Postcards from the asylum: Creating art in response to research data

The Up Top exhibition in 2016 provided the communities of the Murray-Goulburn region in Victoria, Australia, an opportunity to view some creative responses to the history, social impacts, and personal stories of the former lunatic asylum, Mayday Hills, located in the rural town of Beechworth. These artifacts and artworks were collected and created from a research project about living with a mental asylum in the town. The aim of this article is to view and discuss the artworks that were responses to the research data and included in the exhibition created by one of the researchers. The research group is being guided by the principles of crystallization as a methodological framework or process, which involves multi-genre presentations. The artworks facilitated community discussion around the goals of unraveling accepted truths, constructing personal truth, and exploring the specific and generating art.