Above: Poster shared at Solo Exhibition 2018 October 4 - 2019 March 4 summarising the project thus far; slideshow shared one year before, when the project was beginning, during King's Launch 2017 October 5 at Bush House on the Strand.
*Download PDF summary of #MagicCarpet here
*Download PDF summary of Kai here
We sat on a mat and had a chat and made maps! #MagicCarpet. A practice-led research project weaving science and art together to celebrate mind wandering, magic carpets, mapping, making, making small talk and productive antagonisms
Does your mind wander? What do you picture when you daydream? Where do you go? How far is too far? How often is too often? 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 a new collaboration between artist Dr Kai Syng Tan and Professor of Molecular Psychiatry Philip Asherson of King’s College London’s MRC Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry. #MagicCarpet draws on research, practice and lived experience on the universality of mind wandering as well as how it specifically relates to visual art and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Mind wandering refers to the engagement in self-generated thoughts unrelated to the external environment. While a universal human experience (everyone daydreams or gets distracted), a proposition by Professor Asherson, a world-leading expert on adult ADHD, is that excessive mind wandering may be a distinguishing feature of ADHD. Affecting around 2.5% of the population worldwide (Simon, Czobor, Balint, et al, 2009), ADHD is characterised by high levels of hyperactive, impulsive and inattentive behaviours beginning in early childhood, persistent over time, pervasive across situations and leading to impairments. At the same time, there are well-established traditions in visual arts (and elsewhere) about mind wandering as a critical part of the creative process, whether the term is activated or not (think free association; dérive; montage). Channelling the exuberance of Grayson Perry’s tapestry art, the work embeds within it Kai’s lived experience as a mind wandering extraordinaire. The project aims to generate a creative space to explore the lines – linear, squiggly, fractured, actual, imagined, messy, fascinating – between ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ behaviours, imagination and pathology, art practice and scientific research as well as the physical weave and digital pixel. The ‘magic’ that #MagicCarpet aims for is not to provide answers but for us to learn from one another, raise questions and irritate existing assumptions about how we relate to the world, self and others.
This 1.5-year project unfolds through a series of residencies, talks, workshops and the creation of a new participatory tapestry art installation. As Artist-in-Residence at MRC SGDP, Kai gatecrashes the world of psychiatry to participate in seminars, as well as volunteer for scientific experiments. Kai will also be artist-in-residence at Headway East London, a charity for people affected by brain injury. Headway East London runs an acclaimed programme called ‘Submit to Love Studio’. Members are self-taught artists who have produced extraordinary work including at Southbank Centre, Wellcome Trust and Stratford Circus.. Kai's observations, questions and interpretations will be mapped out in a large drawing. This will be weaved into a tapestry art piece at Flanders Tapestries in Belgium, which has produced works by Perry and other contemporary artists. The work ‘takes off’ when people sit on the tapestry, get paired up with Kai, Philip and/or other artists and scientists, to chat about their mind wandering. As words may be inadequate or challenging, they capture their discussions / disagreements / discoveries in the form of maps that they will co-create. Selected maps, as well as commissioned texts and developmental sketches, will be documented in a limited-edition publication.
Come ride with us on the #MagicCarpet. Join us in forthcoming events throughout the UK and beyond. Come fly with us virtually, too, by sending your thoughts, comments, suggestions, audio-visual clips, images and texts to @wesatonamat or [email protected]. Let us open our minds. Let’s see how far we can go, together.
