Artful Dementia

A Citizen Science Research Lab

The Artful Dementia Research Lab at UiT The Arctic University of Norway conducts research on innovative understandings of ageing and dementia. On the basis of situated art interventions with the creative and performative arts our researchers investigate other ways of living with and relating to dementia. The overall goal is twofold:

(1) to advance knowledge on how to enact dementia beyond individual human loss

(2) to increase awareness on how to create meaningful reciprocal relations between people living with and without dementia and promote research-based cultural change

Series of experimental art interventions become thereby a mode of social science knowledge generation. Through developing a new conceptual repertoire, research conducted within the Artful Dementia Research Lab contributes to complementing medical and pharmacological interventions with experimental art interventions that are sensitive to socio-material dimensions of everyday life.

Factsheets

Factsheet 1
How to engage in knowledge creation within ADLab? Foto: adlab
Factsheet 2
Digital Data Handling within ADLab Foto: adlab
Factsheet 3
Bergsodden Residency Foto: adlab

The Artful Dementia film is based on a set of video recordings collected at Bergsodden residential care home in February 2020. All those who wanted to participate had been informed about the broad outline of the project, and that the whole session would be filmed. All participants, and legally authorized representatives (next of kin) when needed, gave informed and proxy consent in advance. Furthermore, we collected consent by editing by watching the film together with the residents and their next of kin who all agreed orally to publish it publicly and make it available for researchers and others who want to change perceptions of dementia. ® Artful Dementia Research Lab / RESULT at UiT The Arctic University of Norway 2021 Citation: Lilli Mittner, Tiia Grøn, & Terje Bergli. (2021). Artful Dementia Film 2021. UiT The Arctic University of Norway. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4455781


Team


ADLab webinars

ADlab webinar series is a format of scholarly conversation that brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines who are working on art & dementia. By making our conversations transparent and openly accessible we invite a broader audience to listen and take part in knowledge creation. All recording and data handling is declared with the panelists. #openresearch #consentbyediting #academickindness

#1 ADLab Webinar: Clothing the clown. Creative dressing in day-centre for people with dementia (Ruud Hendriks, Maastricht)

#2 ADLab Webinar: Challenging Perceptions of Old Age and Art (Ingrid Tranum Velásquez, Copenhagen) 

#3 ADLab Webinar: The situated/spatial ethics of dementia activism research (Professor Ruth Bartlett, VID Specialised University)

#4  ADLab Webinar: Dear future self with dementia. Articulating inclusive futures through letter writing (Annelieke Driessen and Hannah Cowan, London)

#5 ADLab Webinar: My Memory Returned to Me. Writing about dementia from a queer-feminist perspective (Teri Szűcs, Researcher and Writer, Hungary)

Output

 

Articles, Book Chapters, Reports

 
  1. Lotherington, A. T., & Obstfelder, A. U. (2023). Enacting citizenship through writing: An analysis of a diary written by a man with Alzheimer’s disease. Ageing & Society, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X23000223
  2. Lukić, D. (2023). Dementia as a material for co-creative art making: Towards feminist posthumanist caring. Journal of Aging Studies, 67, 101169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2023.101169
  3. Lotherington, A. T. (2023). Gender awareness and feminist approaches in dementia studies. In J. R. Fletcher & A. Capstick (Eds.), A Critical History of Dementia Studies. Routledge.
  4. Gjærum, R. G., Mittner, L., Plucker, E., & Vélasquez, I. T. (2023). Kunstfaglig metodikk og sosial innovasjon i demensomsorgen: Erfaringer fra kunstintervensjon i eldreomsorgen. Nordic Journal of Art & Research, 12(2), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.7577/ar.5097
  5. Lukić, D., & Mittner, L. (2023). Diffracting Dementia: Co-Creative Experiments with Agential Realism and Multisensoriality in a Residential Care Home in Northern Norway. In E. Just, M. Udén, V. Weetzel, & C. Åsberg (Eds.), Voices from Gender Studies: Negotiating the terms of academic production, epistemology, and the logics and contents of identity. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Voices-from-Gender-Studies-Negotiating-the-Terms-of-Academic-Production/Just-Udn-Weetzel-sberg/p/book/9781032415826
  6. Basting, A. (2022, June 9). Pioneering Creative Care. Anne Basting about how to engage meaningfully with people living with dementia (L. Mittner & Artful Dementia Lab, Interviewers) [DRAMA 59 (1)]. Universitetsforlaget. https://www.idunn.no/doi/10.18261/drama.59.1.8 [pdf]
  7. Vélasquez, I. T. (2022). Gensidighed som et vilkår for transformation. DRAMA, 59(1), 24–27. https://doi.org/10.18261/drama.59.1.7 [pdf]
  8. Mittner, Lilli, and Rikke Gürgens Gjærum. 2022. “Research Innovation: Advancing Arts-Based Research Methods to Make Sense of Micro-Moments Framed by Dementia.” Nordic Journal of Art and Research 11 (1). https://doi.org/10.7577/information.5065
  9. Mittner, L., & Lotherington, A. T. (2021). Artful Dementia Research Lab: Progress report 2017-2021. Septentrio Reports, 13, Article 13. https://doi.org/10.7557/7.6399
  10. Mittner, L. (2021). Resonating moments. Exploring socio-material connectivity through artistic encounters with people living with dementia. Dementia, 20(7). https://doi.org/10.1177/14713012211039816
  11. Mittner, L., Dalby, K., & Gürgens, R. (2021). Re-conceptualizing the gap as a potential space of becoming: Exploring aesthetic experiences with people living with dementia. Nordic Journal of Arts, Culture and Health, 3(1–2), 62–73. https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.2535-7913-2021-01-02-06
  12. Mittner, L., & Gürgens, R. G. (2021). Situating an Art Intervention with People Living in a public space: Notes from the field. Nordic Journal of Arts, Culture and Health, 3(1–2), 115–121. https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.2535-7913-2021-01-02-11
  13. Lukić, D; Lotherington A. T. (2020). Fighting symbolic violence through artistic encounters: searching for feminist answers to the question of life and death with dementia: Confortini, C.C; Vaittinen, T. (eds) Gender, Global Health, and Violence: Feminist Perspectives on Peace and Disease, Rowman & Littlefield, 2020. Post-print open access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/16911
  14. Lukić, D. (2019). Multiple ontologies of Alzheimer’s disease in Still Alice and A Song for Martin: A feminist visual studies of technoscience perspectiveThe European Journal of Women's Studies 2019. Pre-print open access: https://munin.uit.no/handle/10037/16230
  15. Lotherington, A. T. (2019). Feminist Theories and Later Life. In D. Gu & M. E. Dupre (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging (pp. 1–3). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_155-
  16. Lotherington, A. T. (2019). Artful Dementia: Feminist Theory Applied. https://criticalgerontology.com/artful-dementia
  17. Lotherington, A. T., Obstfelder, A., & Ursin, G. (2018). The Personal Is Political Yet Again: Bringing Struggles between Gender Equality and Gendered Next of Kin onto the Feminist Agenda. NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research26(2), 129–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2018.1461131
  18. Ursin, G., & Lotherington, A. T. (2018). Citizenship as Distributed Achievements: Shaping New Conditions for an Everyday Life with Dementia. Retrieved from https://munin.uit.no/handle/10037/12510
  19. Bartlett, R., Gjernes, T., Lotherington, A.-T., & Obstefelder, A. (2016). Gender, citizenship and dementia care: a scoping review of studies to inform policy and future research. Health & Social Care in the Community, n/a-n/a. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.12340

