Category: unit3

After my tutorial with Jasminka, I’ve come to realize the value of taking small steps in testing things out. There’s no need to aim for a perfectly complete idea all at once, as that could actually diminish the opportunities for learning along the way.

So, I came up with the “London Art Creature Survival Manual” intervention. I invited Chinese graduate artists to create their perceptions of self-image during their transitional phase – whether it’s about finding self-balance or dealing with the anxieties of the unknown. This intervention drew inspiration from my previous collaboration with Shuang in the “Shape of Emotion” workshop. During that session, participants visualized their anxieties experienced while living in London through painting, followed by sharing their feelings, mindfulness painting, fostering a positive process of awareness-embracing-sharing-resonating. All participants were chinese art students and enjoyed this process. I tested and confirmed the effectiveness of expressing emotions through sketch, thus continuing this approach in my current intervention. Instead of group workshop, I decided on one-on-one connections this time, inspired by my conversation with Seema, which highlighted the importance of establishing meaningful individual connections.

Poster 1: ??? Who am I

Inspired by the Pokémon “Who am I?” segment. The background characters are thoughts and doubts collected from graduate：Insist myself/Adapting to the market / Not interested in pursuing art anymore / Seeking recognition / Like a dandelion / London is too expensive….etc

Poster2: Description of intervention

“Create a self-image,

It can be realistic/abstract/flat/3D,

It can be a combination of words/doodles/handcraft,

It can be human/plant/zooplankton/extraterrestrial/any peculiar species,

Anyway, however you like it – but it represents you,

Reflecting the moments of existential crisis you’ve experienced during

graduation season.For this journey, I’m only interested in what you’re

specifically going through and facing.

Don’t worry about how unusual the image might look,

Because perhaps, in the end, you’ll realize that we’re all somewhat alike.”

I will update the collected creations and their underlying stories in this post.

In the questionnaire I created concerning the challenges faced by Chinese art graduates during their transitional period, I discovered that a majority of respondents either haven’t used or are unfamiliar with the school’s graduate support resources. Considering my research goal of better assisting Chinese art graduates in finding balance during their transitional phase, I reached out to UAL Graduate Support and had a discussion with Seema.

During our conversation, Seema provided invaluable advice on how to find more stakeholders. She suggested methods like reaching out to alumni individually through LinkedIn – a slower but accurate approach to target my desired audience. She also shared recommendations for other expert resources, significantly enhancing my subsequent research efforts.

Seema also highlighted that September tends to be a period of heightened anxiety for many graduates. As new students begin their studies, recent graduates grapple with the challenge of securing employment.

In my survey, I identified a gap between students and the school’s resources. Seema delved into this aspect as well: UAL Graduate Support offers one-on-one guidance, but many individuals still fail to access it, with the silent majority possibly being even more significant. I believe this issue is common among Chinese graduates due to language-cultural differences and unfamiliarity with the UK education system. Consequently, they might not proactively seek support or utilize school resources. I view bridging this gap and making Chinese students aware of available resources as vital research directions. I aim to delve further into this issue, as it’s an essential avenue for helping stakeholders.

Seema’s emphasis on the individual connection aspect of graduate support sparked inspiration in me. As a result, I incorporated one-on-one interactions in my intervention, testing their efficacy in building relationships with stakeholders.

Seema’s guidance has been immensely beneficial, and I intend to maintain contact with UAL Graduate Support, sharing my research findings. I hope that my future research can establish a deeper collaboration with UAL Graduate Support, further aiding my stakeholders while offering the school a student perspective and addressing the needs of the graduates, supporting their endeavors.

what the SU team feel as the biggest challenges international students face when preparing for life beyond university

After introducing my project to UAL Student Union and establishing contact, Chloe from the SU Team shared with me the most significant challenges that international students face within the student union experience. Student unions are known for their practical assistance to students and their commitment to amplifying student voices, making Chloe’s insights extremely valuable.

