Two students from Plymouth College of Art have made an animated video to help raise awareness of delirium for World Delirium Awareness Day 2021.
In a student competition hosted by the BBC, Bryan Wallen and Lottie Wishart – who are on the BA (Hons) Animation course – were able to tell the story of a Derriford patient who developed delirium after being admitted to intensive care following complications during a planned procedure.
Delirium is an acute confusional state which was experienced by Lou Gallie during her stay in Derriford three years ago. Lou experienced intense hallucinations which felt real and as if they lasted for weeks, which animation students Bryan and Lottie were able to recreate visually to raise awareness of the condition.
Lottie, who lives in Plymouth, said:
“The brief was to create an image from a series of words, based on a dream sequence; a woman in a hospital bed surrounded by shadowy figures of nuns. The brief asked us to style it with the dreamlike content in mind, with bright and vivid colours for the dreams, while real life showing pastel shades and subdued tones.
“I was immediately inspired and started sketching, it felt like the perfect project for weird old me! They ended up choosing two images, mine and Bryan’s, with his style dark and edgy and mine focussing on pastels and watercolour, I think they complemented each other quite well.”
Bryan said:
“Lou told us what she went through, and we worked through it as a team to figure out what we could create, but Lou was really on board with our ideas. We had quite a bit of freedom, but there were definitely scenes where we knew we wanted it to look a certain way. It was a learning experience from start to finish.”
Lou, on waking up from emergency surgery, found herself in a home run by nuns, trying to convert her to their religious sect. Another of her disorientating deliriums involved a series of riots outside the hospital, where she describes teenagers like hyenas, outside her hospital bedroom window, throwing rocks and starting fires.
She also recalls returning to her hospital room after a scan and finding it had been turned into an underground Olympic swimming pool. For Lou, these are memories – she knows they could not have happened but she remembers them as though they were part of her life.
Lou said:
“I had an argument with my dad because I could see the local lifeboat in the water, and I was trying to tell him about it. He had no idea what I was talking about and I found it so frustrating. I could see the lifeboat – it was right there. I couldn’t understand why no-one could see what I could see.”
Nick Crawley, employer engagement officer at Plymouth College of Art, said:
“We always like to encourage students to take part in live projects. It’s a great opportunity to work on an external brief with a real employer.
“For Lottie and Bryan, it was the chance to put their skills into practice, create a working relationship with their client and each other, and present a fantastic final piece of work, all while raising awareness of an important issue in a creative and thought provoking way. By doing competitions and live briefs, students are able to gain the transferable skills to take them straight from graduating into industry.”
