Julia Brackenbury

I am an artist, designer and maker based in London. Prior to coming to the RCA, I Studied Photography at Nottingham Trent University; my work always addressing issues beyond the image. The motivation for my practice is about making sense of people, how they interact with each other, their environment or about how beauty can be found in the unseen if only we take time to look.

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Degree Details

The Topics Discussed Below and throughout Our House, might be distressing for some as they cover mental health issues.

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a survival type response to extreme stress and traumatic interpersonal life events. The defining feature of DID is a severe change in identity and the creation of alters. Each alter may assume control of one’s behaviour and thoughts at different times.

DID is a veiled mental health condition which Our House aims to introduce in an accessible way. Our House has a dual purpose. The first is to act as a tool kit, to be used in conjunction with my collaborator June, anonymised, of the charity First Person Plural. A charity working for and on behalf of people affected by complex Dissociative Identity Disorders, at their conferences and training courses. The second as a public art piece, disseminating to a wider audience hoping to educate and dispel the stigma around this mental health disorder.

Our House is an installation that depicts a safe space, a house. Never physically existing, this house was June’s own during her recovery, in which all the alters reside. Our House physicalizes a non-linear internal journey a person with DID might take on the road to recovery. It does not aim to represent a concrete or an all-encompassing representation of a person’s journey through recovery, it is a compilation of ideas I’ve uncovered.

Glossary/ Key definitions

Alter: An alternate personality or personality state which operates independently of the main self. An alter perceives themselves and the world in their own, unique way. They have either the capacity to assume control of the mind and body, or the ability to exert enough influence to impact the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of the presenting alter.

Dissociation: Is the separation of ideas, feelings, information, identity, or memories that would normally go together.

Survival type response: Is the automatic flight or fight response one has to an experience that is perceived to be a threat to survival. In repeated traumatic situations, when there is no opportunity to fight or flee, a freeze state is introduced in which dissociation occurs.

If you do find the content distressing here are some links to organisations that will support you.

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/

https://www.firstpersonplural.org.uk

https://www.samaritans.org

These five alters are a select, condensed version of the many that live within June. Together we abstracted them, so to not convolute or overcomplicate their significance and presence. They aren’t direct representations of June’s own alters, rather they are inspired by them. The form of the Russian doll was a perfect metaphor for how the alters are part of one.