It is widely appreciated that artists take inspiration from their own life experiences. Having accessed group sessions at the eating disorder clinic at the Maudsley Hospital in 2015, I was compelled to produce a new series reflecting upon my journey.

‘Emerging’ was my first self-portrait series and is special as it allowed me to see my own body objectively as form within a composition in a more self-compassionate light, something that has become increasingly difficult for women today.

I have always felt very lucky to be able to communicate through my work. In my experience, creativity is great at facilitating dialogue. Through this work I wanted to tell my story in my way, with the aspiration that others who share similar experiences may take comfort in sharing and that it may help towards breaking down the stigma surrounding mental illness.

Fellow artist Sue Morgan gives us her thoughts on the project, specifically the the idea of recording the patient narrative in a clinical setting.
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Sue and I had a fruitful discussion about how she might communicate her thoughts. 

Most of our dialogue was through a voice memo exchange which was a first for me.  I found it a really lovely way to communicate - listening to a voice rather than reading it is so friendly and personal.  This method also gave me the opportunity for reflection before responding, helping me to practice thinking before I speak. It was also really practical as you can record whenever you have a moment, and in whatever environment you choose - walking in nature helps to inspire thoughts for sure!

So, Sue decided upon this beautiful diagram with explanatory film to express herself: an artwork in its own right as far as I am concerned! 
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A huge thank you to Sue for investing so much of her thoughts and time in this - always great to have peer to peer reflection time with those who's input you respect and who's work you hold highly. 

Image Credit: Beth Hopkins. 

One persons experience of having her narrative lost in translation : 

What is your experience? 

​Today Anna was welcomed into  our weekly drop in.

Some of the interesting themes that arose from the discussion were: 

- Phobia of data (the narrative surrounding this) 
- The title: Electronic Patient Journey system
​(great name indeed!) 
- The parallels with deconstructing and reconstruction in my art practice and with the data (a process of learning for both the machine and I?) 
- Asking questions in multiple ways in order to be more inclusive. 
- The idea of the value model - looking at pros vs cons of documenting narrative in different ways
- Being given the option in the moment to document your own story. 
- Editorial / shorthand/ note taking 
- Offering confirmation that you have understood what someone tells you (a classic teaching technique and also used in metacognition testing) “so what I hear is..... is that correct?” 

Image: Sarah Carpenter darkroom experimentation
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As part of an interview process, I was asked to chose an object that represented power to me. I chose a blank sheet of paper. 

I was given 2min to discuss my choice: 
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​​Deconstructing and reconstructing my records.
​Creating a fresh blank page ready to tell my own story in my own way.

The story so far...
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A really interesting talk thinking about AI vs. Humans and computers replicating and replacing human processes.

In research, the outcome is often measured as  human performance vs. AI, so essentially can it be proven that AI is as good or better than humans?

Dyer demonstrated that the combination of AI plus human performance always gives better results than either AI or humans can produce alone. The question is how can we work with AI to improve existing processes and complement human skills?

Dyer spoke of the narrative of AI in the media: The reoccurring theme of robots being a threat to human beings, they will take our jobs and eventually threaten our very existence by replacing us. Robots are seen as a  threat to human beings - we are portrayed as being weaker. 

​Dyer framed things differently, he spoke of AI cooperating with humans, complimenting our skills, being used as a second opinion / cross reference. 

In terms of diagnosis, AI is easily trained to determine severity of symptoms, and easily and accurately decide if a patient needs either immediate treatment, or no treatment at all. This means that the workload of a clinician can be significantly decreased and more time can be spent on more complex cases that need further analysis. 

​The crucial part of the AI puzzle which is yet to be deciphered, is if the machine sees something unfamiliar. Instead of it saying "I'm not sure", it might automatically place something in its nearest  category. These are the instances where we see how vital the clinicians role is and how irreplaceable they are.  

Imagine though, in a clinical setting, AI taking on the  tasks that involve memorising and recalling information (basically what we would define as the  'knowledge" involved), this would mean that clinicians would have more time to engage other important skills such as compassion, empathy and understanding to make a fuller, more rounded diagnosis. 

This resonated with me and my thoughts on our project. Could this lead to more of the patient narrative being heard and given value in the clinical setting? By allowing better resources for a clinician to utalise their human skills (e.g. compassion), richer and more valuable information might be  drawn form from the patient, helping the clinician to make a better assessment. At the same time AI could capture the patient narrative and analyse it  using its knowledge. Together, this would provide a more rounded picture of the patient. 

My mental wellbeing is severely effected by feeling misunderstood. Simply feeling heard is in itself medicine for me. ​