By Vivian Ngiam
“Anxiety, I acknowledge you” is Vivian Ngiam’s graduate thesis project at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). Ngiam first acknowledges the chronic anxiety that she experiences daily through “My Anxious Shell”, an interactive video sculpture embodying how anxiety manifests in her body. She hopes to show this sculpture in multiple mental health themed exhibitions where people can experience her anxiety with her. The second piece, “we.AR.anxious”, bespoke pieces of augmented reality wearables from rings to keychains that aim to help with anxiety.
Artist statement: "My Anxious Shell" is an interactive video sculpture embodying how anxiety manifests in my body. I hope to show this interactive piece in mental health themed exhibitions and spaces. As you approach the sculpture, it goes into panic mode. Opening the door of the sculpture, organs in distress are revealed. I used multiple sensors, Arduino and serial communication with Unity to achieve this reveal effect. The animations of the heart getting stabbed, lungs trapped in plastic wrap and a ring like object squeezing the stomach portray how anxiety feels in my body. I created these animations in Cinema4D and used Unity as the platform to make it interactive. Sometimes, putting a hand on my heart helps, not just physically but also metaphorically getting support from people around me. Hence, I wanted to mimic this interaction by using LEAP motion to allow people interacting with the sculpture to hover their hands over the heart, calming the organs down. After interacting with the sculpture, I hope that people with anxiety walk away feeling less alone and people without anxiety walk away with greater empathy.
Artist statement: I wanted to also create something that would help me and potentially other people when they are anxious. Hence for the second part of the project, I created we.AR.anxious, bespoke pieces of augmented reality wearables from rings to keychains that aim to help with anxiety. Research has shown that the 4, 7, 8 rule for breathing is helpful for anxiety. I used this breathing pattern to animate the AR buddy. With your phone, you can scan the code and you will see a calming animation on your keychain or ring and breathe together with the cute AR buddy. AR is built on social AR platforms (MetaSpark). Now, you can discreetly breathe with my AR buddy anywhere and anytime.