Interactive Media and Non-linear Participatory Narratives of Mental Health

This thesis explores the role that non-linear narrative possibilities afforded by interactive media can play in supporting the production of polyvocal participatory accounts of mental health. The research is grounded in my own practice as a participatory filmmaker and uses a pre-existing linear film on mental health and recovery, produced by five men with lived experience of mental health problems, called Stepping Through. The film has been used as the starting point for three studies resulting in the production of an interactive version of the film by the same participants.
The thesis starts by setting the context for this study, presenting literature on how mental health stigma is often reinforced and perpetuated by mainstream media while other forms of media production led by people with lived experience of mental health problems offer well-rounded and nuanced representations of mental health. I focus specifically on participatory filmmaking and present my own practice as a participatory filmmaker in the mental health field, reviewing some of the challenges that limit the impact of this practice, looking in particular at how streamlining a polyvocal production in a linear film form can compress some of the complexity of the personal mental health accounts generated. On the other hand, some non-linear narrative qualities afforded by interactive media productions, such as i-Docs, could complement participatory filmmaking on mental health, opening up space for multiple viewpoints to coexist within the same film structure.
The methodology chapter of the thesis presents the overarching research question, which is how can interactive media facilitate the production of personal accounts of mental health by people with lived experience of mental health problems involved in participatory filmmaking? This area of investigation was approached by grounding the research in Stepping Through as a case study, working longitudinally with participants to create an interactive version of the film. Given that experiments of participatory interactive filmmaking in mental health are not present in the literature, making a film with participants was essential to explore this area of practice.
The first study, described in chapter 5, was dedicated to exploring the limits of using a linear narrative form in community film productions on mental health by analysing what was left unsaid in the original Stepping Through with the participants who made the film. The results of this study indicated that there were several expressive needs that the linear film form did not fulfil.
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The second study, described in chapter 6 and 7, consisted in exploring the process of transforming Stepping Through in an interactive film by letting participants imagine a new non-linear design for the film. Usual participatory filmmaking processes were modified to include strategies to support the exploration of a new film form participants had no experience of. The process resulted in a film structure which attempts to accommodate the expressive needs identified in the first study and makes space for both personal and communal representations of participants’ experiences of mental health problems and recovery.
In the third study, described in chapter 8, Stepping Through Interactive was evaluated to explore how it met the objectives set by participants in the first study. The film was evaluated by its creators, who found that it successfully conveyed the complexity of their personal experiences of mental health, with some exceptions which were only partially accommodated by the film due to technical limitations. The film was then evaluated with external audiences, including mental health professionals and service users and a sample of a generic audience. The evaluation showed that the film successfully conveyed the viewpoints of the participants to the majority of audience members.