Hi Liz,
Found your art therapy blog and your willingness to answer questions has encouraged me to ask one! I’m an artist looking at a career in art therapy, my work is in multimedia – sound art, video, technology and interactivity. If you know of any courses or institutions that have a leaning in this direction, or any relevant resources or communities you could point me towards that would be fantastic!
Thanks, Dan.
Hi Daniel,
In my experience, any art therapy program would embrace multimedia art making. However, when it comes to in-class assignments and experientials, you may encounter that the only supplies available are “traditional” ones (paint, clay, markers, colored pencils, etc…) That being said, unless the experiential involves teaching you something specific about traditional media use in the art therapy session, there is no reason that you couldn’t bring in your laptop and create artwork on it, right there in class.
At this point, the art therapy community is standing on the edge of truly accepting technology within its teaching and practice. I doubt you will find any art therapy schools that offer a digital art therapy class. Also, I would expect that due to budget concerns, you may not have access to the technology that you want and need in your internships. But—you can find ways to begin integrating your artistic expertise…it all depends on your resourcefulness and creativity! From the sound of it, I’m sure you have an abundance of both :)
In my opinion, we need more art therapists who have knowledge of new media and technology in the field. So if you came to my program, I would first encourage you to learn the basics of art therapy (with traditional media) and then begin exploring the “how to” and the “benefits of” integrating technology within the therapeutic milieu. My advice is that when you’re checking out schools in your area, openly ask questions about the attitude of the school/professors regarding the use of technology within your art therapy studies and practicums. Through open dialogue you should be able to find the schools that resonate best with you.
Warm Regards,
– Liz
Hi,
I know this isn’t directly related to educational opportunities, but many survivors use online and technology based art therapy for their healing. Places like Polyvore, DeviantArt and others have the ability to create or showcase survivor art in various electronic formats. While PhotoShop and it’s equivalents allow for creation of art on the survivors computer, and online art sites often allow for creation and printing or saving of different art works.
This technology based therapy has a different feel than the more traditional ways of art therapy, but has possibilities that are otherwise impossible for some survivors – as an example, I can’t collage in real life, because I can’t cut up magazines, but I can use Polyvore for my online collaging without problem. Also as a fairly poor artist, the technology based art forms gives me options that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to achieve.
It would be great to have more awareness amongst therapists for the technology based work, my therapists have been largely unaware of it.
Take care,
castorgirl
Hi Castorgirl!
I completely agree. Digital art holds various possibilities and may resonate with certain people in very positive ways. However, when it comes to online digital creations, many art therapists would be wary of privacy issues. In fact, its mainly the privacy issues that are holding up the art therapy community for jumping fully into the digital realm.
I hope that with more discussion and some guidance from various ethical boards (such as the American Art Therapy Association), art therapists will become confident in the “dos and don’ts” of the digital world.
Thanks for your insight!
– Liz
I’m not 100% positive but I’m pretty sure NYU’s art therapy program includes digital art. Also I feel like more art based schools would be willing to incorporate it.
I am currently using technology like Polyvore and Oovoo to do internet based expressive arts groups of grieving people in remote locations. There are many people who have little or no access to grief support in their communities, which is why I started this work. I am hoping to grow, it is fledgling because I launched it just as the economy tanked.
I also am an installation artist and have incorporated an increasing amount of interactive components of expressive arts in my installations – I have had some success here. I think the installation artists may be leading the way here, IMHO. That said, it is not about formal training as much as integration of various classic educational models. My most recent installation used intelligent lighting and sound design. It was an interactive space and was pretty successful… and I hope memorable.
I would love to continue dialogue with people interested in forging these ideas…
Hi Kim!
I’m curious to know how you integrate Polyvore and Oovoo together. Do you ask the group to make artwork on Polyvore and send the group a link, to be discussed through your chat on Oovoo? Do you watch each person create their collage through desktop sharing?
Also, it seems that Oovoo is super easy and useful, but not secure? See this link: http://forum.oovoo.com/forums/p/2564/7139.aspx I would like to look into this further…particularly for the chat room feature.
Its very neat that you’re using your installation art making and shows as a test ground for integrating expressive arts and technology. If you have any examples of your last exhibit, I’d be interested in taking a look!
Also, have you check out the Digital Art Therapy Group on LinkedIn? It;s a great place to chat with like-minded art/techno/therapy folks:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=2172516
Thanks for writing!
– Liz
Liz – Thank you for your kind interest.
Right now I am working specifically with a handful of younger women who are very comfortable online. I am only addressing grief and loss. These factors mean that I am mostly working with young widows. My level of experience is still new and extremely small, I think for numerous reasons. But I keep plugging away on it to develop and grow it over time.
By nature of the group online environment, it really can not be controlled for privacy anyway. Each person is online in their own home and I cannot guarantee each participant’s home environment. Therefore, people need to be comfortable with those perimeters. That is limiting of the practice, but I liken it to group expressive arts where you are in a group space – you do not know if a janitor is going to walk through unexpectedly. Anyway, I am clear that we do not have high privacy levels.
When I first got online with grieving people – meeting them in forums and on Facebook – some of them lived in the middle of nowhere and had no access to support. This is why I was wanting to start offering this kind of experience.
I have to admit that I not fully integrated the Oovoo and the Polyvore yet – and when I read what I wrote I can see why you thought I had! Polyvore sharing has been done through email. I think that Polyvore collages are less spontaneous than other art materials – it may take longer based on the search for the right images, whereas a drawing or a clay project can be more predictable for the time you allocate.
I have some really bad photos of the last installation art project I did. I will have to figure out how to email them to you.
I have to say that the economy has made it harder for me to keep going. Therefore, I have a new job as director of development that has kept me really busy. But I will likely always be online for grieving people, because it is my calling.
I love your blog and what you share. You are an inspiration!