Health Humanities: Design’s Next Frontier

My alma mater, the University of Alberta, just hosted a fascinating exhibit that melds art, science and medicine together.  Entitled “Insight: Visualizing Health Humanities” the exhibition showed multiple manifestations of design & health coming together in vastly different—and highly personal—interpretations.

The 32 submissions in gallery of the Fine Arts Building ranged in format, focus and message: from the poetry of a cancer survivor to a 3D diorama of a seniors-enabled home to a video on Mongolian spiritual rituals to something called the “Phantasmagoric Amphygorium of Dr. Wybury.” Each represented how human needs relate to healthcare and the practice of medicine.  In other words: health humanities.

As noted by Dr. Alan Bleakley, a professor of medical education in the UK, “the culture of medicine has little tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty.” This is a culture is built on precision, analysis and reliability.  In other words, the opposite of “medical arts,” which are intuitive, immeasurable and subjective (in my mind, this harks back to Rotman Dean Roger Martin’s “reliability vs. validity” paradigm).  Whereas the steady march of medical science in the 20^th Century removed doubt to determine answers (Bleakley cites the use and overuse of medical screenings as a day-to-day example) medical arts are making a comeback in the 21^st, reveling in their inherently ambiguous nature.

As Insight demonstrates, if we reframe the medical arts as health humanities, then we are left with a truly staggering number of influences to comprehend: “literature, narrative medicine, history of medicine, philosophy and ethics, medical anthropology, medical sociology, environment and health, art, visual culture, health design & communications, drama, music” to list just a few.  And as every graduate student learns early on, any particular field breaks down into further levels of exploration.  Co-curator and assistant design professor Bonnie Sadler-Takach cites the visual arts, which alone “encompasses health information design, health communications, knowledge translation, information and data visualization informatics, visual research and discourse analysis, visual rhetoric, semiotics, visual representation, visual grammar, visual literacy, visual communication, visual culture, visual identity design, public graphics and more.”

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The idea of using art for therapeutic, restorative or palliative purposes is a relatively recent one, going back to the 1930’s & 40’s.   Over the last 5 years the U of A has made concentrated efforts to explore, blend and crossbreed these disciplines.  This, according to Pamela Brett-Maclean, the director of the university’s Art & Humanities in Health & Medicine Program, makes this exhibit unique: “This is the very first time design has been used to examine the potential of an emerging field (such as health humanities).”

Underscoring this point, Sadler-Takach  said the idea was to have not only artists but anyone connected with the U of A (one of three prominent health humanity programs in Canada) submit works that “weren’t just living in the design space, or weren’t just living in the health space.” That’s not to say designers didn’t play a part–more than 60 visual communications design students helped visualize and brand the project.  “As a designer, this seemed to be an optimal project to see what health humanities could be and what healthy societies can be.”

With pieces ranging from the plight of homelessness to therapeutic journeys on bicycles to feminist critiques of body imagery, critics might say the exhibit lacks focus but that is precisely the point.  The goal was to challenge conventional models around health and wellness so the curators pointedly refused to limit what expressions could be submitted. “We wanted very much not to fit everything into little spaces but rather have the viewer make their own connections,” says Sadler-Takach.  “We had a feeling there were people working in different areas who maybe felt isolated or didn’t quite fit in a specific space but they knew it was important and compelling so we thought we could bring some folks together to see how it could add up.  Its called an exploratory exhibition to translate  knowledge in ways that are innovative, accessible and engaging.  The third member of the curatorial team, Aidan Rowe says “This breadth of form of submission and the wide range of exhibitors speak to how far this nascent field has progressed under individual pursuit.”

16 different faculties and units across the university were represented at Insight.  Sadly, dentistry was not represented.  As the son & brother of dentists, I can kind of see why that is.  However if they’re ever going to make a visit to the dentist less scary than the fear of death itself (and make a dent in this morbid urban legend), then participating in this conversation would be a start.

Next year, the organizers plan to stage a similar exhibit but open it up to submissions beyond the U of A.  Ultimately, they hope Insight can open the door to a possible undergraduate certificate or even a Master of Arts degree in medical health humanities.

Canada’s missing ingredient: creativity

The Edmonton Journal‘s Ray Turchansky interviewed a local economist out with a new book about what’s missing from the Canadian economy: creativity.

Speaking with Alberta Treasury Branch‘s chief economist Todd Hirsch, Turchansky notes that for far too long, we have relied on our status as “hewers of wood, drawers of water” to fuel our prosperity (no pun intended, Alberta). Even without the current resource & commodities boom that’s driving Western Canada and keeping the country as a whole afloat during these difficult economic times, its been evident for quite some time that Canada suffers from a “productivity gap” compared to our southern neighbors.

