VR SAFE SPACE

YEAR / 2019

ROLE / Research, Ideation, Prototyping

TOOLS / Photoshop, Unity

The anxiety train is a metaphor that visualizes and illustrates how one’s anxiety accelerates, spirals out of control, as if they were on an anxious train of thought. This personal project started by asking the question, how can technology pull the brakes on the unstoppable anxiety train of mine, if all else fails? Counseling, psychotherapy, and medications are not always accessible. In an attempt to offer an unorthodox solution, VR Safe Space was created.

This project is a self-administered, personalized immersive anxiety de-escalating experience created using low-cost consumer graphics editor, development platform, and VR viewing device. The virtual experience involves mostly visual element of a scene or imagery that possesses positive personal feelings and emotions such as calmness and safety. By immersing in this experience, the individual can gain access to their personal positive emotions associated with the scene and reduce the anxiety level.

In the demo, I used an image of a childhood recurring dream. The project is highly personal; it was created by me and was for me only. However, as the process went on and the project was completed, I find myself in a place where I would like to offer a toolkit as a solution to communities of people like myself, who live their everyday lives with anxiety disorders.