January 27th 2017

PRACTICING ART AND PSYCHOLOGY

JESSICA LYONS

FINE ART: CRITICAL PRACTICE J.LYONS2@BRIGHTON.UNI.AC.UK UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON

This document proposes a 10 week artist residency within Brighton University where I will be
INTRODUCTION enrolled onto a module, titled Mental Health and Distress within the BA: Psychology Degree. The
motive for a residency within Psychology begins with my profound curiosity of the mind, dreams,
the unconscious and how our behaviour is informed by conscious and unconscious activity. Rather
than proposing a placement within the school of Psychology as a whole, I believed that immersing
myself into a specific module and one that I have a personal interest and relationship with, would
create the optimum conditions for developing my inspirations and ideas. This document outlines
how my personal interaction and experience of the course will generate ideas that I can later create
artwork from, shows the importance of building relationships and frames my initial objectives and
starting point as well as describing the current need for artists to step into a wider context. At the
end of the residency I will have an accomplished body of research, alongside forms of my own art
work which I can only hint at, as will be dictated by the process and not determined at the off-set. I
myself will personally evaluate the nature and success of the residency at the end of the 10 weeks
through a method of reflection and this document will describe any primary methods of
documentation I wish to employ.

I propose to join the growing number of artists, musicians, writers and photographers taking up
CONTEXT
post of artists in residence within universities (Steveni 1983), which once started off as a radical
social experiment by The Artist Placement Group in the 1960s, they questioned the role of the
artist and repositioned them into a wider context to add creative perspective to disciplines far from
their own practice. By immersing myself within this new context, I propose to explore the links
between psychology as a social science and art as medium in a hope to blur the boundaries between
Art and Psychology, network and create academic partnerships and develop a practice that can
communicate my inspired ideas. This residency is a creative process and will be dependent entirely
on [my participation, observation and] the energies and motivation of [other] people involved'
(Steveni 1983). APG discusses how the development of relationships between exceptional people
(artists) and organisations (the school of psychology) (Steveni 1983) is a leading characteristic of
an artist residency which suggests that residencies are a hive of reciprocal offering. In an initial
meeting with the course coordinator, Dr Matt Adams and I discussed what I could offer the course
primarily and we confirmed that I will bring an original outlook to the sessions regarding any issues
raised which may differ from a psychology students academic perspective.

LOGISTICS Dr Matthew Adams, chartered psychologist, principal lecturer on the course and module
coordinator of Mental Health and Distress, will oversee my placement and be my primary faculty
contact for the host subject. From January the 25th I will be enrolled onto the course as a student,
giving me access to an online handbook and any other course documents to prepare myself for the
residency. Aside from this I am currently reading The Essentials of Psychoanalysis and The
Interpretations of Dreams By Sigmund Freud, to develop my understanding into specifics of the
field that I find most interesting. The residency will run for 10 weeks, beginning the week of the 6th
of February and ending the week of the 5th of May. I will attend all seminars, lectures and workshops
on Monday afternoons from 2pm-5pm for the duration of the time frame. I will use online resources
to locate relevant readings to assist my understanding of the course content and prepare myself
for participating in activities and workshops in the sessions. This involvement gives me an opportunity
for social engagement with former students, adding a secondary perspective to my ongoing research
into the field and creates a chance to form and build relationships.

Steveni, Barbara. (1983) ARTIST PLACEMENT APG 1966-1983, Aspects Journal.

 January 27th 2017

OBJECTIVES Throughout my residency I wish to explore different ways in which my art practice can express how
emotions and experiences are so effortlessly defined through clinical categories in society today. From
reflection of an initial meeting, with Dr Matt Adams on January 4th, where we recurrently discussed
starting points, I aim to begin my research similarly to how the module begins, with investigating and
questioning the relationship between psychiatric classifications of emotions, that abnormal psychology
is concerned with, and then a different psychosocial approach to defining human experiences of
emotions? Through engaging as an independent observer/participant (Steveni 1983) with the module
and the discipline of the subject first-hand, I aim to gather primary research to inform my ongoing art
practice. I wish to build relationships between host personnel (staff and students) and myself that lays
foundations for a circumstance that best facilitates discovery the transfer of skills and the necessary
conditions [for] an optimum form of creative liaison (Steveni 1983) to take place. During the later weeks
of the residency I wish to create work to visually represent my process and communicate what I have
found stimulating within the content of the course. Whether that takes form of an installation or
presentation, or both, I am open to the journey of discovery. My work up until now centrally revolves
around the use of light and glass paint on glass, similar to Daniel Burens mirror and glass installations,
which inspire me. My work has also taken many other forms, whether it be 3-Dimensional craft work
with wood, metal and ceramic, performance and written work or traditional painting methods. I look
forward to seeing how my ideas will manifest and how I can incorporate my creative skills into my
residency when creating artwork. I aim to document the thought process behind this and the research
component in a form that is easily accessible it, by using relevant methods through different mediums.

DOCUMENTATION After each Monday session, I will write a reflective journal of no more than 300 words where I can
develop ideas and thought processes concerning the topics addressed in relation to my practice.
During our initial meeting Dr. Adams and I discussed possible methods of research documentation,
we discussed using ResearchGate (an online platform where you can post projects and research in
the style of a blog). I believe this to be the most relevant way to start documenting my work. I have
created an account and will begin using it to post my journals, any ideas and other relevant
material, similar to an online sketchbook and I will encourage students, peers and my tutors to
access it. I reflect and consider that throughout the process, my method of documentation may
change. Following the initial prospective meeting, Dr. Adams and I confirmed that we will meet in
weeks 3, 6 and 9 to discuss any potential issues I have faced, review my progress and how both,
myself as artist in residence and the host organisation are finding the process. This will also offer
an opportunity to discuss any work I wish to make. So there is coherence within my method I will
transcribe all meetings onto a Word document, as I have done so for our Initial Meeting, for a point
of reference and collate into a folder.

To conclude, this proposal sets the grounding framework I will adhere to, beginning my residency
CONCLUSION
and outlines how I propose to interact and participate with everyone involved. I will begin exploring
classifications of emotions and the relationship between art and psychology and through gathering
inspirations, documentation, the reviewing process and allowing for periods of reflection will
dictate the path of my art practice. I have discussed how the residency will result in visual and
written documentation of the research component, through experience I will acquire. But at this
point I am unsure how the exploration into Mental Health and Distress will manifest itself within
my art practice. But I am eager and ready to find out.

Jessica Lyons
Artist
Brighton University

Steveni, Barbara. (1983) ARTIST PLACEMENT APG 1966-1983, Aspects Journal.

 January 27th 2017

Image 1. A screenshot from the transcript of the initial meeting, on January 4th from 1:25pm-2:05pm, between Dr. Matt Adams
(represented as M) and myself (represented as J) where I have a critical shift in my thoughts towards an idea and starting point of
the residency.

Steveni, Barbara. (1983) ARTIST PLACEMENT APG 1966-1983, Aspects Journal.