Health, Art and The Reith Lectures 2013 (and the search for the perpetual umbilicus)

This week sees the start of The Reith Lectures on BBC Radio 4 by Grayson Perry.

The question is: who decides on what makes art good?

Perry writes in the Financial Times Weekend:

Clement Greenberg, a famous art critic in the 1950s, said that art will always be tied to money by an umbilical cord of gold, either state money or market money. I'm pragmatic about it: one of my favourite quotes is you'll never have a good art career unless your work fits into the elevator of a New York apartment block.

Once born into the world, the umbilical cord that transfers and imbues life and sustenance no longer matters physically. It is the social ties that bind, according to the lyrics and life experience.

In health and social care we need to find a perpetual umbilical cord that makes well-being and health not just something to take for granted. Not some thing that is only noticed when the piece of art won't fit into the elevator any longer.

This is the challenge in health care. A challenge that will see art movements and markets come and go. The solutions will rely on science, technology and art.

@science @technology @art 

each brings its own engineering.

We need tools that facilitate self-care when needed. Cognitive engineering that people can call upon by virtue of the combined literacies they possess. Self-care that is delayed due to self-knowledge.

Cognitive tools people can take anywhere; from elevators in New York and doors to apartments, yurts in Mongolia, the multitude of tents in Jordan to the terraced houses near Wigan Pier ...


Financial Times, Grayson Perry’s Reith Lectures: Who decides what makes art good? October 11, 2013 7:16 pm