Art for healing.

Final project time. Undertake something worthwhile, something fulfilling, something you have a passion for and something that will benefit someone. Most importantly though, undertake something FUN. Time for one last gasp of sweet, sweet freedom to be creative before the shackles and conformity of the professional design world are thrust upon me. But, dont get me wrong, after four years of being a student I feel more than ready to get out there and make a name for myself. I just want to go out with a bang and do something really creative first. Art for healing. This is the project I am undertaking for my final major project. The Atlnagelvin hospital in Derry has recently been granted a little over 105 million pounds in order to bring the post world war 2 goliath well into the 21st century with a massive refurbishment. Some areas of the hospital will be kitted out with new state of the art facilities and others will be completely rebuilt from the ground up. The scale of this project is truly massive, and will be a huge benefit to the community of northwest Ireland. But, I hear you cry, where do you fit into this major overhaul as a design student? Well, the simple answer is art. As part of the scheme some of the money is being put into finding and commissioning art works to line the corridors, wards and outdoor spaces of the hospital. The idea is to help in giving a calming, tranquil atmosphere and hopefully make the hospital a more beautiful place to visit, stay and work. Despite what you might think at the moment this project isnt just for fun, in-fact it is very close to my heart. I have spent long periods of time in recent years staying with loved ones in hospitals after they became very ill. I can understand that visiting or staying in a hospital can be a very traumatic experience at the worst of times, and an extremely boring experience at the best of times. I can recall counting the dimples on the ceiling tiles over and over and scrutinizing all of the various awareness and health posters plastering the walls. There is no kind of stimulation to speak of in hospitals, just whites and dull greens and that horrible sterile smell that everybody hates. Art And Health. So, my aims for this project are quite simple. I want to explore the theory of art in a health care environment, talk to the patients and staff and find out all that I can in order to fully understand what people actually want to see. Then its time to produce some meaningful public art that will blend into the fabric of the building but also contest the

space in which it occupies. This is where the fun aspect of the project comes into play. As long as the works remain tranquil and calming I have total creative freedom to create whatever kind of installations I please. I can already feel the excitement simmering inside me in relation to all the different wards, and how to address each one separately to give a tailor made feel for each space. I have a lot of work to do due to the large scale of this project but I feel that by the end I will have created some very unique and beautiful installations that will help people through a difficult time of their lives and hopefully make the whole hospital experience a more pleasant one for everybody involved. This project is really based around the forum of public art. It must inspire, but also be easy to understand and engage with by everyone, regardless of the sophistication of their knowledge of art. I want the pieces to sit comfortably in their chosen surrounding, but also to stimulate and spark conversation and debate as good public art should. She said the object and color in the materials around us actually have a physical effect on us, on how we feel. Florence Nightingale: www.altiusdirectory.com To make this project work in the most effective way it is very important to understand public art and the function or role that it plays in society today. Public art is everywhere nowadays, from the streets and squares of bustling cosmopolitan cities to brightening the sides of otherwise dull motorways to lining the corridors of our of state run buildings. Public art is a piece of art that has been specifically created to be sited in a public space. It can be a huge towering goliath or a miniscule pattern beneath our feet. It can be totally invisible and only audible, it could even be a smell or something stimulating to touch. The power of public art can transform a space, express the feelings of an entire community or group. It can spark conversation and debate amongst strangers, make people question their surroundings or give a totally new perspective on a well know place. It has the power to transform the image of a city or building and show to all the unique character and personality of an area. I would say that a good way to sum up what public art is, is to say that it gives personality and emotion to an otherwise undefined place. The purpose of public art is to benefit the public. To energize spaces, to invite thinking and questioning and to make the places we live and work more exciting. It is welcoming, and in my opinion makes places more aesthetically beautiful and comfortable. It has the power to transcend race and age background, it can be whatever the individual sees and takes from it. It gives a sense of pride to the space it occupies, and projects the view of an exciting, free thinking and interesting place to be. It is for the public and it is defined by what the public take from it and relate to it. It can be loved or loathed. In Los Angeles the director of the contemporary

