become aware – exploring the realities of mental health

To inspire conscious engagement with
psychological well-being, I trained an
Artificial Neural Network to generate
visual representations of emotional and
mental states. The model was trained on
images of all kinds of influencing factors:
including working conditions, social
contacts and physical health. It visualizes
the fluid transitions and dynamic changes
in psychological states and individual
differences.

My project aims to clarify that mental
health should be understood as a state of
equilibrium that must be continuously
maintained. A completely and permanently
positive state would be an unrealistic goal.
It is much more about gaining insights
about oneself in order to better deal with
negative thoughts and emotions. And in
this process, all feelings and thoughts are
perfectly fine.

I display scientific information in a visually
novel way to gain attention and inspire the
observer to interact with the material, e.g.
by scanning a poster with their phone to
see it in motion. I thereby reduce initial
inhibitions and facilitate awareness and
communication.

Humans are multidimensional. Yet we
cannot imagine the multidimensional space
in which we vary. Therefor, we cannot grasp
the extent to which we are all connected.
Using an Artificial Neural Network this
multidimensional space can be translated
into two-dimensional graphics and videos.

More on: www.differentasusual.com

I used the videos generated by the Neural
Network to animate key statements
written in 'Neutral' by Kai Bernau.

The typeface is constructed to be free of
stylistic associations. In that way, I
implement it as the representation of an
unbiased awareness which allows all
thoughts and emotions. This perception
– without judgment or distortion – is the
basic aspect of Emotional Intelligence,
which is linked to better mental health.