Abstract
Objectives: There is a lack of research exploring how the lived experience of emotional distress and mental health difficulties, communicated through immersive art design installations, are received and understood by others. This research aimed to explore the experience of the viewer of a bespoke art installation (“Blackout”), which offered a solo, immersive experience that provided a personal account of what it is like to live with Bipolar II disorder and emotional distress.
Method: A Qualitative design was adopted and individual semi-structured interviews took place with 15 audience members who experienced the “Blackout” design installation. The interviews were transcribed and the data was analysed using Thematic Analysis.
Findings: The Thematic Analysis highlighted three main themes: The first theme highlighted participants understanding and awareness of mental health conditions and their own proximity to mental health. The exhibition was seen as a learning experience regardless of participant’s relationships to people with mental health condition or their own lived experiences regarding mental health. The second theme highlighted how communicating through words and language about mental health is a difficult thing to do and that immersive art like the type in this exhibition, offers an opportunity to communicate something that is very difficult to put into words in a completely different way. The third theme highlighted how the immersive design created a sensory, emotion inducing experience, which gave participants a glimpse of what it is like to live with episodes of emotional distress and imagine themselves in the shoes of the person who experiences these things.
Conclusions: The exhibition seemed to create the opportunity for an increase in understanding and awareness of mental health difficulties but in addition fostered more compassion and empathy towards people who experience emotional distress, which is an effective way of also challenging stigma surrounding mental health. The implications of this are that offering flexibility in communicating about mental health allows alternative perspectives which can challenge the common narratives. Potential benefits are that those experiencing mental health will experience less prejudice and more empathy and compassion from others and therefore would be more likely to talk about their experiences and seek support when necessary.