Chloe highlighted the following points:

1. The risks international students encounter when seeking accommodation in the UK.
2. The considerably higher cost of studying in the UK for international students, nearly three times that of domestic peers, which can lead to significant financial difficulties during university and post-graduation. (This financial sustainability concern was also a significant issue identified in my discussions with stakeholders.)
3. Challenges in accessing healthcare support for mental health or disabilities after graduation.
4. The environmental factors of being far from family, friends, and coping with cultural differences and challenges that international students face.

Chloe also provided additional expert resource recommendations, which are immensely valuable and offer me further avenues for research access. This exchange has opened a valuable channel for me to connect with the SU, and I plan to share my findings with them during my continued research. I look forward to further developing my project with their insights, and also provide valuble voices from my stakeholders to SU.

I’m now conducting the questionnaire in order to gather more informations, but it’s a bit difficult to find enough audience, I will keep going with this, but pay more attetion to my forthcoming strategy , it involves the implementation of focused case studies. To assemble participants, I intend to launch an open call through social media. After having their consent, I aim to share their valuable insights across these platforms as one of my interventions, with the hope of extending support to a wider audience. Additionally, I’ve been contemplating the concept of creating an “alumni book” as my final intervention. This would involve inviting stakeholders to contribute their reflections, emotions, and suggestions, accompanied by sketches. This practice is often observed in China during early school graduations. I believe adapting this activity could serve as an effective means to not only foster a sense of collective participation but also to evoke cherished memories for all stakeholders involved.

The following is the statement I have written for the open call:

During this year’s graduation season, I’ve attended numerous graduate exhibitions and encountered many remarkable artworks. The experience of witnessing this graduation season has been truly awe-inspiring, because it seems to observing a grand conflagration. It’s reminiscent of some kind of British art school Burning Man festival: a multitude of people who, after the celebration, must peel off their disguises, shed their creations, and return to reality. During this period, I’ve engaged in conversations about leaving or staying, how to stay, and the incessant theme of survival , reminded me of my graduation years’ experience, as well as the shared exist crisis – like a subtle melancholy akin to the untraceable scent of ashes, intangible yet hauntingly present, signifying the gradual fading of something somewhere.

We reside in a bustling era, where the majority are in pursuit of success, marching hastily. The mainstream media and general environment have consistently woven narratives of triumph and positivity. Capitalism lures us to self-realize at the same time induces us to self-attribution: if you haven’t succeeded, lack wealth, and find yourself still sinking, it’s your own fault. But is it truly so? If we forget to take a step back and examine the broader system and structure, perhaps that’s precisely what it desires. Yet, what guides us elsewhere isn’t fate, but choices shaped by layers of factors – societal, systemic, cultural, economic, and more. As Alain de botton said, culture is the history of human pain. Now, the blurring of boundaries between culture and economics gradually erodes open discussions about negativities such as suffering and adversity. Even though positive narratives are more likely to attract attention, they aren’t the only topics worth discussing. Individual experiences and dilemmas are crucial, binding us through shared connections, ridding us of isolation and shame.

Therefore, I would like to invite the UK-based Chinese graduate artists navigating the ebb and flow (or perhaps the surf), to share their insights/dilemmas. Let’s talk about the existence, balance, conflicts, anxieties, crises faced while in this country. This survival chronicle aspires to craft an intangible ocean, embracing more friends in the water, offering them resonance, comfort, or even inspiration.

Reflection on the conversation, and the second research on financial conditions of London-based artists by Artquest.

During discussions with fellow graduates in Meetup sessions, the issue of economic sustainability tends to dominate even though the concept of sustainability encompasses broader aspects. When the conversation shifts towards “how to survive in London,” it inevitably becomes centered around personal, narrow definitions such as wages and basic necessities. Some people are selling houses, some work as salespersons in bakeries, aiming to accumulate savings before returning to the art industry, some are working in galleries, some are starting businesses related to the commercialization of art, some are working as product managers.The boundaries between art and money, idealism and practicality become blurred in the face of “survival”, and I think this is actually a time of crisis: The principles we were led to believe in seem insufficient to help us sustain ourselves. Sometimes, there’s a cost to being ethical, and ethical decisions might conflict with the necessity to survive.

