art and mental illnesses bbc report

Creativity is akin to insanity, say scientists who have been studying how the mind works.

Brain scans reveal striking similarities in the thought pathways of highly creative people and those with schizophrenia.

Both groups lack important receptors used to filter and direct thought.

It could be this uninhibited processing that allows creative people to "think outside the box", say experts from Sweden's Karolinska Institute.

In some people, it leads to mental illness.

But rather than a clear division, experts suspect a continuum, with some people having psychotic traits but few negative symptoms.

Art and suffering

Some of the world's leading artists, writers and theorists have also had mental illnesses - the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and American mathematician John Nash (portrayed by Russell Crowe in the film A Beautiful Mind) to name just two.

Creativity is known to be associated with an increased risk of depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

The thalamus channels thoughts Similarly, people who have mental illness in their family have a higher chance of being creative.

Associate Professor Fredrik Ullen believes his findings could help explain why.

He looked at the brain's dopamine (D2) receptor genes which experts believe govern divergent thought.

He found highly creative people who did well on tests of divergent thought had a lower than expected density of D2 receptors in the thalamus - as do people with schizophrenia.

The thalamus serves as a relay centre, filtering information before it reaches areas of the cortex, which is responsible, amongst other things, for cognition and reasoning.

"Fewer D2 receptors in the thalamus probably means a lower degree of signal filtering, and thus a higher flow of information from the thalamus," said Professor Ullen.

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Creative people, like those with psychotic illnesses, tend to see the world differently to most. It's like looking at a shattered mirror
Mark Millard

UK psychologist
He believes it is this barrage of uncensored information that ignites the creative spark.

This would explain how highly creative people manage to see unusual connections in problem-solving situations that other people miss.

Schizophrenics share this same ability to make novel associations. But in schizophrenia, it results in bizarre and disturbing thoughts.

UK psychologist and member of the British Psychological Society Mark Millard said the overlap with mental illness might explain the motivation and determination creative people share.

"Creativity is uncomfortable. It is their dissatisfaction with the present that drives them on to make changes.

"Creative people, like those with psychotic illnesses, tend to see the world differently to most. It's like looking at a shattered mirror. They see the world in a fractured way.

"There is no sense of conventional limitations and you can see this in their work. Take Salvador Dali, for example. He certainly saw the world differently and behaved in a way that some people perceived as very odd."

'TROUBLED' GENIUSES
Continue reading the main story
Writer Virginia Woolf
Painter Vincent van Gogh
Painter Salvador Dali
Painter Edvard Munch
Composer Robert Schumann
Mathematician John Nash
Pianist David Helfgott
He said businesses have already recognised and capitalised on this knowledge.

Some companies have "skunk works" - secure, secret laboratories for their highly creative staff where they can freely experiment without disrupting the daily business.

Chartered psychologist Gary Fitzgibbon says an ability to "suspend disbelief" is one way of looking at creativity.

"When you suspend disbelief you are prepared to believe anything and this opens up the scope for seeing more possibilities.

"Creativity is certainly about not being constrained by rules or accepting the restrictions that society places on us. Of course the more people break the rules, the more likely they are to be perceived as 'mentally ill'."

He works as an executive coach helping people to be more creative in their problem solving behaviour and thinking styles.

"The result is typically a significant rise in their well being, so as opposed to creativity being associated with mental illness it becomes associated with good mental health."

CHAINED LIBRARY

A chained library is a library where the books are attached to their bookcase by a chain, which is sufficiently long to allow the books to be taken from their shelves and read, but not removed from the library itself. This practice was usual for reference libraries (that is, the vast majority of libraries) from the Middle Ages to approximately the 18th century, as books were extremely valuable during this period. The chains were used to provide sufficient security.


The Chained Library of Wimborne Minster is one of the few surviving examples in England.It is standard for chained libraries to have the chain fitted to the corner or cover of a book. This is because if the chain were to be placed on the spine the book would suffer greater wear from the stress of moving it on and off the shelf. Because of the location of the chain attached to the book (via a ringlet) the books are housed with their spine facing away from the reader with only the pages' fore-edges visible (that is, the 'wrong' way round to people accustomed to contemporary libraries). This is so that each book can be removed and opened without needing to be turned around, hence avoiding tangling its chain.


wikipedia

landmark creations.com

making balloons in any shape for businesses etyc. done a blue whale

how: BALDERSSARI

SO THE PAPER CLIP IS DEAD STRAIGHT THE AND IS DEAD STRAIGHT AND IN THE MIDDLE. TOOK A POLAROID, HAND HELP CAMERA OF PAPER CLIP DEAD STRAIGHT GOT A TRIPOD THING? THEN GOT IT BLOWN UP PRINTED TOOK COLOUR OUT. WHEN WAS THE AND ADDED? THE STRAIGHTNESS GIVES THE PAPERCLIP AUTHORITY

ANISH KAPOOR EXHIBITION

PAUL MERTONS WEIRD SILENT FILM

A PRAXINOSCOPE

A ZOETROPE

MAGIC LATERN SHOWS

edward muyabridge - luno brothers

there were no cinemas because it was such an early invention so were shown in between variety acts.

