Intervention project Amelvis Villafane

 “The question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be… 

The South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists. “ - Martin Luther King Jr. (Seigler, 2018) 

When originally brainstorming ideas for the project I was trying to make connections on social issues that were not only of importance to me but aligned with my future career paths. Mental Health awareness is the social issue that made most sense to me. The goal of the intervention was to bring awareness and reduce the stigma around mental illness, and masking in relation to Mental illness. Masking is the act of hiding or suppressing symptoms of a mental health condition. Masking is common in environments where people are expected to act in a socially normative way — like at school or work, or when meeting new people. Sometimes that means copying the behavior of people around you to blend in, or swapping your usual behaviors with ones that seem more “normal.” Masking isn’t just an in person thing but is something that happens all the time in social media. 

This is the photo of the two people that were shown to others.

When a person masks, they’re potentially trying to act like they are “normal”. Masking is typically more about what you don’t do rather than what you do. A lot of the time they aren’t just masking symptoms but also masking their emotions. 

To bring awareness to mental health issues the idea was to take a photo of two people, who are on social media (that being myself and my best friend) and put on the side post it notes and ask people to write down what mental disorders they thought these two people had if any. Then explain how sometimes if you're paying attention you can spot certain behaviors within people but a lot of the time you can’t really tell if someone has a mental disorder unless they tell you. 

The inspiration photo

In a lot of the protests within the Black Lives Matter article they used real real faces and taped “I Can’t Breathe” and “#BlackLivesMatter” on their mouths. The idea of putting Post It notes on the faces of two normal looking young adults was inspired by the tape from these protests. 

The idea of borrowing ideas from the past and finding way to make it your own is enlightening. 

“Two acts of defiance, nearly fifty years apart, deliver the same message: I refuse to be afraid.” (Seidler, 2018) 

Siegler, B. (2018). Signs of Resistance: A Visual History of Protest in America.