Being in Scotland
Heartbeat on Scotland
wellbeing, inclusion, social fabric
2018-2020 online and in Scotland
How Scotland is feeling? What is it like to live in Scotland at this moment in time? How do folks feel about the future? The Heartbeat on Scotland project started in phase one with a survey to ask, What does being in Scotland at this moment in time feel like? Combining through responses, getting a sense of the data, I visualized the main theme of results and created a sculptural response in phase two. For the third phase, I'm inviting respondents to have tea and chat.
The survey - phase one
To even know where to start, I needed to get a sense of the mood and feelings of well-being (or not) in Scotland. The survey launched in January 2018 and closed in August 2019. It was open to anyone 16+ who lived in Scotland. 359 people responded to the English language version of the survey, 7 to the Scots language translation, and 7 to the Gaidhlig language translation. Both Scots and Gaidhlig versions were professionally translated from English into their respective languages.
The call for responses went out on social media, by word of mouth, and in language-specific community mailing lists. I'd hoped for more responses in Scots and Gaidhlig. Seven responses each for Scots and Gaidhlig not being enough to keep things anonymous, this work focuses on the English language responses. It is interesting to note that while 79% reported speaking primarily English at home, 16% reported primarily speaking Scots at home. Language appears to be a much more fluid and complex topic than can be addressed within the survey.
After the demographic questions, we get at feelings of well-being (or not) with questions about feeling a sense of belonging, purpose, meaning, and agency. Initially, I wondered if demographics affected well-being answers much. Yes, the responses do follow socio-economic and broader cultural trends of this era. Singles, people married more than once, single parents, newer parents, young adults, women of working age, people in poorer councils, minorities, and immigrants reported lower feelings of well-being on whole. Men, folks in their first marriages or with committed partners, people in wealthier councils, parents with multiple children and grown children, folks with no children all reported a greater sense of well-being.
Pause. Take that in. - Men, wealthier locales, no children - reported a greater sense of well-being.
Singles, people married more than once, single parents, newer parents, young adults, women of working age, people in poorer councils, minorities, and immigrants reported lower feelings of well-being on whole.
I say unsurprising because when we pick up a newspaper, listen to the radio, look at social media, read academic and scientific research, etc. these trends are right there in front of us. These serious issues play a role in well-being felt by people in Scotland. There's something quite wrong here.
Dreaded politics
Something just as interesting and political played out in responses. Something I didn't anticipate even though it was foreshadowed by several respondents' suspicions of the purpose and origins of the survey. Many times while the survey was active I was accused of being part of or working for a political party, usually the SNP. Just moving to Scotland to do an MFA, all I knew about politics here was that the SNP was the Scottish Nationalist Party and they'd like independence from England. That's about it.
There were ugly comments on my Facebook page about the survey and myself that I deleted, naively and ignorantly believing this was a "pure" (I've come to question whatever that means) project. I was not going to get into politics, let alone politics I knew nothing about. So when I started seeing a marked divide in perceptions of well-being among respondents who identified at Scottish/British vs. English or other groups, I was surprised. And thought, oh crap.
What's taken these first two phases so long was me trying to avoid the confrontation and fallout of calling out what was in the responses - of people living in Scotland and willing to respond to a Facebook ad. That's one of the ways I tried to avoid working with the data, telling myself this is just an unscientific sample. Probably people with an ax to grind who'd been targeted by Facebook's algorithms. Another was who am I, an outsider, to talk about this? It's just not my place.
Perhaps not. However, I did ask. The compromise I've come to is visualizing responses to the final question of the survey. The word clouds represent open text answers to the last question about how a future life in Scotland might feel.
Q.40 Imagine someone is reading this 100 years from now. In 50 words or less, what does it really feel like to be alive in Scotland today?
The mood
Overall, respondents felt...
While people responded with uncertainty, overall there was hope and a sense of purpose. Well-being, feeling cherished, and a sense of empowerment was most strongly felt by folks who were not women in prime caring years. It was mostly respondents with grown children or no children who felt empowered. Which, in itself is something to explore in conversations given the ramifications of the marked divide. These respondents expressed hope for Scottish society and what felt like a deep longing for something tangible to match the pride felt in identifying as Scottish.
Otherwise, we run the risk of cutting each other and ourselves down. And that, is not a future we want or should look forward to.
Though some felt...
Respondents who felt they were on the margins of Scottish society didn't feel quite as well. They tended to identify as English or British and didn't feel all that welcome in Scottish society. While they did report feeling a sense of community, it was generally not in a greater Scottish context. Their communities tended to be self-created and often limited to close contacts.
Also, parents of school-age children, single parents, or younger and in education who identified as Scottish tended to report a lower sense of well-being. Both groups exposed the frays, holes, and missing threads in the fabric of Scottish society.
Emotionally deep processing of how survey respondents felt about life in Scotland resulted in sculptural output, Phase Two.
Sculptural response - phase two
Longing for a Nostalgia that has yet to be
This longing is a deep undercurrent I've sensed beyond the survey responses. It's especially strong in Dundee. A city trying to transform itself without really sitting in meditation with the realities of what life is, and has been, in Dundee. I feel a clamor to dignify a past that was much less than rosy for many with superficial glorifying of the very industries and people that left many struggling. Multifaceted storytelling is missing.
This need to feel "as good as" or "better than" plays out in contradicting and counterproductive choices for the future of the city. While the push toward trending industries is strong everywhere, we see it leave behind so many people. There's little thought for how people might adapt, or if they want to adapt to the trends. And there's little apparent support to adapt or create alternatives. This push to feel nostalgic about a good life that has yet to happen ignores, suppresses, and denies the suffering that drives it.
There is more than one way forward, many ways at once in fact. But there is no way forward without sitting with, and honoring, the suffering of the past and present. Only then can the healing necessary to choose a new way to be happen. Otherwise... Dundee, Scotland, all of us are doomed to repeat the past in new and different ways.
Longing for a nostalgia that has yet to be
(paper clay, food coloring, glass preserving jar)
Tea and conversation - phase three
Free form performative non-performances
Phase Three of the project is currently on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When it is generally safe and wise, I will invite respondents who completed the survey and left an email address to have tea and chat about life since the survey. We'll also talk about the sculptural output, impressions, reactions, or not. It'll be completely open and up to my conversation partners. This freeform performative non-performance is an attempt to capture several potentialities and realities to show multitudes of how things can be.
Things can always be otherwise, and I'm curious to hear from respondents how they'd like to be, together.