THE SERPENTINE DANCE

GEORGE MELIES - AMAZING FIRST FILMS a trip to the moon

he built the first film studio in montroy or something

outskirts of paris

charles pathe,

GEORGE ALBERT SMITH - stage hypmotist english george. first editing. no one knows of him

JAMESWILLIAMSON develop multishot film dramatic affect

andre deed

george pathe

cinema itala

V&A decode design exhibition.

Definately my favorite piece, made a simulation of all the airplanes wthin 24 hours in north america. my favourite bit was when it went quiet between 1am till 7am then u could see the right hand side get busier and slowly move to the left with the sun. that was actually an amazing bit. it feels like something which wasnt planned but came from just doing it and signified something beautiful.

The keycode to let the viewer in the show know whethet he pieces are interactive or not and on what level. very clever and looked really nice. Little details which other people porbably dont notice.

Loved the spectacle of it I guess.........

Movng image wont come up when i print it off. but has a collection of images from show on loop.

Was a nice show....I just enjoyed it for what it was.....wasnt really related to work but it also was. Im interested in how interactive it was....and the need for that these days to keep people interrested. need to look up the topic of the spectacle and interactivity and how we get bored easily these days and things need to be sensory. the instant

RICHARD HAMILTON - THE SERPENTINE GALLERY

Yea this was the least time ive ever spent in the serpentine. it was all pretty simple to see. just how one image can coomunicate different things through being manipulated differently. i guess there is a beauty when thinking about his ability to think of different techniques. and it is political. using media images, a carry on investigation of worhols investgations etc. yea its nice. dealing with surface. hasnt affected me mucht hough. not sure why.

i think it could of been better in a bigger exhibition. maybe. it felt like little tasters. the thatcher thing was amazing though. about conditioning etc. loved the way it was made. Iguess the way the images were curated was good. having a smaller one near the floor so it didnt draw much attention to itself. yes it was a good show.

UN CHIEN ANADALOU - DALI FILM

A film that we were pushed to see in National Diploma but didnt undewrstand it at all and thought it was a load of rubbish so I decided to go and see it again. ummmm I still dont think i get it. I think i need to sit down and proper decode but I dont care about enough.

I see things i didnt see before. but nothing major lazor

CLOCKWORK ORANGE, AMERICAN PSYCHO, TARRENTINO

Loved this film.....really questionned the difference between a good and bad person. The beethoven shots with the jesus figureen and the sped up sex scenes were amazing. Im interested in this jutxapostioning of happy songs with horrible situations. eg. american psycho where its all about mixing murder with a happy song and tarantinos ear shot.

Im partcularly interested in how american psycho dealt with the ideal. the ideal physique and money etc, and the price he was playing. you also question if this stuff actually happens because u have no idea because is in no way connected. obviously it doesnt but im not sure how much of it is true and how much isnt. it is definately exaggerated. i love these exaggerations to make a point of highlighting something tho. and the cost other areas pay in the exaggeration of others. one liners also...."has to give some tapes back." The business cards.

Also with the clockwork orange.....it pretty did deal with what a good and bad person is and the choice involved in it and what are the human attributes and how do people deal with bad people in society. what is right and wrong and where it all comes from. evil.

Was talking to tatsu yesterday abnd i said i had a theory and there was too types of bad people. those who conditioned badly and lost and angry within society who havent been shown another way. and then there are those who are genetically evil. i sound a bit hitlerish but i dont mean in a way that some people should be killed etc just that.....they cant help it. it is just them.

just like some people are incapable of learning. its genetic.

The mixture of happiness with melancholy is what it is in my work. it works the same way. laughing at the happy music but something awful is happening. toilet rolls on a wall is funny....but could socialism work? no...it cant. etcetc

chu yun - constellation

I love this piece. the title of it is just as important as the material. using all the stand bys. it reminds me of when i was watching shooting stars and they did a quick scene where they took the fit lady on a fake date and they were describing what type of stars they were through the voltage of the studio lights. amazingly clever. it makes a good comment on what it is to live now. stand bys are slowly becoming extinct because they waste energy and yet its mimicing a fake reality of our stars. the lights in out cities are causing light polliution making it impossible to see stars so here is a recreation out of the lights we have. absolutely beautiful. has got me so excited. its about finding these little things which are disappearing as a result of the global changes.

viva las vegas the flim

all the settings in the film are beautiful. really really ideological. like the perfect woman, with her perfect kithcen. really show homey.

