Mental Disorder in Modern Society

Hi Laura,

I think you've stumbled on a really interesting material to work with. The content of medical adverts is rich with visual and written content that you can rework and make into a compelling outcome e.g. the warnings, the words, the visual imagery/illustrations used to show signs of illness, etc.

Worry less on making an immediate statement and experiment with the ways you can rework and treat the adverts themselves into new forms. The statement should emerge when you get the approach to the content right.

You might draw inspiration from the practices found in Détournement. There's a number of artists who use adverts as their primary materials, for example The Billboard Liberation Front. http://www.billboardliberation.com/manifesto.html, http://www.bombingscience.com/billboard-liberation-front/

http://dev.null.org/blog/tags/détournement
http://www.woostercollective.com/culture_jamming/

I think a lot of people will definitely relate to this project you have in mind, since all of us has more or less mental disorders, maybe very nuanced, and personal problems/distress, that other people can't exactly relate to and we deal with on our own. Thus, I like your idea of challenging modern commercialized images that oversimplify the issue of mental disorders. I think it's very challenging that you're trying to shed light onto and present that mental disorders are nuanced, and I'm excited to see your final project!

Hi Laura! I think your topic is meaningful to many, and I really appreciate the way you point out the defects of modern day advertisements like how they can be misleading. Though it might take time to research on mental disorders, which is quite a deep topic, I think it would be amazing if you really manage to reflect the nuances among people with mental disorders. That would help people form the appropriate value towards this topic. I cannot wait to see your work!