Objects of the Mind: engaging digital publics in material cultures of mental health and media

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'Demons of the Mind' offered the first interdisciplinary study of the interactions of the 'psy' sciences and cinema in the defining 'long 1960s' period (Marwick 2005), when psychiatrists, psychologists and psychoanalysts intervened in and influenced film culture in unprecedented ways (Snelson and Macauley 2020; Snelson 2011). A key but unexpected finding of the original research, was the vital role played by objects - psychiatric instruments, laboratory equipment, diagnostic tools, psychological tests, perceptual experiments - as the embodied materiality of the psychological ideas that the films circulated and contested, and their interaction with the cinematic and sound technologies and special effects that sought to frame their reception by audiences. The Follow-on-Funding for 'Objects of the Mind' (OoM) would allow us to complete the narrative we have been crafting, not by asking new research questions, but by revisiting the original ones in relation to the objects employed within the cinematic production of these films. By looking at converging material culture of media and medicine we are able to reframe our research for new audiences, whilst demonstrating the public value of looking at objects. Through co-investigation with the Science Museum Group (SMG) we will extend the historical resonance and contemporary relevance of our DoM research, whilst adding value to the culture of museum life through knowledge exchange and audience development. Through an innovative suite of digital resources and in-person and online events, the project will offer public access and interaction with a range of archive film (supplied by partners Studiocanal) and museum objects (some of which are not on physical display or currently digitised). This will seek to demonstrate the value of recombining objects and archival materials outside of established taxonomies to reveal 'entangled stories' across collections. Through partnership with INTO Film we will bring the DoM findings and SMG collections to Generation Z (aged 10-25), a demographic identified as being particularly affected by the ongoing pandemic in terms of disruption of educational and social opportunities, and resultant adverse effects on mental health. The project, therefore, speaks to AHRC priorities relating to the ongoing social, educational and psychological effects of the pandemic, and specifically to Towards a National Collection's concerns regarding digital access and interaction with and across heritage collections. This includes developing a model for live virtual tours of the SMG galleries and special collections, which have not been delivered to date. OoM has three key aims: 1) to harness the accessibility of the objects within and across SMG's collections as didactic tools to communicate and engage larger and more diverse audiences for the DoM findings. 2) to utilise the DoM research to tell new stories about and across the Science Museum (ScM) and National Science and Media Museum's (NSMM) science, medicine and media collections, that will stimulate public interest in museum objects and inspire the next generation of citizens, clinicians and filmmakers. 3) to utilise the expertise and infrastructure of the SMG and our partners and collaborators to develop the digital engagement skills of the project team. There is a strong alignment between our original project DoM findings and the SMG's 'top level' research priorities, and this OoM project will feed into institutional level research priorities in fostering better understandings of the collections and thinking about new stories that the ScM and NSMM can to tell about their collections. This project also seeks to establish a longer-term working relationship between the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the museum partners, including co-developing and supervising doctoral and postdoctoral projects.