This gap is literally visible in the US’s consistently higher GDP per capita and I think it’s also intuitively felt when companies and talented workers migrate south to get a bigger bang for their buck, though admittedly, this gap now seems to be closing for the first time ever.

(It ain’t because we’re suddenly innovating– a contemporaneous piece in the Globe and Mail cites the usual frustrations SMEs have in Canada: small venture capital market, taxation structures, a lack of coordination between public & private agencies, few mentors and weak commercialization processes.)

Much of this is a result of our own complacency.  Hirsch, who looks a bit like Rick Moranis with windswept hair, says “we need to stop asking the government to make us productive and creative.” He & Robert Roach have authored a book that tackles this issue: The Boiling Frog Dilemma: Saving Canada From Economic Decline. The title’s a bit alarmist but he does make a few salient points.

Hirsch offers some interesting anecdotes around creativity and the subsequent lack thereof, such as our increasingly rigid educational system (when “our crayons are taken away”) and the Overseas Experience (i.e. “Gap Year” ) that Australians and New Zealanders regularly take in between finishing school and starting work to refresh and rejuvenate themselves.

This is not to say that Canadians aren’t creative–witness everything from the invention of insulin to the construction of the Canadarm to Research In Motion–but for the most part Hirsch says we are too comfortable in our abundance.  And it’s not like the opportunities aren’t there: as one of the world’s energy hotspots, Hirsch says Alberta should be leaders in areas of relevance such as carbon capture & storage technology.

(my favourite example)

Interestingly, the article finishes by looking at what he considers the three components of applied creativity: invention, innovation & design.  Innovation is a tired, overused term while design is the easiest and most economical to build upon, according to Hirsch. (I would posit that design itself is in danger of being beaten into a cliché. Time for a new word but more on that later).

He cites the world’s number one firm as an example of how to “do” it right: “Apple doesn’t really invent anything, it just takes existing technology and adds tremendous design that people connect with.”

Highlighting urban design

The city of Edmonton has produced a nifty little guide to showcase nifty design highlights among its newest communities.

Entitled “Designing New Neighbourhoods“, the 48-page report is a product of the city’s municipal development plan, “The Way We Grow” which is itself part of a series of high-level plans for the next 40, 50 years as the capital city of one of the world’s energy hotspots.

Designing New Neighbourhoods highlights some of the best practices in the city’s newest areas such as Windermere & The Orchards in the far southwest, Summerside in the southeast, Lago Lindo, Schonsee & Griesbach in the north end of town.

Each highlight has a photo listing the neighbourhood feature, its location and nascent benefits to the surrounding community.

The accolades are categorized according to 9 major urban design considerations:

• housing,
• streets & public realm,
• parks & open spaces,
• natural areas,
• active transportation & transit,
• history & culture,
• commercial, retail & public facilities,
• food & agriculture,
• ecological design.

There’s a major emphasis on natural settings which is interesting given that a lot of people in Edmonton are talking about urban farming lately.

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Some might see unintended irony in oil field service workers bombing down the Anthony Henday freeway in their F-150s from the big box stores of South Edmonton Common to disembark and enjoy “new urbanist” practices of intimate, walkable neighbourhoods.

But when the majority of infill development in this city tends to be highrise condos, it only makes sense that these ideas would be put into practice where land is cheap and demand high.  Given that the capital city region is expected to add as many as 75,000 people over just the next five years I think its worth applauding anywhere pedestrian-friendly, close-knit public spaces can take root. Even if they are in the suburbs.

The city has invited feedback at www.transformingedmonton.ca.

Placemaking: Design vs. Place?

Is there a tension between design and place?

This thoughtful article from the Project for Public Spaces suggests there might be.  Naturally, it favours more of the place-centered approach but the interesting dynamic seems to be how much importance overall context is given in designing a new place.

A Design-Centered approach is “project-driven, discipline-based” and relies on a “lone genius” (i.e. Starchitect) to create “an all-or-nothing approach” that results in a “look but don’t touch mentality”.

Whereas a Place-Centered approach is “place-driven, community-based” and “looks for partners, starts small and builds up” to create an “accessible and inclusive” place that is “never really finished”.

Naturally some would quibble with what may seem to be arbitrary distinctions.  And of course there would be natural overlap between these categories. But it does raise an interesting point about whether designers left alone in their ivory towers and white hats might be missing something when it comes to building for their respective communities.

