Tag: psychology
A Short Thriller Animation
A child wakes to find himself in a dark confined space. As he makes his way forward, it becomes evident that he is on a train. A shadow lurks watching and waiting for an opportune moment.
This animation was a collaboration project with myself and MaryJo Snyder.
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Collective Impromptu
A peak into the collective unconscious
Using one ambiguous picture from the psychological assessment test, The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), college students were approached and asked to tell a story from the beginning, middle, and end describing what they saw in the photograph. This artwork was gathered almost like a psychological assessment. It lacked controlled settings, set independent and dependent variables, and contained too many possible confounding variables to actually be considered a psychological study.
While they were performing this task, photographs of their profile were taken during, before, and after. The photographs were then assembled into a stop motion. Audio of their stories were also collected and then added to the video.
The Use of the Thematic Apperception Test
In a clinical setting, the narration created by a subject would be carefully recorded and analyzed to uncover underlying needs, attitudes, and patterns of reaction. Although most clinical practitioners do not use formal scoring systems, several formal scoring systems have been developed for analyzing TAT stories systematically and consistently. Two common methods that are currently used in research are the: A person’s thoughts/feelings are projected in stories involved. This work allows one ambiguous image to be compared by multiple people. Revealing their own unique and then sometimes closely related stories. Diving into a possible discussion of a collective unconscious.
What is the Collective Unconscious?
This art project takes the TAT out of the context of a clinical setting and attempts to use it as a form of conversation starter. A possible way to get on a deeper level of conversation with strangers. Notice any trends as you listen to the different stories from person to person. Can you see some sort of collective unconscious revealing itself? Carl Jung believed the collective unconscious is revealed by shared archetypes, images, and themes in the history of humankind. Thus the TAT relies on this allowing the individual to reveal personal feelings related to these commonalities.
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Character Feature: Markian
This is Markien, a skull character inspired by both the Romanian monks of the Neamt Monastery and the Tibetan burial customs.
Neamt Monastery
Bogoslov basement from the graveyard of Neamt Monastery in northeastern Romania contains numerous deceased bones gathered from Roman Orthodox monastic tradition. This tradition claims that after 7 years the bones of the deceased monk were to be taken out of the earth and placed, in this basement.
On the monks skull fellow monks write his name and his duties in the monastery. The more revered bones belonged to beloved bishops of the Neamt Monastery.
Tibetan Monastery
The kapalas were usually made from skulls collected at sky burial sites, an ancient Tibetan burial custom, still practiced today, in which the bodies of the dead are dismembered and scattered over open ground to ‘give alms to the birds’. It is a ritual that has a great religious meaning of the ascent of the soul to be reincarnated into another circle of life.
Once collected, the skulls would be specially prepared and elaborately anointed and consecrated before use. It would then be decorated with carvings, jewels of silver-work before being used as a ritual implement.
Markien the Monk
Taking this history into consideration, Markien is a deceased monk, whom served an unknown monastery. Corrupted by greed and power, he attempts to dispel his grievances unto the character in his after life. His ultimate goal is to empty himself and achieve compassion, courage, and clarity not gained in his living life.
LINDI 