Psychic Capital (20o9)

This project combines experimental animation and sound to explore how identity development is informed (and sometimes controlled) by psychiatry’s relationship with capitalism and its broader political objectives. The video focuses on three themes, the history of psychiatry and its relationship to capitalism/consumerism in North America, the MKULTRA experiments in Montreal during the Cold War, and how the self-help movement depoliticized leftist movements after 1960’s. The animation uses innovative combinations of stop-motion, graphic animation, cutout and hand-drawn processes.

Created in collaboration with Rae Spoon, with support from CALQ, Studio XX and GIV.