In our conversation we also discussed a similar practice of a Chinese artist organisation charging admission fees for its events, which turns the audience and the artist into a consumer-servant relationship, while the artist charges a fee to organise a personal project, which sometimes fails to satisfy the audience’s artistic experience, and accordingly, the enthusiasm and motivation of both parties are somewhat impacted. This serves as an example of the complex interaction between art, commerce, and ethics. However, it’s challenging to criticize it as it seems to confront the reality that organizing events requires resources, and artists need to support themselves.

Is ethics a middle class thing in Art?

In Abbas Kiarostami’s film “Close-Up,” the protagonist repeatedly expresses his pain while expressing gratitude and admiration for the director he impersonated, a love that goes against Maslow’s theory of needs, and which reflects the great contradiction between his material conditions and his spiritual needs. He merely seeks to enter affluent households by impersonating a respected director to experience respect and recognition, mitigating the pain caused by poverty and life’s pressures. In this scene, applying ethical standards to judge him becomes difficult. Just like what the wealthy individual who withdrew the lawsuit said, it’s as if society is sick.

For a young artist in their twenties, faced with limited time and income, ethical concerns can feel like gazing at the roof over your head, because what you are doing is actually surviving. Individualism is rampant, and capitalism, along with wider media, leads us to both pursue self-realization and attribute failures solely to ourselves. The time and money are enabling them to actually research or be aware of other ways thinking about how society might run itself. The capacity to stand back and examine the broader structure diminishes.

Artquest surveyed 300 artists about their experiences with funding and finance, revealing that many London artists struggle with financial situations:

– 45% strongly felt they lack the necessary funding for their practice’s development.

– Only 16% sell their work.

– 66% earn less than £15,000 per annum.

Additionally, 48% of artists rely on non-art-related work as their primary income. It is clear from this research that the economic sustainability and poverty of artists is a common and unavoidable problem. It is also one of the great challenges that Chinese artists face when they graduate abroad. I hope to uncover the viewpoints and commonalities among Chinese artists striving to survive in the UK, how economic conditions influence their livelihoods and artistic creations, and the predicaments they encounter. I hope to have the opportunity to uncover this point in the subsequent interviews.

Reference：

• “How do you balance work, life and practice without selling out?”— Article from Artquest：https://artquest.org.uk/research/money-talks/
• ARTQUEST artists money research：https://artquest.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ARTQUEST-artists-money-research.pdf

Centered around my research question, I conducted an in-depth research into the sustainability of artists. The open-source content on Artquest’s website titled “What is a Sustainable Artist” and overthink podcast’s episode “Art as Commodity” significantly aided my research by delving into the ethical, environmental, and practical challenges artists face in sustaining themselves and their practices.

The presentation was captivating and enriched with insightful, controversial viewpoints. I gleaned several enlightening insights from it:

1. The significance of knowing one’s value as an artist. This reminded me of the “value” discussed in CBT webinars – acknowledging self-worth is crucial for mental balance in any profession.
2. Stress triggers learning and reevaluation.
3. Artists contribute to social sustainability by creating social and cultural capital, fostering an appetite for culture. Joseph Beuys likened artists to social sculptors. On the other hand, economically sustainable artists primarily selling their creations as commodities to generate capital.
4. Community: Although originality and creativity has always been emphasized within the campus, an artist cannot thrive alone. The community should facilitate skill and resource exchange, collaborative endeavors, prioritizing the creation of larger works beyond monetary value.
5. The importance of keep asking questions about everything we are involved with.
6. The contradictable relationship between survival, ethics, and personal practice for emerging artists fresh out of school.
7. Everybody can have aesthetic expierence. (Art as Experience (1934) by John Dewey)
8. Perceiving over recognizing in the way we experience art.

