Wist Rec

20/11/2023

"The Country Hospital" by Depatterning & Delphine Dora
Corridor No. 7: Quilts

Erika Dyck, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan described of the 1930's and 40's: “the number of people who were institutionalized far outpaced the capacity to house them, and most of the goals of “rehabilitating” and “curing” patients were replaced with administrative objectives that went hand in hand with warehousing society’s unwanted.”

Under Osmond and Hoffer however the patients were encouraged to take up hobbies of their choosing such as gardening, drama classes, woodworking or quilting, not for profit maker or some bureaucratic cost-saving measure, but as an act of personal agency and creativity.

But what did the geometric patterns of the patch-work quilts appear as to the residents who had taken part in the burgeoning L*D therapy? Did the fractals lead outward to the cosmos or inward to the origin self?

(Main image from the film “Frances Mateychuck: Quiltmaker” by Susan Shantz" which was re-scored by Depatterning for the Sounds Like Art Festival in 2013)

https://wistrec.com/wist-rec-030/

20/11/2023

Pale grayish-brown chickenlike bird, found in open spaces with mix of grasses and shrubs. Often on the ground or perched high in trees. Look for whitish tail with pointed tip, slight crest, wings spotted with white, and sparsely marked pale belly. In early spring, males gather at display site and da...

16/11/2023

"The Country Hospital" by Depatterning & Delphine Dora
Corridor No. 6: Guided Outings

An important treatment that Kay Parely and her nursing colleagues oversaw was one where engaging the natural world could bring powerful changes to ones own agency. Daily outing with patients would bring them to forests, culverts, streams and various landform on the prairie. Observed flora and fauna (such as the Sharp-Tailed Grouse) would be recorded and recollected after the journey's end. Each day a different patient would be given the chance to lead the expedition, coaxing their confidence. These skills would be valuable for when they'd be returned to society.

https://ebird.org/species/shtgro/CA

"The Country Hospital" is now available to order at Wist Rec.
https://wistrec.com/wist-rec-030/

Pale grayish-brown chickenlike bird, found in open spaces with mix of grasses and shrubs. Often on the ground or perched high in trees. Look for whitish tail with pointed tip, slight crest, wings spotted with white, and sparsely marked pale belly. In early spring, males gather at display site and da...

12/11/2023

"The Country Hospital" by Depatterning & Delphine Dora
Corridor No. 5: Psychedelic Saskatchewan

A helpful infographic timeline of institutional psychedelic research in Saskatchewan, Canada starting with Albert Hoffman's synthesis of L*D in 1938 up until the drug's 40 year moratorium in 1968:

https://www.sutori.com/en/story/psychedelic-saskatchewan--3tau9DXPyvGZHp4EFzWaFYPV

Limited copies available here:
https://wistrec.com/wist-rec-030/

In the mid nineteenth century, the psychedelic drug L*D enjoyed fifteen years of extensive medical research with little interruption. One of the hotbeds of this research was the province of Saskatchewan. Follow the obscure path of L*D in Saskatchewan from celebrated wonder drug to social menace.

09/11/2023

A great review from the folk over at A Closer Listen. Thanks Richard!

The house is flooded, the power is out and a baby is due any moment … this is the real-life story of the final Wist Records release, as dramatic as the tale behind The Country Hospital. Foun…

08/11/2023

"The Country Hospital" by Depatterning & Delphine Dora

Corridor No. 4: Hoffman's Potion

In 2002, the National Film Board of Canada produced a fascinating documentary, free to stream, on the history of L*D pioneers in medicine. From their site:

"This documentary offers a compassionate, open-minded look at L*D and how it fits into our world. Long before Timothy Leary urged a generation to "tune in, turn on and drop out," the drug was hailed as a way to treat forms of addiction and mental illness. At the same time, it was being touted as a powerful tool for mental exploration and self-understanding. Featuring interviews with L*D pioneers, beautiful music and stunning cinematography, this is much more than a simple chronicle of L*D's early days. It's an alternative way of looking at the drug... and our world."

