Group Therapy: Mental Distress in a Digital Age
- When 20 Sep - 11 Nov 2017
- Where
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Address
CNR OXFORD ST & GREENS RD PADDINGTON NSW 2021
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Hours
TUES TO SAT, 10AM–5PM
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Phone
+61 2 8936 0888
In a period of relative prosperity, instances of anxiety and depression are astonishingly high. For many people, digital technologies exacerbate this problem by altering our sense of identity and social relationships. At the same time, others suggest that technological innovation is crucial for finding new ways to improve the lives of those who experience social isolation, illness, and emotional distress.
What does it mean to live in a society where technology is proposed as the cause of, but also the cure for mental distress?
'Group Therapy: Mental Distress in a Digital Age' offers artworks, design objects, and digital research, exploring connections between mental health and the values, political conditions, and technologies that structure our lives. Visitors are invited to consider their own relationships with technology and question how constant digital stimulation and distraction can serve to numb or exacerbate day-to-day anxieties.
Artists
Katriona Beales
Miyarrka Media
Lauren Moffatt
George Khut
Erica Scourti
Institute for New Feeling
Gretta Louw
Superflex
Jennifer Kanary Nikolova
Dora García
Melane Manchot
Richard Bell
Kate Owens & Neeta Madahar
Bonney Djuric, Lily Hibberd and Jenny McNally, members of the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct Memory Project
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Curator
Vanessa Bartlett
Exhibition Design
Benjamin Koslowski
'Group Therapy' was initiated by FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), Liverpool, UK, where its first iteration took place in 2015.
Public Program
Panel Discussion
1pm Thursday 21 September, UNSW Galleries
'Group Therapy' curator Vanessa Bartlett, exhibiting artist Lauren Moffatt and Director of FACT Mike Stubbs will discuss the reasons for and development of the exhibition, and the research processes that inform it.
Labyrinth Psychotica: Artist Talk
12pm Friday 22 September, UNSW Galleries
Artist Jennifer Kanary Nikolova will provide a demonstration of her interactive work Labyrinth Psychotica.
A mixed reality artwork that aims to stimulate the subjective experience of being in psychosis, Labyrinth Psychotica is described by the artist as ‘a metaphor for losing and finding oneself, and for how beautiful yet terrifying the experience can be’. Labyrinth allows us to experience, in a creative and engaged manner, how psychosis blends realities and perceptions.
Labyrinth Psychotica: Experience
20 September – 11 November, UNSW Galleries
Multiple sessions daily to experience Jennifer Kanary Nikolova’s artwork Labyrinth Psychotica.
Labyrinth Psychotica is presented with the support of the Mondriaan Foundation.
'Group Therapy: Mental Distress in a Digital Age' is presented as part of 'The Big Anxiety: festival of arts + science + people'.
