Come closer!
RESIDUUM
Anxiety is uncertainty. It is a mental illness describing the physical or emotional sensation of uncertainty and worrisome feelings of something unpleasant happening. It has a notable impact on social functioning, family life, school performance, and friendships of those affected and left untreated can lead to a development of serious mental health issues such as depression, substance abuse, and a high risk of suicide. It is the scourge of a generation. Young people dealing with feelings of uncertainty is nothing new but Generation Y are suffering from anxiety to an extend that is unique in history and exceeds the rates of previous generations by far. According to recent studies, one in ten young men and a third of young women are suffering from panic attacks induced by anxiety disorders. Residuum is an interactive moving image art-piece depicted three basic emotions of an anxiety disorder: „Fear“, „Stress“, and „Panic“ , showing the discrepancy between a healthy body and a diseased mind based on the artists personal issues. Residuum tries to show what remains after removing the obvious, revealing what to most remains unseen – the mind.
Video 0:16 min
FEAR
Interactive Video Installation
Video 0:14 min
STRESS
Interactive Video Installation
Come Closer
Take A Look
Young people dealing with feelings of uncertainty is nothing new but Generation Y (those born between 1978 and 1990) are suffering from anxiety to an extend that is unique in history and exceeds the rates of previous generations by far. According to recent studies, one in ten young men and a third of young women are suffering from panic attacks induced by anxiety disorders. And those mental health issues are on the rise. Spectrum disorders like anxiety are increasing not only among members of Generation Y but even younger people are progressively affected by it. In general, has the common age of depression dropped from age 40-50 to mid-20s. Some mental health organisations state that an estimated third of 20-30-year-olds are already suffering from early stages of depression.
Initial inspiration for the project have been own issues with anxiety and mental illnesses. Anxious and rather irrational thoughts as a fear of failure, disappointment, not being good enough or body image have lead to physical symptoms such as problems switching off, sleeping problems and the constant but unsubstantiated urge to urinate. This project seeks to identify possible reasons for the mental health issues of Generation Y and then uses these findings in order to develop an art-piece reflecting the mental state of young people based on personal experiences with the mental health issue. It depicts the discrepancy between a healthy body and a diseased mind, and challenge the stigmatisation of mental illnesses and raise awareness.
It further provides a critic of the ignorance of a society and their perception of mental illnesses and anxiety disorders in particular and give an example for members of Generation Y and especially men to break their silence and start to communicate their problems in order to make a change and seek a healthier, happy state of mind.
Video 0:14 min
PANIC
Interactive Video Installation
IN DEPTH
Under The Surface
As it became apparent that the body was perfectly healthy yet showed many physical symptoms caused by a mental illness, the project developed further. The basic concept of the project is to show the discrepancy between a healthy body and a diseased mind. To visualise the “obvious”, the body and its scientifically proven healthy condition, a radiologist was contacted with who‘s help a vast number of more than 2000 x-ray-, CT- (computed tomography) and MRI-images (Magnetic resonance imaging) have been taken and processed. In order to make the audience understand that there might be more to a person than just what meets the eye and make them aware that underneath the surface people may be dealing with mental health issues the art-piece had to become more subtle and therefore interactive. The technology of Microsoft‘s Kinect cameras was used. Kinect is a line of motion sensing devices originally developed for Microsoft‘s gaming console Xbox. Based around a webcam which can interpret specific gestures with its infrared sensor and a microchip which enables the tracking of movements of objects and individuals in three dimensions its technology was used to make “Residuum” an installation artwork. “Residuum” video clips only play if the audience approach the screen and enter its personal or intimate space.