Keywords: mind wandering, wandering, restlessness, interdisciplinarity, productive antagonisms, creative collision, crossover, boundaries, wellbeing, mental heath, tapestry, art installation, contemporary art, disability, disorder, difference, disability art, ipad art, pixel, weave, gesture, biomarker, ADHD, attention, distraction, hyperactivity, participatory art, workshopping, EEG, outsider art
*Download PDF summary of #MagicCarpet here
*Download PDF summary of Kai here
We sat on a mat and had a chat and made maps! #MagicCarpet. A practice-led research project weaving science and art together to celebrate mind wandering, magic carpets, mapping, making, making small talk and productive antagonisms
Does your mind wander? What do you picture when you daydream? Where do you go? How far is too far? How often is too often? 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 a new collaboration between artist Dr Kai Syng Tan and Professor of Molecular Psychiatry Philip Asherson of King’s College London’s MRC Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry. #MagicCarpet draws on research, practice and lived experience on the universality of mind wandering as well as how it specifically relates to visual art and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Mind wandering refers to the engagement in self-generated thoughts unrelated to the external environment. While a universal human experience (everyone daydreams or gets distracted), a proposition by Professor Asherson, a world-leading expert on adult ADHD, is that excessive mind wandering may be a distinguishing feature of ADHD. Affecting around 2.5% of the population worldwide (Simon, Czobor, Balint, et al, 2009), ADHD is characterised by high levels of hyperactive, impulsive and inattentive behaviours beginning in early childhood, persistent over time, pervasive across situations and leading to impairments. At the same time, there are well-established traditions in visual arts (and elsewhere) about mind wandering as a critical part of the creative process, whether the term is activated or not (think free association; dérive; montage). Channelling the exuberance of Grayson Perry’s tapestry art, the work embeds within it Kai’s lived experience as a mind wandering extraordinaire. The project aims to generate a creative space to explore the lines – linear, squiggly, fractured, actual, imagined, messy, fascinating – between ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ behaviours, imagination and pathology, art practice and scientific research as well as the physical weave and digital pixel. The ‘magic’ that #MagicCarpet aims for is not to provide answers but for us to learn from one another, raise questions and irritate existing assumptions about how we relate to the world, self and others.
This 1.5-year project unfolds through a series of residencies, talks, workshops and the creation of a new participatory tapestry art installation. As Artist-in-Residence at MRC SGDP, Kai gatecrashes the world of psychiatry to participate in seminars, as well as volunteer for scientific experiments. Kai will also be artist-in-residence at Headway East London, a charity for people affected by brain injury. Headway East London runs an acclaimed programme called ‘Submit to Love Studio’. Members are self-taught artists who have produced extraordinary work including at Southbank Centre, Wellcome Trust and Stratford Circus.. Kai's observations, questions and interpretations will be mapped out in a large drawing. This will be weaved into a tapestry art piece at Flanders Tapestries in Belgium, which has produced works by Perry and other contemporary artists. The work ‘takes off’ when people sit on the tapestry, get paired up with Kai, Philip and/or other artists and scientists, to chat about their mind wandering. As words may be inadequate or challenging, they capture their discussions / disagreements / discoveries in the form of maps that they will co-create. Selected maps, as well as commissioned texts and developmental sketches, will be documented in a limited-edition publication.
Come ride with us on the #MagicCarpet. Join us in forthcoming events throughout the UK and beyond. Come fly with us virtually, too, by sending your thoughts, comments, suggestions, audio-visual clips, images and texts to @wesatonamat or [email protected]. Let us open our minds. Let’s see how far we can go, together.
Keywords: mind wandering, wandering, restlessness, interdisciplinarity, productive antagonisms, creative collision, crossover, boundaries, wellbeing, mental heath, tapestry, art installation, contemporary art, disability, disorder, difference, disability art, ipad art, pixel, weave, gesture, biomarker, ADHD, attention, distraction, hyperactivity, participatory art, workshopping, EEG, outsider art
#MagicCarpet is a 2017 Unlimited commission. Unlimited is an arts commissioning programme that celebrates ambitious work by disabled artists. Unlimited is funded by Arts Council England (ACE), and delivered by Shape Arts and Artsadmin. The project is part of King's Artist In Residence programme supported by Cultural Programming and the Department of Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre at King's College London. | TEAM: Artist, Principal Investigator: Dr Kai Syng Tan (King's College London, University College London) / Mentor: Professor Philip Asherson (King's College London) / Arts Production Manager: Alessandra Cianetti / Photographer: Enamul Hoque / Sound and Music Director: Philip Tan (Philbeat) / Film Director: Michael Larsson (Ohsoweird) / Social Media and Publicity Curator (R&D phase): David Kelly-Mancaux (Erkembode) | PARTNERS: Submit To Love Studios (Headway East London), UK Adult ADHD Network (UKAAN) Background image by Erkembode 2017
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SMALL PRINT: When you share your thoughts, images, sketches and so on to #MagicCarpet via its various platforms including email, website, social media channels, we aim to use them fairly and only in relation to activities related to the project. When you submit your contribution, you agree for us to adapt, re-use, reproduce them in this and future editions of #MagicCarpet, granting us permission to the unlimited use of the material in online and offline publications, digital platform, exhibitions, workshops, amongst other possible platforms. We will fully acknowledge your name in these platforms. Where full acknowledgement is not possible, we will acknowledge that the drawing is from friends, collaborators and participants of the project. If you want more information or have any concerns, do speak with us or write us at [email protected] |