Mo-Do - Eins Zwei Polizei (Official Video)

Might also be interesting to look at cinema scenes that are from the main characters's perspective e.g. Enter the Void

Can I re-create a room digitally through found material/footage?

What is the topic of my (Visual) essay?

Animal intelligence

Meditation / Deep seeing / Deep listening

Gaming - nintendo

Conspiracy theories in 'The Shining'

No film-analysis!

The supernatural

Childhood media icons

Unpacking Hauls

Japanese Horror

Fungi

Metamorphosis

Domestication of insects

Immersion into folklore

how we deal with the weather through folklore

Criteria it should full-fill

Opportunity for visual material
Opportunity for audio immersion
Be research-able
Room for subjective view / personal opinion / personal comment

To add the air of opinion to my essay I should ask a question and seek to answer it through the immersive space.

Choose something that can be researched and the visual content I would like to use..


... getting inspired from youtube video essays...


Choose something that means something to you personally

Conspiracy theories are interesting for this subject because they are about conviction (subjective) and try to prove what they are saying through 3rd party info - so the structure aligns very much with the video essay + leads to trying to uncover deeper layers of meaning and illustrate what you are saying

> if nothing else a good analogy for the video essay approach

+ also calls into question the general 'normal' sense of reality therefore being interesting in an immersive environment - simultaneously being an immersive concept itself because the theory shifts perspective on 'truth' in an omnipresent way by immersing it's believer in an alternate truth.

Cults

Monogamy

Memory

Mindfullness - (different types) meditation (links to consciousness)


What constitutes an uncomfortable room/situation?

Create a own theory of how memory and the mind works - by referencing what theories say about the workings of the mind.

Two distinct directions 1) using content that is digital or of the digital time like e.g. people eating on youtube channels or unpacking or shopping hauls - phenomena of internet culture
(could lead to a very annoying and overwhelming immersive experience)

vs. 2) using topics that exist offline

> I'm more interested in 2)

My sound-bits from Japan

videogames

Or a biological process more specifically that I am interested in?

You do it alone - one on one experience

Marina Abramovic e.g. being in a healing centre like one she proposed < but this is not advancing an argument through found materials

Break between what it actually means and how it's used in western society

Telling stories through soundscapes - like a 'Traumreise' guided through audio:

Using audio from old tapes like Räuberhotzenplotz

Limerence Yves Tumor

Frequently it's less about what you do but how you execute it- so it might be interesting to focus only on one object and translate it into varying forms e.g. the egg, a flower, a mouth - IMMERSION INTO AN INANIMATE OBJECT OR OTHER LIFE FORM TO IDENTIFY WITH THEIR BEING

How safe is Japan? Weather, Earthquakes
What would it be like to be in the house of Dorothea when she flies to OZ?

notions of sanity?

folklore - still relevant today?

Custom of chasing away weather - link to climate change politics?

Urban myth of a suburban town where the government tested LSD by putting it in the water

Revisiting a historical event ..

the domestication of flora and fauna









KETAMIN THERAPY - new development in medicine
Ayahuasca journey
Acid trip




Relationship with Siblings ( interview people on their emotional bonds)

What would a personal view on such a subject be?

When you stop thinking where do you go?

Pros
Could function as a good umbrella concept that leaves space for all kinds of visual inputs (like thoughts that just come)
_ can be a journey, meaning evolution of the user experience
_ guided links with audio guidance in VR
_ certainly a personal view because it's very personal experience and hence personal(opinionated) view on the subject
_ interest me personally
_ Zeitgeist (relevance for current time)


Cons
_ (too)current/chlicheed topic
_ could become chaotic
_ I would almost rather use an 'uncool' topic

Interviews on the subject

This theme would allow me to focus on visualising a feeling or sensation in 3D modelling, which would focus more on the unique affordances of VR and Unity and might be a good 'first time' project

Visualising the chemical process in the body - what happens during a Ketamin treatment in the body and in the mind?
How to visualise Ketamin reacting to receptors in the brain.

