‘Mental Health Apps’ was produced in 2012 as an editorial illustration for the cover of the mental health magazine ‘Therapy Today’. At present, technology is rapidly on the increase in terms of development and consumer usage, where by instance mobile phone apps are being created for almost every purpose. This image illustrates future prospects of apps being used for Cognitive Behaviour Therapies used to treat people suffering from mental health problems. ‘Enhancement enthusiasts argue that you are a single total being, that your mind is shaped by the machine it inhabits’(Moore,2008:46)
Lowndes states that most of his work consists of the process of transferring hand drawn images to digital format and digital tools including adobe photoshop and illustrator to enhance the initial sketches. Therapy today is the official journal of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, and this particular image features on the front of the magazine of the April 2012 Issue 3 Volume 23 copy to accompany the feature article by Phil Topham entitled ‘Making People Appy’. In terms of medium, Therapy today is a printed magazine predominantly edited by Sarah Browne and Catherine Jackson targeted at the audience of counselling and psychotherapy professionals, and those interested in therapy.
The image presents two burgundy silhouette forms of people sitting face to face engaging in a counselling session. The therapist on the right half of the photograph is concealed within a black outlined frame of an iPad/ tablet with a red background that matches the shade of the chair that the patient, on the left hand side is sitting in. The main background and frame of the image consists of a plain teal square, which contrasts with the shades of red.
The therapist concealed within the iPad illustrates the subject of the article: future prospects for apps being created to help people suffering from mental health problems, as opposed to actually physically going to a counselling session. ‘The world of the future will be an ever more demanding struggle against the limitations of our own intelligence, not a comfortable hammock in which we can lie down to be waited upon by robot slaves’(Barbrook,2007:46) The title of the article, ‘Making People Appy’ is a play on words meaning that the general use of apps is rapidly increasing, and the concept that going to see a councillor is ultimately a solution to a problem, resulting in being happier. ‘Anxiety is the most common of psychological complaints, not only the clinical condition that applies to the most people,but its often said, a universal and insoluble feature of modern life’ (Smith,2013:4)
In some ways you could argue that the image presents a message that in years to come apps will have more value than people themselves, in terms of creating an app to provide a function that a human would normally carry out, in this instant being a psychotherapist. ‘does the mass media have a significant amount of power over its audience,or does the audience ultimately have more power than the media’(Gauntlett,2008:22)
In terms of apps having more value than people, this analogy relates to (fig. 1), a street painting by Banksy of a child reacting badly to a lack of popularity/attention from gaining no ‘likes’ on an instagram photo. The level of importance and value in the amount of ‘likes’ gained on a photo posted on a social media site could arguably be on the same level as being bullied or left alone in the school playground.
This also relates to (fig.3), referencing back to the fact that technology may start to replace jobs that people can carry out,represented by showing a cross section of an iPhone with human organs bulging out instead of technological components.
As a generalisation, society is becoming more isolated and engaged with their mobile phones as opposed to going and finding things out for themselves, and actually communicating with others because it is simply easier and quicker to reach into their pockets, pull out a mobile phone and solve the issue almost instantly with the push of a few buttons. ‘Spirituality is committing suicide. Consciousness is attempting to will itself out of existence’(Smith,2010:20) (Fig.4) illustrates a brainwashed community in which technology comes before human nature and logic, and showing the human race focusing solely on their mobile phones without thinking for themselves.
The words that I associate with this illustration include: therapy, counselling, technology, future, apps, society, replacement and isolation, which is a mixture of verbs and adjectives. These common features suggest a theme of future prospects for society, resulting in a futuristic, preparatory language being used in logic that we can’t control or don’t know what will happen in the future. The idea of isolation and loneliness could be linked to both (fig.2) and (fig.5) both showing ‘facebook’ isolation; in other words seeing the worlds seeing the world through social media instead of a ‘real world’ experience. Everyone secluding themselves in their own personal bubbles and living behind a screen. This kind of lifestyle is rapidly on the increase and could be a projection for what society might be like in the future.
In conclusion, ‘Mental Health Apps’ is an editorial piece of illustration designed for the cover of ‘Therapy Today’ magazine to draw attention to the feature article entitled ‘Making People Appy’. In a simplistic and direct form, the image communicates the prospects of apps being created in the future to aid people suffering from mental health issues. On a wider scale, this relates to current issues of people engaging more with technology than people themselves, and the idea of apps replacing human functions and society as a whole becoming more isolated.
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Bibliograpghy
Fig.1 Banksy(2014)’social media’[street art] available from
Fig.2 Sounas,I(n.d)’facebook isolation’[illustration] available from
Fig.3 Pieterson,M(2011)’the anatomy of technology’[illustration] available from
Fig.4 Klaranbeek,J(2013)’passive’[illustration] available from
Fig.5 Kuczynski,P(2012)n/a[illustration] available from
Smith,Z.(2010)’you are not a gadget’,London,Penguin Book
Gauntlett,D.(2008)’media gender and identity, an introduction’,Cornwall,TJ International
Moore,P.(2008)’enhancing me-the hope and hype of human enhancement’, John Wiley& Sons Ltd, Chichester
Barbrook,R.(2007)’imaginary futures’London,Pluto Press
Smith,D.(2012)’monkey mind’New York,Simon&Schuster Paperbacks
