Speed dates are the perfect format for the short-attention spanned, novelty-chasing, risk-desiring, boredom-adverse, intellectually-promiscuous ADHD person. Thus, on 5th June 2017, I curated this speed-dating event at the South London Gallery.
Above: Kai speed-dating with an audience member in a horizontal position at the South London Gallery. as part of the Arts in Mind Festival . This particular speed-date references her discussion in a horizontal with artist Raquel Messengeur. Photograph by Alessandra Cianetti. The Gallery below consists of photos by Alex Lloyd, Natalie Wong and Alessandra Cianetti.
Above: Kai speed-dating with an audience member in a horizontal position at the South London Gallery. as part of the Arts in Mind Festival . This particular speed-date references her discussion in a horizontal with artist Raquel Messengeur. Photograph by Alessandra Cianetti. The Gallery below consists of photos by Alex Lloyd, Natalie Wong and Alessandra Cianetti.
SPEED-DATING
Wandering Minds was an engaging (but non-committal) evening in which I ’match-made’ experts and the curious in the arts and the human mind to exchange thoughts around mind wandering, neurodiversity, the creative process. This was part of the Arts in Mind Festival, for which #MagicCarpet was also commissioned for an exhibition and workshop. #MagicCarpet was an award-winning art-pyshciatry commission (2017-2019). It was a public conversation between artist-curator Dr Kai Syng Tan with global authority in ADHD Professor of Psychiatry Philip Asherson of the Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre. For the speed-date, Philip and I were joined by experts from the mind and arts, dyspraxic artist Daniel Oliver, Lead clinician and Consultant psychiatrist Dr Ulrich Müller, UKAAN Committee Member Jane Sedgwick, and Artsadmin Head of Artist Development Dr Cecilia Wee. We were also joined by SLG’s youth forum, the Art Assassins who were working on their year-long project The Peckham Experiment: A Centre for Self-organisation. New film & set of 5 badges: The evening also saw the launch of a set of 5 new badges. They were five or my favourite characteristic out of 13 listed by the official/controversial DSM V criteria for adult ADHD. Participants select badges that they like, such as ‘Act Without Thinking’, ‘Always Running About’, or ‘Easily Distracted’, which also became starting points to break the ice when speed-dating. We also premiered a new #MagicCarpet-inspired video poem created in collaboration with Michael Tebinka and Philip Tan. This film was later in the Official Selection of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Research in Film Award 2019. The music of the film, composed by Philip Tan, was activated to structure the duration of the speed date, and 4 minutes 30 seconds was subsequently instated as the optimal MagicCarpet duration, such as for its Open Mic event Brisk/Risks 6 months later. Fun must be inclusive. For the evening we had BSL interpretation as well as a quiet room for participants. --> Find out more about #MagicCarpet's badge-making workshop and tapestry exhibition at Arts In Mind here ABOUT THE GUEST DATERS * Art Assassins are a group of young people aged between 14-21 years old who meet every Tuesday afternoon at the South London Gallery. The group work together with contemporary artists, designers and filmmakers to create a programme of events for other young people and a wider audience. Find out about current and past projects on the Art Assassins Projects page. * Cecilia Wee: My name is Cecilia. I organise exhibitions, performances, workshops and other events with artists, so that artists can learn with the world. I am Head of Artist Development at Artsadmin which is an organisation that works with performance artists. In my role I get to be curious about how we make art, how we learn and how we express ourselves. I think that art and creativity have a crucial role to play in smashing inequalities, tackling climate change and exploring social justice. I like to use restlessness as a method to draw on knowledge from different places like science, information systems, psychology, permaculture or architecture to explore these things. I used to teach at art school so I’m interested in tools and things we invent to process information, make new ideas and do creative thinking. I’m fascinated by our life with multiple screens, interfaces, augmented realities – how we navigate the world through these technologies and how it is changing the ways we think, behave with each other and our understandings of space. I love tangents, play, the senses, bringing in opposites, the unexpected and thinking about mind wandering as exploration. I don’t have answers, but I hope to have interesting questions and conversations with you tonight! *Daniel Oliver: 'I’m Daniel Oliver, a dyspraxic performance artist and writer. I’m into awkwardness (pause) … like that. I like to talk about my dyspractice as a performance artist and writer. Dyspractice is an awkward word that I made up. I’m not sure what it means.' Daniel Oliver is a dyspraxic performance artist, researcher, and writer, currently based in the Drama department at Queen Mary University of London. He makes experimental, participatory performances and workshops that are stubbornly dyspraxic - embracing his neurodivergent relationship with co-ordination, social interaction and executive planning. He has also published creative and scholarly writing on awkwardness, dyspraxia and participatory and collaboration. ARTS IN MIND: Arts in Mind was a week-long festival (June 4-10, 2018) celebrating innovative collaborations between researchers at the IoPPN, and the creative and cultural sector. It showcased work that explores new ways to improve wellbeing and facilitate a better understanding of mental health, the brain and the mind. The creative producer was Ruth Garde, who previously worked at the Wellcome Trust for 16 years. #MAGICCARPET in ARTS IN MIND: Kai's 1.5 year Arts Council England funded Unlimited commission, #MagicCarpet, took part in the Arts in Mind Festival in 4 ways: 1) 3-week long exhibition of the tapestry art (2.9mX1.45m) on bespoke 'invisible loom' designed by the women-run Studio LW Furniture, at the IoPPN. 