatry and global authority of adult ADHD Philip Asherson. Commissioned by Unlimited and supported by King's College London, 10,000 psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, academics, service users, health policy officers, dyslexic children, teachers, art lovers and more aged 2-85 have enjoyed its tapestry art installation, workshops, films, keynote lectures, performances, photographs, badges, seminars and more at Southbank Centre, Science Museum, NESTA Innovation Showcase, Peter Scott Gallery (Lancaster) in the UK, SOS Dyslexia Conference in San Marino, covered Big Issue North and Resonance FM, and the cover of British Journal of Psychiatry, discussed in The Conversation, and described as 'beautiful' (Disability Arts Online) and having created a 'family' for neurodivergent people (The Psychologist).
#MagicCarpet film from kaisyngtan on Vimeo.
|
‘The work shows a traditional setting animated by dialogue and opened up to bring different voices and types of expertise into the mix to create powerful knowledge. [...] This is challenging and thought provoking, and a really effective way of conveying the positively disruptive energy that engagement can release. [...] [It shows] an animated group challenging established ways of framing disability, challenging the old with the new, taking risks. The clever and provocative construction extended to the caption, which captured vividly what it feels like to be caught up in the thrill of creating new knowledge which challenges and changes the world’ -- Judges' comments on a #MagicCarpet photo montage awarded the National Centre for Coordination of Public Engagement Images Competition 2018 for Culture Change
Your event was so innovative and really brought art and science together [...] your event was able to break both barriers and provide a ‘family’ as well as imparting useful skills in return. Art in that case served as a process to educate me and to connect me with people that are just like me, something that I am extremely grateful to you. – Shushank Chibber, in The Psychologist 2018, a peer-reviewed journal, of the speed-dating event at South London Gallery 2018. 'Everything about the tapestry screams at you, and it is beautiful for that reason. There’s so much going on that you really want to touch it, explore every nook and cranny, uncover its secrets through returning to it again and again’. – James Zakta-Hass, Disability Arts Online, review of #MagicCarpet at Unlimited Festival, Southbank Centre September 2018. 100% of the feedback on a debate at the Art Workers' Guild agreed or strongly agreed to questions: ‘The event was useful to my research/professional development and/or interest’ and ‘This event has challenged my understanding of how artists and scientists work together, and/or my own body and mind and that of others that are different to mine’. |
Does your mind wander? How far is too far? What do you picture when you daydream? Where do you go? How often is too often? When is mind wandering enabling and freeing? When does mental restlessness become impairment? What are the boundaries between order and disorder, in the psychiatric, artistic, social and metaphorical senses of the terms? How do the wanderings of the mind and body correlate? In what ways can a science-art collaborative exploration of mind wandering contribute to, challenge and extend our understanding of wellbeing?
We sat on a mat and had a chat and made maps! #MagicCarpet is an art-science collaboration by artist Dr Kai Syng Tan and Professor of Psychiatry Philip Asherson, both based at the world-leading Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, which is part of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London. The 1.5 year project (August 2017 - December 2018) weaves visual art practice and research in adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) together to explore mind wandering. Through that, the project opens up a creative/critical space to problematise psychiatric/cultural constructs of '(ab-)normality' and wellbeing, approaches and (mis)understandings of mental health, and interdisciplinary/sectorial 'productive antagonsims' (Latham and Tan 2016). The multifaceted project includes workshops, and outputs include a publication, short films, badges, performances and a tapestry installation. The ‘magic’ of the work is to open up a creative, critical and accessible space for people from all walks (aged 2-85) to (un-)learn, share, ask new questions and widen existing discourses on disability, disorder and difference. #MagicCarpet has taken part in 15 exhibitions and workshops, 2 solo shows, 3 residences, 13 conferences/seminars/presentations, appeared in 5 publications that we authored, 6 art catalogues and academic citations, and at least 22 media engagement and non-academic citation, including 6 films. #MagicCarpet has toured South London Gallery (in collaboration with Art Assassins, a collective for people aged 15-20), Southbank Centre (for 700 viewers), Nesta’s People Powered Future Health (for 500 health policy people), UK Adult ADHD Network Congress 2017 (for 400 researchers and professionals), the Arts in Mind Festival (covered on Resonance FM and South London newspaper and The Psychologist Journal, and including a workshop with a primary school) as well as the 5th European Network for Hyperkinetic Disorder International Conference in Edinburgh (for 500 psychiatrists). It has been covered or published in British Journal of Psychiatry (Cambridge University Press), Live Art Developmental Agency Study Guide, Big Issue, Mind the Gap blog (an EU-funded platform for European scientists), featured in 6 films including one commissioned by Economic and Social Science Research Council at the invitation of Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences Professor Louise Arseneault, and another for the pan-European training network MiND. An article on neuordiversity in women published on Disability Arts Online was one of its top editorials. In 2018 it was awarded the National Coordination Centre for Public Engagement NCCPE Images Competition 2018 Award under the category of 'Culture Change’.
