Amaniism
How can art be applied to medical convention to provide an enhanced view of conditions through narrative?
This project is of value to me, and has started with a very personal experience as I am a neurological patient myself. I believe that neurological (and other) patients, are always in a position where they need comforting, optimism and inspiration, on top of getting the health care they need.
The experience is emotional, not only physical, when a person culminates a neurological condition, such as GBS, MS, epilepsy, stroke or brain injury. This has an effect on the person’s ability to function. Like languor and fatigue, the emotional effect is rather invisible, and can be difficult to reveal.
When looking at the emotional side of a condition, the patient needs support and help to firstly come to terms with trauma and the effects that could last for a while, and sometimes if the verbal communication skills have been effected, it is even more difficult and hard to express. Dealing with several conditions of neurological (and other) illnesses, rehab and art therapy can provide an enormous benefit and advantage for patients, and their relatives or people who are also emotionally effected in that case.
This project is double sided if I may say. Mainly, to help patients, by reminding them, in a creative and a nice way, that they are not alone there, that there are other people who suffer from the same condition and who has been experiencing very similar symptoms and feelings, and maybe get them to know more about other conditions that they were not familiar with before. As well as, trying to make them happy, give them an optimistic feeling, inspire them, or at least draw a smile on their faces.
Also, to spread the knowledge about several medical conditions to the public, and to people who might never knew some kind of conditions even existed.
Hence Art can be used as a way of symbolic speech, and a loud platform to express feelings and experiences, I attended to use a medical convention (MRI scans) by editing them and transforming them into art pieces, to provide an enhanced view of specific conditions through narrative.
The project began when I started viewing my own MRI scans, and started planting roses on them and transforming them into art pieces. Which afterwards helped me to remain optimistic about the condition I have, and helped me to get through rough, hard and excruciating times.
I started by having an exhibition at Chealsea Theatre of London a while ago,where I met some patients, doctors, artists, members of the art council and people from different fields and backgrounds.
I was told by a patient’s partner that It was a very powerful and a touching way to tell a story by using a medical convention, and got mostly very positive feedback on the exhibition, such as the idea is original, new, very unique and inspiring. I also got contacted by The National AE newspaper, Al-Eqtisadyiah newspaper, 90D Creatives magazine, which got me all existed that the project is actually moving forward, also that I could help and inspire more people if I expand the project and come up with different ways to make it better and have a stronger impact.
So I attempted few different interventions, where I worked with patients at The King Fahad Medical City in Saudi Arabia / Riyadh, with Dr Amal Olayan’s supervision, as one-to-one at times, and in group sessions too. I also worked with volunteers from outside the hospital, where some of them were patients and others who were involved in some cases. I got very different reactions each time, depending on the condition, age, background and companion. It was positive and a very good experience overall. However, I realized that was not the best intervention for the project, and that I should try something different.
Afterwards, I came up with a plan for a new invention, I started with projecting huge MRI scans in the street where my house is, and observing the neighbors’s reaction, where I only got few to begin with.
Finally, I am working on the final intervention, which is a 50 seconds motion clip of MRI footage, with drawings and artistic illustrations, to provide an enhanced view of the convention by creating narratives. Nevertheless, the clip will be displayed in the neurologists consulting suits of The London Clinic Hospital, and in other public spaces.
