Borne out of a profound personal experience, lighting designer and artist Efterpi Soropos (Effe) has used her artistic talent and training to create a remarkable environment that bridges the gaps between art and medicine and spiritual healing.
Efterpi Soropos (Effe)
Effe’s story is a deeply moving one, which began with her observations of the hospital environment (both physical and metaphorical) in which her own mother spent her final days and weeks. Through her grief, she saw that while the best medical and nursing care can keep terminally ill patients as pain free as possible, there are seldom choices about their environment which is often noisy, clinical and lacking in calm or distraction.
Effe saw an opportunity to use her skills as a lighting designer and artist, to create an alternative environment – a micro-space – within the hustle and bustle of the hospital that might give terminally ill patients the opportunity to be immersed in calm: a space that might enhance their pain management and quality of life through its stillness and beauty.
As a lighting designer, stage manager and production manager, Effe has an established career working with some of Australia’s best known artists and arts companies including Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, the Performance Space, Back to Back Theatre, Polyglot Puppet Theatre, and Chamber Made Opera (to name a few).
“I instinctively knew that my idea was different from a public art project – my intention was not to produce a statue in a public space or large scale graffiti art or murals. The work I do is more integrated in the ‘audience’ and I feel that philosophy stems from the performing arts. That is why went I went to the CCD (Community Cultural Development) course at the Faculty of the VCA and Music. The course coordinators understood straight away what I was trying to achieve and had no problem accepting my wide range and many years experience as a performing arts designer as being sufficient for a Masters program.”
Effe is also now a graduate (2007) of the Master of Community Cultural Development (CCD) at the Faculty of the VCA and Music. She explains that the CCD course gave her the theoretical structure behind what she instinctively sensed about the role of artists in community settings and as part of her Masters’ study, she was required to develop and deliver a supervised community-based project.
“The CCD Masters allowed me to find the space to think and read which you don’t get to do a lot of when you are a performing arts designer as you are so busy trying to earn a living and juggling many projects at once. The course helped me to consolidate what my practice was and in doing so find my place and sense of purpose as an artist – this was by far the most challenging yet rewarding aspect of the degree. I guess one of the differences between CCD artists and visual artists is that we think more about the impact of what you are doing on an audience. Your work is personal but at the same time must have an outcome that is going to be of benefit for your audience.”
Effe’s vision was realised at Monash Medical Centre’s palliative care unit, McCulloch House where she set up The Disambiguation Room in 2008. As a multifunctional art space for patients and their families, Effe uses the term “disambiguation” to describe her project because it aims to bridge the ambiguity of applying ‘art’, and its known psychological and physical benefits, in a medical setting. Through combinations of film, images, sound-scapes, lighting effects, tactile furnishings, colour and sensory elements, the installation in the room is designed to assist patients to alleviate the agitation, anxiety, fear and depression related to their condition. Effe describes her artistic vision as “intuitive” for her most recent projects have used the natural and spiritual environments as inspiration. In doing so, Effe and her collaborators have created a space of immersion in aural and sensorial stimulation. Responding to the lack of choice in end of life care, patients and their families are directly involved in the choice of images, music and other elements for their experience in the Disambiguation Room. By handing patients some control of the experience, Effe hopes to relieve their frustration and anxiety.
For more information:
Faculty of the VCA and Music courses in Community Cultural Development: http://www.vca.unimelb.edu.au/ccdcourses
Human Rooms: http://humanrooms.com
The Disambiguation Room and Efterpi’s residency has been incorporated into Southern Health’s art program “Art Beat”: www.southernhealth.org.au