Description
Book SynopsisAll Sky, Mirror Ocean is for everyone looking to understand the complex issues around mental illness and healing. Combining autobiography, research-creation, poetry, and creative philosophy, Brad Necyk uses art and words to uncover and tell new stories about trauma and recovery. Necyk weaves his own histories with bipolar affective disorder and childhood medical trauma with those of other people dealing with grief and loss: head and neck cancer patients in Edmonton, psychiatric inpatients in Toronto, and communities in Iqaluit stricken by suicide. Punctuated with art, these lived experiences intertwine with scholarship on arts-based research, neuroscience, collaboration, and psychedelic altered states to reveal the understanding and acceptance that comes from acknowledging our deep connections—to ideas and emotions, to our environments, to art, and to each other. Showing great compassion and wisdom, All Sky, Mirror Ocean is a model for research-creation and artistic fieldwork.
Trade Review"All Sky, Mirror Ocean is beautifully written, invitingly complex, heartbreakingly real. This visionary work is not so much a contribution as a live wire. It is unbearably important." Erin Manning, Concordia University
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements for sha : on writing Introduction Alberta #3 Iqaluit, Nunavut Telling Stories Otherwise Edmonton, Alberta No Trespassing Cancer A research meeting Being Healing World Gone Wrong 1987 The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario Unwell Stories and Worlds Worlding The Open Morning Light Death #1 A Dry City Spaciousness Knowing An Arts-Based Workshop The Abyss For Mom, For Dad The Origin of the Work of Art Visionary Art The Visionary Artist Distant Early Warning Self-Showing North Bay, Ontario Unthinkable Stories The Behaviour of Art Knowing Otherwise Creation-as-Research Co-Creating Cancer Waiting Room For my Grandma For Jesse For Ellie For Him For Mary The New Girl Co-Creation Default-Mode Network Entropic Brain Psilocybin For Derek and Luanna ECT A Sermon Psychiatric Rooms Music Room Into Mania For the young girl next to me, who is still with me Death #2 Life For Candace Select Annotated Bibliography References Alternative Tables of Content Iqaluit Iqaluit, Nunavut No Trespassing Morning Light A Dry City An Arts-Based Workshop Cancer Edmonton, Alberta Cancer A Research Meeting Self-Showing Unthinkable Stories Co-creating Cancer Waiting Room Centre for Addiction and Mental Health The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada Unwell North Bay, Ontario For Jesse For Him The New Girl Co-creation For Derek and Luanna ECT A Sermon Psychiatric Rooms Music Room Family Alberta #3 World Gone Wrong 1987 For Mom, For Dad For my grandma For Ellie For Mary Into Mania For the young girl next to me, who is still with me For Candace Visionary Art Telling Stories Otherwise Being Healing Stories and Worlds Worlding The Open Death #1 Spaciousness Knowing The Abyss The Origin of the Work of Art Visionary Art The Visionary Artist Distant Early Warning The Behaviour of Art Knowing Otherwise Creation-as-research Default-Mode Network Entropic Brain Psilocybin Death #2 Life
