Artyfikacja jako innowacyjna metoda aktywizacji twórczej seniorów
Artification as an Innovative Method of Creative Activation for Seniors

Summary/Abstract: The end of working life results in social isolation for seniors, which can be compensated by using art therapy, understood as a therapeutic practice. Its development, among other things, is provided by medicine, especially neurology and the results of research into brain ageing. Used for geriatric rehabilitation purposes, it is based on equivalent elements: art and therapy, with the overriding function of the idea as the cause of the work. Artification, on the other hand, understood as a situation or process in which objects not commonly regarded as art are transformed into something similar to art or into something that alludes to artistic ways of thinking and acting, is a more subtle form of working with emotion and perception in older people. These considerations inspired the development of a working method on the interface between (art)therapy and art education. Tested at institutions supporting seniors and people with disabilities (Hospicjum Cordis in Katowice, Hospicjum Dar Serca in Częstochowa), artification became a method aimed at strengthening the creativity and sense of subjectivity of seniors by means of a creative process and involvement in discovering their lives as art. The method was developed by a team of researchers from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice and the University of Silesia in Katowice, and the project developed with grant support of the ‘Good Innovations’ programme. The process is depicted in a video accompanying the handbook, enabling therapists to create their own therapeutic plans, inspiring the exploration of their own creativity and that of their clients, targeted at improving selected areas of functioning. Artification is a way of activation that can be applied to different groups. It is also a service based on stimulating the ability to perceive the world spontaneously and creatively.

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