FIRST TWO DIRECTIONS
The First Semester
1. TILE INSTALLATION
An interactive installation meant for an Alberta hospital or clinic, acting as a memorial and conversation point for medical professional mental wellbeing. Aimed at being interactive and directly assisting medical professionals.
2. URN INSTALLATION
An interactive urn memorial made for physicians. Placed within the doctor’s lounge of a specific hospital. Open urns filled with beads are displayed in the lounge. When a doctor passes, an urn is taken down to weave beads in for them.
DIRECTION 1
MAKE YOUR MARK
Ceramic Tile Installation
This first direction was based off of a decision to commit to one idea. At this point, I was aiming to create an interactive installation in a hospital, meant for doctors to use. It goes through different stages of interaction before being completed.
This got very complicated, and difficult to simplify, but revealed to me an interest in an installation. I have a tendency to overcomplicate... but the inspiration from nature to create a ceramic form proved to work well visually.
Scratching Tools
Tools were created by participation. My peers molded tools out of playdough that led to clay tools, wrapped with a strap of leather.
These tools are meant to make different scratching interactions, but are not sharp to keep people from scratching too deep.
Everyone enjoyed the interaction of scratching, but it wasn’t very approachable. The tools didn’t scratch very well and needed to be sharp. Interactions showed drawings rather than simple marks/doodling.
The piece was not showing much success in terms of it’s intent. It generally became too complicated and hard to understand. Moving this to a group of doctors would prove to be too “out there”.
Tiles
Inspired by the Nambian sand, I changed the original idea from a full plaque to a more do-able arrangement of tiles. I did less form exploration, choosing to focus on test tiles for engraving. I tried coloured layers of underglaze, white, black, and brown.
Deciding on all white, I sketched a numbered template, cut tiles from slabs, and added indents to hang.
The initial test was on a table to be worked on by anyone passing by.
From the interaction, I learned that there is an interest in the topic, a need to care for doctors, and an interest in involving creativity as an emotional outlet in this field.
DIRECTION 2
MENDING
A memorial ritual for doctors
Since I already attained help and connections from the Rocky Mountain House hospital, I changed the project to align with the information I was given, and what I learned from the first project direction process. In particular, the space in the doctor’s lounge informed certain changes.
The change came on very suddenly (overnight after a small breakdown). I had a conversation with Louise that led us to thinking about creating multiple vessels that have an abacus in them, allowing each one to be interactive. This turned into the idea of creating a series of urns with cutouts in them meant for ‘mending’; sewing various beads into each one, weaving a story representing the doctor that passed.
INSPIRATION
Bill Pechet & Little Spirits Garden
Louise helped to get me connected with Bill Pechet. I set up a time to talk to him about my project, how it has changed, and his process in memorial projects. His project, Little Spirits Garden, especially inspired the changes in this direction, but also in the third, evident in the switch to a digital/physical memorial.
Bill Pechet created this with a landscape architecture firm. Little concrete houses, ‘spirit houses’, help parents memorialize a young infant in a different way. The garden also has natural stone tablets and bronze plaques for a memorial scroll.
The goal is to create a space to support parents that have lost a child during pregnancy, at birth, or in the months following birth. The natural area becomes a special place to commemorate the life in a peace and tranquil area.
They also provide a Facebook group for support...
I wanted to imitate some of the base concepts of this project and adapt it to my own. The single repeating vessel representing souls, an area to hold those vessels, and an ability to customize each vessel. I also liked the main goal of providing a ritual meant for remembering and healing.
URNS SKETCHED IN DOCTORS' LOUNGE
To decide on placement, spacing, and shelving, I sketched the urns over top of an image of the lounge. This is the biggest empty wall in the room that can fit 10 urns.
PROOF OF CONCEPT PRESENTATION
“In the doctor’s lounge, I will create 10 to 12 ceramic urns placed on floating shelves. The first urn, to be completed, will be for my dad, while the rest are for the future, each time a doctor from the community passes. Each urn is filled with beads and string, accompanied by a needle and needle holders.
The urn is taken down and opened up for doctors taking a short break in their busy day to spend a little time mending the urn, adding a bead, and remembering the person it is for. Together, the doctors complete the urn and return it to the shelf. A reminder to care for one another and bring the community together.”
Every comment made me think about different changes that could happen in this project. Maybe moving away from shelves as the carriers of the urns, or change the shape of the vessels entirely. Does this need to be placed in the lounge?
Not long after the presentation, I reached out to the hospital management team, they went to the board, and the head physician at the time declined the project, noting that the photo binder they have is enough. This prompted me to re-think the location and intent of the project overall... shifting from helping the doctors cope with loss to helping families and friends cope instead. From an installation with a specific location to an installation open for all to view.
I realized that awareness really needs to be spread to the general public, rather than stay within the medical community - where greater care and changes start.
