‘Ned&Shiva Productions’ project ”The Ward” is composed of an 8-minute film and a series of photographs secretly shot within the confines of an abandoned psychiatric hospital in New York. A long and tainted history of dishonorable practices, maltreatment, and experimentation with shock therapy and psychotropic drugs forced the hospital to be shut for human rights violations in the 1980′s. However, 20 years later the grim remnants remain. An eerie presence of the past lingers whose energy pervades the broken walls. This atmosphere inspired an examination of what might have occured within the building and within the mind of one of thousands of “inmates”. Therefore, we included a first person narrative (written and read by Christopher Koulouris) to further illustrate the sharp edge of fantasy and reality, pleasure and suffering, satisfaction and longing, as well as a sountrack (composed by Alfredo Genovesi). The story is both abstract and esoteric. It highlights the power of the human mind to devise a system for survival in even the harshest of environments. We are reminded of the conditions in the Iraqi detention center at Abu Ghraib . We can also take a critical eye upon the structure and often neglect of U.S. health institutions and the governing system in place. The project includes a series of 30″x 40″ inch archival ink-jet prints edition 3+ 2 A/P