These insights provide distinct entry points into my research about personal practice and mental sustainability among young Chinese art graduates, greatly assisting my research.

REFERENCE:

• Presentation “What is a sustainable artist”: https://prezi.com/6pwidwipeej-/what-is-a-sustainable-artist/
• Social sculpture theory by Joseph Beuys : https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/social-sculpture
• Podcast “Art as Commodity”: https://www.overthinkpodcast.com/episodes/episode-36

Recently, I participated in a meetup organized by three Chinese graduates majored in curation from RCA and UAL. Around fifteen young Chinese artists were invited to this event, all of whom have graduated within the past three years and are in the early stages of their artistic development.

The three curators have a goal to establish a platform that facilitates networking among young Chinese artists and provides exhibition opportunities to enhance their visibility. Interestingly, this closely aligns with my research topic, where I aim to uncover the challenges and dilemmas faced by young Chinese artists upon transitioning from the campus environment to the complexities of the “real world.” While my goal is also to amplify the visibility and sustainability of this underrepresented group, I am particularly inclined to shed light on aspects that might have been overlooked within the broader structure, using case studies as my lens. In contrast to a positive and “success” narrative, I intend to emphasize the dilemmas and conditions faced by specific individuals, which, based on my prior readings, offers a distinct approach within the current context saturated with optimistic narratives.

This meetup provided an excellent opportunity to learn about the initiatives of other organizations. I also engaged in conversations with young Chinese artists and gained valuable insights into their strategies for navigating life in the city. I would like to conduct more interviews and delve into additional case studies, as these will play a pivotal role in shaping my forthcoming interventions.

Through my participation in the Newham Talking Therapy’s online webinar, I’ve come to realize the vital importance of self-awareness as the initial step towards instigating change. This concept seamlessly aligns with the emphasis I intend to highlight in my research. Additionally, within Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), the emphasis on values and cultivating positive thought patterns has led to new reflections: How does one’s definition of value impact thought processes and overall existence? Moreover, when this sense of value diminishes, how does it influence emotions?

Therefore, from podcast overthinking, I encountered the concept of existential anxiety. Two philosophical professors explored anxiety and its potential existentialist resolutions. I found resonance with several viewpoints, and this newfound contemplation further brought my project’s focus in alignment with them.

1. Transcendence: The notion of transcendence in existentialism resonates deeply with me. It asserts that humans are transcendent, we could go above and beyond the facticity or our situation and the realities around us do not wholly dictate our freedom of choice. Often, anxiety stems from this freedom to make choices.
2. Anxiety as a Teacher: I appreciate the idea that anxiety can relate us to the world uniquely and profoundly. It prompts a distinctive relationship with our surroundings.
3. Absurdity of Existence: Embracing the ugliness of existence. Recognizing that we only live once underscores the importance of “confronting.” Facing pain instead of palliating it, as mentioned by Byung-Chul Han. Treating anxiety as more than a symptom to be eliminated. This approach avoids oversimplifying the complexity of human life and human condition into a mere ailment that requires curing, which is also a tendeny of mutinng people who suffers. The problem with medical approaches to anxiety is that by definition, they never get at the root of the problem：If we treat the symptoms, we are losing sight of that meaning. (Naturally, it is crucial to note that the existentialist model of anxiety should not in any way be interpreted to diminish the experience of people struggling with something like clinical anxiety)

In my previous reflections, I’ve defined my study group as young Chinese graduates who share a common identity and life stage. Combining insights from this podcast with Byung-Chul Han’s perspective on the “The Palliate Society,” I aspire to narrow my focus more on their exsistence condition and to their specific challenges. By delving into individual cases and situations, I aim to learn and, from this point, step back, to examine broader issues.

