what is your relation to this item?

are there any activities you do for comfort?

do you have any ritualistic behaviours or routines have for grounding (may be subconscious)?

are there any activities you do as a form of escape?

are there any textures, sounds or visuals you find yourself gravitating towards as release/comfort?

do you ever find your want/need for comfort to get in the way of other things?

EXTRA - if comfortable please share any stories or elaborate on your answers in relation to comfort

a lottttt of blankets and any items that my friends / family have given me over the years.

what is your relation to this item?

both feel like a warm hug; i love looking at drawings or letters or trinkets ive been gifted, remembering the moment that person brought it to me, submerging myself in that cosy feeling of being cared for. Blankets are a necessity, its like being swaddled with joy. I put them around myself no matter the weather, they just incite some kind of cheerful reaction from my body.

are there any activities you do for comfort?

I like very neutral activities when I’m done with my loud night of work. Lots of lists start appearing in my notes app, lots of playlists in preparation for my next adventure, days in my calendar get filled up, moodboards get made etc. Everything else is music related; it’s what I’m surrounded by every second of every day.

do you have any ritualistic behaviours or routines have for grounding (may be subconscious)?

most of my ritualistic behaviours are very much in the front of my mind.. i’ve struggled with ocd growing up and so giving into it soothes me in a warped way.. but otherwise im a very big fan of soft, clean items.. tucking myself in bed when im overwhelmed, petting my cat. Those are definitely the main two.

are there any activities you do as a form of escape?

I make music! It’s a massive part of my life so obviously when I get back from my day/night shift of mixing sounds I come home and make some myself. All the people I meet in my line of work are so vastly different with their approaches to the job, but it seems that a lot of us enjoy producing music or playing instruments in our spare time, because thats what got us into this mess in the first place. So my whole life becomes an escape really. I don’t

do things I don’t enjoy, that’s always something I’ve stood by whether it’s super impractical or not, I’m not very good at saying no to things so I had to set that boundary a long time ago. My work is my escape.

are there any textures, sounds or visuals you find yourself gravitating towards as release/comfort? do you ever find your want/need for comfort to get in the way of other things?

texture wise i love anything fluffy and clean - cats, my (very soft) duvet and pillows, all my blankets (possibly have 10 dotted around the house) teddies.. particular items of clothings..

sonically, I find that most noises that aren’t repetitive can make me feel peaceful. Soft.

I dont have the best eyesight, and I work in pitch black settings. So my intrigue in late night activities has grown into a proper adoration for flashing lights and silhouettes of people within a mass of fog. I cant take the daytime. Its too overwhelming there are too many things to see and smell and hear. Unless I’m in a forest (which again, is dark) I don’t really love the outdoors until it becomes unsafe to walk around in it.

EXTRA - if comfortable please share any stories or elaborate on your answers in relation to comfort

I think my rather wobbly perception of comfort comes more from when i was a kid that didn’t have this massive (what i think is silly) fear of germs annihilating my body. Someone could mention that they coughed earlier and i have to stop myself from leaving the room. A few years ago I probably would’ve. It’s taken a lot in me to be able to touch things that other people touch in front of me. Or have someone brush against me on the train. I went from a kid that would cuddle a parent when feeling upset, to seeing everyone around me as dirty? and it never made any sense to me but its what happened. I moved to inanimate items (first a seal teddy) very suddenly. If I was talking to a therapist I’d probably say my interest in things that are safe to hold and be held by stem from an (invited) lack of physical touch with anyone and everyone. There are still only a few people, animals and items I can trust in my mind but it’s a growing list

I got this item on holiday around 6 years ago and have not slept without it since.

My biggest comfort activity is going to the cinema. I also enjoy just sitting around with friends, not really an activity though.

I don’t have any that I can think of, but I definitely do being neurodivergent n all that.

Again, it’s probably just the cinema, the only place I can go to with a friend and just sit quietly while enjoying a film, even better if it’s at the Glasgow film theatre.

