<<Art-Making and Comics Workshop Series: Lived Experiences of Psychosis>>
What has your mental health journey been like?
How would you like to tell its story?
Name of Study:
Re-worlding the Self in Graphic Narratives— A Case Study of Sense, Affect, and Mad-Centered Knowledges of Psychosis
Eligibility:
– Are you 19 or older?
– Have you ever experienced psychosis?
– Are you connected with a mental health organization in the Greater Victoria area?
– Do you have internet access?
Purpose of Study:
This research project explores people’s previous lived experiences of psychosis. We will then delve into your experiences of psychosis from an empathic, sensorial, and visual perspective. In doing so, the aim will be to better place how psychotic experiences may figure into your life’s story, your storytelling approaches, and your capacity for identifying, building, and even sustaining brighter cultural futures for those who face mental health issues.
What’s Involved:
As part of the research, the investigator will conduct a series of five online group workshops involving a small group of stable mental health out-patients with past experiences of psychosis. You will be asked to draw your interior experiences during the workshops. The drawings shared with the investigator will provide some prompts to conduct individual interviews. By bringing together these stories, we will create a graphic narrative or comics-poetry text to contextualize, retell, and reshape your past experiences.
“What comes from the heart lands on the heart” (Denny Dent).
Timeframe:
Workshops will start this Fall (September 2021). We will hold bi-weekly meetings over Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Scheduling and specific times of the workshops will be coordinated by an online group poll to determine the most beneficial times of the week for everyone involved in the workshop series.
Compensation:
Art supplies will be offered to each participant to use and to keep after the study is over. Small illustration honorariums may also be offered to participants who participate in research activities.
Contact:
If interested, please contact the investigator, Luke Kernan (MA, Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology) via email at lkernan@uvic.ca for more information on how you can participate in this study.