All you need is breath

—
A multimedia artwork explored future mental issues
[a]

In this project, I explored the mental health topic in a futuristic and exceedingly idealistic context. Particularly, I asked 3 questions: What mental issues would people encounter in the future? How would the environment alter regarding the context? What then would be the solution for the mental issues?

With scientific evidence, I speculated that anxiety disorder would be the major future mental issue. To present what this future may be, I leveraged 3 formats — illustration, photography, and interactive installation.‍

[b]
Hats I wear:
Illustrator,
Photographer,
Multimedia artist,
‍
Sep – Nov 2022 (2 months)

Current trend in human and environment evolvement

[human]
We now have a greater tendency to perceive machine as our organism extension (hearing aids, glasses, AR / VR devices, etc)
TRANSHUMAN by David Vintiner
[environment]
As now we are in the Anthropocene — our activities have huge impacts on the environment and plants’ evolvement.
[strangled turtles]
[trapped hermit crab]
[antenna tree]
A Bestiary of The Anthropocene by Nicolas Nova

Current trend in mental issues

According to WHO:
13%
Increase in mental health conditions from 2007 to 2017
25%
Increase in anxiety and depression during the pandemic
Anxiety
Highest ratio in the prevalence of mental disorder
As we well acknowledge (and perhaps experience) some mental health conditions in particular like anxiety, what is/are the trigger(s)?

Triggers of increasing anxiety disorder

In order to scientifically answer this question, I dug through journal articles and found the following factors of increasing anxiety disorders:
[a]
Increasing pressure in general (from life, peer, work, etc.)
[b]
Impact of electronic devices on brain:
Electronic screen syndrome1: overstimulation of one’s brain which causes dysregulation of their biological systems
[c]
Impact of social media on brain2 3
‍i. Scattered attention due to constant new info and cause long-term changes in the neuronal architecture of our brain
ii. Addiction to social media caused by dopamine deficit
‍iii. Memory deficit as we record experience on social media and our brain perceives as no demand for memorization
1 Korte, Martin. “The impact of the digital revolution on human brain and behavior: where do we stand?.” Dialogues in clinical neuroscience vol. 22,2 (2020): 101-111. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2020.22.2/mkorte
‍
2 Rugnetta, Michael. "neuroplasticity". Encyclopedia Britannica, 28 Sep. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/science/neuroplasticity.
‍
3 Firth, Joseph et al. “The "online brain": how the Internet may be changing our cognition.” World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) vol. 18,2 (2019): 119-129. doi:10.1002/wps.20617

Anxiety disorder symptoms

What would happen in future

[a]
Anxiety disorder is the main mental issue and hyperventilation is the major symptoms
[b]
Humans wear devices to help them (focus on) breath as a self-extension
[c]
Geographical environment adapts to cope with human’s need on breath

Inspiration and main elements in artwork

Paper bags and pillows are chosen to be the key elements, which I drew inspiration from the technique of breathing into paper bags during an anxiety attack. Pillows generated from a similar idea that 6 pillows construct an “air-tight” cube, allowing people to restore their lost CO2 and concentrate on their breath. Pillows are also conceptually related to softness and comfort, which could achieve emotional soothing for future citizens as well.

Explore future possibility

Pondering what would happen in the future, I explored 3 visualization formats: illustration, photography, and interactive installation.
[illustration]
Pillow flower
A flower specifically evolved to provide emotional support and treatments when citizens encounter an anxiety attack. Pillow flowers produce the ingredients for the pillow headsets, wore by citizens to restore their breath.
Paper bag flower
Unlike the scarce pillow flowers, paper bag flowers are highly adaptive to the environment and can grow in every city landscape. They provide an alternative breath-restoring way for citizens.
[pillow headset photography]
medium: fabric, cardboard, cotton
pinyangl@stanford.edu
[paper bag flower interactive installation]
Paper bag flowers slowly breathe in and out if citizens get close or pass by. They gravitate citizens’ attention towards their own breath and help restore a healthy breath length.
arduino code
medium: paper bag, balloon, air pumps, arduino
Back to work
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pinyangl@stanford.edu