What are the active ingredients of ‘arts in health’ activities? Development of the INgredients iN ArTs in hEalth (INNATE) Framework

Background: There is a scarcity of research concerning what it is about arts engagement that may activate causal mechanisms leading to effects on health and wellbeing outcomes: their active ingredients. Further, the limited studies that do exist have tended to be relevant to specific contexts and types of art forms. The aim of this study was to carry out a comprehensive mapping of potential active ingredients, construct a shared language, and propose a framework and toolkit to support the design, implementation, and evaluation of arts in health activities. Methods: Drawing upon Rapid Appraisal techniques and collaborating with 64 participants, we engaged in a three-phase process: 1) a scoping review to inform the development of an initial framework; 2) consultation on the initial framework; and 3) analysis and construction of the INNATE framework. Results: The study identified 139 potential active ingredients within the overarching categories of project, people, and contexts. Project components relate directly to the content of the arts activity itself, intrinsic to what the activity is. The people category denotes how people interact through engagement with the activity and who is involved in this interaction, including activity facilitation. Contexts relates to the activity setting comprising the aggregate of place(s), things, and surroundings. Aligning with complexity science, Ingredients may overlap, interconnect, or feed into one another to prompt mechanisms, and may not be experienced as distinct by participants. Conclusions: Our mapping exercise is the most extensive to date. In relation to arts in health activities, the INNATE framework can support with: design and implementation, such as co-producing an intervention to meet the needs of a particular population; evaluation, such as facilitating the comparison of different interventions and their efficacy; and replication, scalability, and sustainability through enabling detailed reporting and specific articulation of what an arts in health activity entails.

Kaahailua idyllissä

Tutkin artikkelissani lähipeluun menetelmin, miten kotimainen digitaalinen peli My Summer Car (Suomi 2016) esittää 1990-luvun lama-ajan Suomen maaseutua ja miesten joutilaisuutta. My Summer Car on yhden ihmisen, Johannes Rojolan, projekti, ja siten se kuvaa tekijänsä näkemyksiä esittämästään aikakaudesta. Pelin vertailukohtana käytetään maaseutua ja joutilaisuutta käsitteleviä humoristisia elokuvia sekä televisiosarjoja. Kysyn, miten peli eroaa niistä.Esitän, että My Summer Car luo lama-ajan Suomesta omannäköisensä tulkinnan, jossa pelien omaleimaisuus vaikuttaa joutilaisuuden kokemiseen. Selviytymispeligenre pakottaa pelaajan aktiiviseksi toimijaksi, jolloin pelaajan positio suhteessa muihin pelin joutilaisiin hahmoihin muuttuu. Tällöin joutilaisuuden ja aktiivisen toimijuuden raja hämärtyy, ja peli pakottaa pelaajan näkemään joutilaisuuden monipuolisemmin. Joutilaisuus–aktiivisuus-asetelma on My Summer Carissa erilainen verrattuna kotimaisiin elokuviin ja televisiosarjoihin. My Summer Carissa maaseudun pelillistäminen on tarkoittanut sitä, että poikakulttuuriin olennaisesti kuuluva homososiaalisuus on poissa, sillä pelistä puuttuu käytännössä nuorten miesten yhteisöllisyys. Jäljelle jää vain rappioromantiikan ideaali, jota toistetaan.Avainsanat: joutilaisuus, rappioromantiikka, maaseutu, nostalgisointi, digitaaliset pelitSpeeding in the Idyll. The Representation of 90s Recession Era Finnish Countryside and Idleness in My Summer CarIn this article I explore through close playing method how the Finnish digital game My Summer Car (2016) depicts the fictional Finnish countryside during the 90s recession and the idleness of men. My Summer Car is a project of one person, Johannes Rojola, and thus describes the author’s views on the era he presents. The game’s representation is compared with other humorous films and television series situated in the countryside. The research focuses on the idleness represented in My Summer Car and asks how the game differs from these other Finnish audiovisual products.I claim that My Summer Car creates a unique interpretation of the recession in Finland, in which the uniqueness of digital games affects the experience of idleness. The survival game genre forces the player to become an active player, changing the player’s position in relation to other idle characters in the game. In this case, the line between idleness and active action is blurred and the game forces the player to see idleness in a more versatile way. The idleness–activity setting in My Summer Car is different from other Finnish movies and TV series. Gamification of My Summer Car’s countryside causes homosociality, an integral part of boy culture, to vanish, as there is no sense of community among young men in the game. All that remains is the repeated ideal of romanticized decadence.Keywords: idleness, romanticized decadence, countryside, nostalgization, digital games