The State of Design in India

The Economist has a nifty article on the India Design Forum here. Its the first ever event of its kind held in the country, and as the article makes clear, it suggests that India is still a ways off from embracing design unlike some of its industrialized counterparts.

Part of this stems from an indifference/ignorance in the possibility of design.  Another reason the article suggests is that “design” is pigeonholed (or perhaps ghettoized) as solely an attribute of the creative sector: “Companies live on design but don’t see it as an important function,” says Rajshree Pathy, the organizer of the event and the curator of the Coimbatore Centre for Contemporary Art.

Still, potential seems to be on the horizon: 100 of the roughly 700 people in attendance were students.

Perhaps the Rotman School of Management, with its emphasis on melding design with business as a “B+D School” and Dean Roger Martin’s interest in establishing relationships with India’s education sector could be of assistance?

Design as a “Native” Tradition

If design exists in every culture then every culture has its design sense.  Its how terms like Gothic, Baroque, Victorian and Brutalist enter our vocabulary.  Design seems to be a universal concept–see Feng Shui in China and Vastu Shastra in India–as well as an immemorial one: the ancient Romans called it Genius Loci or “the Spirit of the Place.”  But what about aboriginal design?

To anyone who has ever spent any time with it, aboriginal design is vibrant, intuitive and sophisticated, often marked by a prevalence of natural and spiritual motifs.  Yet, like so much of aboriginal culture, either historicized or neglected.  Yet by looking at a few examples of new aboriginal design it makes sense that aboriginal perspectives would gel with architecture, sustainability & urban planning.  That’s the hope of  the “First Nations Conference on Sustainable Buildings and Communities” on February 29^th and March 1^st at the River Cree Resort & Casino, on the Enoch First Nation just west of Edmonton.

Architect Wanda Dalla Costa knows this firsthand, particularly around sustainability.  She says aboriginal-driven design  “aligns with traditional philosophies of environmental responsibilities, being caretakers of the land and caretakers for the next 7 generations.  It comes from within.”  As Chief Clarence Louie, the CEO of the Osoyoos Indian Band Development Corporation will attest to,  resource-based aboriginal economies are poised to boom in Canada, so Dalla Costa says there’s also pragmatic reasons for this conference.  “(First Nations communities) are aware that there is a large push towards green buildings right now and therefore funding for those innovative, pilot projects.” 

The event is entitled “Starting the Conversation”—perhaps a tacit acknowledgement of the sorry state of housing in aboriginal life (one word: Attawapiskat, of which Grand Chief Stan Louttit will update the conference).  Even when done with the best of intentions, the government-mandated urbanization of aboriginal communities hewed to a boxy, institutional approach that  privileged function over form, according to Dalla Costa. “A lot of First Nations communities were built and designed on an urban layout i.e. with town centres on a grid system and prototyped housing but without regards to the society, climate, culture and activities people in rural cultures may undertake.”

So what does aboriginal design in architecture look like?  Some groundbreaking examples include Arthur Erickson’s Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia and Blackfoot member Douglas Cardinal’s sinuous Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec as well as the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.

Dalla Costa, a Cree member of the Saddle Lake First Nation, says aboriginal design often borrows from geomantic principles.  For example, after spending many hours listening to elders envision a learning centre for the Blood tribe of Southern Alberta, she incorporated the four cardinal directions, sun patterns, wind dynamics and other earthly elements into the building.

“Concepts with FN architecture are almost everything.  They are so important because the communities are trying to  hang on to their identity…They want to  resurrect the culture and buildings are one of those forms. “

Amazingly, Dalla Costa counts herself as only the 8^th licensed aboriginal architect in Canada, a tiny fellowship that includes Cardinal and Alfred Waugh.  Waugh calls the Left Coast home which is where the most progressive examples of aboriginal design tend to be.  He and Dalla Costa will be having a panel discussion on the best of Canadian sustainable architecture at the Conference (www.sustainablefnc.ca).

Waugh has characterized aboriginal architecture thusly:

“It embraces what happens whenever we take action to give order or meaning to the space around us.  Naming space, designating sacred parts of the wilderness, clearing village areas, garden plots, claiming food-gathering areas, planning and constructing buildings and arranging the spaces that surround and connect them are all components of Native architecture.  Encoded into these buildings and social domains are the social and religious meanings particular to each Nation.”

Seabird Island School by Patkau Architects

UBC Museum of Anthropology by Arthur Erickson

Squamish Lilwat Cultural Centre by Alfred Waugh

Canadian Museum of Civilization by Douglas Cardinal