art museum ordered a commissioned piece by the well known artist blu to be removed. This act caused so much controversy that a red sticker approved or disapproved campaign was launched to help protect murals and art valued by the public. The idea is that the public place the stickers on pieces of public art they like or dont and this way the public truly are approving their own art. This shows the power public art has and how passionately people fell about it, regardless of what side of the fence they are on. As diversity of the location and context of the art varies, so does the quality. I have seen pieces of public art that really reach out to me, make me think, tweak my perspective and are emotionally stimulating. But, I have also seen public art that is just hideous and confusing and in no way whatsoever contests its habitat, subject matter or community. One of my favourite examples of public art is The bean by Anish Kapoor; that sits in the millennium park, Chicago.

What I like most about this piece of public art is the simplicity, but at the same time the complexity of it. In many ways this installation could be viewed as a simple stainless steel structure that isnt particularly interesting, but I see it as the polar opposite of this. To me this piece is ever changing in its perspective and its ability to change yours too. As you walk around the piece you can really appreciate the skyline behind as it morphs and transforms to your liking depending on how you approach it. It contests the space in a very clever way but throwing back its own environment towards you but in distorted way. I also like the fact that the steel used echoes the steel in the skyscrapers surrounding it and the reflective qualities echo the reflective glass of the landscape. I feel that this piece really involves the people of the city as they become a piece of the art itself and are not just a mere spectator of one persons idea. By involving the community in a such a

way this truly is public art. The light form the sun bounces and contorts around the structure in a most beautiful display, as if the piece itself is inviting you to come closer and inspect and interact with it. On a rainy day, each droplet of water gradually making its journey down the bean is like a little world within a world, another reflection of its surroundings resting on a giant reflection if its surroundings. I have seen people young and old playing with the piece and appreciating it, I think that the bean is a good definition of what all public art should strive to achieve. Closer to home in Newcastle (n.i) they have placed a spherical stainless steel ball on the waterfront promenade. I very much enjoyed this piece too and it gives the same sense of community and public involvement as its Chicago counterpart. The whole area of the Newcastle waterfront is a testament to site specific art. The streetlights dangle elegantly from wires that mimic the ropes attached to the mast of a boat. The nautical theme is cleverly incorporated into the guts of the town, which is a great achievement I feel. A great place to look for public art that truly contests its environment is in the street art scene. Here the artists have free reign and to play with the buildings and structures and manipulate them as they see fit. Its like the city is their playground and nothing is off limits. This is the kind of public art I enjoy the most as it can make me laugh, make me think, and really brighten my day as I stroll past.

Its art like this by german street art group Mentalgassi that truly uses its environment to the fullest and makes you view the world in a different way.

One last example by Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu. The singing, ringing tree is one of my favourite pieces because of the way that it uses the elements of its surroundings to produce an eerie sound that seems to fit atmosphere of the environment very well. On a remote hilltop near Burnley it stands triumphantly. The area is quite bleak and desolate and that is expressed very well by the sounds produced by the tree. Like the wailing of a banshee it almost haunts the desolate hills, showing the harshness of the environment. The wind is the most notable feature of the area and that has been played upon perfectly.

On the other hand not all public art is as interactive and as beautiful as the bean. Probably the worst piece of public art I have seen in the last year is the Barcelona lobster by Xavier Mariscal. I can see that the lobster Idea has obviously come from the fact that it is on the

