, (work with Ronald Lay (Doctor of Education (EdD), University of Western Australia))
Abstract
We share a complex relationship with found objects. In contemporary art practice, the discarded, unwanted, broken pieces or junk are often transformed by artists into assemblages with personal meanings, and value through a process involving aesthetic judgment, cognitive reappraisal of the discarded, emotional arousal and creative action. Likewise, in therapy, the discovery and transformation that occurs in the psyche has much to do with the clients’ chance encounter with the lost and found materials.
This research examines how the use of this non-traditional media enriches the ecology of imagination and offers individuals with an experience to dialogue with the lost and discarded parts of self in the context of a therapeutic holding. It aims to pull together a collection of new writings to theorise the use of found objects, considering its use and applications through the lens of postmodernism, psychoanalysis and phenomenology.