#6: The Open Hand Project Proposal

The hand is among the first images our species created. It is a gesture of greeting, of openness, of vulnerability. It is a symbol of potential, of craft, of creativity. It is a promise of help, of hope, of community. The open hand is a symbol of human connection.

How can we create and facilitate human connection in order to improve mental health and wellbeing?

This is the working title and research question that I will use to guide my project. The aim of The Open Hand Project is to explore how we connect as humans and how we can use that connection to improve our mental health.

Reports of anxiety and depression are rising, 1 in 4 people suffer from a mental health problem each year (2014, mind.org.uk) and suicide is the leading cause of death for young people in the uk between the ages of 15-25. (Office for national statistics 2016).We live in an individualistic and increasingly secular society that has largely separated itself from its connection to the land and the changing seasons. Real world community can be hard to find for those who are not born into it, and online communities are problematic at best and at worst are deleterious to our mental health. As a result we are left to find our own meaning in life, which can be a struggle for many. Without guidance, many young people can fall victim to nihilism, despair and depression.

This is where The Open Hand project comes in. I believe that there is a gap in our culture left by traditional religious practises that could provide people with an experience of empathic connection with others and moments of reflective reverence within themselves.

Humans need meaning in their lives in order to flourish. Victor E Frankl said that “Those with a ‘why’ to live can bear with almost any ‘how’.” But young people are being given little education in how to cultivate a healthy mind and a meaningful life. They are left on their own to discover their own sense of purpose and they find a society that is driven primarily by professional success and financial gain where little importance is given to reflection and reverence. I believe this poverty of meaning is contributing to the rise in mental health disorders, self harm and suicide. The Open Hand project will explore this problem and find a way to guide people towards meaning and wellbeing.

Action Plan – Stakeholders

Firstly I will make contact with various stakeholders who play a role in mental health or artistic practitioners who use the arts to promote wellbeing. I will interview them to ask about their projects and the methods they use to create connection and/or improve mental health. I will also be looking to find partners who are willing to support the project by providing space and participants for my interventions.

I will be looking to eventually base my project in the area of Hastings, East Sussex as I plan to move there within the next 18 months. I will be contacting stakeholders within the area and also further afield, these will include:

• The Wellbeing in Hastings & Eastbourne Project – A project that promotes emotional and mental wellbeing.
• Theatre Rites – A theatre company exploring the process of artists and audience to create rites of passage through theatrical performances.
• The West Country School of Myth – A learning community that uses myth to develop connection.
• Project Art Works – A collective of neurodiverse artists and activists based in Hastings.
• Collective Arts London – An arts for wellbeing project in SouthWest London
• Arts on Prescription – A mental health service based in Hastings that collaborates with the NHS to implement arts based therapies into GP referral pathways.

I will also be sending out letters of enquiry to various individuals which will invite them to let me know about their own methods of finding meaning, including any personal rituals that they undertake. Rather than sending an impersonal email or survey I plan to send a personal hand made print and letter in order to engender a sense of geniality and foster an intimate connection with my research participants, thereby embodying the ethos of the project within my correspondence. I will use the findings from this research along with my interviews with stakeholders to help me to design my interventions.

Action Plan – Interventions

I plan to conduct three main phases of interventions based around the three ways that we find connection: by ourselves, with another person and as part of a group. 

• Solo – I plan to devise and create a sort of ‘treasure trail’ of connection, whereby people will undertake a small solo quest to discover little clues and tasks that I have hidden in a specific area. Each stop on the trail will encourage the participant to connect with themselves and their surroundings, exploring the meaning that can be discovered in the world around us.

• Couples – These interventions will involve just two participants sat on a bench. Based upon my findings from the interviews I will experiment with different methods of connection between two people. Some people may share stories, some may listen to music, some may just spend some time examining each others hands or heartbeats. Each of these interventions will explore the meaning we can find when we are in the company of another person.

• Group – These group events may include singing as part of a choir, some kind of theatrical performance, storytelling or dancing. These interventions will all be based around the meaning we can find when we are part of a group having a shared experience.

Based on the findings of these interventions I will then formulate a final outcome for the project that will undergo a final stage of intervention and iteration before the project is launched.

Schedule

There will be four main phases to the project, each one with a different type of intervention; solo, couples, groups and the final outcome.

Phase One

• June – July 2021: Contact stakeholders, conduct interviews, send letters of enquiry, plan & prepare solo intervention.
• August – October 2021: Execute solo interventions, gather feedback, iterate & repeat. 
• November 2021: Plan & prepare couples intervention

Phase Two

• December 2021 – February 2022: Execute couples interventions, gather feedback, iterate & repeat.
• March 2022: Plan & prepare group intervention

Phase Three

• April – June 2022: Execute group interventions, gather feedback, iterate & repeat.
• July 2022: Collect results, plan & prepare project outcome and final intervention 

Phase Four

• August – October 2022: Execute final intervention, gather feedback, iterate & repeat
• November 2022: Gather project results, formulate final outcome & prepare for project launch.
• December 2022: Graduate showcase, project launch.

Outcome

At the end of this research project I will have created an addition to our culture that helps people to find connection and contributes towards a happier life. Wether it is an event, an artefact, a platform or a process, I hope my project will be something that brings people joy and vitality and might be a lifeline to those who would otherwise fall victim to depression.