Billion euro home

Fig 2. Buckley sitting on toilet in 'Billion euro house' (2012) http://www.ibtimes.com

Artist Frank Buckley has transformed a home into an art installation in its own right by using 1.4 billion euros worth of notes to make bricks! I like the ambition of the project coupled with the fact the artist is unemployed adds to the perfection of his exploration on the value of money. This further more questions my current questioning of ‘what is money worth?’ My paper making has taken a back seat at the moment whilst I wait for other countries to respond to my emails but looking at Buckley’s ‘Billion Euro House’ has really inspired my work with money. Maybe I'll start small scale and start building a shed!

Fig 1. Euro bricks of the 'Billion euro house' (2012) http://www.ibtimes.com

Buckley uses an abandoned office building, enhancing the issue of value and worth. He says, ‘People were pouring billions into buildings now worth nothing… I wanted to create something from nothing.’ (tehpardox forum, 2012).

I  enjoy how Buckley has created a website dedicated to publicising the billion euro house. It looks almost like a newspaper website. Or a website to make the most money out of the house as possible, says the cynic in me. Maybe if I ever start building a shed I'll dedicate a website to that too in homage to Buckley!

I have recently purchased a great new book (Standard catalog of world paper money), containing images of bank notes throughout the world and is truly inspiring, it's made me think more about money in terms of decoration and imagery. I have since considered making my own notes, as I am engrossed in researching about them. It makes me question, ‘who designs such notes?’ I have spent hours searching through this directory viewing other cultures decoration interests me greatly.

I feel like I've got so many ideas but not enough time to do it all!

Bibliography

Billion euro house (2013) Billion euro house [online] Available at: http://billioneurohouse.com/ [Accessed 29 December 2013]

Cuhaj, G. S (2010) Standard catalog of World Paper Money: Modern Issues 1961- Present. America: Krause publications.

Tehparadox (2012) [online] Available at: http://tehparadox.com/forum/f11/irishman-builds-billion-euro-home-3833722/ [Accessed 29 December 2013]

Images

Fig 1. Euro bricks (2012), (2013) [Image online] Available at: http://www.ibtimes.com/irish-artist-builds-home-out-14-billion-shredded-euros-photos-553873 [Accessed 29 December 2013]

Fig 2. Buckley sitting on toilet of billion euro home (2012), (2013) [Image online] Available at: http://www.ibtimes.com/irish-artist-builds-home-out-14-billion-shredded-euros-photos-553873 [Accessed 29 December 2013]

Complications of working within a school

Even upon my first couple of weeks in working within an education facility there have been some problems with communication between staff and me as a trainee therapist.

Firstly, I organised an observation of the child who was going to be in therapy with me only to find out the night before that the child would be on a school trip. I found this strange because I like to be organised. Having spoken directly to the teacher about the observation I figured it was 100% going to happen but this was not to be true.

Meaning, that our first therapy session will be put off another week which disappointed me as I’ve had to wait what seems like a long time to begin my placement.

Secondly, a lady who needed him for 1:1 time for an academic reason called out a child from my creative group. Explaining her day of work has changed, meaning said child might not be able to be in my group anymore.

We have had many lectures about sitting with the ‘unknown’; I feel this is something I need to get used to in regards to my placement. At the moment I want it to be organised but I have, so far, learnt this may not always be the case when dealing with many different people where communication is not always easily fulfilled.

Breaks in the therapeutic relationship

It's been a while since my last post because I've had and still have tonsillitis. I had to call in sick to my placement which I didn't want to do as I didn’t want to let down the group I lead or the individual time I also do. Even though I haven’t started therapy yet calling in sick made me very guilty, since I didn’t want to disappoint the children especially if they need to talk to an adult before the Christmas period. This led me to contemplate the complications of breaks in the therapeutic relationship.

How does this impact the child?

Does the child feel abandoned during this time?

If I feel guilty in leaving non-therapeutic experiences at the School this makes me question how I’ll feel to the contrary.

Hierarchy within a school

I've been thinking a lot about working with children in art therapy as this will be my client group however I am yet to begin my placement properly. I have started there but I haven't started working therapeutically. This is a frustration within my placement as it was organised late, another element which is out of my control. On the positive side it has enabled me to do more research on working with children before I do so and has also given me more time in working on my personal art practice. The negative side to not really beginning my placement is that I cannot write about any experiences here and I fear this will disadvantage me but I guess I can only write my thoughts on this.

