What kinds of sensory experiences help you be more emotionally vulnerable, and peak behind the door that you try to keep locked away? Is it a mix of sight and touch, sound and smell? Throughout this project, I wanted to explore the relationship between all the sensory details and how it can affect our emotional response, with a highlight around mental health.
I wanted to be naked with my emotions with the hopes of others being able to feel a sense of vulnerability as well.
I spent weeks transforming a room into a soundproof space, pinning a black tarp over the ceiling, used a constellation projector to add more visual aspects, and used a lavender incense diffuser to intensify a calming effect. The most difficult part of this project was creating the video.
I spent weeks transforming a room into a soundproof space, wanting the audience to feel as if they were inside a stuffed animal, or a cloud. I pinned a black tarp over the ceiling and used a constellation projector to add more visual aspects. I used an incense diffuser, continuously adding a lavender scent throughout the showcase to intensify a calming effect.
The most difficult aspect of this project was creating the video. My original idea was to go through hours of artists, specifically rappers and musicians, that have been open about their own personal struggles with mental health, and examine how they have used music as their outlet trying to help others as well. Specific clips from these interviews would have been blended together into one video that would project on the wall of this enclosed installation.
After the first draft, I did not feel enough of an emotional connection to it. As the Artist, if I did not feel the effect I was trying to produce, I knew I needed to go through many trial and errors until I personally felt an emotional response. Finally in the last week of this project, I decided to combine home videos of my childhood prior to being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and created disruptions between two songs in hopes it would produce a different emotional response while watching the video.
After creating a first draft of this project, I didn’t feel enough of an emotional connection to it. If I, as the artist, did not feel the effect that I was trying to produce, then I knew I needed to start over. After many other trial and errors, I felt the most personal connection to specific home videos of my childhood, prior to the physical and emotional trauma that would come from being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. I was missing the aspect of sound, so I blended two songs together, and created disruptions in the music in hopes it would produce a different emotional response while watching the video.
FINAL PRODUCT
Unfortunately, the responses that people wrote were ruined prior to recording information. Thankfully, due to the fact I personally was able to talk with and witness the emotional responses of the viewers, I can say that the purpose of my project was successful.