Of Art and Healing

Last week I presented on my work on photography around the time of death, and in particular on the use and narrative of photographs in palliative care, at the ‘Narratives of Health and Illness across the Lifespan' (see http://arsmedica.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/conference-on-connection-between-arts-healthcare/ ).

The conference was very interesting and as you can see from the link many papers were on the use and value of arts in medicine. I found particularly compelling this discussion mainly because it focused on what can "art" can do, as opposed to what art is. "Art", and doing art to be more specific, is often taken (and given) has possessing universal value, without questioning the why, which at some extent I can understand and agree with. What I find more interesting though is how medical language of "healing" and the scientific need for "evidence based research" is ubiquitous in the rhetoric of the use of art in a medical setting, as opposed to using a language that has more in common with "inspiration" and "creativity" to break the dryness of the scientific ethos of "if it is not useful it should not be there".

Of course the argument is complex, but for example I greatly value the word "crafting" and opposed to "doing art", which is much harder to define. I have always been a supporter of the "arts and craft" movement and not very fond of the concept of "fine arts" as an untouchable, sublime and cryptic endeavour. After all, crafting is more socialist than doing fine arts.

This is not only because "doing art" is hard to define while "crafting" relatively easier, but because one is associated more with elites and Knowledge (capital letter intended) while the other with experience and learning.

I think if one supports arts, one should stop worrying if they are useful or not, and in fact support them more when they are completely and evidently useless. Also, arts is not about "beauty", it is more, much more than that, and in that sense its power for healing is equal to its power to corrupt, hurt and destroy, something rarely mentioned when discussing it.

"FUNERAL DIVAS: CREATING SPACE FOR WOMEN IN THE FUNERAL INDUSTRY"

http://bit.ly/is1Fv6 is an interesting post I have just been reading on "Funeral Divas" (image above), a Funeral Diva being "a strong, confident and successful woman who works in the funeral industry. She is not ashamed of her career! She is proud to serve hurting families!serve hurting families!"

Also to note the calendar of "Men of Mortuaries" (image below) in the same website (@sociologicalimages): http://bit.ly/aw5EZr

In the blog where I found both links the discussion around both images is that people who work in the funeral industry try to "humanize themselves so as to avoid the stigmas often associated with their jobs". This is already interesting per se, but as blogger Gwen Sharp notices there are also interesting gender dynamics at place, because funeral directors are traditionally and mainly men. Sharp refers also to an article written on The Christian Science Monitor / March 23, 2004 (http://bit.ly/i9gIq0 ) where is discussed how the gender balance is changing in the industry, with more female studying to become funeral director.

Interestingly, this new interest in this job is understood as being connected with the profession become more concerned with grief (as opposed to "mourning" one would assume), making it automatically into a more vocational profession and therefore more "appealing" (or suited) to women. The gender balance change in this industry therefore, while seemingly being a way of strengthening gender equality, conceals and reinforces traditional western stereotypes related to emotions and gender role (see for example Lutz "Unnatural Emotions" 1998).

Grave Politics and Grave Tourism

Image: "Riots in Belfast. British army riot troops smash down Milltown cemetery gates to disperse IRA sympathizers. April 19, 1976" @imagestate.com,

Credit: © Tramonto / age fotostock / Imagestate

(http://www.imagestate.com/Preview/PreviewPage.aspx?id=1953189&pricing=true&licenseType=RM

)

Today I was reading a Cuban blog on politics, graves and dissidence ("Los policías del camposanto", "The Graveyard's police" http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/?p=4627 ), something that reminded me of things read a long time ago ( a parallel to Belfast 1976 came to my mind - see image above).

In the attempt to find more about this cemetery however, I stumbled upon a website: http://www.findagrave.com/; this website founded in 1995 by Jim Tipton to find graves of famous people around the world.

Anyone able to suggest some past and current research on "grave tourism" (also referred as "death tourism" and "graveyards tourism") please let me know!

ageing and death in China

"Imagine a country in which the population is rapidly ageing and yet people do not want to talk about how to care for the elderly because they think it could bring bad luck." Martin Patience - BBC News, Beijing.

Read his brief but interesting article about China and its cultural attitude towards death and dying http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12334284

death and the web

In the last few days I came across three interesting debates on identity on the internet and what remains of it when we die... I post them here while I think about them...

http://ideasbazaar.typepad.com/the_ideas_bazaar/2011/01/death-digital-remains-and-the-network.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/magazine/09Immortality-t.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/12/death-and-digital-gh.html

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addition as per 31/03/2011:

The Luca Coscioni Foundation just released a Facebook app, "The Last Wish" where users can identify two candidates (e.g. friends, family members) who, in case the user dies, can unlock through a procedure (e.g. filling in some forms) a message left by the user for after he or she died.

http://pappagallo.posterous.com/il-testamento-biologico-si-puo-fare-su-facebo#comment

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other addition... nice blog @Death Reference about Facebook and dying: "19,000 Facebook Users Die Each Day. Here is How FB’s Memorialization Mode Works"

http://deathreferencedesk.org/2012/02/05/19000-facebook-users-die-each-day-here-is-how-fbs-memorialization-mode-works/

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image @Flikr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarniebill/3447801705/ by sarniebill1

Research Assistant in Ethnography and Design at the TRIL centre

We have an opening for a new position as a Research Assistant in Ethnography and Design at the TRIL centre (www.trilcentre.org)!

job description: https://hrweb.ucd.ie/pls/corehrrecruit/docs/0000063240.pdf

to apply: https://hrweb.ucd.ie/pls/corehrrecruit/erq_search_package.search_form?p_company=1&p_internal_external=E

DOLL FACE

Check the "Doll Face" short movie by Andrew Thomas Huang

http://www.andrewthomashuang.com/MOV_Doll_Face.htm ;

a mechanic female creature tries to emulate the "doll face" she sees in an old TV that moves away from her... interesting visualization of the dynamics media and visual technologies create around the female (traditionally, but increasingly no longer exclusively female) body. A process of "dollification" if you will...

(image from http://dekku.nofatclips.com/2007/03/andy-huang-doll-face.html)