Visualising anxiety : mental health explored through the expression of moving image

Abstract

Mental illness affects one in four people yet, the stigma surrounding the topic remains. This dissertation investigates how mental illness, such as anxiety and panic attacks have been viewed and perceived throughout history, whilst examining the depictions of mental illness by artists such as Van Gogh, Francisco Goya, Raymond Pitre’ and Edvard Munch. It explores the emotions behind this artists’ work through introspective means.

This dissertation delves into how mental illness is represented in modern media, and the techniques that are used to portray it, such as externalisation, dehumanisation, personification and anthropomorphism, by looking into films such as the Silver Lining Playbook (Russell, 2012), Inside Out (Docter & Rivera, 2015), A silent voice (Yamada, 2016) and Perfect Blue (Kon, 1997. This work explores literature, television series, and animation as Yuri on ice!!! (Kubo, Yamamoto, 2016), In between (Gobelins, 2012) and March comes in like a lion (Umino, 2008) and how these mediums go about accurately portraying mental illness in a way that does not depreciate those who suffer from it and perpetuate stigma. The project explores how one can use 2d animation, rotoscope and colours to bring to life a panic attack for an audience who has never experienced it. As a methodological approach, in-depth interviews were carried out to gain personal insight into the daily struggles of those with mental illness, and these were later used to retain the humanity in the portrayal of panic attacks and anxiety in the final animation.