waterfront and that Lobster fishermen have worked in the bay area for generations. However I cant understand why it looks like a badly drawn Disney character and also why it is the shade of brown it is. I was speaking about Newcastle and their subtle referencing of their fishing heritage and the fact that I like it, but this lobster has nothing for me to like. In my opinion I think it looks gaudy and has no place in the site that it occupies. It almost seems like a bad joke as if the city is poking fun at itself in a desperate bid to discourage tourism. This is the kind of public art I Really feel opposed to as it does not provoke interaction with the public and it does not contest its environment well. It may encourage conversation amongst people, but I Imagine the main topic of conversation is why? A very important phrase for this project of installation is site specific art. The term first started to circulate in the mid 1970s by sculptors such as Athena Tacha and Lloyd Hamrol. This phrase basically means that the installation should take its inspiration, form and meaning from the site it will occupy. To be at home in the site and mimic the characteristics of said site. It must contest the site in which it occupies. Practices which, in one way or another, articulate the exchanges between the work of art and the places in which its meanings are defined. (Kaye N 2000:1) For example, if the installation was to be placed at the foot of a mountain famous for skiing, it should represent the rugged nature and form of the surroundings, draw upon materials sourced from the area and also make references to the feelings involved with or movements of skiing. It should also make references to the people that use or pass through this space, engage the community that will have to live with the piece. The concept of site specific art is quite simple then, it must sit in the surroundings and feel totally at home and seem like an extension of the environment that the inhabitants have defined. In basic terms, it must be appropriate in relation to the space. This theory of site specificity applies to many aspects of design, including architecture. The new west wing of Altnagelvin hospital has been designed with the environment of the local area fully in the forefront of the architects minds. Considering that the building is made of glass and steel and concrete it sits surprisingly well in its environment and doesnt impose too greatly on the landscape. The surrounding area is one of beauty, a patchwork quilt of fields rolling over the surrounding hills to the horizon. Its farming land, which you would be right in thinking Is hard for a hospital to fit into for obvious reasons, the two are worlds apart. One very clinical and sterile, the other free, open and agricultural.

The clever way that the architects have surpassed this problem is by the exploitation of light. The windows are huge panes of glass stretching from the floor to the ceiling of the three-story building. I feel that this really helps to blur and distort the division between outside and inside and brings great flow to the building. Because so much light penetrates through the glass faade all of the natural heat from the sun bursts gloriously into the building giving you a great feeling of warmth on a sunny day. Derry is also synonymous with the oak tree, a fact that has been greatly exploited in the corridors of the hospital. Beautifully textured and sanded oak paneling lines parts of the walls and ceilings. This brings the natural aspect further into the heart of the hospital and really helps abolish that sterile atmosphere we have all come to know. The glass and the wood help generate a natural feeling that is very important for a hospital. As far as site specific art is concerned, there are different schools of thought and approach depending on whether one is creating for an outdoor or indoor environment. The example of a ski resort above is true of an outdoor environment, Taking cues from nature. However, if one is designing for an indoor space you must take your cues from the architecture of the building itself. As stated previously the new wing of altnagelvin hospital is a cohesion of sleek, modern and natural materials. This makes designing around nature a plausible outcome for me provided that some modern and made-made elements are included as-well. Andy Goldsworthy has been creating indoor installations more and more but he is still referred to as a site specific artist because his works sit well in the building environment and the materials used are still sourced from the surrounding areas. His works are also constructed to sometimes mimic the buildings themselves, like a room divided by a wall-like structure made of sticks. It mimics the architecture. Site specific art can be defined by how well the installation contests the space. It is bound to that area alone and wont work anywhere else. Does it feel like the installation is a part of the building or the space it occupies? Does it fit in or does it stand out and look horribly out of place? It normally involves the public, encouraging reactions to both the space and the piece.

Here is, in my opinion a great example of site specific art by Christo and Jeanne-Claude from 1969. The piece is called wrapped coast. I think that this piece is a great example of site specific art because it contests the space so well. Even though the cloth fabric used to wrap around the cliff faces is of no relevance to the environment, the shapes and contours of the rocks are still clearly visible so the piece is really mimicking the form and presence of the rocks below. This piece really sparks debate and public involvement as you can freely walk around and on the piece and make your own judgments about it. I think it is a great amalgamation of the natural and man-made worlds bringing the two together as one. As the piece remained there for almost 2 months it really started to become more and more site specific as the water and elements battered the cloth, staining and damaging it just like how the rocks themselves have come to look as they do. As the cloth became more and more distressed it was transforming into a part of the natural landscape and becoming part of nature. That is why I feel this is a good example of site specificity.

