Southwestern College Santa Fe, NM
The technology of the internet… what does it mean? Does the internet teach social skills? Does it matter? Can we make connections via the internet and are they real? What about personal narrative? How does digital media affect us?
In this video interview Dr. Natalie Carlton discusses the topic of digital media as narrative, people’s responses to technology, the worldwide web, the future of digital media in art therapy, the internet as an expression of the human psyche, as well as her Lesley University PhD in Art Therapy dissertation topic and thesis research exploring the use of digital arts media in art therapy (her dual video and written dissertation research is entitled Digital Media Use in Art Therapy).
The internet and other digital media, like texting, are creating new languages and ways of creating narrative and connecting through social narrative and moving into the great unknown through digital media (including use of digital media as art therapy) and creating generational, creative and other online connections via digital media pathways. People that we would never meet in real life are accessible, however genuine and deep the connection, through the worldwide web. It’s a connection and it’s a fascinating place.
Young people growing up in this sphere have a different connection to this world, which is, in Dr. Carlton’s words, “a world that is changing the way we think, the way we express ourselves, simple language, whether it’s visible, or spoken or written, you know texting is a language that was invented in the last decade… and there is creativity applied to all these things… it’s not just mind-numbing things to be disregarded.”
“Creativity applied to digital media is mind expanding and will allow connections with new generations growing up using digital media as a first person narratives whether in social networks or in an art therapy context. Opening to technology is about “losing what we know and going into this great unknown.”
“It’s sort of a fascinating landscape of shadow and light, future possibility and dread, and again… it’s sort of the human psyche being projected into this,” and much like the era when symbolic and oral language became written language, written down, this era of technology relates to losing what we know and “moving into the great unknown” and Dr. Carlton does “find this exciting.”
Dr. Carlton is looking to make art therapy relevant in the world we live in today… an increasingly connected, imaginative, and intensely creative and expressive existence, the “great unknown” world of digital media and is fascinated by the subject of digital media in the context of art therapy.
Bio:
Natalie Rae Carlton, PhD, LPCC, ATR-BC received her B.A. in Art and Anthropology from Temple University, her M.A. Creative Arts/Therapy from Hahnemann University, and completed her Ph.D. studies in 2014 in the Expressive Therapies program of Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. A board certified art therapist and private practitioner in Taos, NM since 2002 via Lacuna Studio, Natalie has worked as an art therapy educator since 2008, teaching at Southwestern College, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, and Lesley University (in the areas of Multiculturalism, Ethics, Research Methodologies, and Addiction and Recovery), and actively participates in national conferences.
Dr. Carlton explores the uses of art therapy in a variety of treatment settings including inpatient, community health, transitional living, and private practice. Dr. Carlton’s work with clients has led her through multiple paths of media use with clients including technological art forms of photography, video, and audio recordings, as well as fabric arts, clay, sculpture, collage, drawing, and ink painting. Expanded media palettes can create wider voice and process for clients working on diverse goals and in different life stages. In addition to her work with children, youth, and families experiencing learning and behavioral concerns, life transitions, grief and bereavement, and trauma recovery, she has experience with clients experiencing chronic mental illness and substance recovery.
Contact Natalie or visit her Vimeo to view videos related to her dissertation study in digital media and art therapy and more:
Lacuna Studio online>>
Southwestern College>> Instructor Bio
Dr. Carlton’s Vimeo>> Digital Art Therapy & More