Quarantine Understanding of Some Metaphysical Problems

The pandemic and the quarantine situation have had and continue to have multi-directional influence on the processes of social and individual life. From unprecedented acceleration and progress (in information technologies and getting involved with them) to slowdown, and sometimes full stop and stagnation (tourism business, transport sector). Comprehension of what is happening will be a long process. The authors propose to revaluate some metaphysical problems actualized by the experienced situation. These issues include virtual reality, which clearly defined its boundaries and it became clear that the state many plunged into in the process of quarantine and isolation is not a kind of it. The problem of social space, which has changed, intertwined, confused a person in his social roles and statuses. Physically, one place of stay at different times of the day with the help of information technologies was transformed into a space for work, scientific debate, education, family life, entertainment and even sports. The philosophical problem of uncertainty having left the theoretical discourse has directly invaded the lifeworld and everyday life of every person, influenced all spheres of life, plans and prospects for the future. Becoming a social reality uncertainty during a pandemic has acted as a factor that erodes the existence of people, their habitual, definable, measurable being, which begins to lose its characteristics, losing its identity. It becomes unpredictable, ambiguous, unplanned. Such a being casts doubt on many usual forms of organizing the achievement of results in almost any field of activity: setting a goal, choosing methods and systematic movement towards its implementation. That is how project thinking is realized. However, in a situation of total uncertainty, it begins to fail and turns out to be inefficient. A possible overcoming this situation is thinking aimed at realizing and «understanding real circumstances». Thinking that was appreciated primarily by Russian philosophers and the Eastern tradition of philosophy.

What are the active ingredients of ‘arts in health’ activities? Development of the INgredients iN ArTs in hEalth (INNATE) Framework

Background: There is a scarcity of research concerning what it is about arts engagement that may activate causal mechanisms leading to effects on health and wellbeing outcomes: their active ingredients. Further, the limited studies that do exist have tended to be relevant to specific contexts and types of art forms. The aim of this study was to carry out a comprehensive mapping of potential active ingredients, construct a shared language, and propose a framework and toolkit to support the design, implementation, and evaluation of arts in health activities.Methods: Drawing upon Rapid Appraisal techniques and collaborating with 64 participants, we engaged in a three-phase process: 1) a scoping review to inform the development of an initial framework; 2) a consultation on the initial framework; and 3) analysis of consultation responses and construction of the INNATE framework. Results: The study identified 139 potential active ingredients within the overarching categories of project, people, and contexts. Project components relate directly to the content of the arts activity itself, intrinsic to what the activity is. The people category denotes how people interact through engagement with the activity and who is involved in this interaction, including activity facilitation. Contexts relates to the activity setting comprising the aggregate of place(s), things, and surroundings. Aligning with complexity science, ingredients may overlap, interconnect, or feed into one another to prompt mechanisms, and may not be experienced as distinct by participants. Conclusions: Our mapping exercise is the most extensive to date. In relation to arts in health activities, the INNATE framework can support with: design and implementation, such as in co-producing an intervention to meet the needs of a particular population; evaluation, such as facilitating the comparison of different interventions and their efficacy; and replication, scalability, and sustainability through enabling detailed reporting and specific articulation of what an arts in health activity entails. The toolkit can also be used as a reflexive tool to support those delivering arts in health activities.

Can Earths Mightiest Hero’s Help Children be Physically Active? Exploring the Immersive Qualities of Les Mills’ and Marvel’s “Move Like the Avengers” Video

Increasing children’s physical activity (PA) is a key public health concern. Recently there have been calls for more enjoyable PA interventions which focus on ensuring a positive affective response, yet this remains an under researched area. This study explored how using a narrative, characters, and music in a video-led PA session might influence the sense of immersion in the activity, and subsequently impact the affective response. One hundred and thirty-six participants (boys n= 65, girls n= 71) were recruited from both the United Kingdom (UK) (n=108) and outside the UK (n=28) with the majority of the sample (85%) being aged between 7-11 years old. Participants were required to complete the “Move Like the Avengers” PA video created by Les Mills and Marvel, and then complete a survey where they answered questions relating to their post activity affective responses, the use of a narrative with characters, the use of musical elements, and how immersed they felt when engaging. Positive average affective responses were found for children (valence mean score: 3.6 ±2.2, arousal mean score: 5.1 ±1.0) who engaged with the video. Further, structural equation modelling revealed the narrative with characters had little direct effect but did indirectly mediate the valence response through creating a sense of immersion (βstd = 0.122 [95%CI 0.013 to 0.231]; p = 0.012). Musical elements however had both a direct (βstd = 0.449 [95%CI 0.264 to 0.634]; p < 0.001), and an indirect (βstd = 0.122 [95%CI 0.014 to 0.229]; p = 0.011) effect upon valence. Arousal was not influenced by the narrative with characters whether directly or indirectly but musical elements though not having an indirect effect mediated by immersion, did have a direct effect upon arousal (βstd = 0.244 [95%CI 0.006 to 0.482]; p = 0.021). The results suggest that both narrative with characters, and the use of musical elements, led to a positive affective response and that the former effect may be mediated by their potential influence over immersion. Thus, these could be effective elements to include in a physical activity setting with children to support a positive affective response to the experience.

