'Into a room that wasn’t there before' was developed during an experimental online residency (Jan-Sept 22) at the NHS’ National Centre for Gaming Disorders supported by Arts Council England.

Into a room is a complex moving image work just under 7 minutes in duration that weaves together 3D scanning of participatory sculptures, 3D animations, video and interviews with staff from the NHS’ only clinic treating Gaming Disorder. Into a room came out of a series of online workshops that I ran with young people aged 18-30 who were under the care of the clinic due to complex mental health issues centring around problematic use of online games. The workshops explored physical and virtual interactions in which we made sculptures in plasticine exploring ideas of online identities and then experimented with 3d scanning these. The resulting work contains animated 3D scans of sculptures by service users, staff and myself. It plays with the materiality of the 3D scanning process by integrating not just the completed scans but also the colour layers inserted as stills and the raw data from the scanning process itself – the X Y vertices of one of the sculptures scroll over an animation of itself. The soundtrack again uses a whispered set of disjointed sentences – this time taken from conversations with two of the staff at the Centre; a family psychotherapist and a clinical psychiatrist as together we muse on our own experiences of being immersed in online environments.

Links:

The National Centre for Gaming Disorders

Credits:

Sculptures by Staff and Clients of the CNWL National Centre

for Gaming Disorders and Katriona Beales

3D Scanning by Form Capture

3D Animation by Ben Hall

Text from conversations with Family Psychotherapist, Alison Smith

and Psychiatrist, Dr Romayne Gadelrab

Music by Chris Zabriskie

Thanks:

The Staff and Clients of the CNWL National Centre for Gaming Disorders 

Particular thanks to:

Prof. Henrietta Bowden-Jones, Becky Harris, Alison Smith and 

Dr. Romayne Gadelrab.

Anna Bunting-Branch, Dr Vanessa Bartlett and Nadine Roestenburg