The second Art and Culture Workshop as Therapy, “narrating memories”, differs from the first one, “the art of entretelas”, by focusing the study on cognitive stimulation and semantic memory. This intervention enjoyed the collaboration of José García Martínez, a journalist known for his daily column in one of the regional newspapers, and 12 students of illustration in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Murcia. Each patient was appointed two students. The workshop spanned 7 sessions, 90 minutes each.
On the 26th of January 2009, six patients (diagnosed with the Alzheimer disease with GDS 4) were invited with their families to Murcia’s Regional Library. The workshop started here, with the presentation of the story tale, The Wedding, written by José García Martínez and a show of the film, Crazy for a Whistle, directed and written by the same author. The journalist read the tale with a great expression; a tale, which took place in Murcia during one sunny spring and described how the Lemon and the Sardine fell in love with each other and finally got married on the “Day of the Sardine’s Funeral”. At the end of the story reading, the patients picked up the thread and continued a lively dialogue about the Region’s joyful Spring Festivals. We hoped the tale and the fantasy inherent in the film, Crazy for a Whistle, would evoke memories for the patients of their lived experiences.
After this presentation, the patients were taken on a guided tour around the library to reinforce their awareness of the place. The bright colours and generous spaces stacked with books would help them to remember what happened that afternoon.
In the following sessions, now at the Dementia Unit, the focus moved to the 12 illustrators. These collaborators were asked to make at least one drawing per session, as detailed as possible although without reaching into the field of abstraction. Using these drawings as a support, the patients would be able to narrate his/her memories and build up a “story”.
The first task for the patients was to remember the story, The Wedding, and identify a memory of a lived and a festive experience. This experience they described to the students who prepared their pencils and started making sketches of the broken sequence of events. The following three sessions focused on the ‘festive place’ (environment, landscape), ‘specific festivals’ (carriages, presents, the whistle…) and ‘gastronomy’ (sardines, lemon…).
At the beginning of every session, the students showed their sketches to the patients. This helped them to recall the situation and to continue the description in more detail. The exercise required the usage of descriptive terms to improve the drawing. At the end of the session, the patients evaluated the work of their collaborators, the level of details and resemblance to the memory.
The aim was to grasp the patient’s narrative description so that he/she could identify with it. In other words, in the hands of the illustrator the drawing paper became a tool for the patient to express his/her lived experience. This meant that the student had to be flexible in the way of transcribing the words on to the paper, whether using wooden colour pencils, watercolours or, in terms of the number of illustrations (min 1 and max 3).
In the sixth session, the students finished illustrating the patients’ narrations, achieving an exclamation: “Yes, it happened in this way”!
The seventh and last session, took place in Murcia’s Regional Library where the patients returned to present their narrations to the journalist, José García Martínez, using the illustrations as a guide. At the beginning of the presentation, the patients sat by their families. One by one, they were invited to go to the table of presentation where José greeted them and listened to their memories narrated. This time, the patients were the principal players of the event, recounting short tales to the invited audience: the families and the students of illustration, the medical team and university teachers, among others.
As a way to register the workshop, each illustration had its evaluation form to measure the degree of emotion. In addition, the patient was asked a set of questions corresponding to each theme to be illustrated. Moreover, the patient was evaluated and observed in each session in the context of clinical issues such as behaviour and emotional state. Before the initiation of the intervention and at the end of the workshop, the degree of participation and the patient’s interest during the process of the workshop was measured. Measuring indicators were used based on clinical reports and questionnaires about quality of life, degree of deterioration, emotional level, behaviour, mental state and the degree of satisfaction.
In order to continue observing possible changes experienced or development of the disease suffered by these patients, all the sessions were video recorded with sounds, as well as being photographed. It will thus be possible to measure and compare facts throughout the investigation, facts on verbal expression and on emotion.
Bibliography:
- José García Martínez (1999) El Casamiento. Fiestas de Primavera 1999. Ayuntamiento de Murcia. Caja Murcia.
A. Pelegrin, M.V. Sotomayor, A. Urdiales (2008) Pequeña memoria recobrada. Libros infantiles del exilio del 39. Ministerio de Educación, Politica Social y Deporte. Ediciones Gráficas Arial. Madrid.
-The MOMA Alzheimer’s Project: Making Art Accessible to People with Dementia. A Guide for Museums. The Museum of Modern Art. http://www.moma.org/education/alzheimers.
- “Nationality in Context” en Framework, n. 7 June 07. Special Nordic Issue.
- Worlds in a Box. Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1995. The South Bank Centre.
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