PROBLEM

Many of us ignore and bottle up our deepest, darkest feelings and emotions, which is damaging to our mental and physical health long-term. I have been experiencing multiple physical health problems since my father passed away tragically. Trauma stays in the body if it is not released, and once it’s built up it can be hard to heal yourself.

RESEARCH & CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

Through my research into meditation, transcendence and shamanism, I discovered the theory that through listening, feeling and becoming aware of our emotions, we can learn to understand and control them, therefore gain agency over the mind and body. I wanted to design an experiential installation which aided the journey towards finding oneself, that explored being present and mindful through audio, visual, immersive meditative experience. Our emotions determine how we experience each situation and moment, and this experiential art installation aims to communicate to the audience that each moment is sacred, and that our emotions don’t need to control us, we can have agency over them.

REFLECTED SELF INSTALLATION

The aim of this installation is to encourage participants to connect with how they feel through self-reflection and self-awareness, address the emotional masks they may be hiding behind, and draw attention to the importance of working through these emotions by feeling and understanding them.

Starting the experience by directing the viewer to look into a fragmented mirror-mask, the next masks represent four very different emotions (Anger, Stress/Anxiety, Happy/Content, Joy/Laughter). The experience ends with a clear, un-cracked oval mirror to provide a moment of reflection for the viewer to assess their emotions at the end. Each participant listened to a 2 minute 30 second meditative audio recording by myself while moving through the exhibit, and I conducted short feedback interviews to assess how the visitors felt after the experience was over, the feedback was very much in line with the goal.