This is Andy Goldsworthys Fautline. It was commissioned for the de Yong museum in San Fransico. The piece draws its influence form the unique topography of San Fransico and the fact that the city sit upon a major faultline. I really love this piece, the crack snakes it way towards the entrance cutting through 8 boulders on its way. The boulders are also public seating so its a clever way to get the public involved and talking about the piece. They can touch and examine it. Its another good example of how to take the specific place and use the elements and unique aspects of that place to create your work. You can how this wouldnt function in the u.k as we have no faultlines so the piece would be rendered irrelevant to our landscape. This is what I must strive for in site specific art. Maybe not in such an extreme way as this, but the important thing to reference your surroundings and create something unique for the space you are in. This topic of site specific art and public art brings forth the obvious question, is it suitable in a hospital environment? This is quite a difficult and complex question to answer. In the case of an older hospital building thats sole purpose is one of functionality I would regrettably have to say no. The whole building is geared towards

machines and equipment. You could make a piece of site specific art inspired by these machines, but would the public enjoy art inspired by life support and defibrillators? I dont think so. I suppose that you could take your inspiration from the people who inhabit the hospital, from the patients to the heroic staff, but would that help to give a tranquil atmosphere? I dont know. The problem is that the works must be calming, and that is hard to achieve when your inspiration is supposed to stem from and old building that is anything but relaxing. However, in the case of the new wing of Altnagelvin hospital I genuinely think that public, site specific art can be incorporated into the building without too much difficulty. Because of the ample light and the abundance of natural materials like the oak paneling, this makes it a lot more plausible to take cues from the architecture. These new builds are making hospitals all over the world much more pleasant places to occupy, with real thought being out into the architecture of the indoor spaces and room being left for art installations. That is another issue for designing in the hospital environment, space. The building is first and foremost still a hospital and not a gallery so function must remain the most important aspect. Hospitals are notoriously hectic and feel like the building itself is a living breathing entity because of all the movement. Care must be taken to ensure that any installations do not impede peoples movements. But, to answer the question, I think that, yes, public art can work in a hospital environment such as the west wing in Altnagelvin. There is lots of space and many details in the architecture that can be drawn upon to create a work that contests the space. I think natural is the way forward. I have been researching stress in hospitals and ways of reducing it and promoting calming, relaxing emotions. From my current research I have discovered that scenes of nature, natural objects and references to it our proven to be the best way to achieve this. Ulrich et al. (2004) found a signicant body of evidence on the impact of nature views on patient health. In an extensive survey spanning 12 months by Douglas et al. (2002), access to nature views was identied as one of the most important factors of the hospital environment by people who had been hospital inpatients in the recent past. Nanda 2010: 2 They felt the nature art image is calming, patients could relate to it, but they also recommended that an element of social engagement (social support) should be present in the images. Nanda 2010:5 I have also been looking at the emotional aspect of public art and how

that can change or effect our moods and happiness. Emotions are inseparable from and a necessary part of cognition. Everything we do, everything we think is tinged with emotion, much of it subconscious. In turn our emotions change the way we think, and serve as constant guides to appropriate behavior, steering us away from the bad and towards the good. Norman 2004: 7 We must be aware of the fact that everything we do is based upon emotions weather we are aware of this or not. We will move towards objects, sounds etc that make us feel comfortable. I must make sure that my installations produce positive emotions in the viewer, even if that is at a subconscious level. I think one of the important factors of site specificity is the involvement or interactivity it gives to the viewer. This can be viewed like going to the theatre, the show is there to watch but there is an element of audience participation which helps draw the viewer in deeper than say watching a film at film at home with no public interaction. This helps the feeling of being a part of the art site and helping to create and interpret. These emotions help to define the way that a piece of public art is perceived and accepted by the public. Space He suggests, occurs as the effect produced by the operations that orient it, situate it, temporalize it, and make it function in a polyvalent unity of conflictual programmes. ( De certeau 1984) Kaye 2001: 5

