Project Proposal- Sofia N

Sofia Nolasco

ART 263- Acts of Resistance: Activists, Interlopers, and Pranksters

Professor Cacoilo

March 25th, 2020

Final Project Proposal:

Mental Health Awareness (Drug/Medication Use)

What is the main topic of your project? Why you have chosen this topic?

The main topic of my project is to help end the stigma against mental illness and to bring awareness to the growing issue of over medicating mentally ill patients. I’ve chosen this topic because it is something I’m really passionate about and as a young person who also suffers from mental illness I want to help as many people as I can who are also young with this cause and bring to light what is happening to those who are being silenced with medications.

What is your message for the audience? How will you reach an audience (ie "publish" the project)? How can an audience engage with the project?

My message to the audience is that we need to end the stigma against those who have mental illnesses. We need to stop the stereotypes and really pay attention to those who truly have problems and struggle with these issues. We can’t just keep brushing off mental illness like it doesn’t exist or that people are claiming they have illnesses for “attention” and that what we should be doing is paying attention to the abuse of medication that these people are being given. I want to reach my audience by designing informational posters so that people can view these posters and feel like they want to take action as well. Despite not being able to go through with my idea to make buttons to handed out to the class, I encourage others to view the posters and share them on social media. I want to create posters that will not only be eye-popping and using graphics that is interesting and informative but also with catchy taglines and a colorful color palette.

How does this project fit into your professional aspirations and your portfolio?

This the project will help to not only show off my graphic design skills and see exactly how successful I can be in designing a poster that will literally call people to action but also designing an appealing graphic that people will also want to take with them, hang in their room or even give to a friend. This project will also, be able to showcase my skills but also show off my passion about mental illness and how I really want to contribute and show others that through art you can also send important messages.

What artists have influenced or inspired your project? Please research and choose 5 artists that connect with your project/topic. What other projects have you found that also address this issue and speak to your audience?

Mad Pride: is a mass movement of the users of mental health services, former users, who advocate for individuals with mental illness that should be proud of their 'mad' identity. Mad pride has several organized connected groups in at least seven countries some being Australia, South Africa and the United States of America. This movement's objective can be taken in many ways. Some members advocate for some aspects while others advocate for different reasons. “Members of the mad pride movement do not always agree on their aims and intentions. For some, the objective is to continue the destigmatization of mental illness. A vocal, controversial wing rejects the need to treat mental afflictions with psychotropic drugs and seeks alternatives to the shifting, often inconsistent care offered by the medical establishment. Many members of the movement say they are publicly discussing their own struggles to help those with similar conditions and to inform the general public.” All these reasons are important but what’s even more impressive is that everyone has a place and a movement where they can voice their opinions and come together at the end of the day to advocate for something they are really passionate about.

Yungblud: Dominic Richard Harrison, known professionally as Yungblud, is an English singer, songwriter, and actor. In his debut album, 21st Century Liability, he addresses important social issues within the new upcoming generation of teenagers. Specifically, in his song “Medication” he addresses the growing issue of doctors feeding people medication just for the sake of giving them false hope and a false cure by telling them just to take this medication it will fix everything. In the chorus of his song he uses repetition to enforce this idea, “I just wanna take my, I just wanna take my (My, my, my) My medication!” In this line specifically, it reinforces the idea that people get so hooked onto these medications that they start to become so dependent on them and all they know is to take their medication but have no consciousness fo what its actually doing to them. There are many songs where this artist references mental illness and how important individualism is at a young age and that we should be living our lives free to be what we want, dress how we want and not be judged by our patriarchal society. Songs such as Original me, Hope for the underrated youth and Parents are a few honorable mentions that also address generational issues in our society.

Satvik Sethi: Is a sophomore at SUNY Binghamton and is an international student from India whose work has been noticed by the media. Sethi designed an app called “Runaway,” where people who are suffering from mental illness can find support within the community/with each other. Sethi being a witness to those who had self-harmed and had mental illness in high school he wanted to create the app in hope that through technology those friends, people and even strangers online could connect in one central place by talking to each other and helping one another by understanding their issues and being a source of support and comfort that most people don’t have from others closer to them or even from family. The overall idea of “Runaway” is for it’s users to, “The users will go into the app and they’ll get paired with a volunteer, and the volunteer will just do the same thing I was doing with these people, which was to listen to their problems and give them a safe space to talk about everything that is bothering them. The second module is going to be a positivity zone that will be on the Runaway website, which will be filled with positive poetry, positive quotes and art, pictures and happy music. Just a place where if someone is feeling sad, they can come online and really try and cheer themselves up with those things. The final module is going to be events. I’m looking to host a lot of events and workshops this semester around the Binghamton campus, and hopefully after that, go on to different schools and colleges to talk about mental health and promote mental health awareness, as well as how people can help if they see cases of mental illnesses emerging in people around them.” I think Sethi is doing an amazing job of combining technological advancements to help solve a problem that is very relevant and important in or younger generations. I applauded him for his dedication to his project and really making an effort to push this movement and bring awareness to those who don’t exactly feel as if they have a voice.

Mind Freedom: is a nonprofit organization that unites sponsor and affiliate groups with thousands of individual members to win human rights and alternatives for people labeled with psychiatric disabilities. MindFreedom claims to have this be their claim in what they do as an organization, “In a spirit of mutual cooperation, MindFreedom leads a nonviolent revolution of freedom, equality, truth and human rights that unites people affected by the mental health system with movements for justice everywhere.” Their goals are to help gain more human rights regarding mental illness, challenging the massive abuse of drugs in psychiatric drugs, being a support system for those who need it, and advocating and promoting the safe/humane and effective options and alternatives to mental health medications.

The Withdrawal Project: is a project that believes that people should speak out publicly about psychiatric drug dependence and withdrawal, and that leaving these important choices to licensed medical practitioners shouldn’t be allowed and that people should have control over their bodies and what they are putting into it. With the right treatment and non-medicinal treatment the withdrawal project believes people can overcome the stigma and even the mass hysteria of the normalization of medication to be the “only” treatment for mental illness. With the right guidance, help, support, and decision making the project hopes to educate those who are having trouble with making the decision to switch or want to have the control over choosing what happens to their bodies.

Video Presentation will be posted in a separate blog post!

“About The Withdrawal Project.” The Withdrawal Project, withdrawal.theinnercompass.org/page/about-withdrawal-project.

Glaser, Gabrielle. “'Mad Pride' Fights a Stigma.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 May 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/fashion/11madpride.html.

Roffman, Otis. “Meet the Inventor of Runaway, a Peer-to-Peer Mental Health Resource.” Study Breaks, 20 July 2017, studybreaks.com/students/satvik-sethi-runaway-mental-health-app/.

“Win Human Rights in Mental Health!” MindFreedom International (MFI), 22 Mar. 2020, mindfreedom.org/.

“YUNGBLUD.” Genius, genius.com/artists/Yungblud.