Art can take you somewhere you least expect to be
The Mood cube is a fully immersive, experiential, virtual reality art installation designed to generate joy. An uplifting virtual journey in nature that you can feel, smell and hear.
Through the manipulation of sensory stimuli, visual imagery and sound; the focus of the mood cube is to re-boot your mood, entertain and visually excite.
This is a game-changer in the way people will inter-act with art in the future.
The mood cube was born under the conceptual idea to breathe an organic level of depth into the electronic art experience. From a desire to create a tangible art experience where you physically and mentally experience the work, and in the process create positive brainwaves.
Our brainwaves change quickly when stimulated. In particular, the senses of smell (olfactory) and sound (auditory). The “power” of rhythm moves people emotionally and smell evokes memories. Both are powerful mood manipulators and are key inspirational elements to the work.
This is a mood altering experience, designed to expand our consciousness through the application of brain plasticity techniques and the augmentation of our gaze. Where we will endeavour to re wire the viewer’s synapses through the elements of sound, touch, smell, vision and movement.
The mood cube is a sensory composite that fuses together the elements of: VR, large scale photography, painting, construction, sound, scent, sculpture and environmental textures. We’re embedding the skills of traditional craftsmanship with technology, science and architecture. By using more than one medium we’re expanding the scope, boundaries and possibilities.
Viewing the installation is a solo experience set in it’s own demountable structure - ‘pop-up’ culture inspired. A front door and a back door keep the pre excitement of expectation and the euphoria of the post experience separate.
The duration Is an invigorating one and a half minutes, just long enough to effect a positive change.
The aim of the mood cube is to produce an innovative and sensory stimulating experience that creates feelings of joy while providing a fun experience.
Mood Cube: 3 Installation designs :
1. Summer - beach coastline afternoon
2. Spring - woodland forest firefly’s at dusk
3. Winter - snow fall in the alpine snowy mountains region morning
1. SUMMER – Is to be viewed in the cooler months. A welcome distraction to the winter blues.
The Structure + Contents
The mood chamber is a demountable flat pack room, which is square in shape. 2.4 metres high, 3 metres long and 3 metres wide with a clear Perspex roof with a blue tint that will look as if it is lit by sunlight. It has an entry and an exit door at each end. The exterior is painted in a brain synaptic chemical pathway design. The interior walls are covered with a panoramic photographic image of an exterior beach landscape. It’s a minimal and visually exciting interior. The clear roof will take away any potential feelings of claustrophobia. The floor is covered in 20 cm deep loose natural sand, heated by insulated tubing. Inside the entrance wall of the room a humidifier lightly permeate the air with the smell of summer at the beach (a concoction of coconut oil, salt, sunscreen + native bush aroma’s). On right hand side back corner of the room a virtual reality helmet is positioned on a plinth with the instruction to ‘stand in the center of the room and place on head’.
The Experience
As you step inside the mood cube the aromatic smell of the beach fills your nose and your bare feet feel the warmth of the heated sand. Wrapped around the interior walls is a panoramic photograph of a stretch of beach on the Australian coastline. It’s an aerial view from a clearing, of a graphic contemporary sand drawing on the shoreline below. Sunlight fills the room through the blue tinted perspex roof. In the far right hand corner of the room there’s a white plinth with a VR headset and instructions. The instructions tell you to take the VR helmet off the plinth, place it on your head and move to the center of the room. From the headset the sound of aborigianl contemporary dance / drumming music commences and the VR journey begins. You’re following a coastal path that weaves through the undergrowth and down to the sea. Feelings of joy build as you heed the call of the music and observe the natural sculptures that randomly dot the path. From a clearing you can see an aerial view of a large graphic sand drawing (same as the interior the walls) on the beach below. The music is starting to peak and the beat courses through you with each footstep you take. As you make your way along the beach there’s an outcrop of rocks. Behind the rocks you discover a group of contenmporary aboriginal musicians beating out the music from the soundtrack. The word ‘dance' flashes across the screen. The music and mucians are now at fever pitch and you join them for 30 seconds of freeform dancing. The VR screen fades to black and the music ends bringing the experience to a euphoric end. Slightly puffed and exhilarated you hang up the headset and exit through the rear door.
The VR footage is real live Australian coastal beach footage that is visually enhanced with effects to create a stimulating hyper real experience. The visuals work in conjunction with the music and the design of the cube. This is a 90 second happening that is experienced by one individual at a time.
These installations are works of art – art with benefits. We do not claim that these works will have any guaranteed responses or are able to cure depression or mental illnesses. It is a conceptual art ideal using traditional and new media entertainment that captures the beauty of the Australian landscape.
The mood cube is the inspired vision of Nicole Lobegeiger – a multi disciplined artist. Art graduate, entertainment industry professional, teacher, designer and small business owner.
Notes:
RESEARCH
While researching this project I came upon Dr G. Frank Lawlis’s brain plasticity principles.
Life’s pressures and stresses can swallow you up, creating what Dr G Frank Lawlis describes as a ‘Stress Storm’. This is where the brain shifts into a continual state of stress. The chemical signals in the brain (neurons and synapses) are passed along in a continuous pattern. The longer you are in a stressed state the harder it is to change your synaptic patterns and become un-stressed. Your brain may stop processing new information and regress into a solitary state of survivor-mode, which erodes your self-esteem and confidence leaving you in a state of perpetual fatigue and exhaustion. Dr Lawlis has developed brain healing techniques incorporating smell, movement imagery, movement and sound which have been adapted to this project.
Who is DR G Frank Lawlis?
Dr Lawlis has focused on clinical research methods of the mind-body relationship since 1968 when he received his PhD in Psychology with an emphasis in medical psychology and rehabilitation. Most recently Dr. Lawlis has taken on the project to update the alcohol and drug dependency treatment at Origins Recovery Center in South Padre Island, Texas. As the Director of Pyschology and Brain Plasticity, his focus is on increasing the healing potential through the processes of hyperbaric chambers, vitamin and anti-inflammatory approaches, breathing patterns, neuron-biofeedback, imagery, exercises and sonic stimulation with music. He has written a penned book called ‘Retraining the Brain’.
© Nicole Lobegeiger 25th August, 2017