stays up LATESA Creative and Interactive Journey Exploring the History of Science and Mental Health

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The description in the Science Museum exhibition Mind Maps, Stories from Psychology reads: “Papier-maché model of the human brain, France 1900-20. This model highlights the paths of nerve fibres leading from the spine up to the brain.”

Many people were involved in the incubation, creation and realisation of this project. But first and foremost, this project would not have been possible without the dedication, creativity, knowledge and enthusiasm of CoolTan Arts’ volunteers. A big thank you to all for their hard work.

CoolTan Arts volunteer tour guides:Paul Donaghy (Researcher, Writer & Tour Guide)Joey O’gorman (Researcher, Writer & Tour Guide)Sasha Dee (Researcher, Writer & Tour Guide)Peter Cox (Researcher, Writer & Tour Guide)Viviana Ascencio (Researcher, Writer & Tour Guide)Helen Batt (Researcher, Writer & Tour Guide)Ginny Whelan (Researcher, Writer & Tour Guide)Alison George (Researcher, Writer & Tour Guide)Roger Endacott (Researcher & Tour Guide)Andrew Ogleby (Researcher, Writer & Tour Guide)Heide Pöstges (Researcher, Writer & Tour Guide)Gillian Lewis (Tour Guide)Jean Cozens (Researcher & Writer)

CoolTan Arts volunteer graphics and film team:Bogdan Staiculescu (Photographer)Richard Muzira (Film Maker)Geles Tómas (Graphic Designer)Roger Endacott (Motion Graphics)Yuca Ishizuka (Creative Strategist & Designer)Joe Sutton (Video Production)Heide Pöstges (Graphic Designer)

CoolTan Arts’ staff:Michelle Baharier (Chief Executive Officer)Susan McNally (Development Manager)Kaya Völke (Project’s Volunteer Coordinator)Rachel Ball (Volunteer Coordinator)Emma Thatcher(Communications and Volunteer Coordinator)Clara Jones (Volunteer Coordinator)

A big thank you to our partners at the Science Museum for all their support, inspiration and enthusiasm:Philip Loring (BPS Curator Of Psychology)Kayte McSweeney (Audience Advocate and Researcher)Katie Maggs (Curator of Medicine)And all members of the Science Museum LATES Team

Many thanks to the Bethlem Museum and Archives for introducing us to the 19th Century history of mental health: Sarah Chaney (Historian)Caroline Smith (Education and Outreach Officer)Colin Gale (Archivist)Victoria Northwood (Head of Archives and Museum)

CoolTan Arts wishes to thank the Heritage Lottery Fund for making this project possible.

A big thanks to all the workshop facilitators: Stephe Harrop (Story Telling and Public Speaking)Nigel Hoyle (Public Speaking)Rosa Vilbr (Oral Historian at On The Record)Laura Mitchison (Oral Historian at On The Record)paula roush (Book Making) Clara Jones (Walk Leader Training)Sarah Chaney (Research Methods)

Thank you to the artists who shared their work and insights with us:Jane Fradgley (Artist ‘Held’ Exhibition At IoP)Bekki Perriman (Artist DSM Book)Stu MacKay (Cut N Paste Graphics artist)

And last, but not least, a big thank you to all the visitors of the LATES event who came to our tours and made it happen.

“Welcome to the Largactyl Shuffle at the Science Museum LATES event brought to you by CoolTan Arts.

The Largactyl Shuffle at LATES is a collaborative project between the Science Museum and CoolTan Arts, in which we explore the history of mental health since the 19th Century. CoolTan Arts is an arts charity run by and for people with mental distress. By conducting research into the history of mental distress, relating it to the objects in the Science Museum, and presenting our findings to you in these tours, we aim to destigmatise mental distress.

Our events are called CoolTan Arts Largactyl Shuffle and are based on and named after CoolTan Arts monthly walks in South London. The name refers to the anti-psychotic drug Largactil, which, as one of its side effects causes a particular gait or shuffle. As some CoolTan Arts’ participants have experienced this side effect, CoolTan Arts wanted to turn this negative experience into something more positive and fun. That’s why the South London walk was called the Largactyl Shuffle. The story behind this name also teaches an important lesson, namely that the physical characteristics perceived as symptoms of mental distress, are often actually a side effect of the prescribed drugs.”

Introduction talk by Kaya Völke on the LATES events

During this “Largactyl Shuffle at the Science Museum LATES”, an “All Our Stories” project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, public gallery tours performed at Science Museum LATES have engaged both CoolTan Arts’ volunteers and the public with the heritage of mental health and contributed to it by creating new stories in the context of mental health and wellbeing. CoolTan Arts worked directly with the Science Museum and curatorial staff led by Philip Loring, Curator of Psychology.

For our project, we reinterpreted the themes provided by the Science Museum LATES. For example, the July LATES event themed “the Science of Speed” resulted in our tour called “Festina Lente”, which focused on how the pace of modern life affects our mental wellbeing. For the November LATES event themed “the Science of Robots” we focused in our tour and activities on our various perceptions of and relationships with robots in a context of mental health. Only for our final event did we differ from the LATES event theme as we focused on the recently opened Mind Maps Stories from Psychology exhibition.

We related these themes to objects in the Museum’s collections concentrating on the Medical, Psychology and Science galleries and demonstrated their significance for medicine today. These collections are global in scope, extending from the Stone Age to Space Age. We have primarily focused on collections dating from the 19th century to those that speak to contemporary medical practice. Objects were used to uncover a spectrum of personal heritage, experiences and interpretations, by CoolTan Arts’ volunteers with tours providing mainstream social contact.

This book is dedicated to the memory of Jean Cozens, whose art and campaign work continuous to inspire. She was a trustee and artist at CoolTan Arts until her death in December 2012. She was an active campaigner for the rights of people with mental distress and shared her knowledge and experiences at various Largactyl Shuffle Walks. As a volunteer in the pilot project of the Largactyl Shuffle @ Science Museum LATES she proposed to create a book based on our research which led to the creation of this work. We remember Jean with the love and compassion she shared with us all at CoolTan Arts.

The accompanying DVD is dedicated to the memory of Richard Muzira, who shared his laughter, philosophy and kindness with us. As a professional radio DJ he shared his skills in various CoolTan Arts film projects until he was tragically taken from us in November 2013. He will always be in our hearts. Two of the LATES event he filmed feature on the DVD.

CoolTan Arts was honoured to be contacted by Philip Loring to be part of a project hosted by the Science museum and Heritage Lottery Fund who funded the work. The aim of CoolTan Arts Largactyl Shuffle is to help educate people about the prevalence of mental health: 1 in 4 people experience mental distress. With this in mind and as people with lived experience we feel there is a need to ensure that people learn about the range of treatments.

We also wanted to highlight that you are often meeting the medication, not the person. Clearly when offered the floors of the Science Museum how could we refuse! It was excitement all round. To bring to life the medical objects that were on show to the general public at LATES events. Of course this is a two way dynamic; we bring to life the objects and at the same time further enhance our own learning about the history of mental health and the transitions this particular form of medicine has undergone.

During the project many of CoolTan Arts participants worked on the project, one in particular was Jean Cozens, a former board member of CoolTan Arts, who created a talk included in this book for the pilot project in 2012. She was on depot drugs which means an injection every 2 weeks and she was also on a CTO, a compulsory treatment order. This meant she could not escape taking medication nor be in control of her life free from medical professionals.

I had known Jean since 2002 as a talented painter who specialised in watercolour. She was brilliant at understanding the legal position and the human rights position of the way people with mental health issues are treated. Jean is the only person I knew to win court cases and get her diagnosis changed, but tragically Jean took her own life in December 2012. I last met her for lunch in December 2012 one week before, she had told me her medication was hurting her but that she was ok, she was going to her sisters’ for Christmas. That was sadly the last time I saw her, in my dreams I would like to see a mental health move away from medication to holistic and human treatments, I know Jean would. I would also like to commemorate Richard Muzira, who filmed two of our LATES events. He was a dear friend whose film making skills were exemplary as was his sense of humor. He tragically passed away in November 2013 as the 6th cyclist to be killed on London’s roads that month.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of the participants/volunteers who gave talks, made films and took pictures for this unique project, and especially to Kaya who worked so fast and hard and still remembered to bring refreshments to the evening events and ensuring that everyone was well looked after.

