(21/02)FMP- Topic choice- Alzheimer’s

I and so many people I know have experienced a family member or close friend who has gotten Alzheimers and yet it is a subject that most do not know the facts of nor understand. It is such a prolific disease and yet the discussion about the subject remains taken up by only those later in life. In trying to get a gage for the understanding of my age group‘s understanding of Alzheimers and whether they had any personal experience with it, hoping to maybe later use them as a reference, many didn’t even know what it was. A great benefit of being on a London arts course is the diversity in students and so you are exposed and have the influence of many genders, ages, cultures, heritage, sexualities and overall experiences, and yet I found when communicating the concept of it to all students, their understanding of it was as a symptom of ageing, something that happens to us all without any preventative measures. Those who did know something of it was because of personal experience with someone they know having Alzheimer’s disease.

Another point of interest was the fact that no social collective imagery exists for Alzheimers awareness. The only imagery I‘ve seen used as someone actively looking for it was a little purple elephant, or the ribbon associated with cancer awareness but in purple. When presenting these images in a presentation to propose the topic though, no one present knew of them.