Using Critical Incident Technique to Investigate Anxiety in Physical Activity Settings

Physical activity participation is linked with many benefits including a reduction in anxiety; it is, however, also important to explore aspects of activity that incite anxiety. One way to investigate sources of anxiety in physical activity is to use the critical incident technique (CIT). The purpose of this study was to explore anxiety-inducing events in physical activity settings and to evaluate the impact on future behavior. A total of 122 participants (M = 21.23 ± 1.77 years) completed an online survey asking when a physical activity setting incited anxiety using the CIT. Four common sources of anxiety were evident in the responses: fragile self-beliefs, social interaction and the threat of negative social evaluation, competition, and a lack of knowledge or unfamiliarity with surroundings. Tenets from achievement goal theory can help to explain the incitement of anxiety and can help shape physical activity settings to be more inclusive and welcoming for all.

Study on Glacial Tourism Exploitation in the Dagu Glacier Scenic Spot Based on the AHP–ASEB Method

Due to the impact of COVID-19, people’s demand for non-contact tourism is increasing. The development of Internet technologies such as the Internet of Things, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) can meet this demand. Internet technology makes non-contact tourism grow. However, these new technologies are emerging only within application cases, which cannot provide comprehensive methodological guidance for tourism suppliers. Despite the booming development of winter tourism in China, there are still many problems, especially affecting the tourist experience.rarchy process (AHP) and activity, setting, experience and benefit (ASEB) grid analysis were used to analyze the activities, settings, experiences and benefits of the scenic spot from the tourist perspective taking the Dagu Glacier Scenic Spot (DGSS) as an example. The research aims to increase the attraction of the scenic zone, and promote the coordinated and sustainable development of business in West China under the goal of improving tourists’ experiences. The results show that: subgoals of experience (E) and benefit (B) are the main directions of the development of ice and snow tourism in the DGSS. Furthermore, the threat of benefits (TB), the threat of setting (TS), the threat of experience (TE), the opportunities of benefits (OB), the opportunities of setting (OS), and the opportunities of experience (OE) are the main concerns.

‘All of the Wild’: Cultural Formation in Wales Through Outdoor Play at Forest School

This chapter takes the specific context of outdoor play in the Foundation Phase in Wales to explore how children’s activity and participation is mediated through the socio-material affordances of muddy puddles at forest school. The research was underpinned by the cultural-historical tradition of making visible the sociocultural practices and individual participation which shape the child’s experience within an educational setting. The discussion in this chapter is centred upon the following questions: During forest school sessions for pupils aged 4- and 5-years old, what conflicts may be surfaced as classroom teaching staff aim to meet Welsh Government expectations for both outdoor play and self-regulatory skills development? How do these conflicts shape the child’s experience of participating in outdoor play? The analysis draws upon data gathered during 8 months of fieldwork; audio-visually-recorded observations and video-stimulated interviews with classroom teachers and forest school leaders are used to consider an episode of conflict during play in a muddy puddle. We explore, from child and adult perspectives, the institutional values of the Foundation Phase, demands for reception year practice and subsequent expectations about children’s participation, highlighting the mediating messages being given about ‘how to be’ and what competencies are valued in the activity setting of mud play.

Meaningfully Engaging Karen Refugee Families in Physical Activity: The Outcomes of A Culturally Specific, Co-Designed Program

Background There are numerous health and social benefits of physical activity (PA) participation, yet refugees who have settled into destination countries like Australia are less likely to play sport or exercise, or reach recommended daily PA levels if they do. There may be various correlates of PA which impact on participation, however cultural attributes and the process of cultural adaptation after resettlement, may be a key contributor, impacting on the health of resettlers. This research trialled a community-driven, culturally specific family PA program with Karen refugees settled in Australia. The aims of the program were to encourage participation through a culturally appropriate physical activity setting and provide Karen families with an opportunity to learn to be active together. Methods The grant-funded program consisted of a two-hour lifestyle educational module and a practical activity session held each week for eight weeks, including a six-month follow-up session post completion. Educational sessions covered relevant health topics, such as healthy eating, and practical activity sessions were tailored to meet Karen people’s cultural expectations and needs. All components of the intervention were co-designed with the participants. Results A total of 36 Karen adults and children varying in ages participated in the program, with an average rate of participation of 81.8% over eight weeks. The program was evaluated with surveys, interviews, and informal discussions with instructors and participants, as well as ethnographic methods of observation. Participants valued the program that met their needs. After completion of the program they requested to continue with a similar community-based PA program in the future. Conclusions This culturally appropriate and co-designed PA program effectively engaged Karen people and increased healthy lifestyle behaviours in the group, which they found valuable and meaningful. Future interventions and programs targeting resettled refugees should be co-designed with participants using culturally appropriate approaches.