The Nine Monads of David Bell

Luke Fowler’s installation The Nine Monads of David Bell (2007) departs from his film What You See Is Where You’re At (2001), a portrait of the Kingsley Hall community (Philadelphia Association 1965-1969). This beacon of the anti-psychiatry movement provided a counter model to the mental institution, breaking down notions of treatment and the doctor/patient hierarchy.
Focusing on one of Kingsley Hall’s residents, The Nine Monads of David Bell furthers an investigation into his world. David Bell was a mathematician who moved to London in the 1950s to work as a computer programmer. After an unexplained accident at a nuclear firm, Bell was treated at Kingsley Hall. Despite their clinical characterization as pure ‘schizophrenic’, his words were valued and recorded and are re-woven in the sound work presented alongside Fowler’s original film What You See Is Where You’re At.