So the space is defined by everything that happens and inhabits it, the space as a whole is a living, breathing and changing thing. The space is probably better defined by the people in it as opposed to the materials and structures that it is made of. Just think about accents, they are defined by the people who live in a particular area, not the landscape itself. The accents are passed down through people and have no relevance to the topography or climate of the space. This makes me think, A hospital is always a hospital but, do they differ depending on the building and the equipment or do they differ on a human level, the staff and the patients at the time that give the space its feel. space cannot manifest the order and stability of its place. Kaye 2001: 5 If you take a look at a large city it is defined as a place but is constantly changing due to the different people who inhabit it. There may be an overall feel to the city but, that is not defined by the

buildings, its defined by the performances of people. You could say that the people are site specific and are an extension of the area that surrounds them, blended in perfectly but also defining the place. So I think that yes the hospital is partially defined by the surrounding landscape but more so by the people who inhabit it and constantly define it. There is also a theory of a non-place, which has two forms and functions which interact and co exist but are different. An example would be a transport network, it has its main purpose that is to take people and objects to and fro but is also defined by the relationships that people have with it. A non place is defined by moving or traveling through a place. Travelconstructs a fictional relationship between gaze and landscape. Kaye 2001: 9 I think that a hospital could be defined in this way as the patients are constantly be moved along during their recovery process. This is a very interesting thought indeed, one that I must be fully aware of when attempting to create for a space. I think that regardless of weather a place is defined by the people inside it, we must remember that they have a pre-conceived notion of what to expect when they visit. This I feel will already in part have helped produce a feeling and picture of what the space is. Perhaps this will change upon arrival but the initial preconception will always be there. The most important aspect is that the works are tranquil and relaxing. The more I researched into the subject I discovered that almost every study into this area has produced the same results. These findings are that patients respond best to nature photography and in particular scenes of nature from their own country or local area, this relates to their own positive memories and helps them relate the art to positive emotions form their past. By nature art I mean happy nature art in which the foliage is lush, the plants look healthy and the spaces are inviting. Bleak, cold, parched scenes or images with threatening weather are not what people like to see when they are sick. Winter scenes suggest death, while pictures of threatening weather suggest trouble. Domke: www.healthcarefineart.com In addition to its basic appeal, nature art can trigger positive memories. Many times I had patients in my medical clinic point to one of my landscapes as they were smiling and ask, How did you find my grandfathers farm? I used to play in that stream as a child. Of course the scene was from a totally different location, but it triggered the memory. This positive distraction provided welcome relief from the frightening clinical environment. Domke: http://www.healthcarefineart.com

Taking my inspiration from the research I decided that the backbone of my work would be based around nature photography of Ireland. I think that now would be an appropriate time to talk about my artistic influences and how my own work has been informed by theirs. One of my favourite photographers at the moment is tereza-vlckova, a Photographer from the Czech Republic who is producing very tranquil works. Her style has a feeling of mysticism and magic and is quite surreal. I have been inspired recently by a series of her photographs involving beautiful women who appear to be floating In the Czech countryside. The backgrounds of these images are stunning rural scenes that would in their own right be great landscapes, but its the way that these women are floating and soaring through the sky that give an real air of fantasy, disbelief and endless possibilities.

What I love about these two images is the washed out feel they have. I know that these particular images are digital and have been manipulated on a computer but they look like they have been taken with old analog Leica or Hasselblad 35mm camera. I have been trying to bring this analog washed out style to my own work as I feel that it oozes tranquility and is a lot less intrusive and dominating than an extremely saturated image. In the shot on the right the grass looks so beautiful and inviting, again because of the low saturation levels of the image. The way that the grass swirls also gives a great feeling of the outdoors and helps connect you to the outside world. When I saw these I thought that they would work perfectly in the hospital environment because they are quite subdued and not screaming for attention like so much photography. Of course this trend of recreating analog images has been around for a while now so I should keep in mind no to overplay it if I want to stand out and create something original. Another artist that has had a great influence on me in recent months is

Natsumi Hayashi, a young woman based in Tokyo. She has a series of shots called the girl who likes to levitate that have really captured my imagination.

