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A collaboration between the UK artist Emma Allen and the neuroscientist Daisy Thompson-Lake at Queen Mary University of London, this short animation uses the surface of a man’s head as a canvas to explore both the experience and the neuroscience of depression. Through an arresting and emotive visual style that uses stop-motion to animate face-painting, the short film connects two very distinct ways of conceptualising depression: as a lived emotional experience and as a medical condition rooted in brain chemistry. The video is part of Allen and Thompson-Lake’s GreyMatters series, which endeavours to ‘remove the social stigma that accompanies mental health and educate about the role of the brain in depression’.
Director: Emma Allen
Producer: Daisy Thompson-Lake
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Rituals and celebrations
A whale hunt is an act of prayer for an Inuit community north of the Arctic Circle
8 minutes
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Music
The peculiar beauty of a song caught between composition and improvisation
3 minutes
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Rituals and celebrations
A beginner’s guide to a joyful Persian tradition of spring renewal and rebirth
3 minutes
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Love and friendship
Love looks a bit different for a chain-smoking couple in a small apartment
11 minutes
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Biography and memoir
Passed over as the first Black astronaut, Ed Dwight carved out an impressive second act
13 minutes
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Engineering
A close-up look at electronic paper reveals its exquisite patterns – and limitations
9 minutes
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Architecture
West Africa was once an architectural laboratory. Is it time for a revival?
12 minutes
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Work
A Swedish expat in the Philippines wonders: what’s up with people sleeping at work?
14 minutes
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Biography and memoir
The unique life philosophy of Abdi, born in Somalia, living in the Netherlands
29 minutes