Come ride with us on the #MagicCarpet. Join us in forthcoming events. Come fly with us virtually, too, by sending your thoughts, comments, suggestions, images, audio-visual clips, texts and definitions to our Twitter @wesatonamat or email magiccarpet@kaisyngtan.com. Let's open our minds. Let’s see how far we can go, together.
We sat on a mat and had a chat and made maps! #MagicCarpet is an art-science collaboration by artist Dr Kai Syng Tan and Professor of Psychiatry Philip Asherson, both based at the world-leading Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, which is part of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London. The 1.5 year project (August 2017 - December 2018) weaves visual art practice and research in adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) together to explore mind wandering. Through that, the project opens up a creative/critical space to problematise psychiatric/cultural constructs of '(ab-)normality' and wellbeing, approaches and (mis)understandings of mental health, and interdisciplinary/sectorial 'productive antagonsims' (Latham and Tan 2016). The multifaceted project includes workshops, and outputs include a publication, short films, badges, performances and a tapestry installation. The ‘magic’ of the work is to open up a creative, critical and accessible space for people from all walks (aged 2-85) to (un-)learn, share, ask new questions and widen existing discourses on disability, disorder and difference. #MagicCarpet has taken part in 15 exhibitions and workshops, 2 solo shows, 3 residences, 13 conferences/seminars/presentations, appeared in 5 publications that we authored, 6 art catalogues and academic citations, and at least 22 media engagement and non-academic citation, including 6 films. #MagicCarpet has toured South London Gallery (in collaboration with Art Assassins, a collective for people aged 15-20), Southbank Centre (for 700 viewers), Nesta’s People Powered Future Health (for 500 health policy people), UK Adult ADHD Network Congress 2017 (for 400 researchers and professionals), the Arts in Mind Festival (covered on Resonance FM and South London newspaper and The Psychologist Journal, and including a workshop with a primary school) as well as the 5th European Network for Hyperkinetic Disorder International Conference in Edinburgh (for 500 psychiatrists). It has been covered or published in British Journal of Psychiatry (Cambridge University Press), Live Art Developmental Agency Study Guide, Big Issue, Mind the Gap blog (an EU-funded platform for European scientists), featured in 6 films including one commissioned by Economic and Social Science Research Council at the invitation of Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences Professor Louise Arseneault, and another for the pan-European training network MiND. An article on neuordiversity in women published on Disability Arts Online was one of its top editorials. In 2018 it was awarded the National Coordination Centre for Public Engagement NCCPE Images Competition 2018 Award under the category of 'Culture Change’.
Come ride with us on the #MagicCarpet. Join us in forthcoming events. Come fly with us virtually, too, by sending your thoughts, comments, suggestions, images, audio-visual clips, texts and definitions to our Twitter @wesatonamat or email magiccarpet@kaisyngtan.com. Let's open our minds. Let’s see how far we can go, together.
