In a time when the world seems increasingly fragmented, when factionalism breeds more factionalism and listening feels like a luxury we can’t afford, Jeff D’Hondt is an artist and social worker in Toronto quietly insisting on something different. For decades, he’s been asking questions that strike at the heart of our current, AI-driven moment; how do we reconnect? How do we remember that art and community are not optional?
His belief in connection, community, and the importance of science is a thorough line in all his work. In my capacity as a researcher with Creative Labour Critical Futures, a Founding Partner of Art/In Forum, I sat down with him to understand how he’s translating these beliefs into practice.
In 2018, D’Hondt’s play Everything I Couldn’t Tell You, was presented at The Theatre Centre in Toronto. The play highlights the difficulty and effort required to hold on to Indigenous languages. When reflecting on this work, D’Hondt recalls a shift in his approach to writing for the stage.
Could you tell us about how your understanding of your work has shifted over time?
I’m a storyteller, and people don’t necessarily think of a scientist when you think of a social worker, or a playwright, or someone learning Lenape. And I’m not a scientist, but I love science. Science is medicine to me. What I object to is the way science is presented, through research studies with graphs and language no one can comprehend, or conferences and things like that. Those are valid and the conversations should continue on those forms, but to most people, science can be life changing. But it’s something that is either intimidating, or colonial, and it doesn’t need to be because of the way it’s presented.
So the play I wrote, Everything I Couldn’t Tell You, there’s a lot of neuroscience in it. There are a lot of people commenting on whether [the main character] speaks the language, is she in her head during therapy, or if we use expressive arts it will engage this part of her brain. There’s a whole conversation about neuroscience in there. And I do work in hospitals, and I did talk to doctors about that, so the neuroscience is real. And I thought, this is a cooler way to get at science. So what I realized is that, another reason [the play] didn’t work was partly because the language was too polished, but the other thing that was missing were the scientists. And people want to connect with science. This was a theatre audience, so people just wanted to have a nice night out, but what if it was more than that? What if it was an opportunity to come together and talk about really cool ideas? Or to brainstorm solutions and stuff like that?
A lot of people think about art as a catalyst, but I didn’t want to do that as a kind of symbolic gesture. I actually wanted the art to be a catalyst. What if this wasn’t a play, per se, but a play reading combined with lectures on science? Combined with activities, food, and all this type of stuff. So we can get together and have a big meaningful discussion, not about the play, but about the ideas targeted by the play. Then I thought, that’s what’s missing! That’s what I actually want to do! Not to knock the play at all, the people were all wonderful, but it just made me realize that I’m not that kind of playwright. My play’s do something different, and I want them to do something different. So I don’t want a Dora award, I don’t want to go to Broadway, – or, well, I guess I do? But if I ever got to Broadway I want physicists in the audience, I want medical doctors in the audience. I want to have a conversation about things that can make lives better.
Why is artistic intelligence, or what art and artists know, what artists and artistic methods reveal or offer, relevant or significant to you?
The world right now is not being taught to connect. It’s being taught to separate, to hate, to feud. Artistic intelligence gives us the ability to connect. True resistance is no longer about opposing what you hate, it’s actually about connecting. I think to resist, you build a collective. I know there are horrible, evil collectives out there, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about grassroots folks that connect some form of artistic expression. Whether it be performance or they’re creating something themselves, the point is that art is somehow involved in that. It’s an arts based gathering that brings diverse voices that may or may not agree in the same space, and you build a connection with them. And you’re not asking them to agree, you’re not asking them to walk away with a consensus, no. You express yourselves and hear each other and respect that difference. We’re not taught to respect difference, we’re not taught to tolerate difference, and it’s causing problems because if you don’t tolerate difference all you’ll have is conflict.
Artistic intelligence, to me, is about gathering, it’s about connection, a meaningful connection, not a therapeutic one, or even a one-to-one ‘hey, I like you a lot and you’re awesome!’. I can still connect with someone that I don’t like, and vice versa. It could just be like ‘hey, we don’t like each other but we agree we have a person over there with no food of their own, and we need to help. Let’s see if there’s anything else we can do as a collective to make sure that everyone in this room has a safe place to go. Everyone in this room has an equal chance to be protected.’ And art can often facilitate that.
I’ll also say about artistic intelligence, and this draws more on expressive arts, is that sometimes you can use art to respond to art. I’ve been in a room, for example, without saying anything about artistic intelligence. And what will happen is that there will be a really cool exercise and then you feel connected and say oh this is amazing. I’ll give an example. Let’s say we were asked to sculpt something out of clay, and we’re all feeling united and charged up, and then you go around the circle and you talk about it, and those words undo everything. All the stuff that was not said comes out, and then someone gets pissed off, and then someone says they’re liberal, or someone says they’re conservative, and now we’re all back to square one.
But… you can respond to art with art. That’s the thing with artistic intelligence. What if it’s not a circle. What if we have this sculpture, and now let’s do a dance. Look at this sculpture and just dance. No words, just dance that’s inspired by [the sculpture]. And all of a sudden that changes the dynamic. Because art isn’t conflictual, necessarily. It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. You can keep the spirit of connection going. So we connected over the sculpture, not let’s connect over these silly dances and laugh. You can express how you feel about the thing and it’s still open to interpretation. Then people don’t feel forced into a direction. They still have the power to interpret and analyze and understand from their own perspective
That’s another aspect of artistic intelligence, that there are certain things we can’t dictate. Yes, we can recommence certain behaviours, courses of actions, things like that. But if we force it on someone they might resist and it’s going to create opposition to the thing we’re trying to have happen.
We all talk too much these days. There are way too many opinions and not enough connection. There should always be more connection, so let’s use artistic intelligence to make that connection.
What do you protect or prioritize in your practice that the world tries to make you compromise on?
Holy smokes, we could be here for weeks answering that question because I work in mental health…To make it simple, we’re being forced into directions that are dictated by the availability of funding. And I understand that, don’t get me wrong, I know we should be conscious of money, yes, of course we should.
But my question is: why does everything have to cost something?
Like community, why can’t we just have community events? Why can’t we just have sharing, or a feast, and things like that just [become] part of the process, period? So you don’t even have to put your hand up and say ‘hey, I have a diagnosis’, you can just come. Why are we at war with that? Because we are, those things are getting cut. That’s one of the things that’s frustrating me.
A friend, a safe place to live, nutritious food, physical activity,…we’re always told ‘diet and exercise!’, but why does diet and exercise cost money then? Why do we have to join a gym? Why is food so expensive? And we can see, it just goes up, and up, and up, and up. It’s never going down. Even without tariffs contributing to it, it was going up anyway. Tariffs just accelerated it. Why are we living in a world [where] we know we could save a life, or make it happier, and instead we’re just making things go up and up and up?
The other thing is that everyone is always saying we should innovate and we should partner, and all that kind of stuff, and [when] you go to do just that, all you hear is ‘yeah, you can try this, but first you have to do some other thing’. Then there’s bureaucracy in the way, or there is ego in the way, or someone needs to publish a paper about it…. And I mean, those things are all valid but it stops forward momentum. And so something that could have evolved in three months ends up taking three years because you have to write a research grant, and you have to make sure someone with a big ego is in charge of it, and it goes on and on. Why is this happening? Those issues are the two that are always in my top ten. They may not be in my top two every day, but they are always in my top ten. The artificial barriers that are put in place, even though we’re supposed to go to innovation and collaboration, there are always barriers to make that possible unless you happen to agree with the prevailing politik, then you can go right ahead. That’s a problem. And the system’s lack of enthusiasm for gatherings and informal supports. If there were enough gatherings, people would eat for free.
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