Aesthetic Enactment
Engagement with Art Evoking Traumatic Loss
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5936153 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lynn Froggett (University of Lancashire, corresponding author), Jill Bennett (0000-0003-2164-0245, UNSW Sydney) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 437 |
| Publication date | 2023-08-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2076-0760 • E-ISSN: 2076-0760 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/socsci12080437 |
| OpenAlex | W4385497875 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 9 |
This article analyses audience responses to two creative works inspired by traumatic loss-the first, a performance presentation, recounting events from the author's adolescence; the second, a short film about a suicide in the filmmaker's family. Both were shown in 2017 as part of a mental health arts festival, attracting audiences with affinity for the lived experiences portrayed. Given the potential for such works to give rise to negative feelings and/or to retrigger trauma, the objective of this research was to understand firstly whether audiences could process the trauma conveyed in a contained and facilitative setting and, secondly, how the specific aesthetic modality of each work supported this processing. The psychosocial methodology adopted consisted of a group-based, image-led associative method-the visual matrix-which invites participants to express their sensory-affective and felt responses to a creativework. In the case of both works, the visual matrix gave rise to a distinctive form of aesthetic enactment, expressed through rhythm and image association. This imagistic and 'rhythmic' mode of engagement appeared to be key to the re-symbolisation of trauma for the audiences. The implication of this study is that the re-visiting of potentially distressing experiences in an aesthetically mediated, containing setting is potentially reparative in its effect
Aesthetics · Art · Association (psychology · Feeling · Matrix (chemical analysis · Modality (human–computer interaction · Presentation (obstetrics · Psychosocial · Psychotherapist · Art Therapy and Mental Health · Artistic and Creative Research · Computer Science · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology · Visual Culture and Art Theory
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |