Mindworks

Background: The Mindworks project is something Penny had wanted to do for a long time and was ultimately enabled by a Teaching and Learning innovation grant at University of the Arts. It had been clear to her for some time that a rise in mental health related issues on the courses she taught was having a significant impact.  This was not just in the classroom, affecting student work, attendance engagement with the course and their cohort.  There was a tangible rise in projects relating to mental health issues on her courses and in the graduation shows throughout LCC and UAL. These specific conditions included: stress, anxiety, depression, bereavement, homesickness, isolation, social anxiety, pressure, social media, and peer pressure. All affected the welfare of students, and by association,the staff that supported them, due to the increased demands this subjected them to.

Plan: This resource provides a design-focused response to students well being and becomes a public facing showcase for some of the excellent outputs of the college around the subject. For teachers it becomes a pedagogic resource providing opportunity for reflection and analysis while developing into a circular reference on a number of levels. It provides a body of accessible work from LCC Alumni that supports emerging designers and film makers tackling projects that overlap in subject area. It reinforces positive attitudes and capabilities of people with mental heath issues and helps counteract negative stereotypes and stigma traditionally associated with mental health issues.

For those interested, the project draws on a number of theories : The learning theory known as CONNECTIVISM looking at how new opportunities are being created to learn and share information provided by this digital archive. THEORY OF MIND refers to the ability to perceive the unique perspective of others and its influence on their behaviour – that is, other people have unique thoughts, plans, and points of view that are different than yours. In a wider context this project could help contribute to this cognitivist theory through a series of provocative illustrations, design and film. All too rare in the scientific based context of psychopathology. IDENTITY THEORY this project reduces stereotype effect which occurs when people are at risk for living up to a negative stereotype about their group. i.e those suffering from mental illnesses be it the more common areas of stress and anxiety and depression or something more severe, might reduce their effort, disengage or change their aspirations and career goals in response to stereo threat.

These quotes are from students who have participated in the project.

Have a look through the website and hear about the projects from the students in their own words.