A comfort sound for me is people talking around me without me being in conversation, I listen to podcasts a lot but I don’t even really intake what is being said, I think I can just relax or focus while they are on. Yes I do all the time, there are sometimes when I want to just tune out and have the world go around me without me being involved, but knowing that everything’s going fine without me brings me comfort

This is my favourite plushie. I sleep with it every night and I also take it with me anywhere I go where I am going to be sleeping.

For comfort I usually just go to the gym in the mornings to get all negative emotions out.

I usually play games as a form of escape especially Minecraft

For comfort I always out my headphones on for noise cancellation. I always need to have my noise cancelling headphones on unless it is quiet in my surroundings. It does get in the way of communication and spending time with others

My item is a silk tag, like the kind you get on clothes that tell you their washing instructions. Myself and my family just call it a ‘bit’, I’ve removed it from the t-shirt it came from so I can have one with me all the time. I lose them frequently enough, sometimes I attach them to safety pins but this one isn’t.

I fold the tag over my fingers and pull it back and forth with my thumb, on run the long edge under my fingernail.

- What is your relation to this item?

I’ve always had a bit with me since i was little. Usually I would just have them on my clothes or on a blanket when I was really small. I started to cut them away from my clothes when I was a teenager, both so I could be more discrete and stop pulling on my clothes in public, and because less and less of my clothes had bits in general. - Are there any activities you do for comfort?

Im autistic so comfort is a bit of an up hill battle for me. A lot of what I do day to day is less for comfort and more for self-preservation. But, with that being said I don’t find I watch a lot of content that i would say are ‘my comfort shows’. In particular a podcast called Sad Boyz on youtube I’ll listen to over and over when i can’t sleep and it always soothes me. As well as New Girl (tv), Community (tv), and Blindboy (podcast). I’ve heard that rewatching the same things over and over is an unhealthy coping mechanism but i think that knowing what’s going to happen in every episode is really safe for me, and the characters, voices, etc are familiar and comforting - Do you have any ritualistic behaviours or routines have for grounding (may be subconscious)?

Yes, lots. The bit in itself is a ritualistic grounding behaviour. I also crack my knuckles and twist my rings a lot. I make clicking or bubble noises with my mouth. I rock on the outside edges of my feet or walk on my tiptoes quite a lot. When i’m standing or sitting still I wiggle just my thigh muscles back and forward. Those area just the ones I notice lol - Are there any activities you do as a form of escape?

I think the amount of TV and Youtube I watch is me trying to escape, I watch lots of fantasy/ historical television, and lots of video essays/ commentary youtube that have nothing to do with my day to day life. I also tend to watch content that not a lot of my friends watch which gives me the feeling of having a different life or friend group kind of. - Are there any textures, sounds or visuals you find yourself gravitating towards as release/comfort?

I like soft textures, like this silk bit or blankets and cotton bedsheets. I love petting small animals and have a big affinity toward cats. With food it’s the opposite however, I love crunchy, and spicy foods. In terms of sounds and visuals I think it’s harder to say - with texture I definitely have aversions, like things i’ll touch and immediately go ‘NO’ but with sound and vision i’m much more open and sensory seeking. For comfort I gravitate toward what I know but i’m always finding new things new songs new shows that I’m comforted by so it’s less distinct. - Do you ever find your want/need for comfort to get in the way of other things?

