As part of Eating Disorders Awareness Week, the team from EDIFY partnered with Common Films to share a screening of a short film about the process of integrating art into science research.
EDIFY is a four-year programme of research focused on how we understand and treat eating disorders in young people, which explores the topic through interdisciplinary lenses. It includes six core projects or 'workstreams', each approaching the topic of early intervention for eating disorders from a different perspective. The workstreams span projects in the arts and humanities right through to state-of-the-art scientific research in informatics and neuroscience.
Over the last year, four artists in residence joined EDIFY, to help translate eating disorder experience and research into art. This included interdisciplinary artist Sian Fan , electro-fairy artist Ivana Picek, illustrator Zofia Chamienia, and textile artist Maeve Magnolia Gillespie. The diverse range of work from the four artists formed the Stories in Shape & Sound exhibition which was launched during January's EDIFY conference.
Alongside these four artworks, another work was created: a short film exploring the process, by Common Films. To mark Eating Disorders Awareness Week, the Stories in Shape & Sound exhibit was installed at the IoPPN Main Building, along with a screening and discussion of this new short film.
The film follows the artists through the process of their work, including interviews and insights into the development art alongside eating disorders research. Each artists was connected to the EDIFY research workstreams in a different way, and so their perspectives and artistic practice is influenced in a unique way.
When working with people with mental health conditions, it's vital to use coproduction. Even without extensive resources, we tried to honour that spirit by making the film with people rather than about them. Artists bring something different than pure lived experience - their artistic perspective adds a distinct lens. Involving them is both brave and necessary: they provoke questions about how we live our lives, and open up new ways of seeing. Their contribution is essential to meaningful health research.
Paul Craddock, Common Films
During the event, Professor Ulrike Schmidt OBE welcomed guests to the IoPPN, offering insights into what EDIFY was aiming for when commissioning the film of the artists in residence. One of the key elements considered by all involved was the importance of co-production, and how representing that was key to the film, and is a central aspect of the EDIFY research programme as whole.
Balancing the utility of research with art for art's sake is a sensitive point, especially given that each artist has some degree of lived experience with eating disorders. Filmmaking is also an intrusion; at the very least you try to work graciously. What struck me was EDIFY's conviction in hosting these artists - it shows that clinical research has room for forms of knowledge and experience exceeding data, numbers, even words.
Cal Murphy Barton, Common Films
Following screening the film, audience members were invited to ask questions of the film's creators, Professor Schmidt, a member of the EDIFY youth advisory group, and two of the artists. Everyone was then welcome to explore the exhibit at the IoPPN, getting up close to the art they had heard so much about.
