https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/dundee/oai:discovery.dundee.ac.uk:studenttheses/83c0c211-c53a-413a-9a01-a06e34f3b75e
type: CreativeWork
name: The Importance of Place: A practice-led investigation into the liminal space between artist-doctor and patient-artist, in the process of making art and recovery in the House of Artists and the Gugging Atelier, at Maria Gugging in Austria
description: This thesis focuses on art, mental illness and recovery within the innovative model of therapeutic healthcare in the Gugging House of Artists, a small-scale psychiatric facility in Austria. Gugging’s 12 Residents live together as self-taught artists in a system of holistic processes, transformative community and socially integrated creativity. The practice-led research, which is the subject of this thesis was carried out between 2016 and 2020 using the double perspective of an artist who also lives with chronic mental illness. It aimed to identify a holistic model of ongoing recovery for adoption in Scotland. The research question asks - what is the nature of the artistic and psychological process between patient-artist and artist-doctor in Gugging? In search of answers, this study explores Gugging’s capacity to destigmatize mental illness through art, treatment, and community; how the creativity-relationship played a role in Residents’ recovery through the renegotiation of self; the significance of place to operational- mutuality; and the researcher’s own perceptions arising from investigating these. Gugging was primarily examined through the researcher’s own developed methodology called Falling UP; which is also his art practice and artistic community of 32 collaborators comprising artists, medical professionals, and the researcher's own family. Primary research deployed ethnography, interpretive autoethnography, duoethnography, art collaboration, and action research. Art, mental illness and recovery were interrogated through participation, the piloting of creative practices, artworks, interviews, observations, field trips, exhibitions, and advocacy. Gugging’s system of two processes, living in art and und die Welt (and the world), has progressively developed through 4 decades of socio-political change, which included de- institutionalisation, major changes in psychiatry, pharmacology, social care, community medicine, and art therapy; times of international politi…
abstract: This thesis focuses on art, mental illness and recovery within the innovative model of therapeutic healthcare in the Gugging House of Artists, a small-scale psychiatric facility in Austria. Gugging’s 12 Residents live together as self-taught artists in a system of holistic processes, transformative community and socially integrated creativity. The practice-led research, which is the subject of this thesis was carried out between 2016 and 2020 using the double perspective of an artist who also lives with chronic mental illness. It aimed to identify a holistic model of ongoing recovery for adoption in Scotland. The research question asks - what is the nature of the artistic and psychological process between patient-artist and artist-doctor in Gugging? In search of answers, this study explores Gugging’s capacity to destigmatize mental illness through art, treatment, and community; how the creativity-relationship played a role in Residents’ recovery through the renegotiation of self; the significance of place to operational- mutuality; and the researcher’s own perceptions arising from investigating these. Gugging was primarily examined through the researcher’s own developed methodology called Falling UP; which is also his art practice and artistic community of 32 collaborators comprising artists, medical professionals, and the researcher's own family. Primary research deployed ethnography, interpretive autoethnography, duoethnography, art collaboration, and action research. Art, mental illness and recovery were interrogated through participation, the piloting of creative practices, artworks, interviews, observations, field trips, exhibitions, and advocacy. Gugging’s system of two processes, living in art and und die Welt (and the world), has progressively developed through 4 decades of socio-political change, which included de- institutionalisation, major changes in psychiatry, pharmacology, social care, community medicine, and art therapy; times of international politi…
author: Walker, Drew Max
language: eng
keywords: Art, Mental illness, Recovery, Gugging, Stigma, Ecology, Community, Innovation, Co-creation, Wellbeing, Autoethnography, Austria, Art process, Psychological process, Falling UP, Practice-led PhD, Agency, Activism, Neurodiversity, Culture
date published: 2021
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:08:59Z
provider: University of Dundee
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Dundee