Yes absolutely, I think i’m addicted to comfort, like probably pathologically. It definitely ties into being autistic, like my world is so overwhelming that I need more access to comfort than some other people. It’s also probably indicative of the world we are living in that everything is scary and uncertain so I need more comfort. It does get in the way of me trying new things, I’m always scared to take leaps and in my bad periods I’ll let the need for comfort win over the want to break free from my comfort zone. Like i’ve moved back into my parents home this year and i’m trying not to let myself get too comfortable here because i’m scared i’ll get stuck in my hometown and never leave. Comfort is necessary for my short term survival but I also feel like for my long term happiness I need to fight it a bit.

perfumes i looked into

comme de garçons - cdg2 (strong notes of aldehyde, the smell of metal, ink or oil paints)

mugler - angel (significance as the first gourmand perfume, with sweet notes of praline above an amber base as well as the iconic bottle holds personal significance for me as my favourite perfume that got me interested in the history and storytelling of perfume)

the star-shaped bottle of angel and the metallic finish of cdg2 inspired me to create the 3D frame for my film, creating a vessel to hold that in turn is it's own piece of art.

pierces the deer’s side lodging inside in the marrow of her rib

the gunman leaves, shooting two peasants from the sky in his passing

hunting for sport, he leaves their meat to rot

the fallow eyes glaze over like olives as she bleeds out,

marrow from the shattered rib stretches out hugging nearby trees like lichen

as time passes the deer melts back into the earth,

marrow trees bloom bearing dark glazed fruits, providing a harvest for her fawn

i then got these authentically translated into gaelige by my friend malachy (a professional irish translator)

using footage collected from the project, i edited these together to play as an interlude between the two parts of the film. it provide backstory for the deer, developing a weaving narrative through the film parts. this also communicates the themes of the project clearer to the audience

an mothar cliathán an fhia, ag dul i bhfostú i smior a easna

imíonn an fear gunna, ag scaoileadh dhá phiasún ón spéir is é ag seilg don spraoi, fágann sé a bhfeoil ag lobhadh, téann súile an fhia bhuí folamh mar ológa.

is í ag cailleadh fola, síníonn smior ón easna millte amach, ag cuachadh crann cóngarach mar chrotal, leis an am, filleann corp an fhia ar ais chuig an chré,

bláthaíonn crainn smeara, le torthaí dorcha folmha ag teacht uathu, ag cur fómhair ar fáil dá hoisíní.

Northern Ireland has the highest suicide rate in the United Kingdom, with 18.5 age-standardised suicides per 100,000 people in 2017, a figure that puts it among the top 15 countries in the world, the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency found. The rate for men is far higher, approaching 30. The rate in England was half that, at 9.2 per 100,000 people. The Republic of Ireland has historically had a high suicide rate as well, though it has seen a steady decrease in recent years. Most striking is that the suicide rates in Northern Ireland have doubled since the peace deal more than two decades ago.

Of 28 countries and regions that participated in the World Mental Health Survey in 2017, Northern Ireland had the highest rate of PTSD.

Of the nine victims she helped, three took their own lives. “Suicide is like an epidemic here; there’s about one a week,” O’Rawe says.

Many people would not confide even in their families and friends or share details of the atrocities they witnessed on a daily basis. In some cases, experts found that parents could transmit their post-traumatic stress to their children, even if the child had never experienced a traumatic event.

The statistics on the state of mental health in the region show that since the peace deal about 4,500 suicides were registered in the region.

An estimated 3,600 people died in shootings, bombings and other killings during the Troubles.

“We cannot achieve a peaceful society in Northern Ireland without peaceful minds,” Elliott said. “If we invest in mental health support and work together to prevent mental health problems, then mental health will be an asset for our society. The failure to deliver for mental health over the last 13 months, and indeed over the last 20 years since the peace settlement, is unacceptable.”

One type of relationship to suicidal cognition which has received relatively little attention in the literature is the extent to which individuals gain comfort or relief from their suicidal cognitions.

Comfort from suicidal thoughts was associated in univariate analyses with more severe worst ever suicidal ideation, with having an onset of depression in adolescence, with being suicidal in more than one episode of depression, and at trend level, with being suicidal in the first episode of depression. These findings confirm the hypothesis that comfort from suicide is associated with a more severe clinical picture with the results showing that, as predicted, degree of comfort with suicidal cognition was associated with worse suicidal ideation during follow-up