Jean Cozens’ wish for the project was to create a book based on the research and guided tours, which you are now holding in your hand. We’d like to dedicate this book to her. We dedicate the film of this project to Richard Muzira. We hope you enjoy and thank you for reading.

Michelle Baharier

Jean Cozens at the 2012 Largactyl Shuffle Sponsored Walk

Throughout the journey of the Largactyl Shuffle @ Science Museum LATES project, we researched and deconstructed the history of mental health. This book and the DVD document our experiences and work. They include games and various things to read, watch and make.

We designed this archive for two reasons. First of all, we aim to tell the stories behind our public performances at the Science Museum. These stories show how our ideas and skills evolved throughout our journey. It has been an enriching and thought-provoking process and we like to take you on this journey with us.

Secondly, we like to share with you some scenarios that uncover our worries and frustrations as well as detours and dead ends. We hope to show how these struggles are part of everyday life for us and everybody else, rather than behaviours that deviate from common understandings of normalcy.

Heide Pöstges

ALL THE LARGACTYL SHuFFLE WALKS AT THE SCIENCE MuSEuM

1. July LATES: Festina Lente p.8Sasha Dee: Speed Peter Cox: Speed and its Links to Intelligence and Modern LifeJoey O’Gorman: City LifeViviana Ascencio: Pacemaker: What Makes Your Heart Beat Faster?

2. August LATES: Food For thought p.20Sasha Dee: Food NowJoey O’Gorman: What’s Eating Us?Peter Cox: Food, Antidepressants and ObesityHelen Batt: Don’t Drink the Water

3. September LATES: (re)presenting madness and mentaL distress p.32Sasha Dee: Picture This Helen Batt: Mad PridePeter Cox: The Benefits of PhotographyGinny Whelan: Broken and Mended

4. November LATES robots: Friends or Foes? p.44Sasha Dee: Robots Where Do They Come From? Peter Cox: Robots and Computers and the Links with AutismGinny Whelan and Alison George: Automation and Alienation, Missing the Human Touch (Part 1 & 2)

5. January LATES: treatment or experiment? p.64Heide Pöstges: Introductory Talk Andrew Ogleby: From Nerves Back to SpiritPeter Cox: Getting Home to Find One’s House Destroyed by Fire (I said ECT) Sasha Dee: How Mary Shelley Came to Write The Horror Story Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

Kaya welcoming visitors to the July LATES tours around The Science and Art of Medicine gallery

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Flyer handed out for tours and participatory activities around the gallery The Science and Art of Medicine

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1. July LATES: Festina Lente

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Visit to the Science Museum Library

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“SpeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedSpeed has its origin in the Industrial Revolution.

Before the Industrial Revolution man had only a few machines that did not dominate man. Man had his natural speed with which he would move around and carry on his life for the centuries like that. Here man included woman. But now man and woman both were affected by the machines of the Industrial Revolution.

At the 2012 London Olympics games Danny Boyle’s introductory theatre presented how the British Industrial Revolution was upheld gloriously as Britain’s landmark contribution unsoiled by its Imperial heritage.

But detached from the patriotic jingoism, many of the social and scientific commentators see the shadowy side of the Industrial Revolution.

Here I bring to you some of the issues of today:

Steam was seen as a New Power that had hundred thousand horse powers in it.

It created steam driven engines that ran many train carriages that carried people from one place to another. It created steam driven sailing boats that carried armies around the world and conquered other people’s nations and created Empire and created the haughty attitude to dominate enslaved people.

At home, the steam driven engines created huge monstrous factories and mills that produced piles of sacks and bundles of productions that minted the packets of fortunes for the owners of these factories and mills that enabled them to carry on their unhealthy business without any hindrance as they bought powers in the governments. Spinning Jeanie destroyed the handlooms. Lord Byron made his first and last speech in the Parliament run by the rich aristocratic, aiming to save the handloom workers and disappointedly left the country.

These factories and mills worked around the clock for twenty four hours a day, Monday to Saturday six days a week. In these machineries ordinary people worked with little or no skills. They were men, women and children. They were shamelessly exploited by the owners under the most unhealthy and dangerous conditions. Each person worked more than 12 hours a day with very small breaks. These factories had machines with clock in clock out timing which frightened every worker. Three times late the worker was sacked. Children were to go beneath the awkward parts of moving machineries to clean, or repair the parts where they invariably lost their body parts. They became

Speed

Sasha Deespeaks in front of the “Man as Machine” display:

dependent on their parents and cursed by the family members. Survival was very hard for them.Almost all workers developed all kinds of aches, pains and strains and migraine was common among them all but more so in women. As most of the machineries demanded repetitive actions from the workers they developed repetitive bodily pains that transferred into psychic zones and many of them suffered from mental health issues long after they retired from the work. Women suffered more as this was the first time that they were doing the work that was very different from which they were used to in the pre-Industrial Revolution time.

But they could not complain. There was no proper medical help at the factories and besides the bosses would sack them as unsuitable for their jobs. The conditions for the rise of trade unions and Marxism became rife. More and more industrial accidents occurred. This condition lasted until the end of the Second World War.

So there occurred an unhealthy culture that created more illness in both physical and mental zones.

Now I take a quantum jump and come to Air Travel

Speed became a craze among all of us. Faster than the fastest gun alive became a demand. Fast and furious of the Formula One and similar deadly races always caused people to die in the crashes. On the roads fast and faster cars were invented on the fastest roads, faster than the fastest trains and railroads were built to go from one place to another for work or pleasure. After the sixties air travel became glamorous. Air busses were invented to carry massive numbers of people for a short or a long distance.

Only in the last few years people have been expressing the side effects of their travel and people are finding all is not well with the Speed Travelling.

I read here two abridged letters from the speed travellers:

James Jacob 10/01/2007 I am a neurosurgeon 44 and healthy when I travelled to Hawaii from San Francisco in the business class. I fell asleep and then suddenly woke up and found I developed pain and a knot in my right calf. I analysed and found it was a pulmonary embolus. My oxygen level was quite low. I was given more oxygen. On arrival they found there were clots in both the legs. They needed to be removed as they were blocking the blood veins. According to me and the doctors I would have died in my sleep while travelling. I suffered from phlebitis syndrome for a long time afterward for many years.

June: After my wedding I travelled to Switzerland by air. I developed cramp, swollen legs and dizziness. Doctors wrongly treated me for flue. After more than two years I suffer from unknown pains and un-easiness in my brains.”

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Peter Cox: Speed and its Links to Intelligence and Modern Life

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City life

Joey O’Gorman

Innovations such as the steam engine and the telegraph revolutionised the speed of transport and communications, spurring on the expansion of the British Empire, and this fuelled the growth of cities. The rise of industrialised factories in combination with the loss of the last common lands, drove masses of the poor from the countryside into the city, leading to an explosion of the urban population. Overcrowding and insufficient sanitation led to horrific epidemics, and people lived in mortal fear of previously unheard of diseases such as Cholera. In the early 19th century humoral medicine was still practiced. A healthy body, free of disease and with an untroubled mind was the result of a well-balanced constitution. An imbalance in one of the four bodily fluids, or “humors”, caused disease or worry – for example an excess of phlegm was associated with lethargy, black bile was the root of melancholia, those with aspic tongues had a surplus of choler, and a rush of blood to the head would lead to mania.

Traditional practices such as cupping, bleeding and purges could be used to reduce an excess of a specific humor thereby redressing the balance. As medical science advanced though, a new conception of disease came about. The connection between, overpopulated cities and the spread of disease by microorganisms, ushered in an era of innovative public works which addressed the provision of clean water and the efficient removal of sewage.

The Answer Ain’t Restraint

There was also a belief that personal relationships were being undermined by the new city living. Faster transport facilitated the mass movement of workers, eroding communities and minimising personal relationships. Private ownership trumped social welfare and many were left susceptible to the depressions of lonely lives, lived in alien environments. New psychiatric institutions appeared, and then, as now, access to

open spaces and nature was seen as key to relieving emotional stress. The Bethlem Royal Hospital itself changed sites multiple times in order to escape the continually spreading city; seeking out open spaces, where those in distress could find calm and recover from the trials of the modern life.

