Cog Head
For me, the picture ‘Cog Head’ represents the dying brain of a person suffering from dementia. It shows how essential every working part of the brain is to us. Without each connection, our whole personality can change and our lives, like a machine, can come to a standstill.
Personal Experience:
At the age of 62 my grandma had her first ‘stroke’. This gentle, soothing word is quite unlike the harsh reality. These ‘mini-stokes’ occurred frequently, each time destroying another part of her brain, until 15 years later, she died - irretrievably lost in a fog of dementia.
Taking an active part in her care, we also met others suffering with the disease. I would urge anyone who believes dementia is characterised by a person passively losing short-term memory, escaping into a world inside their head and coming alive when they hear music, to take a look at the tormented souls who increasingly ghost the corridors of dementia units. A key feature of my choreography will be to show the gradual loss of self and the torment this can cause. Using the ‘Four Seasons’ recomposed by Max Richter, it has a melancholy yet steadily repeated melody which I feel might represent the final season of life.
Social Impact of Dementia:
The social impact of the growing dementia epidemic is a concern, as I know the enormous effect and cost it had on my family. I also know that the intrusion of social services frightened my grandmother. Although I plan to make the piece a reflection on personal suffering, I hope to represent some level of the consequences on the outer world.
The Psychological Impact of Dementia:
Dementia can lead to high levels of depression and anxiety as, in the early stages, a person may fear for what is ahead of them, become scared by their own confusion and frustrated by their loss of power(Alzheimer's Society). This can lead to violent outbursts which I will represent within my choreographic piece.
The Early Signs of Dementia:
As a member of Dyslexia Research I take an active part in following new studies. However I feel I have already seen two of the key features which research highlighted:
My grandmother started to prefer all pictures to be laid flat, found it difficult to open doors, put the telephone in its holder and finally often grasped inaccurately at apparent objects around her. I would like to represent this inability to judge distance and depth within my dance – it will express the early stages of personal confusion and the latter stages of hallucination.
· Change in the sense of humour
Swings in moods and reverting to a child-like, slapstick sense of humour (Clark, C. et al 2016) is something which I will choreograph within the piece. Although happy moods are fun, they are also unpredictable and I would like to show the speed that emotions can change and the inappropriate nature of this humour.
The shutting down of the Brain:
· The Colour Red
One of the last colours that the brain perceives is red. The NHS recognise this information by adapting some of their dementia units e.g. the corridors at the Alderney Hospital in Poole are lined with red rails, plates all have red rims and door frames are red. I should therefore like to include a red item within my piece to represent last levels of perception.
· The loss of speech
In most cases, the gradual lack of speech and clarity lock a patient inside themselves. I sadly have a recording of my grandmother a few years before she died and plan to use this as part of my music stimulus to show the helplessness created when communication cannot take place. Vladimir Nabokov in his poem ‘Pale Fire’ likens this to a lost fight inside the brain:
‘She paused, and groped, and found
What seemed at first a serviceable sound,
But from adjacent cells impostors took
The place of words she needed, and her look
Spelt imploration as she fought in vain
To reason with the monsters in her brain.”
References:
References:
Alzheimer's Society. The Psychological and Emotional Impact of Dementia (online) (accessed 3 November 2019) Available from: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190730092616.htm
I liked how you have included your own experiences to link to the stimulus as I felt quite connected to your narrative. How do you aim to show the different emotions within the piece such as anger/violence and mood swings?
ReplyDeleteI aim to express my diverse amount of emotions through the use of my face. I am aware, if my solo is to be successful, I must avoid only using the concerned raised eyebrow face! To master my expressions I plan to sit in front of a mirror practicing and testing different ways to project my character's feelings. It was only after doing this that I had the idea of using a screaming expression near the end of my solo, this resulted in becoming part of the climax of the piece. As well as this, the way I present my body movements will influence the type of feelings behind it. For example, highly energised jumps and sudden movements will reflect anger, vexation and irritation. However, the combination of using my face, body movement and different energy levels is the most important factor. They will not work successfully without one another.
DeleteExcellent work! Within your research, you have incorporated a wide variety of resources, including primary and secondary resources. Each section of information is relevant and clearly relates to your final idea. In relation to the criteria, I would say that the post currently sits around the 2:1 mark; if you wish to increase this towards a 1:1, you should think about; what objectives have you set? Further, discus how your observations will influence your piece and enhance your creative work as you move forward. Remember, your work must include a bibliography as well as at least two in-text citations.
ReplyDeleteIn researching Cog Head, as soon as I settled upon the idea that the head represented the potential of the finely tuned and perfectly constructed brain, my personal experience quickly shifted my thoughts to a brain which has stopped working. My objectives are therefore clear: how can I portray the fear, confusion and slow decline of a person with dementia? I need to find movements to show the gradual decline brought on by ‘mini-strokes’. I therefore plan to repeat a falling step to represent the reduction in capacity brought on by each stroke. I also know that doctors can test if a stroke has taken place by asking a patient to stand upright and close their eyes – they will fall backwards. I will demonstrate this by trying to include a falling movement.
DeleteI have now edited my post and included references and in-text citations.
The use of a personal connection to your piece must give you so much inspiration for your performance. Has your further research been useful for your performance also?
ReplyDeleteMy further research has prompted many of the ideas I have included in my solo and perhaps given me a greater understanding of the experience I went through with my grandma. Without doing this task, I would not have been able to express my story line as clearly. Completing my research has also encouraged me to strive to find better movements and expressions to add into my piece. I constantly questioned whether I was including and portraying certain key themes. For example, the mood changes, body misfunctioning, lack of 3D judgement and mini strokes.
Delete