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Spotlight on Judy Weiser

Judy Wieser R.Psyc, ATR is a pioneer of PhotoTherapy, an art therapy technique that unfortunately too many art therapists don’t know about or understand (and she’s a fellow Canadian!). Ginger Poole from the Digital Art Therapy Group on LinkedIn conducted a brief written interview with Judy about PhotoTherapy. Judy discusses her techniques along with why it’s important for art therapists to understand and think about the impact of digital media on our lives. She points out that many art therapists over 30 are unaware of how prolific digital media and pictures are, as well as how easily they’re manipulated– blurring the boundaries of fantasy/wish and reality. Furthermore, she touches upon the idea of accessibility of one’s pictures, artwork, privacy and copyright issues.

Part of Judy’s message, is my opinion as well— Art Therapists! Don’t get left behind! It’s getting to the point that knowing about new technology/digital media and how to integrate it into one’s art therapy practice is not an option. It’s a must. As we become more technologically dependent and integrated, not having these skills will set you apart from your younger clients, causing a schism between your understanding of your world versus theirs.

How is it that many art therapy graduate programs are uncomfortable with exploring the use of digital media and it’s applications in terms of artx interventions? We are not doing ourselves any favors sticking to the study of structured versus unstructured media and not including digital media in the spectrum. I agree that for many organizations getting funding for new technology is difficult, but that doesn’t change the fact that on our younger client’s spare time they interact with digital and social media almost as much as they interact with the physical world (this is my observation, not taken from a statistical study). For better or for worse this is their reality. Thinking about it’s impact and discussing your observations on open forums, like the Digital Art Therapy Group is one way to keep in touch with the realities of living in a digital age.

You’re on LinkedIn but are not a member of the Digital Art Therapy Group on LinkedIn? Go here to join.

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Podcast

flip book



In the most recent episode of the Creative Therapy Sessions Podcast, available on Itunes, Melissa Solorzano speaks with Brian Austin, MPS. Brian is the founder of The Animation Project, where he integrates animation with art therapy for adolescents. Brian also on the editorial review board for Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association.

I’m excited to hear about the new directions art therapy is taking in relation to technology. This is a subject I’m interested in since there isn’t a substantial amount of literature correlating modern technology and art therapy with the older literature which discusses the therapeutic value and theory of more traditional media, including painting, drawing, sculpture and collage.

The interview with Brian focused upon ways to create computer animated pieces, which may not be practical in all institutions considering the cost of a computer and the software. Certainly, if you work for a non-profit you may qualify to grants or donations, and computers are much cheaper than they used to be. However, lets not forget that there are inexpensive ways of animating without a computer…flip books! The upside to flip books are that they require minimal materials and once they are made are so much fun to look at over and over. It also may spark an interest in learning other animation techniques including those that require computer knowledge. However, I think part of what makes integrating computer animation with art therapy particularly interesting to adolescents is the fact that it’s very much in tune with the times and their interests. Also, you’re teaching them a skill that, with further education, may even turn into a career.

In any case, I think flip book making could be a great intro into the world of animation, and may be more feasible for art therapists to integrate into their practices. Here’s a video series that demonstrates how to create a flip book.

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Laser Tag

Using your computer, Laser Tag 2.0 software, a projector, a laser pointer and a web cam you can tag or draw on your walls impermanently (i.e. in your home or office).

Graffiti Research Lab discovered this, and developed the project so that using more complex tools you can actually temporarily draw on large outdoor structures, such as high rise buildings. With the software available through Graffiti Research Lab, you can create variations in color and also the way the “paint” reacts, such as, how much it will drip.

Check out the video posted bellow for an example. Also, here’s a link explaining how to pull off the large scale building painting project.

I was thinking, how much fun would it be to incorporate this within an art therapy group or individual session? Its similar to a Buddha Board but on a larger scale, and perhaps more palatable for contemporary urban youth clientele.

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Microsoft Surface

A few weeks ago, I tagged along with my husband, who’s in the tech industry, and went to the CODE conference in the south bay area. While I was there I got to see and play around with the Microsoft Surface.

I checked out some of the music applications that have been developed so far, which were pretty cool. The music program featured an interactive piano, where you could touch the screen and push down on the keys to create sound. There was a DJ program, as well, allowing scratching and mixing. What was missing, of course was haptic feedback- actually having the sensation of touching the keys or record and pushing them down or from side to side.

A paint program was also demonstrated. They had something that looked like an artist’s palette, that when dropped down on the surface the circles that were cut out (representing where the paint would go) turned different colors- for example, one red, one pink, one blue and one yellow. They also had regular paint brushes, which were “dipped” into the virtual paint inside the palette, and then you could apply color anywhere on the screen. It made me so excited! There’s lots more to be done to make this a useful tool for art making- for example, being able to mix colors together, and having gradients of color (similar to Art Rage). However, a product like this makes the idea of Cyber-Art Therapy come alive in my mind.

Here’s a demo video I found that demonstrates some of what I described above.