When a manic or “raving” person was perceived as threatening, mechanical restraints such as these manacles and this straight waistcoat were commonly used to control erratic behaviour. However, when the scandalous treatment of patients in these institutions was exposed there was a public outcry, and people demanded an end to the inhumane treatment. The physician John Conolly, who was a leading light in the non-restraint movement, called for a revolution in care. He said that – “mere abolition of fetters and restraints constituted only a part… Accepted in its full and true sense, it is a complete system of management”. The holistic practice he championed focused on treating patients well, providing them with good nutrition, clean clothes, and a stimulating, calm environment. Fellow physicians were appalled, one calling the system “a gross and palpable absurdity, the wild scheme of a philanthropic visionary, unscientific and impossible”. Thankfully, however, Conolly’s principles were successfully incorporated into medical practice, and patients in mental distress were increasingly treated with care and respect.

Nearly 160 years on these issues are still being debated. The need for and potential abuse of dangerous physical restraint techniques is questioned, and there is concern that chronic underfunding is resulting in unacceptable conditions and inhumane treatment in our care homes. An ever expanding pharmacopeia may have supplanted mechanical restraint in many situations, and many in society choose to turn a blind eye to those in dire need, but the problems remain. Again we must ask ourselves - are these interventions humane? And when do they mask poor institutional practice?

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Joey O’Gorman: City Life. This talk took place in front of a displayed straitjacket. The description in the Science Museum reads: “Strait-Jacket. Canvas and leather, c. 1930. The strait-jacket or strait-waistcoast was first described in 1772 in a textbook by David Macbride (1726-1778). It has been used both as an instrument of restraint and as a treatment. This example is a copy.”

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Description in the Science Museum: “Drug Castle. c. 1980. The East London Health Project built this ‘castle’ of drugs during the preparation of a poster relating to multinational drug companies.”

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It is a beautiful Saturday summer morning in London. She is queuing up to buy a train ticket at Victoria station. The queue is long and everybody seems to be in a rush. She can only think on the words she must say at the till “return ticket to Brighton please” (repeating in her head once and again). The queue is moving fast, the pressure builds up, she can feel her sweaty palms and her heart seems to beat faster every inch she gets closer. “Next!” It’s her turn. She approaches the till and says “return ticket to Brighton please” but the person on the other side is upset and starts telling her off, she doesn’t understand what is going on, she only can feel her heart beating faster and faster, it’s going to explode, “oh god!” She is trying to do everything as fast as she can while trying not to cry. Done! She has her ticket, runs to the closest empty spot she finds, a corner next to M&S, and finally she can cry. But her friend comes behind and says “come on it wasn’t a big deal, hurry up we are going to miss the train!”

The primary purpose of a pacemaker is to maintain an adequate heart rate, either because the heart's natural pacemaker is not fast enough, or because there is a block in the heart's electrical conduction system. But what can we do when the blockage is in our own minds? For some people controlling or ignoring a fast heartbeat can be easy but for others this can inhibit them from meeting new people, passing a driving test, getting a job or buying a train ticket.

With the rapid developments in technology our lives seem to be moving faster than ever, measuring the time goes hand in hand with the rhythm of our lives and the faster we move the faster we seem to forget ourselves. Finding quick solutions to our difficulties, perhaps a pill that makes us feel fine in a minute so we can carry on with our lives besides the pain, the anxiety, the hyperactivity; we just need to fit in our daily lives quickly. But how many times do we slow down the speed of our lives to really find the roots of those difficulties?

Pacemaker: What Makes Your Heart Beat Faster?

Viviana Ascencio

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Flyer handed out for tours and participatory activities around the gallery Glimpses of Medical History22

2. August LATES: Food For thought

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Food now also regards food in the past. Here in the Science Museum I cannot talk about the Biblical creation theory of man. But the talk has to be Darwinistic evolutionary. Here by the picture of the Neolithic man I certainly say that Man evolved from the animalistic life and separated from the Ape to become prehistoric primitive man.

I would like to mention the classic film One Million B.C. In the film two primitive groups of men were shown. One group with dark hair; the other was blond haired and blue eyed. They both had different ways of eating food. One was very animal like: whoever gets in the scrum ate. Might was right and the mighty ate too much while the weak starved themselves to destruction. In the other group they invented a system of co-operation and looking after the children, women and weak in the tribe. This is the beginning of the Civilization.

Man’s curiosity made him to learn how the grain grows and farming started. Man found he could domesticate some animals and so he kept cattle and sheep. Food became easy. Man also learned that the fresh water is easy by the flowing rivers. So he lived nearby the rivers.

So far it was good but man needed law and order. So the social contract came into existence. But side by side various theories of religious philosophies developed. Man’s eating habit was dominated by the religious festivals etc.

So far the food production for Man was not in the industrial scale but produced by the individual or group. Some foods were added for taste in them before eating.

Man was at the mercy of drought and famine. Most of the civilizations saw them as the cause of an unpleased god or gods.

Then we came to the Renaissance time. The Renaissance means the rebirth of the understanding. Man started looking at everything on earth and in the sky with logical and scientific understanding. This gave man more correct understanding about the ways of the world. But during this period the morality of man remained very pre-historic: invade, kill and grab the land, properties and wealth etc; man’s worse than animalistic instinct awaken!

James Watt’s steam engine created a landmark revolution. The Industrial Revolution occurred and with it technology became power. With it man started producing food at an industrial scale. He also started to realise how one could get bumper crop and fertilizers and other things came into operation to produce.

Food production went from the hands of the workers to the hands of industrialists and businessmen. To sell food and make more money became the ultimate aim. Technologists were employed to see how food could be packaged well and addictive so that people would buy more and more. Now we have an abundance of Food but it lost its individuality and became a run of the mill product. We have plenty of choice but it is determined by the industrialists. In short, we eat what they give us. Now we are in the period of diseases caused by eating either too much or too little.

Food now is more dangerous than it ever was.

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speaks in front of a diorama depicting a scene from the Neolithic era:

Food Now

Sasha Dee

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What’s Eating Us? Joey O’Gorman

In the late nineteenth century Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch led the way in identifying and describing many pathologies and showed that many infections were the result of bacterial infestations. Horrifyingly, it became apparent that certain microscopic pests were set on eating us! They were keenly adapted to digest specific organs and had life styles that promote their dissemination through human populations. These mechanistic conceptions of invisible organisms interacting with the human body revolutionised our understandings of health and disease.

until the Second World War, keeping our food and drink, as well as our wounds, clean was the only line of defence. Antibiotics were developed for human use in 1939 by Florey and Chain in Oxford, and since then have arguably saved more human lives than any other single technological innovation. In affluent countries we commonly expect a long life spent in good health, safe in the hands of modern medicine. For many a sanitised view of life has become entrenched. It is good and normal to be in perfect health and poor health has been socially stigmatised. While anxieties about terminal diseases have surely waned, neuroses about cleanliness have risen and we have been further distanced us from ancestral relationships with nature and food.

By 1955, decades of research had led to the development of many of the techniques, which underpin modern microbiology, and they are still important for the diagnosis and treatment of disease today. Here we see a bacteriology laboratory, which shares many things in common with a contemporary one. The big metal vessels at the back are autoclaves, which use high-pressure steam to sterilise equipment and liquids. There is nutrient agar jelly, which can be used to isolate bacteria. There are special dyes, which can be used to stain and identify specific strains.

We now know that we are covered from head to toe, and mouth to backside, in bacteria. And this is a good thing. Trillions of commensal organisms cover our every surface, forming complex ecological relationships with each other, our physiology and our environment. However, sometimes, mysteriously, this fine balance of microbe and man is upset and our digestive systems go haywire. Conditions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome can be debilitating both physically and emotionally. We can become socially isolated as our confidence to move freely is undermined. Without good medical understanding and worries about social stigmatisation people may suffer from depression or social anxiety. So while the foundations of bacteriology represented here hold many answers and salve bodily insults we need to keep mindful of the individual’s emotional and social needs. For our overall wellbeing we need to navigate complex relationships with both our human and microbial neighbours so that we can eat well and prevent being eaten.

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Peter Cox: Food, Antidepressants and Obesity

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Bacteriology laboratory, 1955 described by Joey O'Gorman in his talk “What's Eating us?”

