FREE ACTIVITY ™SM – A MODEL OF THERAPEUTIC SESSIONS
Oskar Chmioła is the creator of a project for therapeutic sessions based on his idea of free activity. Below is a description of the idea behind these meetings from his Association’s website:
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An open organizational meeting was held at the Association’s headquarters at 10 Kuśnierska Street, introducing a model of art therapy sessions in which anyone interested could take part. It is intended to be a kind of social gathering (it could be associated with a game, a happening or play) devoted to finding a shared language using every possible means. The idea is to develop a non-directive method for treating mental disorders and personal burdens, as well as for education and reflection on diversity. On the basis of free activity — spontaneous, natural, calm, sincere and uninhibited engagement with oneself and with other people in a particular time and space — a new dimension of encounter, a new kind of communication and perception, is intended to develop. This concept emphasizes concentration, mindfulness, observation, sensitivity, altruism and creativity. In addition to people with autism and related disorders and their families, educators, specialists, teachers, therapists, care and education workers, artists and everyone interested were invited to the series.
The first 2 meetings were organizational. During the meetings, it was explained what the meetings were intended to involve and what free activity is. For parents/carers, this could have been important in preparing a child or an adult with autism for the presence of many people in a new place and environment, and for the particular nature of free activity. For representatives of the medical, scientific and artistic fields already mentioned, this was an open platform of practice and theory, intended to develop gradually through their suggestions and active participation. For the other people, it was important preparation for taking part in something important, unique and unpredictable.
The meeting was accompanied by a short introductory talk on collective performance art. The therapeutic perspective of such sessions was then discussed.
Let’s create a shared language is an action whose aim is mutual understanding. We want to find still better means of communication, both between “Atomy” and the rest of society and between people in general. People functioning within the norm will face a similar challenge (one of the most important) to the one faced daily by people with autism and their families: their means of communication will be limited, because the meetings will be an attempt to converse WITHOUT WORDS (in the form of complex sentences — unless the utterance is a kind of poetry or song). One could say that free activity thus levels the playing field for everyone.
The inspiration for this initiative is performance art, especially its collective form, which was already being presented exactly 100 years ago by the Dadaists (more: http://www.magazynsztuki.pl/dadaizm/), and, in a more contemporary form, since roughly the end of the 60s of the last century, by artists from all over the world forming different groups or meeting occasionally. One of the most important of these groups, if not the most important, is Black Market International blackmarketinternational.blogspot.com , we present one of the photographs documenting their actions, which illustrates well the visual dimension of this kind of meeting:
http://www.atomyautyzm.com.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/bone_8_sa_148.jpg
Source: blackmarketinternational.blogspot.com
We will try to transform this form of artists’ meeting into a type of therapeutic session that will become part of our Association’s regular programme. With the presence of artists working in this kind of art, the initiative will be reflected in contemporary art and will become a way of making culture available to people excluded because of this type of disability. With the presence of occupational therapists, teachers and educators, as well as eminent specialists and speech therapists, the sessions have a chance of becoming an effective form of art therapy — perfotherapy.
Like all our activities, these too are aimed primarily at people with autism and their families, but we also invite everyone else, especially people from socially marginalized communities.
These were the first meetings in a series devoted to the therapeutic potential of live art. The first 2 meetings were organizational. There was discussion of what would be needed to seek a shared language through free activity. During the meeting, it was explained what the meetings would involve and what free activity is. As far as possible, everyone could speak and offer suggestions. The next meetings will, we hope, focus on the activity itself. Further meetings will take place on selected Saturdays (or possibly Sundays) each month.
During the meeting, PIC pictograms were used for communication based on aided messaging through AAC pictograms (details on the partner website of Centrum Metod Alternatywnych — alternative communication —
http://www.piktogramy.com.pl).
Below are aids of this type available to download, which are worth printing out:
http://www.atomyautyzm.com.pl/oferta-stala/znajdzmy-wspolny-jezyk/znajdzmy-wspolny-jezyk-swobodna-aktywnosc/#more-288
also available in one of the posts on the event page.
The meetings will be documented, and their outcome will be available to see on our website. We encourage you to ask questions:http://www.atomyautyzm.com.pl/kontakt/
Please visit the Association’s official website
http://www.atomyautyzm.com.pl/
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© Oskar Chmioła