hoxton eastend gallery day

PEER - Kathy Penthergast - Yeah was okay i would of loved this in foundation and i guess I do alot of these fdrawings when im bored and cant think of anything to do.
I can imagine these being simple and people likign them and buying them. Im hoping she doesnt just do this all the time and this is also a thing in between which is sellable. if its just her practice then its too simple for me. I duno...its like yea theres a form within the map that youve ntoice and your colooruing the rest in and reducing it to frm but it doesnt dsay antyhing about antyhing. or maybe it does. I looked at her in foundation and i just dont feel like my view on her has changed since my conceptual framework ahs changed....maybe im getting snobby


ARCADE - Caroline achaintre - best exhibiton of the day. eeeemazing. the quality of what I was looking at was very good. conceptually simple but that doesnt matter. i could tell straight away that it was from painting even though it was a carpet technique. Goes to show what James says is true that it can be really simple so long as its done well. I just loved it. especially the little piece which had this heavy cermaic thing hanging from its leather string but the string had a slit in it which gave this feeling of real on edgeness about the whole piece. seriously top notch stuff.creating feelings...real art.


10/10

THE WHITE CUBE GALLERY - Candice Bretiz - I found the first film incredibly amazing. i sat down for at least35 to 40 mins and a film hasnt done that to me for a while.i loved the way she completely controlled the vieiwer. your brain would think whats the tatoo about...then 5 mins later theyd answer it. and the way the moving image was manipulated to control us. the only problem i had was that the first film was so long that by the time i moved onto the other films i was exhasuted and my concentration had gone and i was just looking at the different bacground the mannerisms of the people. it definately questionned what an identity was for me though. the piece completely nailed the press release which is why i liked it. the artist is very sure of what they are doing and can step back from their piece and undersytand what they feel. i want to be that good.

LIMONCELLO- Matthew Smith - These arent he pieces I saw however I duno if I liked the show. It consisted of a vdieo of mud tracks then some prints on yellow and the caps on the floor. I mean I am starting to appreciated just from the realisation how things are made and how difficult it is to get clean cut amazing things. so i respect in that sense. i did see a relaitonship between the whole things rather than each seperate thing being a whole unit itself. thats all i got from it. it made me stand at a point where i could see all of it once and try to understand the links behind them. actually I do really like this now that ive written about it. it is actually very celver. I would make this kind of art for my friends etc but i wouldnt want this for the public. its too elitest I think. I duno. I think im stil trying to hold to my anti elitest thoughts and am still wanting art to be for the people. I did like the show yes.

HAUSER AND WIRTH - Bharti Kher - yes was interesting to see sperm shaped bindis on top of pregnancy prints. it was interesting to see how the material changed its language when positioned against different backgrounds and surroundings.

The lay out the exhibiton was very interesting. how it lead the viewer throuhg the room and you saw a bit of the unicorn out the top window before seeing it upstairs. this i liked very much indeed.

The art itself was a bit psssh. I duno. maybe i didnt get it. Maybe its just not me. I've never been to this gallery though so it was just interesting looking at who represented there.

Also i met a girl there who was invigilating who I knew from the art fair that I did a week ago and we started talking and i made a new contact which is mega cool and im starting to realise how small the art world is.

SEVENTEEN GALLERY - Graham Dolphin - I did like the film...lots of found videos about how empires and successful civilisations have always been built on slavery. nothing has changed. Although the content was good for me the aesthetic was very much like i would of picked a few years ago. very cool like colourful and hip....and i was thinking i didnt want my work to look like that. i want it to look more serious. is that conditioning. The things made out of bread didnt quite understand but I like the relationahip they had with the video piece....im not quite sure what it was about though....maybe i like it thats not obvious and one has to think a bit...yes I definately like that....bread.....the plynth on which the bread pieces were had the same style of the video. The calvin klien advert was very strange. So u think your a real artist. i might understand a little better another day.

Overall the space downstairs felt completely escapist. trying to be very cool indeed.

R.O.O.M - Carolyn Brunt - creating lonely situations. Isolated. had a melanchonic feel to them, which was okay. not rating highly though. i was interested in HOW she manipulated them to exaggerate the lonliness. was okay.

FLOWERS GALLERY - not very interesting stuff. however nice and big space

the saatchi gallery - richard wilson

When i came for my interivew at Wimbledon i went into London to see a piece of work by Tara Donovan which i loved. When I went to see it I was really disppointed and made me realise how documentation can affect a piece and how i got more out of seeing it online than i did i real life. This piece by richard wilson was one of these pieces. not that i was dissappointed by it. but i feel in love with it at as very young age thorugh its documentation and it fuelled alot of my reason for living and wanting to create that experience even though i had never exeprienced it. it was trhough pictures.

Knowing it was made from oil i didnt anticipate the smell. I loved the smell.. I thought it was amazing. and the opitcal illusion it was cool. but the channel to go inside was shut off probably for health and saftey and i guess in my head and for every viewer theres a certain sense of missing something by not being able to go. te channel was still there the viewer just wasnt allowed in. which made u feel disappointed. wasnt very cool. I waited for years as well. Would it of been different if i was allowed?

It was beautiful though. and interesting. how the oil didnt ripple and stayed still etc.

why is my work better than brigitte williams>?

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