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Don’t Drink the Water.Helen Batt

Ever since the city began to grow, the Thames has suffered, being treated little better than an open sewer. People took sick and died if they drank from it. Cholera, typhoid and dysentery were regular visitors to the capital so, not surprisingly, only the very poorest were driven to drink it. Alcoholic beverages were, in a sense, a public safety initiative: the brewing process, with its need for boiling water and the sterilizing effect of alcohol, (produced by yeast as a by-product of breaking down starch from the grains used in the brew), ensured that it was a far safer liquid to imbibe. Ale was also seen as a liquid food, an equivalent to bread. Rich in carbohydrates and usually containing spices and herbs, it was regarded as wholesome. Alcohol permeated all levels of London society: various trades would have a specific tavern to frequent and these acted as forms of employment agency for the dockers, plumbers, cordwainers and so on. ‘Pay tables’ would be assigned in them for wages to pass hands; the unemployed would be given drinks on credit from the landlord while they waited for work; gang-masters would expect drinks from their employees to secure their employment the next day. Even the ‘entry pay’ of an apprentice would usually be spent in the tavern and any poor or late work would be fined in the form of buying the master drinks. Work and culture were all imbued with alcohol. The Poet Laureate is still paid in wine (a butt of sack- around a thousand pints.) The 1700s produced the first moral panic involving alcohol. Even then, it was not a fear and hatred of alcohol as such, but for the effect it had. Gin began to be produced in copious amounts, fuelled by greedy landed gentry making huge profits on their harvests, and this Dutch invention soon took over London for the next 50 years. The famous advertisement for it, ‘Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for two, clean straw for nothing’, saw thousands die prematurely. During its heyday, one in four shops in St Giles was a gin house. Hogarth’s Gin Lane depicts the social breakdown caused by this strong liquor but his sympathetic treatment of more traditional drink- Beer Street- shows that alcohol was still regarded as a good thing, making for a convivial, happy and prosperous society. The 1830 Beer Act allowed anyone, on payment to the government of two guineas, to set-up their own alehouse. As the Industrial Revolution got into full swing, with large factories needing cheap, efficient labour to maximise their profits, the campaign against alcohol began in earnest. The Temperance Society, the Methodists and the Salvation Army, all fought for sobriety on moral grounds. In comparison, the medical view of alcohol and alcoholism is a relatively new one. The term ‘alcoholism’ wasn’t invented until 1849. Societies such as AA weren’t founded until the 1930s. London’s sewer-interceptor system fails, on average, 60 days a year, releasing around 100 million cubic metres of raw sewage into the Thames each time. Salmonella, E.coli and norovirus are the latest potential threats. Were it not for the water treatment plants safeguarding the drinking water, Londoners would be driven to the drink once more. Perhaps the nature of London, with its remorseless pace, its crowded pavements, its ruthless treatment of those who, for whatever reason, can’t get a secure step on the road, lends itself to drinking. Alcohol reduces social anxiety, blunts the needling sense of failure and provides a temporary respite from worries. It is the base of the earliest anaesthetic- ether. London has a long list of painful memories and, with alcohol, it is all too easy to forget.

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Helen Batt: Don’t Drink the Water.

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Flyer handed out for a presentation and participatory activities in and near the Launchpad Briefing Room

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3. September LATES: (re)presenting madness and mentaL distress

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Photos from the book Presumed Curable. An illustrated casebook of Victorian psychiatric patients in Bethlem Hospital (2003) by Colin Gale & Robert Howard shows photos and stories of Bethlem Hospital patients in the late Victorian period. Henry Hering’s portrait of Eliza Crapp, a Bethlem patient from 1858 to 1859.

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This photo portrays Theodora Weston, a patient in the Bethlem Hospital in 1895.

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“The art of painting and drawing started with the pre-historic man as we see the ancient cave paintings preserved in Spanish mountains.

This also is the beginning of the record of humanity. There is more forensic science now developed to know about the history of humans and the world from other materials like old skeletons, rocks, preserved fossils etc.

But art and architects still are seen as primary records of the human activities. Writings of the ancient books are added to these aids. We see portrait paintings became very near to the human likeness. Shakespeare mentioned the portraits and miniature paintings in his sonnets and plays. Later on getting one’s portrait painted became in vogue among the rich and down the centuries that vogue came to common people as well.

Of course the portraits were done more to praise the subjects so they were manipulated.

This was the situation when the invention of photography made photos become common place in the 19th century that led to the moving images and films to tell stories.

The use of the camera gave access to additional understanding of human cases. In the case of mental health, doctors started recording patients’ cases before and after the treatments. But some of those records are now found unreliable because both the camera person

and the subject of the photos became camera conscious and realism was lost. This was due to the history of painting portraits where it was done according to the buffing and buttering of the patrons. So sitting for the painter became an event where the subject started taking care to look at their best for the painting work and the painters too started making their subjects as good possible.

This tradition was even followed when the cameras were used for hospital recording.

“The camera never lies” was never true in the past and also now when the technology has arrived to a point that it has been able to create visuals that can be conjured up out of nothing.

However, cameras have become important assets in diagnostic work. Tiniest cameras are invented that could be injected in the innermost parts of the body and displaying images on the screen that can be enlarged to see and examine them.

But the danger that was present in the past of hospitals lying for the sake of their professional praise when might come back when the medical profession will find reasons to lower their high standard. This is now present in western countries and may not be followed in other parts of the world where political and religious anarchies are rife while in the west science is seen as the ultimate authority.”

Picture ThisHamlet Act III Scene IV Queen’s Closet

Hamlet: Look here, upon this picture and on this,

The counterfeit of two brothers!

Sasha Deespeaks in the Launchpad Briefing Room

accompanied by a visual presentation created by Roger Endacott

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Mad Pride is an organization which has bases world-wide. The uK branch stems from a small group of mental health patients who, in the late 1990s, challenged both the ethos and the structure of Southwark MIND, a charity then mostly run by the wives of consultants working at the Maudsley. Instead of being an exercise for ‘do-gooders’ dispensing charity to the ‘unfortunates’ who were caught up in the mental health system, Southwark MIND became a radical body run by the people who had seen the sharp end of the mental health services.From the start, they campaigned for the rights of mental health service users, protesting against proposed legislation that would allow the further erosion of the autonomy of the individual. An example of this was Mad Pride’s successful march against the organization SANE, which then supported the notion of ‘Compulsory Treatment Orders’ to be forcibly imposed on people deemed in need of incarceration. Thanks to their protest, the Compulsory Treatment Orders were dropped.They also began a campaign called ‘Reclaim Bedlam’. It was in response to a government - backed initiative to celebrate 750 years of the mental health institution. The festivities, in 1997, at the (now) Imperial War Museum, were disrupted by Mad Pride, who argued -loudly- just what was it about neglect, torture and ridicule over the centuries that ought to be celebrated?Mad Pride also reclaimed the pejorative language used to describe people who experience mental distress in much the same way as have those in the Black and the Gay communities reclaimed the words of abuse poured on them, turning them to a positive and proud statement.To this day, Mad Pride argues for the rights of those in mental distress: the right to be

Mad Pride.Helen Batt

heard and supported and one of their ongoing campaigns is highlighting the rise in suicides- something they call, ‘Murder by Society’, a society that not only fails to support but also actively discriminates against people with mental distress. Pick up any tabloid paper, any day of the week, and chances are you will read more than one lurid story, the ‘star’ of which will be called a ‘nutter’, or ‘psycho’ and you’ll be left in no doubt that the person concerned is from a different species and certainly nothing at all like you.Critics of Mad Pride argue that mental distress is not ‘an identity’ and therefore that there is nothing to be proud of. But mental distress and the labels they are given, take many forms, (there are currently 836 classified in the latest edition of the DSM), and for some, it is better to have a name for their distress or outlook on life and to provide a focus for campaigning for fairer treatment both within and without the mental health system.

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Peter Cox: The Benefits of Photography

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Ginny Whelan: Broken and Mended

I’d like to talk about photography as magic, as a form of alchemy that can turn base metal into gold. With these photographs it seems possible to create and capture an ‘ideal’ moment, an image of perfection frozen in an illusion of permanence. The mad become sane, the fat thin, the old young, the broken mended.We could even go from feeling dead inside to being truly alive, if only we could achieve perfection.

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Photography is a very powerful tool of the fashion, beauty and diet industries. They use it to feed and nurture our insecurities so that we might buy their products. We are encouraged to scrutinise our own appearance and everyone else’s; educated in spotting visual ‘flaws’; shown photos of celebrities’ bodies with all perceived faults highlighted. We are introduced to the concept of cellulite. Cosmetic surgery was once the preserve of Hollywood film stars. Today it seems to have become normalised. We must be vigilant about wrinkles; have our faces injected with poison. We are presented with emaciated catwalk models. Young women aspire to be a size 0, to have that coveted thigh gap. Appearance wins out over health. Eating disorders become glamorised. We should all aspire to be thin and young.

