Well / Being

An animated film-poem on the theme of happiness made up of contributions from people across Wales.

Well / Being was conceived, created, and facilitated by Cardiff born and based writer Mab Jones. It sought to gather views and insights from across the country on the theme of wellness and wellbeing, from any aspect or angle and from a wide range of citizens.

Words can be a powerful impetus to expression, and ‘poetry’ can come from the conversations and confessions of real people, no matter their dialect, differences, and diverse views. The aim of this project was to collate as many voices and vantage points as possible and to put them together in such as way as to showcase the poetry of everyday speech, colloquial language, individual ideas, and personal stories, whilst also managing to combine these contributions into a cohesive, collaborative single poem.

This ‘ethnographic poem’ – a poem composed of many voices – was intended to offer a ‘state of the nation’ response; a snapshot into our collective thought and feeling on happiness and wellbeing at this time.

Of particular interest in this project was how people define happiness, and in the idea of happiness as a journey or practice, rather than a static destination. Engagement with the public was conducted over a number of face to face and online workshops hosted by Mab, as well as a digitally-held set of creative questions she designed and made accessible on a bespoke project website.

Over a couple of months, approximately 500 people took part in the project, contributing anything from a single word to a number of sentences.

Due to the number of entries, Mab qualified the entries by pre-informing participants that only a number of contributions would be included in the poem that would be animated; however, something from each and every participant will be made available in a longer version of the poem held on the website.

Mab contracted award-winning animator Lauren Orme to create the animation. Public Health Wales commissioned poet Erin Hughes to create a Welsh language version of the final poem.

Well / Being

Creative response in Welsh to Mab Jones poem, Well / Being

Mab said:

I’ve facilitated a lot of workshops in the community for organisations such as Mind, Recovery Cymru, Women Seeking Sanctuary, and others. Although I also work in the NHS now, I’m not frontline staff, so it was great for me, once again, to do something that’s face to face and engaging with people in a more direct and personal way, as I’ve done as a freelance arts facilitator.

Getting lots of people involved in a project is something I’ve done many times, so this was nothing new, but as ever I enjoyed the marketing and project management aspects, and then the more therapeutic elements, just being with people in whatever way – online, in person, via an email or during a drop-in – and, usually, being trusted with some shared insight. It’s this offering of something personal from someone’s own story that is most valuable to me. However everyday this information might seem, because it comes from someone’s inner being, it is always affecting, and often deeply profound.

I loved, then, tying these words and lines together into a poem. Unsurprisingly, there were thematic commonalities which made the job easier. Lauren, the animator, also noticed these, and from my original poem came up with a storyboard based on the four seasons, as much of the imagery in the poem seems to contain these natural elements. So, I reordered the poem based on Lauren’s more visual insight, which was really useful.

Finally, she developed the animation, and sent it to me at points so we could discuss it. When it was done, Public Health Wales worked with Erin to translate the piece so that Lauren could create a Welsh language version.

Overall, what surprised me most was that happiness and a sense of wellbeing don’t come from money, fame, good looks, or having lots of things. Not one person said anything like this, though I interviewed and engaged with people of all ages and experience, and expected that someone, at some point, would. Rather, people said that they come from the small things in life – things that cost nothing – and from slightly adapted concepts: not money, but having enough; not fame, but feeling valued; not good looks, but good health.

I often think that society has become very materialistic. This experience showed me that, underneath, that’s not the case at all. People know that money can’t buy happiness. A bit more might be nice, but in this project everyone knew that happiness could be cultivated in other ways. And this made me happy, in turn.

Erin Hughes said:

The process of creatively translating the piece was a careful and measured one. One particular element that had to be taken into account was that things do not translate directly from English to Welsh, and the result of this was that a personal twist had to be given to the piece that would capture the magic of my mother tongue. I really hope that I have done that magic justice and that there are Welsh people, across the country, who will be able to identify with what I’ve written.