To gain a industry knowledge of drama therapy online, I reached out to experts, Monique. She is a drama therapist and do a lot of stuff on drama therapy online.
Beneficial feedback I got started that: masks and costumes as a technique in the digital space, mask work is a staple of drama therapy work. As Jennings states, “some feelings can only be expressed through masks-feelings that are too anti-social, dangerous or depressing to be shown in other ways. Masks can contain the feelings that could not otherwise be expressed” (1990, ch.6, para.33). It is my belief that the online drama therapy space presents us with unique opportunities to not only work with masks, but to allow the client to see themselves in role with an immediacy that does not often happen in-person.
For my intervention 2, I will use mask as a technique, drawing their mood on the mask and invite people wear their mask to communicate with other people, but can’t speak, only rely on body language, this will last for 5 days, 10 mins a day. Finally, observe whether they rely on the face to have better communication.
One of the most prevalent technologies used in psychotherapy intervention is Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). Both technologies are used as a tool to help guide psychotherapy treatments in patients who can benefit from interactive digital experiences. Below are two notable projects or organizations that are utilizing VR to enhance the patient’s traditional mode of psychotherapeutic experience.
MyPsySpace is a project by Missouri State University’s Second Life (SL) Prototyping Center for Psychotherapy Technologies that explores SL as a prototyping tool for HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) to offer “virtual translations of traditional expressive therapies (e.g. virtual sandplay, virtual drama therapy, digital expressive therapy, and virtual safe spaces).” The VR element is used to increase accessibility and flexibility to those who may not have the practical means to receive proper expressive therapies. MyPsySpace is designed to securely connect the therapist to a group or an individual patients located anywhere in the world. Moreover, one can virtually create any type of imaginable scenarios, images, or enact behaviors safely in the virtual space.
All therapists recognize the power of storytelling. In essence, our clients come to tell their stories and we need to know their full story in and out including characters, background, plots (and subplots), point of view, etc. With children, their personal stories often come out in fantastical and metaphoric ways and an expressive therapist has the skills to bring those out and enact change, if needed. Below are multimedia apps that can provide engagement as well as therapeutic, communicative, and expressive opportunities for a child client:
Plotagon: This is a creative animation app that is very easy to use. I have a 8-year-old who learned how to make a full 5 minute story in 10 minutes.
Puppet Pals 2: This is a essentially digital puppetry and you can even use your own picture to create a character.
Comic Book: This is a bit challenging to use for those who are not comic book creators. But, if you have a kid who likes to create comic books, this app has many layout options, caption tools, and stickers in its library.
Storehouse: Helps you easily create, edit and share visual stories. Perfect for teenagers who want to use their own digital photos without much text to tell a story that is meaningful to them.
These apps help create a multimedia story rich with complementary combination of text, still image, audio, and/or video that can be interactive and edited at any time. I encourage art therapists to try experiencing these apps for themselves to see if they can be a valuable tool in empowering the developing stories of our children and teenagers.
RESEARCH QUESTION: How can bring understanding in views of marriage and love between different generations?
For this project, I found that there was a need for a way of communicating which allowed for a greater breadth of expression than could be conveyed through text and talk with each other face to face. In my journey to find suitable creative interventions, I drew inspiration from the approach I had developed as psychology, and based on the feedback I got from the stakeholder, I applied my drama therapy training to the field of digital media. I plan to use performance narratives, through interactive creation, actively explore the combination of drama therapy and digital media, and provide a way to express their feelings , communicate with each other and interact with others.
I had designed the framework of the technique to follow a trajectory that began with telling existing stories and ended with creating new stories.
FIRST STEP:
Recounting a story which collected from the people who has a problem on marriage and love (about blind date or marriage) Since some people unwilling to share their experience at the beginning, I collected some story in real life as a material that participant can use. If they want to share their experience, they can create a life map which illustrates important moments or events; the maps are then embellished with stories that were important in each of these stages of life.
SECOND STEP:
Reading the beginning of a story and creating one’s own ending
THIRD STEP:
Creating a new story The multiple platform would create a space in which participants work collaboratively to create their culture and have a sense of ownership of the outcome.
FOURTH STEP:
Share your visual story and your parents can edit it
SCHEDULE:
Consulting with experts (05/21 — 06/21) The next step for my project is it consult with experts as my project tackles themes of how to applied drama therapy to the digital techniques.
art therapists;
artists;
video game designers
Collect real story can be as a material in the step one (04/21 — 05/21)
Further engage with stakeholder (05/21 — 07/21) How to engage people in my idea and have them easily understand each other. Build, edit and share their visual story
Do some research on Shaping Networked Theatre (05/21 — 06/21)
How can bring understanding in views of marriage and love between different generations?
WHY:
China is clearly one of the world’s favorite countries for forced marriages. According to the “Survey Report on the Status of Forced Marriage in China” more than 70% of the respondents had the experience of being forced into marriage by their parents. The reason foe this phenomenon comes from their lack of communication, different growth background and different channels for receiving information.
HOW:
In my journey to find suitable creative interventions, I drew inspiration from the approach I had developed as psychology.
I found that drama therapy is a method to help them understand each other more. Drama therapy offer new ways to express what you are thinking or feeling in order to cope with problems. Here’s an example: if you are having conflict with your parents, you maybe asked to role-play a scene in which you pretend to be your parents and speak from their perspective. It is intended to help participants break them out of any rigid roles or frameworks they have been limiting themselves to. They can express themselves while sharing a new side to their personality and learn to look at problems from the other side’s perspective.
How to engage people in my idea and have them easily understand each other is the biggest obstacle I need to overcome, and I got some feedback from stakeholder:
face to face therapy is a bit awkward;
It’s inconvenient offline, because don’t have much time to attend especially during pandemic;
They have not studied acting and drama
To further my stakeholder engagement I had conversation with psychologist, I have came up with multimedia platform that is to be used as part of my project’s targeted intervention, which can provide engagement as well as communicative, and expressive opportunities for different generations. The platform can help create a multimedia story rich with complementary combination of text, still image, audio, and/or video that can be interactive and edited at any time. These steps are as follows:
Recounting a story that the teller feels a strong connection to, usually from material that I collected in the real life;
reading online the beginning of a story and creating one’s own ending
Creating a new story with each other
WHAT IF
Parents and us are independent individuals, we can’t really change each other. My project aim to want to be understand each other better rather than proving that parents wrong in the views of marriage and love. After this project, they can understand each other more, and willing to communicate with each other, and accept the existence of different ideas. I am not against marriage, what I am against is the uniform criteria of happiness, like you have to get married at a certain age, if you don’t, you can’t be happy, you are a loser in life. I hope this project can reduce the conflict and young generations can have a say in the marriage.