There is much pressure to conform. For example, academic and TV presenter, Mary Beard has been attacked for her appearance; described by one critic as ‘too ugly for television’. In a world where appearance is everything her academic achievements and her enthusiasm for her subject appear to count for very little. As long as someone looks the part, any knowledge they may have of their subject would seem to be a secondary consideration. What is wrong with her appearance anyway?

All of this can feed an obsession with body weight and/or appearance. It may contribute to an increase in eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder and can fuel anxiety and depression. This unrealistic striving for a very questionable ‘perfection’ can’t be good for anyone’s mental health. Instead our society could place greater emphasis on good health, be more accepting of aging and different body sizes and appearances; creative, academic and sporting achievements could be given more value than appearance. Currently the ordinary can look strange because we are so used to being presented with ‘perfect’, ‘ideal’ images. Photography could help to address this. Perhaps then we could achieve something that is genuinely transformative, create some real magic and make this society a more psychologically healthy place to be.

I’d like to talk about photography as magic, as a form of alchemy that can turn base metal into gold. With these photographs it seems possible to create and capture an ‘ideal’ moment, an image of perfection frozen in an illusion of permanence. The mad become sane, the fat thin, the old young, the broken mended.We could even go from feeling dead inside to being truly alive, if only we could achieve perfection.

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Flyer handed out for tours and participatory activities around the History of Computing gallery

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4. November LATES robots: Friends or Foes?

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God made Man in his own image. When man became civilized he started making Robot in his own image. Is man copying God or does he just want to be better than God? Or is it the need of man to be creative? The history of Art emphasises that the primitive cave paintings is the Man’s natural instinct to be creative differing from Man’s origin in the animal world. If so then logically God was creative as well? Why? Indian philosophy says that God’s creative art is to amuse Himself in his loneliness or is it his mad sport. This is just to make one thoughtful. In almost all civilizations from Japan to Europe there were mythical creations both real or imaginary that are similar to the modern idea of the Robot.

Robot is a word first used by Karel Čapek in his play called R.u.R. in 1920. It was a science fiction play in the Czech language. R.u.R. stands for Rossum’s Universal Robots, an English phrase used as the subtitle in the Czech original. It premiered in 1921 and introduced the word “robot” to the English language and to science fiction as a whole.

In its original Czech, robota means forced labour of the kind that the serfs had to perform for their masters’ properties, and is derived from rab, meaning “slave.”Recently there is a lot of hullaballoo created by the case called Pleb-gate. The word “Pleb” means slave or a “forced labourer” in the ancient Roman Civilization. Pleb is a derogatory term. The struggle between the Posh (Colonisers or Superior race) and the Plebs has started from the ancient time. Well reflected in my Poem called “Posh and the Plebs”

This struggle has been reflected in all fiction writers who dealt in the subject of creation of the imaginary image of man. It is there even in the old Bible when God created Man. God wanted Man to follow His orders like a slave master. Man rebelled like “Cool hand Luke” and god threw him out of his Paradise.

The idea of automata originates in the mythologies of many cultures around the world. Engineers and inventors from ancient civilizations thought over serving dolls;

The mechanical servants built by the Greek god Hephaestus (Vulcan to the Romans), the clay Golems of Jewish legend and clay giants of Norse legend, and Galatea, the mythical statue of Pygmalion that came to life. Since circa 400 BC, myths of Crete included Talos, a man of bronze who guarded the Cretan island of Europa from pirates.

In Indian literatures there are many human and non-human like figures that are mentioned. For example, in the Ramayana there is mention of Pushpak Aeroplane which moves in the sky according to the wishes of the owner of the plane.In the Mahabharata the chariot or vehicle of the King Yudhistira moves above the earth like the modern Hovercraft according to the wishes of the king as long as he is a chaste man.Also mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita (the Moral code for living for human beings) is that “The God lives in all beings but some behave like Robots ( Yantra- automated doll) driven by Maya the magical force.”Similar dolls are mentioned in the Buddhist religious texts and used as the protective armies against the enemies.In Renaissance Italy, Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) sketched plans for a humanoid robot around 1495. Da Vinci’s notebooks, rediscovered in the 1950s, contained detailed drawings of a mechanical knight now known as Leonardo’s robot, able to sit up, wave its arms and move its head and jaw.

In the play Tempest by William Shakespeare the characters Ariel and Caliban are mentioned who are more like modern androids. In Present time the Robot is seen as following:A robot is a mechanical or virtual agent, usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by a computer program or electronic circuitry. Robots can be autonomous or semi-autonomous and range from humanoids such as Honda’s Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility (ASIMO) and TOSY’s TOSY Ping Pong Playing Robot (TOPIO) to industrial robots, collectively programmed ‘swarm’ robots, and even microscopic nano robots. By mimicking a lifelike appearance or automating movements, a robot may convey a sense of intelligence or thought of its own.

Robots in popular culture: Robotic characters, androids (artificial men) or gynoids (artificial women), and cyborgs (also “bionic men/women”, or humans with significant mechanical enhancements) have become a staple feed of science fiction.

Robots, where do they come from?Sasha Dee

speaks at the History of Computing gallery:

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Appendix 1Posh and the Plebs

From the primordial timesTwo species evolved in the humanityWith separate DNAs within their frames;The Posh and the Plebs on the Sands of Time!The posh were quick and clever to grab the power,The land, the resources etc by the wild and foul meansThe plebs were slow to learn the ways of the posh And were enslaved for the posh purposes

But then once in a while in the docile seaOf the plebs, there appeared a ripple, quicklyGrew into a hurricane of havoc and ruinedThe iron cast empire built on the slavery

The plebs unearthed their voices which madeEach individual to stand up and heroically Say “I am Spartacus, I am Spartacus”; so The storm annihilated the world of the Posh

Not really! When the plebs groped in the abyssThey found the road maps of the Posh;And while walking up those roads the caterpillarsOf the plebs metamorphosed into the Posh:

Now the eyeless humanity waits and wanders To cleanse off itself from the poison of the Posh And of both the DNAs to acquire a brand new oneThat would never grow into the past ghost.

Appendix 2Robots Rule O.K?

The age of Robots isA sequential affair due toThe machine ageThat let the genie out of the bottleOf the Industrial RevolutionThat used many mechanically programmedMachines –

The computers created theDesk top and laptop PCs i.e. the personal computersThat led the revolutionary productions ofMobiles, skypes, tablets and so on and The long distance communicationIn the audio visual formats

This will eventually empower to createTheir own personal robotsCustom made

There then will be a necessity ofRobots creating their ownTrade unions forCreating working conditions

Today we are on the brink ofHandheld machinesThat could do long distanceAll kinds of tasks in jiffy

This may lead numerousMental health issuesAs human beings will have A vast time of leisure at their handsIn the old morality “Busy handsCure all pains” need to be reappraised

And the robots tooWill have mental health issuesAnd their own bedlamsAnd their own asylums

Instead of robots serving humansHumans will be serving robotsA topsy-turvy, upside down World will be in the offing

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Peter Cox: Robots and Computers and the Links with Autism

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Drawing of a robot created by oral historians from On The Record for an oral history training. The post-its reflect our feelings, emotions and associations with the project

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Automation and Alienation: Missing the human touchGinny WhelanERNIE is a machine used to generate winning Premium Bond numbers. The letters stand for ‘Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment’. There have been four generations of ERNIE. I repeat, ERNIE is a machine and yet every year people continue to send ‘him’ Christmas and Valentine’s Day cards. He is the nice machine that gives them money.

When ERNIE was born, sorry, built in 1957 the world was a very different place. Computers were huge things that could fill a room and robots were simply the stuff of science fiction. If you phoned your local council, your bank or any other organization you were put straight through to a human being; people served you in shops; librarians would help you with any enquiries.

Nowadays, of course, we live in a world of ever increasing automation. When we ring our bank, local council or utility suppliers the phone is answered by a machine. The automated message has become the norm, making it increasingly difficult to speak directly to a human being; self-service supermarket checkouts are rapidly taking over from till operators; librarians are far more likely to point you at the nearest computer.

Does this increasing reliance on automation and computer technology make our lives any easier? For those of us who are depressed, anxious, socially phobic, feeling cut off from reality or simply very lonely, it could feel as though those last, very small but vital points of human contact are being pruned away. For a person living alone, cut off from any friends or family the world can seem a very cold place. A few friendly words exchanged over the phone or at the local shop could provide a snippet of the human contact they are missing.

So if the modern robot or automated device leaves us cold, what might we prefer? It was looking at Charles Babbage’s machines that first gave me the idea of designing my own robot. I think his calculators look beautifully handmade and we can see all the workings. Even if we’re not sure what they do, they look great! I love the quirkiness of some of the other early designs. For example, J. Sauter, an 18th century watchmaker who included little gold lions on his calculating machine.

Robots

Alison GeorgeHow many machines have you interacted with today?Raise your hand for:Self-service check outOyster card machineCoffee machineComputers Have those interactions been satisfactory? Pleasant? Even enjoyable? Most of us probably wouldn’t take it as far as calling it enjoyable. But it has been suggested that the personification of machines and robots, that is to say giving them more human attributes and characteristics, will make them easier to accept into our day-to-day lives. For example the simple use of the first person by the U.S postal service’s automated machines has led to people inadvertently thanking the inanimate objects at the end of their transaction. Behind me, we have E.R.N.I.E short for the Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment – less of a friendly ring to it, really. ERNIE produced the winning numbers for premium bonds.Whether it’s the adorable persona that ERNIE was given or the cash incentive, ERNIE receives a large amount of post (probably more than you and me nowadays) with people thanking him for choosing their numbers, imploring him to give them the prize or just a good old-fashioned valentine’s card.

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These collages of robots were created by visitors in CoolTan Arts’ “Make Your Own Robot” workshop in between the gallery tours

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These are the descriptions belonging to some of the collages displayed above. The My Robot manual was developed

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by Heide following Ginny’s idea of visitors creating a robot according to their own wishes and creative imagination

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Flyer handed out for tours and participatory activities around the Mind Maps: Stories from Psychology gallery

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5. January LATES: treatment or experiment?

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Welcome everyone to our interactive tour around the Mind Maps exhibition. I’m going to say a few sentences about the exhibition as it was set up by the Science Museum. And then I’ll give you a brief overview on how we’ll engage with this exhibition on our guided tour.

The Mind Maps exhibitionThe exhibition covers the history of psychology and psychiatry in Western countries over the last 250 years. It is set up chronologically. You walk into another period every time you pass one of the arches. under each arch you can find an object that points forwards and backwards in time. The exhibition space is divided into two sections. On the inner side, you see objects from scientific experiments in laboratories. On the outer side, you find objects representing different types of treatments.

Our guided tourThe main questions that we stumbled on while preparing for this event was: What are the questions that have guided scientific experimentation and the development of treatment methods?First of all, we think that scientists have carried out experiments in order to understand how the mind and body works. In other words, we believe that scientists have tried to find an answer to who we are by exploring what drives our behaviour and senses. While these are deep philosophical questions that have been asked by people all over the world for a long time, the objects on display here represent exclusively scientific developments during a very small period of Western history. The perspective that underlies the exhibition reflects the common scientific approach since the Enlightenment, when the sciences, Western philosophy and religion/spirituality became distinct disciplines. We intend to overcome such disciplinary boundaries on our tour tonight!

Introductory talk to the event ‘Treatment or Experiment?’

Heide Pöstges

Secondly, we consider the motivation to influence and control people’s behaviours as the driving force behind the developments of psychological treatments. While treatment methods are hence linked to social norms and values, they can also be expressions of unequal power relations between different members of our society. Throughout the tour, we’ll unmask implicit assumptions about what normal behaviour is and who decides how we should behave. We’ll also question whether there is a clear line between treatments and experiments or whether this line has been blurred.

We’ll give three talks, in which we’ll explore how different viewpoints alter what we see and perceive. Special attention will be given to alternative views to biomedicine and the patient’s perspective. We’ll also touch on consensus within sciences, patient consent to treatment and how the history of psychology is intertwined with broader industrial developments such as the use of electricity.

Later, there will be time for discussion and we’ll also invite you to play games to engage all your senses. We believe that both can help to further explore the mind and frame our own mind maps.One thing that we feel is missing in this exhibition is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which includes a standard psychiatric manual that is used by health professionals to diagnose mental health conditions. We’ve added a copy of the DSM to the exhibition in the format of an artwork by the artist Bekki Perriman who is here tonight to answer any questions. We invite you to enhance your mindfulness by slipping into the roles of an explorer, philosopher and artist! We’ll lead you around the exhibition the other way, since we’ll critically reflect on what progress has been made so far!

Please follow us to our next stop.

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Bekki PerrimanTitle: Picking HolesMaterials: Destroyed copy of book DSM-IVDimensions: H25cm, W17.5cm, D5cm

The DSM-IV is the former diagnostic manual psychiatrists used to make a mental health diagnosis. The new DSM-5 is causing huge controversy about how we label people and what these diagnoses actually mean. This work is a small installation piece based on the DSM-IV. I have destroyed the manual by drilling holes right through the book – the holes are a metaphorical statement about the holes in diagnosis. Being given a psychiatric diagnosis can have such a profound impact on a persons life. It changes how you think about yourself and how other people think about you – for some people it is a positive experience and helps them gain understanding, for others the experience is of being judged and many of these diagnoses carry a huge amount of stigma.

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Welcome. Thank you for coming.

Here we are amongst the self-help books, and the aim of this talk is to put forward an alternative view of the Brain and Nervous System and empowering ways of improving their functioning, with special reference to Mental Health. And which in turn, can also help generate Creativity, especially relevant as CoolTan Arts believes mental well-being is enhanced by the power of Creativity.

Eastern philosophy/medicine views things differently to here in the West. In fact Chinese Medicine doesn’t really recognise the brain at all, referring to it only as ‘The Sea of Marrow’ whereas the Heart, where the spirit resides, is seen as the most important organ, acting like an Emperor or Empress overseeing the running of its kingdom, the body, with the body also referring to the emotions and spirit.

Sahaja Yoga

However, the area I want to concentrate on today is meditation, specifically Sahaja Yoga. Sahaja is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘Spontaneous’ and Yoga actually refers to ‘Union’ and not a form of exercise requiring a rolled-up purple mat. Therefore, it is aimed at helping a person find ‘Spontaneous Unity’ with the energy of the universe. Sahaja Yoga is non-religious, based on ancient Indian philosophy and was founded by a lady called Shri Mataji in the 1970’s, who was also nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize.

[Refer to Subtle System Chart – Past/Present/Chakras/ 6 Plexus/Endocrine Glands/1 Limbic]

Sahaja meditation is based on the chakra Subtle System, which through meditation becomes stimulated/cleansed as a deep internal energy called ‘Kundalini’ is released from the sacrum bone and travels up the spine activating these 7 energy centres, related to Nerve Plexuses/Endocrine Glands, until released as a

From Nerves back to Spirit

Andrew Ogleby

cool-breeze from the top of the head. Where a person is aware of noises, sounds and smells around them in a state called ‘Thoughtless Awareness’, but does not attach onto them, staying in the present, not thinking about the past or future.

In terms of the physiological process occurring, as this subtle energy ascends through the spinal cord, the Para-Sympathetic Nervous System is activated relaxing the body, reducing amongst other things, blood pressure and heart-rate, and in-turn activating the Limbic system via the release of Neuro-Chemicals in the Brain, relaxing the Mind and leading to feelings of joy.

Evidence on Mental Health

There has been a lot of scientific research carried out on Sahaja Yoga and Meditation over the last 20 years. However, I’m mainly going to refer to that presented by Prof Katya Rubia, from the Institute of Psychiatry, at a recent seminar I attended. [Refer to Presentation Hand-out]

1-Where she asked the Question ‘What is Meditation?’ and gave a definition

2-And from findings also showed what the Physiological and Neuro-physiological effects of Meditation are

3-And the effects meditation can have on Depression and Why to Meditate?

[Refer to Charts]

These are also charts showing the effects of Sahaja Yoga/Meditation on General Mental Health and Anxiety compared to other interventions

[Refer to Presentation Hand-out]

Lastly there is an Overview of the Clinical Effects of Sahaja Yoga/Meditation

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Creativity[Refer back to Subtle System Chart]

All of the chakras are associated with different qualities which become enhanced through the practice of meditation. However, the one I’m going to concentrate on today, and which is of special relevance to CoolTan Arts is the ‘Swadhisthan’ where the energy for our Creativity is generated.