Conference Presentations, Posters & Workshops

  • ADLab Festival 12th-16th of June 2023
  • Dalby, K. (2023). Medskapende estetiske prosesser i eldreomsorgen: En studie om anvendt teater og demens, ESTival, 9. June 2023, Høgskolen i Innlandet.
  • Dalby, K. (2023).Consent as an aesthetic experience, Nordic Arts & Health Research Network meeting11-12 May 2023, Malmö.
  • Mittner, L., & Lotherington, A. T. (2022). Situating arts-based research with people living with dementia. Artistic Practice And Ethnography – Methodological Considerations On Research In Care Institutions. The 26th Nordic Congress of Gerontology in Odense, Denmark, June 8–10, 2022, Odense.
  • Mittner, L., & Dalby, K. (2022 ). Situated art intervention as an arts-based research method in dementia research. Symposium: Creative Methods in Participatory Research: Disability and Citizenship, Citpro, 27th April  2022 Oslo VID.
  • Mittner, L. & Gürgens, R. (2021). Øyeblikk som betyr noe. Gode relasjoner som skaper langvarig endring. Webinarserie «Kunst og kreativitet i helhetlig omsorg» Del 2.  Nasjonalt Kompetansesenter for kultur, helse og omsorg og Verdighetsenteret, i samarbeid med Sykehjemsetaten i Oslo, 11. november 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJxGNy4LDSs
  • Mittner, L. (2021). Don’t mind the gap – dance with dementia!. Nordic Arts & Health Research Network meeting 7th – 8th June 2021 (online), visual review
  • Dalby, K., Mittner, L. &  Gürgens Gjærum, R. (2020). Verksted: Hvordan er vi sammen? Situert kunstintervensjon som mulighetsrom for mennesker som lever med demens. Kunst og velferd. En konferanse om kunstens plass i velferdsstaten 23.-24. april 2020, Oslo, posponed
  • Mittner, L., Lukić, D., & Lotherington, A. T. (2019). Workshop on Feminist Art Interventions | Shaping Spaces of Possibility through Co-Creative Action. Kjønnsforskning NÅ! Tromsø 13-15 November 2019
  • Mittner, L., (2019). Situert kunstintervensjon som mulighetsrom. Aktiv deltakelse for mennesker som lever med demens. Aktive eldre og aktiv aldring 7. norske kongress i aldersforskning, Fornebu 24-25 Octobre 2019
  • Lukić, Dragana; Mittner, Lilli; Lotherington, Ann Therese (2019). Exploring transformative powers of the arts for societal change: reimagining life with dementia through co-creative artistic encounters. The Museum for All People: Art, Accessibility and Social Inclusion, Madrid. 2019-04-02 - 2019-04-05 2019.
  • Mittner, L., Lukić, D., & Lotherington, A. T. (2017). The Role of the Artist in Arts-Based Dementia Care. Poster at the 27th Alzheimer Europe Conference “Care today, cure tomorrow” 2017-10-02. Berlin.
  • Lotherington, Ann Therese; Obstfelder, Aud; Zuiderent-Jerak, Teun; Jerak-Zuiderent, Sonja (2017). Artful Dementia: Experimental Arts Interventions for Gracious Living. Dimensions of Ageing - A Multidisciplinary Seminar. The Norwegian University Center in St. Petersburg, 26-28 September 2017 

Factsheets

ADLab-Sessions

Multimedia

 

Outreach 

Artful Dementia – A Citizen Science Research Lab


Artful Dementia Research Lab
Centre for Women’s and Gender Research
UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Postboks 6050 Langnes, 9037 Tromsø
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