The task was to create a response to the play ‘a midsummer's night dream’ to celebrate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare. Which was to be based on the wider core thematic themes that take place within the play, these themes were:
order/disorder, liminal spaces, narratives, performativity.
I decided to use the theme of order/disorder, to communicate this I used braille to create a typology based around mental disorders. Part of the project was also about the line between sanity/lunacy and illusions and hallucinations which the characters in the play experience. Illusions and hallucinations can be caused by mental ill health, I took information from the ICD-10. Specifically from chapter V mental and behavioural disorders, which was also my project title. I decided to create a typology using braille to create a 3x3 grid. Each section of the grid is a keyword which is displayed using braille.
F20.2 Catatonic, F22.0 Delusional, F20.1 Hebephrenic, F20.0 Paranoid, F23.0 Polymorphic, F23 Psychotic, F25 Schizoaffective, F20 Schizophrenia, F21 Schizotypal.
Each of these are a subcategory in ICD-10 for a range of schizophrenic symptoms which can result in someone experiencing illusion and hallucinations. My braille typology was selected for two exhibitions as part of the celebration of the anniversary of Shakespeare.
Above: Two images from the group exhibition in the Grace and Clarke Fyfe Gallery.
Above: The overall visual plan for the braille typology using nine different keywords.
Above: This is an image taken from the ICD-10 website, Chapter V Mental and Behavioural Disorders can be found here.