Disconnexon

Studio Mental was an exploration into youth mental health and how we, as designers, could assist in creating a space of knowledge and learning, and to spark discussion around the topic of youth mental health. The original brief was to create an immersive environment for our client, the Art Science gallery, which was scheduled to be opening later this year.

I chose depression as my main area of inquiry as I believe it is one of the most topical of our time and arguably one of the most prevalent in today’s transactional society. Disconnexon aimed to offer the user a perspective on mental health not usually discussed in modern psychology, that is, the biopsychosocial perspective which looks at the interconnection between biology, psychology and socio-environmental factors.

Disconnexon firstly aims to reveal the symbiotic relationship between the internal environment and the external world. It then goes on to explore how we have been alienated from this original connection through modern culture, and establish a correlation between depression in our society and the divergence from innate human values.

While this studio was predominantly research based, I used a conjunction of 3D modelling software, Fusion, with rendering software, Lumion, to achieve a realistic concept of what this exhibition may look like.