The Void On Display is an immersive experience with light installations and moving images.
The goal for this projectto open up conversations around depression in a poetic way, and raise the awareness of the unseen stories about depression that could resonate with the public and the people experiencing it.

The ideal setting for this project would be a pop-up experience for people who are interested in depression, also it would serve as a media tool for public service announcement (PSA).


Demo Video: 



Background

Grown up in a typical Chinese family with deep-rooted Asian culture background, I learned first-hand how stigmatized mental health issues are there. Usually, these problems are perceived in a very black and white way with nothing in between: either you are only all good, or a psychopath; the same applies to if you are depressed, people would assume you should cry and think about suicide all day, if not, then you are just being melodramatic.

People are afraid or ashamed to talk about it, then the bias and stigmas grow bigger and intenser — the lack of understanding is catalyzing the vicious cycle towards depression.

Personally, after having witnessed and even to some degree, experienced a lot negative things started from these stigmas, I started to think about using art as the language to resonate with people, both the public and the patients, as well as raise awareness towards this social issue.

These are some of the top results appeared after searching “depression art” in google

            

As mentioned before, my hope was to open up conversations around this topic in a more poetic and accessible way. And one thing I learned from all my researches is, the best way to show support to someone with depression is not simply cheering them up but to understand how they feels, not only they’re sad or painful but how their life feels like.

So in this project, I’m trying to recreate the experience some parts of the life of being depressed: their visions and perceptions, the invisible barriers in social life, the sense of isolation and incapability…
By showcasing these different aspects with pleasing aesthetics, I wish I could poetically open up conversations around this topic.

Technical Details

I used a low-pressure sodium bulb as the monochromatic light source to render the overall atmosphere. And get audio inputs from microphone amplifiers to build the sound-activated light installation— the louder the environment is, the dimmer the light would be. Also filmed two video clips showcasing two different scenarios in life.

All elements would be switching in order every ten minutes. The control system is built with Arduino and TouchDesigner with serial communications.

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