This does not necessarily mean someone suddenly becomes artistic, but the space that meditation creates when the mind becomes still, allows the senses to become heightened allowing for the greater appreciation/expression of art, music and beauty, especially that found in the natural world and within ourselves, ‘As a person becomes the creative instrument of the collective unconscious, without ego to distort the purity of the art’.

ConclusionThis has been just a brief introduction to meditation and the positive effects it can have on mental wellbeing and the expression of creativity.

However, don’t just take my word for it. The only way to really appreciate it is by experiencing it for yourselves. Sahaja Yoga is natural, sustaining and has no side-effects.

There are FREE classes all over London on different nights of the week, and indeed all around the World, so if interested and want to find out more, there is further information on the table.

I have been going to classes myself for over a year and a half now, as well as practising at home, and have experienced quite a few interesting things over this time.

So if I can, I will endeavour to answer any questions you may have?

Thank You. Questions?

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[Subtle System Chart – Past/Present /Chakras/ 6 Plexus/Endocrine Glands/1 Limbic]

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Description in the Science Museum: “Ectron ECT machine with unilateral headset, uK, c. 1955. As ECT spread, the machines became simpler and safer to operate, although concerns about patient safety persisted. Some investigators reported that ECT given on only one side of the head resulted in quicker recovery times and fewer cognitive side effects.”

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At the August LATES event, Peter presented a talk called Food, Antidepressants and Obesity at the pharmacy in the Glimpses of Medicine gallery.

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This text was written by Jean Cozens and was presented for the first time on 25 April 2012 as part of the pilot project. The comments are written by Peter Cox in preparation of his talk on ECT.

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Peter Cox: Getting Home to Find One’s House Destroyed by Fire (I said ECT)

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Description in Science Museum: “Essai théoretique et expérimental sur le galvanisme (Theoretical and Experimental Essay on Galvanism), by Giovanni Aldini, 1804. This plate shows some of the experiments that inspired Frankenstein.”

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How Mary Shelley Came to WriteThe Horror Story Frankenstein;

or, The Modern PrometheusSasha Dee

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“From the time of the Elizabethan era Europe was thrilled by many landmark happenings. In search of spices European sailors discovered lands and people that were unknown to the Europeans, Muslims, Indians and Chinese, the known civilizations and cultures that aired realities, greed, good, bad and ugly imaginations. The Renaissance in Italy, the reformation in Germany and the pioneering spirit in Spain gave freedom to the European mind that was imprisoned for centuries long by Greco-Roman Christian regimentation in the populace.

Science and Enlightenment gave freedom to experiments in all kinds of ways of life without the interference of religious rod.

Mary’s mother Mary Wollstonecraft was a spirited woman who wrote articles and pamphlets to spread women’s equal rights to education and knowledge. She had one daughter from her first lover. Her name was Fanny Imlay. She met William Godwin who was an enlightened man to the bones and spirits who wrote many articles and books and became a pleasant philosopher followed by crowds of people to listen his talks. Mary married Godwin and soon gave birth to her second daughter called after her as Mary but died after a few days. Godwin who already had Clair, his first wife’s daughter, happily brought up all the three daughters and when Mary Godwin was about fifteen he announced humorously, “I have three highly educated daughters.” Like the pre-“Pride and Prejudice” situation.

The end of the eighteenth century was dominated by the various inventions, the Industrial Revolution and more so the air was electrified by Electricity that could be created by inventions like battery cells and dynamos. People were wonder struck by the play of the electricity as novelty item, as cure for the many diseases, as power to drive machineries and above all the mystic invisible creativeness to an extent that electricity could revive the dead bodies to return to life.

The Italian Doctor and Professor Galvani became famous for passing an electric current to the nervous centre of the dissected frog that would twitch its legs. His son Aldini came to London and did similar experiment in a medical theatre with a dead body of a famous criminal and made it twitch all over and felt the audience that the dead came to life again.

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Percy Bysshe Shelley was the first son of his father who was the first Baronet of Castle Goring and also an Earl and an MP of the Whig party. He wrote poetry and published under his pen name Victor. He went to Oxford university and continued his writing. He did experiments with electricity and other new scientific ideas. He wrote a long Essay “the Necessity of Atheism”. Because of that he was thrown out of the university. He was 19 years old and eloped with 16-year-old Harriet Westbrook who was writing passionate letters as his poetry became very famous. He made her pregnant, but when she gave birth to a daughter he became tired of her and left her and came to London.

There he met Lord Byron and both visited William Godwin. They were three of a kind. All the three daughters of Godwin fell madly, truly and badly in love with Percy. Percy again eloped with Mary who was just 15 years old to Switzerland through the Napoleonic wars of France. Mary was thrilled with the adventure and returned pregnant. She gave birth to an immature baby that died in two days. Seeing this Shelley ran away to Paris with Claire and they had long lurid time. Percy’s outrageous and heartless behaviour made deep impact on young Mary.

Percy came back and became friends with Mary again. William Godwin was in debt but Percy generously paid all that out and gave more money to Godwin. He took Mary to Switzerland. Claire had developed relationship with Byron. In 1816, the couple famously spent a summer with Lord Byron, John William Polidori and Claire near the Lake Geneva in Switzerland.

Here it was raining badly all through the week. The English party had nothing else but to sit by the fire, drink, eat and talk about the modern inventions, sciences, and enlightenments and romanticism. During late evenings they read the French translations of German Gothic horror stories called Fantasmagoriana. That made the party to write their own horror stories in the following day. Mary dreamed that night that a mad scientist like Luigi Galvani created a human in his horror castle using dead parts of human and animals joined together and used the electricity to put life and energy into it. But the next day she could not write about it. The experience of the dream was too much for her. Shelley who already had written and published Gothic novels besides his poetic output did a draft for young Mary. Byron wrote a draft-story called Vampyre from the superstition of his travels in the Christian Muslim areas of Ottoman Empire. But lost interest in it. His friend Polidory wrote the complete story from it. Later on Byron published it and a new genre of horror literature in English began.

Mary wrote the story and called it The Modern Prometheus, Victor Frankenstein. The famous German philosopher Immanuel Kant called Benjamin Franklin “The Modern Prometheus” who did many experiments and brought Electricity to America.

Prometheus was a Greek God in mythology and created first man and gave him the fire stolen from Zeus. For that act he was cursed; every day an eagle would eat his liver that would grow again. Mary referred to the above story in her heading “The Modern Prometheus”. It was published in London and had some success. But Mary rewrote it again in three volumes and kept the name as it was. It was the story of Dr Victor Frankenstein’s mad passion of creating life from dead parts and the creation looking bizarre and wildly out of control and Dr Victor becoming frenzied.

The book became very famous all through the Victorian times and to date as well. Mary Shelley was and is remembered only for this book even though her other works were extremely good.Reading in between the lines one can now find more horrors in the story of Frankenstein. Today the name Frankenstein is associated with the wild creature which Mary called “Adam” after the first man. Many times when a medical experiment goes wrong it is also named Frankenstein. This goes well with the history of labels in scientific inventions as they always go with the name of the scientist rightly or wrongly.

Dr Victor Frankenstein called “Adam” with names like “thing”, Daemon”, “monster”, “creature”, “devil”, “fiend”, “wretch” and “it”. When Frankenstein converses with the monster in Chapter 10, he addresses it as “vile insect”, “abhorred monster”, “fiend”, “wretched devil” and “abhorred devil”.

Mary’s name for the mad Doctor is “Victor Frankenstein”. Percy Shelley’s first book of poems is written under the name of Victor. Victor is also the name for God who created Paradise Lost in Milton’s creation of which Mary was very fond. Shelley often talked about his work as a “creation”. Though Mary loved Shelley very much she was deeply impacted by the wild and more Satanic quality of Satan in Paradise Lost in both men Shelley and Byron. There is more than just the Gothicness of horror constantly drawn out of the Story of Frankenstein.

