Sketch Proposal

I want to support the feeling of homeliness and the possibility of ‘the wonderful pastime’ in the form of immersion and stimulation of the imagination and the senses. I have worked with this by concentrating on a number of selected places in the communal areas where the mood of the room can be modulated towards more homeliness and sensuality.

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I have chosen the entrance door, the dining area, a niche and the common room as central nodes that symbolise participation, community and opportunities for immersion. In these areas, I want to support the possibility of wondering and meeting or retreating into one's own tactile sphere of memory and immersion.

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Research

In the research phase, I have focused on learning more about the different diagnoses that lead to hospitalisation and how existing psychiatric wards are organised and function.

My research consisted of reading, podcasts, films, interviews and tours. I have visited the psychiatric ward at Rigshospitalet (the National Hospital of Denmark) among other places.

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- Professor Dr. Med. Martin Balslev Jørgensen

- Head Nurse Tue Lodahl - Dr. Med. Lykke Pedersen and others - 2-3 patients and the existing emergency room at Bispebjerg Hospital

- v. Clinic Manager Jeanett Bauer - Head Nurse Helle - Nursing Assistants
- One patient

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I have also researched hospital architecture (especially Bispebjerg and Martin Nyrop's architecture) and new trends in psychiatry, such as healing architecture, wave care and sensory rooms that work with sensory modulation and de-escalation.

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Findings                                  
Regardless of the reason for hospitalisation; affective conditions, psychotic conditions and addiction-related hospitalisations, patients have one thing in common that they have very little energy. Above all, they need rest and regularity in their daily lives. Next, employment. For most people, daily life on a psychiatric ward is associated with great boredom, while for others it is a welcome break from a lonely existence. On the other hand, feelings of loneliness can be exacerbated if you are hospitalised with someone you don't like.​

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The staff and physical environment can support a healthy circadian rhythm with night sleep, meals and regular routines, but a major shortage of psychiatric wards is still something to pass the time. Another major shortcoming I've seen in my research is mood-related. Both patients and staff want more homeliness, warmth and comfort as a counterpoint to the clinical environment of the institution.

 

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Progression and being

With the art proposal, I create the possibility for both progress and being. The objects, such as the dining table, must be able to support participation in shared activities and the cultivation of togetherness, while at the same time allowing people to immerse themselves in the tactile and aesthetic expression of the material and to withdraw into themselves.

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In this way, the artworks offer an opportunity to engage, to pause, to feel, to sense and to share. I have worked in an idiom that transcends the boundaries of the expected and breaks with the monotony and boredom that characterises everyday life in a psychiatric ward. I want to create a framework that evokes the recognition of a rich inner life and of security, calm, acceptance and the possibility of progress. In choosing the focal points, I have emphasised aesthetics, tactility, sympathetic materials and working with existing functions that can provide a sensory and tactile boost.

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I also work more indirectly with the pastime by adding elements that you are drawn to. Elements that make you want to go there and want to spend time there. To immerse oneself alone or in the company of others. I create a platform for killing time, so to speak. The beautiful killing of time.

Tactile cues and choice of materials

Phenomenological philosophy believes that the body senses and perceives before the mind, so that the way something feels, sounds and smells is as important factors as the appearance of the object created. I use nature as a known healing factor as a material in the artworks. I wanted to evoke the bodily memories and experiences that we have through the stimulation of the senses and which we cannot necessarily put into words.

With the assumption that human sensory and emotional needs are at the centre, I have chosen to work primarily with two materials: wood and textile. Both materials have a natural immediacy and softness about them and in their own way evoke memories of bodily experiences. Wood with a strong reference to nature and the freedom and strength found therein and the textile, which is embedded in the consciousness of all human beings as a lifelong tactile memory: the newborn baby is wrapped in a cloth and after that the human body is constantly surrounded by textiles that can provide warmth and comfort.
 

Regardless of background and diagnosis, all people share a common tactile frame of reference in nature and textiles. It is precisely from this frame of reference that I work.

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