After having my first full day on placement I already got ‘told off’ by a teacher as I let the children in my creative (non therapy) group wear a few stickers on their uniform. The teacher said if they are going to take stickers out they can but if they could them in a book instead that would be better. This made me feel like a child in the school where there is an obvious hierarchy. I don’t know where I as a trainee therapist sit within this hierarchy. It feels like I’m not a teacher so I’m a child but of course I don’t want to get trapped into this way of thinking but if I’m truly honest this is how I felt when that teacher spoke to me. I feel on the outside at the moment but I hope this changes as time goes on. I am aware that my experiences on placement will bring up memories for me from my childhood. In this case being 'told off' by that teacher made me feel like I was back at Primary School, bringing back feelings of insecurity and not belonging. I do feel like I don't belong at the school but I know this is because it is only early days. This makes me consider my schooling, friendship groups and how I usually stay on the outside looking in, I'm finding through writing this blog that I am definitely more of an observer... again something I will take to personal therapy.

I read a book about art therapists settling into the school environment, which is of high value to me. The author Moriya (2000) explains how therapists must fit into the framework of the school in order to succeed. I will take advice from her and try to connect more with the teachers and other staff in the school.

Working as an art therapist in education interests me greatly as I know this is currently a growing employment area for therapists.

Bibliography

Moriya, D (2000) Art Therapy in Schools: Effective integration of art therapists in schools. Israel: Turbo

Channel 4's documentry series 'Bedlam'

South London and Maudsley NHS trust recently allowed Channel 4 to film the happenings in their services. According to an article in The Guardian by Martin Baggaley, the purpose for the documentary was to 'show people what really happens here, as preconceptions about mental health care are often based on myth and misunderstanding.' (Baggaley 2013)

My initial reaction to the four part series was that of delight. How fantastic to get an insight into these otherwise secretive psychiatric wards! The general public need to know the affects of mental health, however, the more I began to reflect upon the series I feel Channel 4 have an agenda here.

What is their agenda? What is Channel 4 trying to convey to the audience?

It is after all a television series, which is there to provide entertainment and to bring in viewers. Questions of ethics soon entered my mind. Is it ethical to film people who are extremely vulnerable? I’m not sure if I have an answer to this question. I feel hypocritical thinking this as I personally enjoyed the series very much and felt this peek into the NHS is great for me as a trainee therapist. Although, confidentiality and ethics plays a huge part in my life as a trainee so I cannot help but question the ethics of the filmmakers.

These vulnerable people are clearly not in their healthy, right frame of mind otherwise they wouldn’t be there in the first place. So how can these patients possibly give consent to the production of filming? This makes me think about this idea in relation to consent in art therapy. More specifically relating this to working with children as this is my current client group. How can children really know what they are letting themselves in for when their parents allow the therapeutic process? Do the parents ever truly know?

I wonder about this because I’m about to meet my first client next week who doesn’t necessarily know he is going to be in art therapy. This raises many considerations on how I’m going to explain the therapeutic process to him, as he is very young. I hope proper explanation has been provided to the parents/guardians. These are all very real issues that lie within art therapy at school.

Bibliography

Baggaley, M (2013) 'Why we let Channel 4 film the series Bedlam in our mental health wards'. The Guardian [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/31/channel-4-film-bedlam-mental-health-wards [Accessed 11 December 2013]

Bedlam (2013) Channel 4, 31 October. 9pm

Channel 4 (2013) I didn't mean it Bedlam (Ep2) Channel 4 [video online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_jOgSRaUsc [Accessed 11 December 2013]

The collective unconscious- 26/11/13

(*attention* This post should have been published shortly after the 26/11/13 however there was a technical error where it was saved as a draft rather than published)

I have been thinking about the collective unconscious as this evolved from a training group we had. Unfortunately due to the confidentiality of the group I cannot post other people's images here so I will only speak of the group from my experience1 because of this.