Mary’s sister Fanny Imlay was heartbroken as neither Shelley nor Byron paid any attention to her and always was excluded from their adventurous life. Besides, Shelley only included Mary and Claire in his will. Then Byron too had an affair with Claire and left her and their daughter good money. But he did not come to see her burial when she died. Fanny Imlay committed suicide by hanging herself. About the same time Shelley’s first wife came to London to see him but Shelley did not see her. She was pregnant and poor. All these had disturbing effects on Mary who was just about 19 years old when she finished her Frankenstein Story. Moreover Shelley was writing his poetic drama “Prometheus Unbound” at the time. Mary’s name “The Modern Prometheus” was her hidden slant and ironical repartee on his opus.”

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We created these games for visitors to engage with the exhibition in a mindful way, encouraging them to use all their senses and to create new connections between objects.

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Description in the Science Museum: “Sherrington’s cat, UK, c. 1920. Sherrington used this model in lectures to illustrate how the cat’s eyes, whiskers, neck, legs and tail continued to work together even when the ‘highest’ portion of its brain, the cerebral cortex, had been removed.”

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Description in the Science Museum: “This hand-cranked magneto-electric machine for ‘nervous diseases’ by Negretti and Zambra (uK, 1854-1900f) contained instructions on how to use it at home for electro-therapy.”

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Description in the Science Museum: “D’Arsonval cage from Riviere’s clinic, Paris, c. 1890-1910. The patient stood inside the cage while harmless high-frequency alternating current from the tesla coil on the desk pulsed around the metal framework, generating powerful electromagnetic fields inside the body. The treatment was claimed to stimulate metabolism, reduce obesity and eczema, and temporarily relieve nervous pains.”

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Electro-therapy couch, uK, c.1904, used for high-frequency electro-therapy, with metal handlesmounted on the wooden armrests and a large metal plate under the back rest.

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We invited visitors to add their thoughts and remarks to the collection by posting post-its on the displays. This painting displays a headache treatment using weak electrical shocks and communication with the patient. The description reads: “The power of the therapy was not so much in the electrical spark but in the interaction between practitioner, patient and spectators, as these two paintings show.” The post it says: “We don’t know this! The painting may suggest this but it is ridiculous to dismiss as ‘placebo’ stuff we don’t understand!”

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This post-it is placed on a display of the Portrait bust of John Wesley by Wedgwood. The description reads: “Although Wesley is remembered today for his religious leadership, he was also a pioneer in the use of medical electricity. Wesley established dispensaries in London where the poor could get electrical shocks for free, as he believed that doctors were refusing to use a new technology that was safe and more effective than alternative treatments.”

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My initial connection with CoolTan Arts came from seeing one of their flyers on the counter of the Health Food Shop in Denmark Hill, where I work as an acupuncturist. This was for a sponsored walk being organised to mark World Mental Health Day and which was to commence from the Maudsley Hospital, a short distance away from the shop itself. As a result of already having an interest in mental health issues, and from working as a volunteer for The Stress Project a mental health charity in North London, I quickly decided to sign up and take part.

I found the walk a wonderfully uplifting and enlightening experience, and afterwards looked to see if there was an opportunity to become directly involved with CoolTan Arts. From their website, I was instantly drawn to the Science Museum Project and thought this would be a fantastic opportunity to become part of it. So I made contact and joined as preparation was being made for the ‘Robots’ LATES event. As it transpired, I was a bit late to actually present an item on the night. However, I did have a few ideas regarding possible activities.

One of these being creative ways of helping cheer up ‘Derek the Depressed Dalek’ by asking people to think ‘outside the box’ and attach coloured pieces of paper, containing creative ideas/activities to the outside of a black box, thus in-turn creating a positive, colourful creation from an initially perceived negative one. Nevertheless, even though it was a little disappointing that I wasn’t able to be directly involved, I did actively help out with the running of the event. Also, I made arrangements with the artist Stu MacKay of Cut n Paste Graphics to display his fabulous Dalek inspired work on the night. The evening itself proved a real success, which I found to be largely a very enjoyable, interactive experience.

Preparation was then on for the next ‘Psychology’ LATES event, involving a fascinating visit to the Bethlem Royal Hospital museum. Contact was also made with the award winning artist Bekki Perriman to display her creatively unique adaptation of a DSM manual. A review and transcript of my talk are presented elsewhere in this publication. Needless to say, even though the crowd at the Science Museum on the night seemed quite daunting at first, and I wasn’t quite sure how the talk had been received, it was a great

ROLL-UP, ROLL-UP AND DON’T BE LATE FOR THE MAGNIFICENT LATES ExPERIENCE…

Andrew Ogleby

turn out and also very exciting/rewarding to have worn the orange jacket for CoolTan Arts, talking about something that greatly resonates with me.

Overall, I have felt extremely privileged and fortuitous to have taken part in this project. Even though it has been over a relatively short period, in this time I have come into contact with some very interesting people and had the opportunity to gain ‘behind the scenes’ access to different organisations such as the Wellcome Trust Library, Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Science Museum itself. On top of this, has been the motivating experience of working collaboratively in such a creative way and with an enthusiastic team, putting together the project. Similarly, from also having received invaluable input from various esteemed professionals within their respective field.

Therefore, I sincerely hope and believe that the endeavours undertaken in this project will prove a tremendously valuable documented piece of work. To show what can be achieved when such factors come into place and creativity is given the expressive space for it to stimulate and flourish.

Roll-up, Roll-up and Don’t be Late!For the Last of the LATES experience

Presented for your Pleasure, By the Fabulous Museum Team and CoolTan CrewWhose iconic Orange hi-viz vests, Will help guide you throughTreatment or Experiment? A Virtual RealityThe Show enhancing Mental Well-being, By the Power of Creativity

So Prepare to be Shocked and Amazed at the use of E.C.TGasp in Awe at the Wonders of Alternative TherapyListen in Horror and Captivation of the Origin, For the Prometheus inspired Frankenstein, by M. ShelleySee through the holes of a D.S.MBefore taking Time to Explore,The remaining realms of Fact and Fantasy

Roll-up, Roll-up and Don’t be Late!Before the Sun Sets, on the Last CoolTan-LATES

REVIEW

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From left top to left bottom: Alison George, Sasha Dee, Viviana Ascencio, Helen Batt. From left to right: Roger Endacott, Sarah Chaney, Bogdan Staiculescu, Heide Poestges, Michelle Baharier, Andrew Ogleby, Joe Sutton, Kaya Volke, Kayte McSweeney, Peter Cox, Yuca Ishizuka, Joey O’Gorman, Susan McNally. From top right to bottom right: Richard Muzira, Ginny Whelan, Paul Donaghy.

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CoolTan Arts Stays Up LATES: A Creative and Interactive Journey Exploring the History of Science and Mental Health

Published by CoolTan Arts 2014

224-236 Walworth Road, London SE17 1JE

© CoolTan Arts 2014

The authors of the texts herein have asserted their rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of this work

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available at the British Library

This project was realised with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Science Museum

ISBN 978-0-9524190-4-4 COOLTAN ARTS

www.cooltanarts.org.uk

Photographs by contributorsEdited and designed by contributors

Printed and bound by Blissetts

CoolTan Arts Stays Up LATES: A Creative and Interactive Journey Exploring the History of Science and Mental Health Keywords: alienation, art, archive, alternative medicine, antidepressants, anxiety, autism, automation, bacteria, Bethlem Royal Hospital Museum, brain, city, collages, computers, CoolTan Arts, creativity, depression, destigmatisation, discoveries, display, drink, drugs, DSM, ECT, electricity, E.R.N.I.E, exhibition, experience, experiment, film, food, forced treatment, Frankenstein, game, guided tours, Hamlet, health, heart, heritage, history, humanity, image, Institute of Psychiatry, intelligence, invention, laboratory, Largactyl Shuffle, leaflet, London, Luigi Galvani, machines, Mad Pride, Mary Shelley, medication, mental distress, mental health, modernity, modern life, museum, nerves, normal, obesity, objects, pacemaker, panic, participation, picture, Pegasus Computer, perfection, philosophy, photography, plebs, posh, psychiatry, representation, research, restraints, robots, science, Science Museum, self-help, Shri Mataji, side effects, stigma, straight jacket, speed, spirit, talk, technology, test, theatre, therapy, thought, treatment, video, volunteers, water, William Hogarth, yoga

ISBN 978-0-9524190-4-4 Published by CoolTan Books 2014Third floor 224-236 Walworth RoadLondon SE171JEwww.cooltanarts.org.uk

Registered charity number 1064231, Company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales reg 3244552