2) 'Speed-dating' South London Gallery. Members of the public 'speed-dated' experts in the arts and mind: Professor of Psychiatry and adult ADHD expert Philip Asherson (Social, Genetic and developmental Psychiatry Centre SGDP); arts: Dr Cecilia Wee (Artsadmin); live art: Dr Daniel Oliver (Queen Mary University of London), ADHD: Consultant Dr Ulrich Müller and UKAAN Committee Member Jane Sedgwick, and visual art: Dr Kai Syng Tan (SGDP). We were joined by young people aged 14-21, as the evening is part of the SLG’s youth forum, the Art Assassins who are currently working on their year-long project The Peckham Experiment: A Centre for Self-organisation. 3) A new short film made by #MagicCarpet’s Michael Larsson (Sweden), Philip Tan (Singapore) and Kai was also launched that evening. 4) Badge-making workshop for 8 year-old school children from the local Lyndhurst Primary School. COVERAGE: 1) The South London Gallery event was reviewed in Arts in Mind in The Psychologist (The British Psychological Society), 31, pp.68–69, by participant Sushank Chibber, in an article by Dr Sally Marlow, Public Engagement Fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London. Read online 2) Apart from The Psychologist, #MagicCArpet's involvement in Arts in Mind was also covered on South London press. See Smith, H., 2018. Arts In Mind Festival – I don’t mind if you don’t mind, do you mind..? – South London News. South London Press and Mercury. [online] 4 Jun . 3) Kai was also interviewed on Resonance FM. See also Clear Spot: Arts In Mind, 2018. Mixcloud. 4 Jun. and Four Communications, 2018. Arts in Mind. #MAGICCARPET: Energetic and evoking the mind wandering experience in which we flit in/out of reason, #MagicCarpet generates zones of contacts and conflicts, allowing creative collisions and ‘productive antagonisms’ between the medical model of health and social model of disability, between psychiatrist, patient and the anti-psychiatry or anti-ADHD brigade, and between Cartesian and non-Western conceptions of mind-body(-world). |
FEEDBACK
'It was great talking to the young people. They really treasured their art. I met a young man doing photography GCSE - street pics of Peckham. He seemed really ambitious and working hard. It was great fun to talk to him’. — Professor Philip Asherson 'Your event was so innovative and really brought art and science together, two disciplines that are so far-fetched from each other. I learned more about the mind, ADHD and how important art is in navigating various outlets and that was more valuable to me in terms of what I would have learned in a classroom setting. The connection between art and science is so essential, and you were able to impact and educate individuals so effectively and bring awareness at the same time. Your event was exceptional as it encouraged everyone to step outside of their comfort zone and try to understand their own inhibitions in terms of ADHD and of other people as well. [...] your event was able to break [...] 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 for. Thank you and I look forward to your next event.' -- Sushank Chibber in The Psychologist More: * Thank you for connecting me * Great chats with arts assassins. So good to have had intergenerational conversations. Informative + surprising * It was a mind opening experience * Beautiful experience * Share a mailing list of all the attendees that were present / large crowd / meeting people with xxx * Very fun & engaging! Talking with strangers is nice:) * Helped me talk to others, I am normally an introvert who watches. * [This] didn’t challenge because I am already open. What did do was create a safe + wonderful way to be open to each other. PARTICIPANTS 63 people attended. 19 people filled up the feedback form. All 19 agreed or strongly agreed that to the questions: 'This event was useful to my research/professional development and/or personal interest', while 16 agreed or strongly agreed that ‘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’, 15 agreed or strongly agreed that ‘This event has enhanced my understanding of the human mind, brain and/or mental health’. All 19 agreed or strongly agreed that they are ‘likely to attend again’. Of the 19 people who filled up the feedback form, four were 15-24 years old, 11 were 25-54 while two were 55-64. Of these, 8 identified as arts professionals or researcher, 2 as science or medical professionals or researcher, 6 as students or researchers in Higher Education, and 3 as students in schools. OTHER FUN FORMATS TO CATALYSE DIALOGUE ACROSS BOUNDARIES (CULTURAL, DISCIPLINARY, GEOPOLITICAL ETC) DEVISED BY KAI OVER THE YEARS * Read about curatorial and pedagogical framework ‘productive antagonisms’ (Latham and Tan 2016) * We Sat On A Mat and Had a Chat and Made Maps! : the #MagicCarpet tapestry that opens up a creative and non-hierarchical space for people from all walks - psychiatrists and 'service users', experts and children, mind wanderers and those who like to become settled to sit together and chat or make maps about (their) different views about our different minds, brains, and beings. * Hand in Hand, a commission for a street festival in Summer 2016 in Grenoble, France, which was subsequently re-enacted with nurses of the Royal Infirmary at Whitworth Gallery as part of their wellbeing training programme, General Practitioners at King's (June 2018) and Masters students at King's (October 2019). * Running Discourse, a creative. intervention at Documenta 2012 * Let’s Chat with Singapore pioneer feminist and performance artist Amanda Heng * Relay mentoring: as expounded in my unpublished Senior Fellowship of Higher Education Academy paper. * Mind Wanderer in Action badges DATING APP HINDER: A related idea since 2016 is a dating app called Hinder, which I have talked about in my performance-lecture Unreasonable Adjustments. It’s called Hinder because it is disobedient and counters human instinct to turn inwards in times of fear. After all, ‘swiping right for someone who is like you, or who would like you, or who thinks and acts like you is so last century, or pre-summer 2016. Hinder is all about getting out of your comfort zone to meet people outside of your professional, social, political, cultural norms to challenge yourself and the other person, to be their productive antagonist’. |