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ZeroOne San Jose / ISEA2006 ISEA2006 symposium
M-I I-M: racism, mental illness, and marginal narratives PDF Print E-mail
Written by Kuniko Vroman   
Apr 23, 2006 at 10:44 PM

Ajaykumar

 mental illness, racism, marginalised narratives, digital Technology, community evolution/engagement

M-I I-M, as an ongoing project, endeavours to engage with themes that are not in primary spheres of discourse, to generate knowledge. This poster discusses multiplicities and heterogeneity. It endeavours to engage with themes that are not in primary spheres of discourse, as well as addressing both lack of representation and misrepresentation. The project, currently finding focus with a net art work, pages of madness, is a response to recent scientific research of Professor Robin Murray of the Institute of Psychiatry, which suggests that black people in the United Kingdom are several times more likely than white people to suffer mental illness. The research points to social factors such as racism that cause such huge demographic discrepancy. Professor Murray believes that the experience of black people in the U.K. almost drives them mad.

Abstract

This paper discusses a particular community and political engagement in relation to digital technology. It refers to stories to be told that are as yet relatively untold. The paper discusses quite a different mapping of the city. It involves those who inhabit the margins of society including the digital society. It is an ongoing project and the paper aims to discuss all ramifications.

The project currently finds focus with a net art work, pages of madness, viewable at: http://turbulence.org/spotlight/ajaykumar/index.htm.

The project began as a single human response to a social tragedy in British society. Recent scientific research such as that of Professor Robin Murray of the Institute of Psychiatry, suggests that black people in the United Kingdom are several times more likely than white people to suffer mental illness. The research points to social factors such as racism that cause such huge demographic discrepancy. Professor Murray believes that the experience of black people in the U.K. almost drives them mad.

pages of madness utilises my own experiences but is drawing upon those of others, medical opinion, media representation, jokes and poetry. In this sense, in the words of one spectator, “it is not normalising existence and representation but forging new connections, exploring multiplicities and communicating heterogeneity to further knowledge and discourse around themes that are not in the main fields of representation and when they are, can be hugely misrepresented.”

The Background:
Imagine in you wake up and on your way to work you see a billboard with a stereotypical image of black people, you get to work and you hear your colleagues mouthing off sometimes unconsciously attitudes that could be at least, racially insensitive, you see that your bosses are almost exclusively white and subordinates are mainly black, you read a tabloid at lunch and see offensive headings and articles; you go to the pub and you hear people behind your back cussing black people; you go to the football match on Saturday and the crowd is screaming profanities against black players; you watch the television with your family and on the few black characters you see are mostly stereotypes - pimps, pushers, prostitutes, gangsters, boxers. Imagine living that existence every single day of one's life and is it then any wonder that people go 'mad'? Perhaps the wonder is that there are not more. But perhaps you cannot imagine.

The context:
As a member of the pertinent communities of interest - ‘the black community’, the ‘the mentally ill community’, ‘the victims of racism community’, ‘the disabled community’, - I began to look at ways in which I could respond to the scientific research, and to engage with others in my ‘communities’, and further address the social and political issue.

I discussed my ideas with Shahid Sardar, who works for ‘Diverse Mind’ a branch of the campaigning British mental health charity ‘Mind’. A collaboration emerged between me and Diverse Mind, to develop a series of art works that address the issue. pages of madness has been the first in the series.

The net is a medium that interest for me on a number of levels. It is a means of relatively easy dissemination, un-policed by a white dominated art world, a world that is perceived as institutionally racist, and ‘mentalist’; and seems relatively un-interested in work that is formally and thematically is political.

I have attempted to show the work in diverse contexts. I was invited to show the work to staff and patients at Rampton High Security Hospital, a hospital for the ‘criminally insane’, which has a significant number of black inmates, as part of a process developing awareness. I hope to continue this work at Rampton and other hospitals in future and to work on art projects with inmates so that they too can tell their stories.

pages of madness has also been shown in the following contexts:


• Turbulence, October 2004-
• Community T.V. Channel, U.K. Mad for Arts series,October 2004-
• National Film Theatre, U.K. Disability Film Festival, December 2004
• Generative Arts 2004, Milan, Italy, December 2004

A new work to advance this community, political project will also be developed in 2006: "iPak - 10,000 songs, 10,000 images, 10,000 abuses".

"iPak" is an art work of the net and vodcasting. The experimental development of this work has been supported via and Arts Admin Digital Bursary, and the Arts Council of England. It is intended to develop a final work to be launched by Turbulence.

The title itself is a play on words: borrowing from portable devices such as Apple’s iPod with its capacity to download and play infinite tracks and images; HP’s iPAQ, playing with ‘Paki’ a term of racist abuse in the United Kingdom; together with the emphasis on the ubiquitous ‘i’, evoking our generation that self-obsessively focuses on ‘I’.

URLS:
Turbulence spotlight - pages of madness

Last Updated ( Aug 07, 2006 at 01:57 AM )
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