REFERENCE:

link of the podcast: https://www.overthinkpodcast.com/episodes/episode-04

what are human values: https://commoncausefoundation.org/

Reflection from “The Palliative Society” by Byung-Chul Han; “The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold us Well-Being” by William Davies

Recently, I have found on social medias and in chatting with friends that more and more people are now exploring the topic of mental health and art healing, and there have been many hot analyses posts saying that art healing will be the next windfall industry. However, seeing from the quality of the content published by the self-media, the quality of the content is uneven. There is no doubt that the healing industry is a help, but when an industry becomes more and more tied to economics and profit (at least in the eyes of investors and entrepreneurs), it can discourage people from reaching out to it on some level. During an online tutorial at academic support, I picked up a very useful piece of advice: when you can’t pinpoint the scope of your project at once, it helps to be clear about “what you don’t want to do”. Therefore, I read some related books to investigate this issue, hoping to organise my project ideas by reflecting the problems behind this social phenomenon.

In his book “The Palliative Society“, Byung-chul Han refers to the phenomenon of the “economicisation of culture” and “culturalisation of economy”, where “the distinction between culture and commerce, between art and consumption, and between art and advertising has been shattered”, This means that everything takes on the attribute of being consumable, that is, of being likeable, and this “culture of likeability” does not lead to more tolerance, but rather to a further elimination of the possibility of a path to the radical other, of negativity, of suffering. Alain de Botton has written that “the work of art brings us closer to those who have a deep compassion for pain, to their spirit and voice, and allows us to move through it, to complete the recognition of our own pain, and then to connect with the commonality of the human race, no longer feeling isolated and ashamed.” Culture is “a history of human hurt and grief.” Nowadays, the blurring of cultural and economic boundaries has gradually diluted one possibility for people to openly discuss pain. The dominant narrative of self-actualisation in today’s society, of happiness, joy, well-being, etc., may seem positive, encouraging individual self-actualisation, but in fact it is a response to power. Whereas in the torture society power was enforced through physical pain, and in the discipline society power was enforced through repression, we now live in a neoliberal burnout society where power is completely decoupled from pain and manifests itself as freedom. This “intelligent power” is less visible than repressive disciplinary power: under the slogan of self-realisation, people enslave themselves.

William Davies also wrote in his book “The Happiness Industry” about how positive psychology has gradually become dominant in our lives, and our emotions have become a new resource that can be bought and sold. William argues that our fixation on happiness may have more to do with the interests of corporations and governments than personal fulfillment. Both of these perspectives demonstrate the significance of the popularity of positive psychology in our era. The current social environment tends to individualize, internalize, and psychologize problem-solving approaches, which inherently exclude systematic reflection on the underlying issues. This approach goes against the current “spirit of the times” and is a laborious intellectual endeavor that does not receive much appreciation.

In fact, I fell into this thinking paradigm when contemplating my project. If it is possible to directly and specifically address the problems, why go through the trouble of pondering the broader and abstract societal aspects? Moreover, without data and examples to support these questions and analyses, how can they be validated? In the initial stages of considering my project, I found it challenging to target specific groups based on concrete conditions such as social anxiety, health anxiety, or food anxiety. Each individual has a different social identity, and the stressors behind their anxieties also vary. Even if I were to narrow down to a small range of people, the underlying social factors behind their anxieties would still differ significantly. On the other hand, if I simultaneously consider specific factors such as social factors, age stages, gender, and identities, it seems to become a too individual-focused approach, which is not desirable to me and would also make it difficult to find a stable target audience.

However, as I learned in a previous webinar, stressors are constantly changing. Therefore, I now believe that targeting a group of individuals within a specific identity range and life stage seems more appropriate. This approach can limit certain sources of stressors. I plan to focus on the group of art students in graduation year: how they feel their anxiety and what would they do to keep stable and stay on their way? How can I help with them?