My image from the training group (26/11/13)

Once the session began I felt feelings of frustration at the fragmentation of the group. I started art making by layering blue tissue paper and painting on top. As usual in these groups I began not knowing what I was going to make, I want to make the art making experience as spontaneous as possible. The entire group except me faced the walls on this occasion, leaving me sitting on the floor, which was fine with me. When it was time to bring our work to the centre of the circle there was a gasp as two others and me artwork looked extremely similar. I was absolutely astonished at this! I was shocked at how this happened because everyone was faced away and I was engrossed in my own thoughts.

Training session reflection

This training group made me feel lonely and isolated especially since I was on my own on the floor whilst everyone else worked on tables facing the wall. I wanted to bring the group together somehow but felt unable to do so which then left me feeling helpless within the group. I am wondering how this translates to a real therapy group. I wonder how it must feel to be the therapist in this situation?

Being part of this group definitely evokes feelings for me that are not always reflected in words, this gives me a wealth of information relating to group dynamics and how it feels to be in an art therapy group from the perspective of the client.

Collective unconscious
How did the three of us end up making extraordinarily similar images when there was no way we were able to see each others art? I am interested in how this works as the facilitator in the training group said this sort of phenomena was not uncommon within art therapy groups. I have since researched the collective unconscious within the art therapy group and have found a lack of research in this area. I did however find a great article in the British association of art therapists by Francesca La Nave called 'Image: Reflections on the treatment of images and dreams in art psychotherapy groups' where La Nave explains the complexities of the shared experience in group therapy. She comments on the, 'parallel narratives interplaying with the shared reflection of the group in ways which are not definitively verbal, non- verbal, or visual but rather meta-verbal and meta-visual.' (La Nave, 2010 p.16) . She is highlighting the complexities of experiences within the group.

How and why does this happen?
I feel like I tapped into this 'collective unconscious' (Trans4mind, 2007) within the training group because I was feeling particularly lonely and quite lost within the group that I somehow drew from others experiences here too. Resulting in similar feelings between us which in turn made us produce similar images. It was as though we could not communicate through speech as this was too difficult but the art knew how to communicate for us.
It was a very strange experience indeed and something to bare in mind when I eventually begin my placement.

Bibliography

 Collective Unconscious (2007) Trans4mind [online] Available at: http://www.trans4mind.com/jamesharveystout/coll-unc.htm [Accessed 26 November 2013]

La Nave, F (2010) 'Image: Reflections on the treatment of images and dreams in art psychotherapy groups', International Journal of Art Therapy: Formerly Inscape, [online] 15:1, pp. 13-24. Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17454831003752378 [Accessed 26 November 2013]

The Citi Money Gallery at The British Museum

Money gallery in the British Museum

Visiting the British museum in order to see their money gallery was a unique experience in that it was strange to see money behind glass. It was like it was a work of art! Protected from grubby hands in order to keep its pristine condition. The barrier of money, worth and value appear blurred I feel like everything I have learnt socially about money and value changes throughout this project.

Money in society today has utmost value. It’s something almost everyone longs for in life however when it came to getting my hands on out of circulation notes, well, this was easy. They gave it away for free! This led me to believing that money has a value one moment and none the next. Of course it has a shelf life but they money in the museum is out of circulation too. What is the difference between this ‘old’ money and my ‘old’ money? Well, there shouldn’t be but there is. The money in the museum is very old therefore more valued than my disused notes. All of this gives me conflicting views of money and its worth. I know ultimately an object whether it be money or a glass has value of whom ever values it most but I struggle with these conflicting concepts on currency. Can my paper I make go in a museum one day when it is deemed old enough?

The British museum also have an interesting blog focused on MONEY!

This visit has made me contemplate value not only in money but in people too. If a person does not feel valued by themselves this doesn't mean I will not value them as a person. Vulnerable people often feel a lack of value, a sense of worthlessness. My thoughts on money has helped me to think about value in a therapeutic situation, I hope I can help a person from feeling worthless.

I’m reflecting on the idea of worth and why I’m adding value to notes, which lack just that. Is my longing to heal vulnerable people using art therapy seeping into my art practice?

To answer this question, yes, I think it might just be...

Money gallery in the British Museum (2011), (2013) [image online] Available at: http://bmtrainingprog.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/the-money-gallery-project/ [Accessed on 7 December 2013]