She goes around Tokyo with her slr, her tripod and a self timer and takes unbelievable portraits of herself levitating. What I really enjoy about this photo is that you could believe that this girl has some kind of supernatural powers. I think she could achieve more however by wearing more traditional Japanese clothes to help create a contrast between the old and new. The shots are very well composed and have nice interaction between the urban and natural landscape of Tokyo, almost like a marriage of tradition and modern. My favourite parts of her work are always the public in the frame, although there are none in this particular shot. They are just going about the daily routines oblivious to this girl floating past going about hers. Its this thought that they are used to it and nobody is batting an eyelid that helps the shots seem really believable and natural. I have been inspired to add humans into some of my shots as well after seeing Natsumis work. I feel that having a human in the frame can help trigger these positive emotions and link people to a memory they have of being in the nature. A smile in a photograph can produce a smile in real life. I want to explore this concept with happiness and tranquility. If the cue is there and very obvious the mood of the photo will affect the mood of the viewer. If you look at the photograph you can see the way that her

hair doesnt really look like she is jumping in the air. I have been experimenting with this levitation technique myself and feel like it has produced some good results, however in my versions I have opted to have no clothes in the shot because I think that they remove the viewer to far from the natural scenes that I was to stay true to. I feel that her pose could be slightly more relaxed to look completely natural because she is too straight and rigid to look totally believable. However the image has informed me to add humans to my pieces to engage the viewer on a deeper level. our attachment is not to the thing, it is to the relationship, to the meanings and feelings the things represents. Norman 2004: 48 A photographer who has had a great deal of influence on me over the years is Martin Parr. He is a household name so you are probably familiar with his work already. His photography is famous for its satirical documentary style looking at urban and suburban living in 70s and 80s Britain. He is also known for his highly saturated content with extremely vivid colours and bizarre characters. His works have a great realism to them and I feel that you can understand the people he has photographed after having a look into their world when they are completely at ease and in their natural environment. The photographs always seem like a statement about the subjects personalities to me, like they are sharing their world and their secrets. I dont know another photographer who has captured the lifestyles of people as well as Martin. They are as much a look at the people than they are a look at society at the time. There is just so much more character in a shot when you have genuine human emotion present. His work has shown me that the viewer can really relate to the subject and the satirical nature of his photographs can easily be transferred to the viewer. "With photography, I like to create fiction out of reality. I try and do this by taking society's natural prejudice and giving this a twist." Parr: www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx? VP=XSpecific_MAG.StoryDetail_VPage&pid=2K1HRGMNJ3G

This is my favourite image taken by Martin Parr. I love the way that it is so true to life at the British seaside. Just looking at it for me brings pleasant memories flooding back of going to the seaside with my family. The snapshot style that he has adopted really helps this feeling of being true to life. I enjoy the composition of this shot and the fact that the red car is protruding into the frame, it reminds me of family holiday photographs that are taken on a whim. This shot isnt as characteristically saturated as Martins normal style but I have to say that I prefer this shot because of that. I always thought that his photography was too colorful. His work has informed my own to try and capture the essence and personality of the subject instead of posing them always. This realism and spontaneity is the emotional link that will work extremely well in teasing the viewer in the hospital to make these connections to their own happy childhood memories that will in turn bring forth happy emotions. I have tried to recreate this spontaneous style in my forest photo shoot. The works of David Hockney have been a huge inspiration to me in this

project. He has a great way of bringing a narrative into a piece and really deconstructing what we are used to seeing together. Since his time, Photographic collages have become a lot more commonplace and uses to the point of overkill I feel, so perhaps going down that path isnt the most original route to take. I have been creating not so much a photo collage like Hockneys but more of an overlaid approach so that the collaged effect would blend and bleed together into one piece. I feel that with printing onto woods and glass I will already have achieved this collage feel and to further chop up the images would be too much and too abstract for the setting of the hospital.

