Cara Cai Cai | Blow to Defuse: A meditative interactive experience of defusion with blows

 
Emotions play a significant role in our lives. Unconsciously, negative emotions and thoughts can impact our thinking patterns and behaviors, thereby affecting both our mental and physical well-being. Defusion, in essence, involves creating distance and recognizing thoughts and feelings for what they truly are—streams of words or passing sensations—rather than accepting them as absolute truths or imminent dangers. The Cognitive Defusion Guide, provided by the Counselling and Psychological Services at the University of Sydney, offers helpful strategies for practicing defusion. One such technique, called “Type It Out,” encourages individuals to visualize their thoughts on a computer screen and experiment with different fonts, colors, and formatting. Drawing inspiration from defusion and the concept of Type It Out, my project aims to provide a meditative and interactive experience of defusion through manipulated visual text that represents participants’ negative thoughts. To accomplish this, I utilized Touchdesigner, an ideal tool for audio-reactive visualizations. While deviating from my original plan of using breath as input, I discovered that capturing the sound of breath proved challenging due to its subtlety. Consequently, I decided to switch to a blow interaction, which surprisingly yielded a more intuitive effect of “blowing away” with the visualization. Additionally, this modified interaction method still retains the calming qualities associated with deep breaths. In a dark, immersive environment, I have created four distinct scenes that facilitate visual distanced defusion, complemented by immersive audio effects. By engaging in the act of blowing and taking deep breaths, participants can find solace and tranquility within their minds, while the negative thoughts and emotions they input as text are intended to be distanced and alleviated through this immersive visual-audio experience.