This documentary offers a compassionate, open-minded look at L*D and how it fits into our world. Long before Timothy Leary urged a generation to "tune in, turn on …

04/11/2023

"The Country Hospital" by Depatterning & Delphine Dora
Corridor No. 3: Dr Osmond & Christopher Mayhew

In 1955 Dr Humphrey Osmond administered mescaline to the Labor Member of Parliament Christopher Mayhew on camera. Mayhew was given 400mg of mescaline hydrochloride and the experience was meant to be broadcast on the BBC. Mayhew considered it one of the most important things that he ever experience, an event which "took place outside time" and advocate it being shown. However an expert committee denied its public airing and it wasn't seen for more that four decades.

English:Humphry Osmond was the British psychiatrist who coined the term "psychedelic". This short video documents an experiment in 1955 in which he administe...

28/10/2023

Hello Wist Rec people. My wife and I and baby-to-be recently had a terrible disaster in our home and have had to move out. If you'd like to give support, a friend has started a GoFundMe to help.

Wist Rec 030 will unfortunate be delayed but I will work through the postage when time allows.

Thank you,
Gary

Please help us to support Gary and Gemma, who were victims of the terrible flooding… Kevin Scott needs your support for Flood Appeal for Gary and Gemma

18/10/2023

"The Country Hospital" by Depatterning & Delphine Dora

Corridor No. 2: The Lady With the Lantern

Kay Parley is the remarkable woman whose experiences in the Weyburn Mental Hospital initially inspired this project. Still living at aged 100 she is an author, journalist, a visual artist, a former teacher and psychiatric nurse.

As a young woman in the 1940’s while working for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation in Toronto she began to experience strange delusions one summer day. Diagnosed with manic-depressive psychosis, Kay came back to her family home near Moffat, Saskatchewan and was brought to the hospital in Weyburn, a place that loomed large in her life as both her father and grandfather were institutionalised there.

However, the hospital was undergoing a radical change of positivity and empathy under Hoffer and Osmond. The kindness and support she was given aided in her rehabilitation, though she would continue to have a clockwork re-occurrence of mania every six years. Heartened by the suggestion that she should become an ‘ambassador’ for mental recovery, in 1956 she returned to ‘The Mental’, this time to train as a psychiatric nurse. While there she took part in the L*D experiments where staff were encouraged to take the novel drug in order to gain empathy for their patients. She was administered her session by the nephew of author Aldous Huxley, Francis.

Her experiences, both as patient and medical practitioner, were detailed in many published psychiatric articles as well as in the books ‘Lady With A Lantern’ and ‘Inside the Mental’.

100 years!

https://wistrec.com/wist-rec-030/

16/10/2023

"The Country Hospital" by Depatterning & Delphine Dora

Corridor No. 1: Socio-architecture.

In the 1960's architect Kiyoshi Izumi, British psychiatrist and Weyburn Mental Hospital Director Humphry Osmond and biochemist/ psychiatrist Abram Hoffer, received Canadian federal grants to examine how the institutional environment influences the treatment and recovery of psychiatric patients.

Izumi's designs would be initially be conceived for a hospital in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, nearby by the aforementioned Weyurn with the aims of:

-Providing "as much privacy" as possible for the patients, including single rooms
-Minimize ambiguity of architecture's "design and detail"
-Bear no intimidating features
-Fostering spatial interactions that curtail the frequency and intensity of "undesirable confrontations"

A more detailed article on Izumi's work can be found here:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/ypp8ax/how-kiyoshi-izumi-built-the-psych-ward-of-the-future-by-dropping-acid-5886b6e98308bb45d5e26ae6

"The Country Hospital" is available for Preorder now. Shipping October 31st.

https://wistrec.com/wist-rec-030/

10/10/2023

“The Country Hospital” by Depatterning & Delphine Dora is now available for PRE-ORDER at Wist Rec. Shipping on Oct 31st.

Over the next few weeks we'll examine in more detail the circumstances surrounding Dr. Humphry Osmond and Dr. Abram Hoffer's unique project at the "Weyburn Mental". From socio-architecture and lysergic dreamimg to perculiar quilting patterns and the rather unsettling psychedelic dosing of a member of the British Parliament.

Limited to 105 copies.

https://wistrec.com/wist-rec-030/