Arthur Schopenhauer left behind a sarcastic aphorism long ago: “The only one of mankind’s innate erroneous notions is that the purpose of life is to attain happiness… The wise know that life on Earth is not worth it.” Combined with what has been previously mentioned, the increasingly growing art therapy services present a paradox: creativity is merely an economic strategy. I do not want my project to become a tool that only advocates positivity and happiness through creative means. Therefore, I will still focus on the awareness of negative emotions, self-expression, and the connection between individuals and the world, rather than just healing and eliminating suffering. For this reason, I plan to continue reading “How Forests Think” in the hope that adopting an anthropological approach that transcends the human perspective can provide me with more inspiration.

Reflection from the 3 session online workshop by Newham talking therapies

During these days I joined the ‘First Steps to Change’ pre-recorded webinars offered by Newham talking therapies. The webinars explore some ideas, symptoms and strategies related to anxiety and low mood. It gave me a more systematic understanding of anxiety and CBT( cognitive behavior therapy), which is the most common treatment to deal with anxiety. This journey helped me learn anxiety from medical perspective, and explored the stratigies I would possibly use in my project.

In the first session, the most important thing I learned is what is anxiety. Anxiety is basically a fight or flight mechanism of our body, a normal physiological reaction to a threat. In cavemen period, when our ancestors encountered a saber-tooth tiger, their bodies react within nanoseconds, and although we have moved into the modern world, we have inherited this survival instinct, and “saber-tooth tigers” can be shown in our lives today as a job interview, a speech, etc. For example, when we face a threat, our bodies try to pump adrenal hormones that make us move into fight or flight mode, where our heart beats faster. Our breathing becomes more rapid because we need more oxygen to get to our hands and feet. All of these reactions are designed to make our bodies faster and better in order to respond to a crisis. Anxiety is a useful mechanism when we are trying to survive a tiger attack. Therefore, these physical symptoms brought on by anxiety, although scary to experience, are actually very normal phenomenons.

There are many stressors in our daily lives that can trigger anxiety, such as relationships, family, finances, health, and so on. We may feel stress from both internal and external sources. If we are lucky, we can eliminate stressors, but sometimes we couldn’t, so it’s important to think of solutions as coping mechanisms that prevent us from becoming overwhelmed.

The second thing I learned is “change the vicious cycle”, according to the speaker, thinking, feeling and behavior is a circle: how we think would influence our feeling, both physically and emotionally, and how we feel would influence our behavior, and how we act would eventually reinforce or change our thoughts. So if we trap in a bad ruminate, we would fall into vicious cycle and it would escalate our bad feelings. The speaker also introduced CBT as a goal-oriented and solution focused approach to change our vicious cycle.

In the second session, the speaker introduced the unhelpful thoughts habits that we usually come up with, and encourage people to challenge their negative thoughts, with the way of positive thinking and helpful thinking( minimize our problem).

unhelpful thoughts habits: https://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/docs/UnhelpfulThinkingHabitsWithAlternatives.pdf

The speaker also introduced a useful strategie to help with the unhelpful thoughts habits, which is record our thought and reflect on it, and to see if it’s possible to challenge the negative ones. This tells me that recording and observing emotions as well as reactions is an effective way of helping with anxiety as the first step.

In the third session, the speaker looked at the experience of low mood and how low mood and behaviors feed back the vicious circle. She also introduced the ways of lifting low mood and some sleep tips. What I found very meaningful is “value”, thinking about our values and the things important to us is like creating a compass which guide us to positive directions.

After these three sessions, I understood the basics of anxiety and had a basic knowledge of CBT. I found that CBT is basically a mindset-driven behavioural change. This treatment is very common and effective. At the same time, by understanding its process and principles, I found a useful model for my project: a virtuous circle driven by self-awareness and changing perceptions and actions. While CBT usually comes in the form of talking therapy, my focus is on self-starting methods when people can’t take the step of asking for help, so I will continue to research effective self-observation methods and virtuous thinking and try to find ways to combine them with visualisation in order to create interactive tools that people can use on their own.