Let’s OK Dementia.

OK, Dementia.

A collaborative storytelling and animation project commissioned by the social design collective Enable Foundation (Hong Kong / London) as part of their OK Dementia Festival in partnership with the British Council’s SPARK 2021 events. 

How can we change the culture around dementia and shift our perceptions and assumptions about it? This project is about de-stigmatising and raising awareness and empathy around the challenges of living with dementia. 

My role in the OK Dementia project was as a visual storyteller: translating the complexity and scope of the project through image, narrative and character design. The project started with a series of comics and ended in the form of a pair of short animations that I designed, illustrated and directed. 

The Animations

The animations are each based on a specific dementia related metaphor that I identified as something that anyone could relate and empathise with through their own lived experience. This was playfully explored through the animations as a way into de-stigmatising and expanding empathy for those living with dementia.  

Watch the official animation trailer here.

Animation 1: Radio Heads

Imagine if your head was radio… 

We all tune into different stations and frequencies all the time, depending on the situation. We all essentially live in our own mind-made reality, and most of the time those realities (generally!) work well together: we can function and make sense of the world.

But what happens when, though no fault of our own, those radios start tuning into stations that aren’t necessarily as relevant to the time and space we are physically in? 

And what if the people we love are tuning into realities that aren’t ours? How can we be empathetic and compassionate towards them when our realities can appear so different? 

This could be because of dementia, mental health issues or many other illnesses - we all have a radio in our head. 

Animation 2: Mental Fishing

We all know what it’s like to forget things. 

We all know what it’s like to walk in a room and not remember why we went in there, or forget what we were going to say in the middle of a conversation. 

An active process happens as we start fishing in the back of our minds for the answer, but the thing about fishing is you never quite know what you are going to catch or how long it will take. 

Dementia is no different. 

What if every time you had to fish for a memory, you caught something completely out of context to your current point in space and time? How would that feel? Where would it lead you? 

Why Visual Storytelling?

Visual storytelling is a powerful way to create empathy and build rapport with a viewer. 

We are hardwired to understanding our world through story: it’s a powerful empathy building tool when communicating information that may otherwise be challenging to digest. 

In a social context, empathy is also what often drives us to take action. If we understand the personal challenges that someone with, for example dementia, are going through, we are far better able to rise to the challenge of helping them. 

I am passionate about building a better world through story, and serving those who need their story told.