This piece by David Hockney has been a real inspiration to me in this current project and others before. The narrative approach used here works very well in really pulling you into the piece and making you study it to try and realize the story taking place. In the early stages of the project my work was very much informed by the narrative style of this piece. I had thought about trying to show the recovery process in a very positive way in the same style as this piece. I have to say very fond of the way that images bleed off the edges as if to say there is more to this story but you have to imagine it yourself. The style of the narrative to be continued by the viewer is very interesting and a great way of provoking thought and debate around the work. It would be nice to use this technique in the hospital of the unfinished story so that the viewer could draw his or her own conclusions following the positive theme. Although, on the other hand the collage style might just be a

little too abstract for the hospital setting, and give too much room for interpretation. My final designs for this project I feel will fit in well in the hospital environment and will contest the spaces that they hopefully will occupy. I have a made a road trip around the west coast of Ireland in an attempt to capture beautiful photographs of the Irish landscape. I know that it is not the immediate landscape of the hospital but I think that as long as the photographs are clearly recognizable as the Irish countryside they will still sit well in the hospital environment. Also, Taking on board the thoughts of Nanda concerning social engagement I have used photography that includes people too so that this level of social engagement can take place. I have taken into consideration the site specifics of the new wing and worked along side these to created pieces that hopefully will immerse themselves into the building and become part if it. What I have tried to achieve with my work are pieces that will tick the boxes of tranquil nature art that has been proven to be the most popular with patients and a strong piece that echoes the specifics of the new build. I have attempted to create work that contests the site by using similar materials that have been used by the architects. My final pieces are photography overlays using the images I took around the west coast of Ireland combined with a photo shoot of a young woman and man in a lush forest environment that appear to be very content, relaxed and awestruck by the beauty of their surroundings. I have taken these overlaid images and managed to screen them onto wooden boards to try and fit in well with the oak paneling of the hospital corridors. I have also created versions printed onto glass to contest the sheer amount of glass in the building. Onto the wood and glass I have also screen printed text in relation to beautiful natural scenes and how they make me feel when I am in them. I wanted to help take to people back to their childhood memories of being in and enjoying the beauty of nature. I havent been able to print onto oak for financial reasons but by printing onto grained plywood I have at least shown that the concept is sound and with the funding in place I could print onto actual oak panels. My only worry is that perhaps with the overlaid technique has made the works slightly more abstract than I wanted. I have been trying to avoid anything abstract because it can have the opposite effect of relaxation, especially on mentally ill patients as they can be very disturbed by pieces that are too open to interpretation. However, In my research I have come across evidence supporting that abstract images arent necessarily such a bad thing.

Focus groups with the nurses (total 22) revealed that they did not notice many differences in patient reactions between the realistic nature image and the abstract representational art. Nanda 2010: 5 After reading this abstract from the journal of medicine I feel a lot more confident about leaning a little more towards the abstract and having a finished product that is slightly more experimental that I had previously planned. The works have ended up being slightly abstract because I didnt want to just take pretty landscape pictures. I wanted to create something with more depth and meaning than a nice shot of nature. This is why I have chosen the path of the overlaid images. I still have the beauty of nature present in the work, but have more meaning because of the social engagement that having a human in the piece can bring to the work. I think that the typography in the pieces helps them to sit in the environment better as well as they help to represent the clean lines of the new build. Nature is wild and I needed something clean and defining to help contest the space of the hospital. Overall I would say that I have achieved what I aspired to do. I felt a little at times like I was part of a balancing act between lush, tranquil, happy, natural images and the site specifics of the building. However, I feel that that in the end I have a achieved a good balance between the two schools of thought and have produced pieces that are calming, engaging and contest the site well. So I feel that I have answered the brief with my outcomes and am pleased myself that the works should sit in the environment as if planned in the buildings designing.

Bibliography.
Domke H. www.healthcarefineart.com accessed on 22/03/11 Kaye N. (2001) Site-Specific Art: Performance, Place and Documentation Routledge: London Nanda U. (2010) Effect of visual art on patient anxiety and agitation in a mental health facility and implications for the business case In (Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 2010): volume 18 issue 5 online pg 386-393

Nightingale F. www.altiusdirectory.com/Society/nurses-day-quotes.php accessed on 12/04/11 Norman D. (2004) Emotional Design in Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. Basic Books: New York Parr M www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx? VP=XSpecific_MAG.StoryDetail_VPage&pid=2K1HRGMNJ3G accessed on 25/04/11