Abstract
In the three last decades participatory and community art, meaning the collective involvement of individuals in the art making process, has proliferated. This has coincided with an increased engagement in the social aspect of healthcare and awareness of the importance of support beyond the physical. This paper operates at the intersection of both and explores development and outcome of a series of participatory photography projects involving cancer survivors in Singapore. It focusses on processes, dynamics and on participants perspectives and motivations. Numerous studies on art and health demonstrate that art interventions provide patients emotional support and a space to express their struggle, often invisible to family and society. I have developed these fundamental findings further by focusing on the use of photography as a participatory practice to encourage communication and enrichment. Scholars such as Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, Margaret Iversen and Vilém Flusser, offer a conceptual framework considering photography as a medium intrinsically connected to the concepts of loss, vulnerability, trauma and unconscious. Building up in these considerations I relate the medium to the illness. I explore further the potential of photography to facilitate acknowledgement and expression of personal concerns through a specific image making process based on metaphorical representation of the illness and their concerns. This method aims to facilitate the personal narrative and generate empathy and understanding of the complexity of the illness experiences. Furthermore, I consider the role of the artist within a community care institution context and the factors to consider working with a vulnerable community.
Presenters
Marina ZuccarelliPhD, School of Art Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, North West, Singapore
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life
KEYWORDS
Participatory Art, Community, Photography, Art&Health, Cancer, Illness Experience, Metaphor, Communication