The project can also be about removing stigma and asking questions of agency - can I (recreationally) self medicate, take I take agency and responsibility for my treatment of myself or do I need outside parties, people, institutions or societal perception to legitimise my actions?

Project name draft - 'A twilight sleep' - 'Prescription slumber'

Effective treatment of mental health and to combat suicidal tendencies through "significant and immediate impact".

Links to mental health - depression - suicide - therapy - the medical field - antidepressant effects

Bjork - Mouth Mantra

"One likely target for ketamine is NMDA receptors in the brain. By binding to these receptors, ketamine appears to increase the amount of a neurotransmitter called glutamate in the spaces between neurons. Glutamate then activates connections in another receptor, called the AMPA receptor. Together, the initial blockade of NMDA receptors and activation of AMPA receptors lead to the release of other molecules that help neurons communicate with each other along new pathways. Known as synaptogenesis, this process likely affects mood, thought patterns, and cognition.

Ketamine also may influence depression in other ways. For example, it might reduce signals involved in inflammation, which has been linked to mood disorders, or facilitate communication within specific areas in the brain. Most likely, ketamine works in several ways at the same time, many of which are being studied."

"perceptual disturbances
_ time appearing to speed up or slow down
_ colors, textures, patterns are intensified and change
_ noises that seem especially stimulating
_ blurry vision
_ unstable balance

_ dissociation (sometimes called out-of-body experiences); rarely, a person may feel as if they are looking down on their body, for example."

Perceived effects:

Inside the body - biological process:

"When you take ketamine, it triggers reactions in your cortex that enable brain connections to regrow. It’s the reaction to ketamine, not the presence of ketamine in the body that constitutes its effects"

Inspiration for the first part of the sequence

The VR space could be a journey of different phases

Phase 1 )
Body

Phase 2 )
Chemical molecular reaction

Phase 3 )
Sensation

Phase 4)
Perception in mind /experience

Maybe I can digitalise this image through a photo collage..? or some software to place a 2D image on a sphere? - Can I animate it ???




Use this for phase 2)

Material research starting point:

Through Sarah Anchelle Schönfeldt's experiments I have a real reference for how K looks as a chemical compound, which I can use as a starting point for design.

Use Petra's technique on it and create a 360°view

It might be interesting to work with found footage and play with floating text over it - making the narration very specific and playful for VR.

This can be the way thoughts are presented and such typography stripes as the train of thoughts that connect them !

Placing Type in the space to be walked through and engaged with in a way not possible without this technology.

As a presentation of thoughts untangling, connections loosening and the engagement with thoughts in wholly different ways.

As well as trying to follow your train of thought which becomes momentarily confused.

Using found sound ! that plays with your perception - making things seem a lot louder or closer - hyper sensitivity - that you can perceive on K

Technical translation can be : Place sound in space - walk towards it, away from it e.g.

Unity Technique idea:

Fairly simple technique with large effect: chop up an image into multiple layers you can walk through like a layered theater box

Can I create a 3D view of this through camera mapping?

Phase 2 ) Chemical - molecular

Phase 4 ) Perception in mind/ experience

First person view:

Link between being inside the body an Keta entering the body system

How to visualise:

Phase 1 ) The Body

Play with scaling of a normal room e.g. like first Acid experience in Bathroom - like Alice in Wonderland?

Or Polina's idea of endless 'Kabinen' of which you have to push the doors as in the Beehive Maze of Takashi Castle.

Or Endless staircases (scanning staircases)

Similar to the approach for this video I will be a visual curator for the selected works that will come together in VR.

Will absolutely sample the digitalised work of Sarah Anchelle Schönfeldt + would like to use this opportunity to learn how to digitally animate a still image.( as done here)

Similar to the approach for this video I will be a visual curator for the selected works that will come together in VR.

Will absolutely sample the digitalised work of Sarah Anchelle Schönfeldt + would like to use this opportunity to learn how to digitally animate a still image.( as done here)

Little Darlin Seize the Sun
Christina Vantzou

For this 'cyber' style look @samrolfes

Textual research

" Ketamin is revolutionizing new mental health treatments . "

> depression treatment.

"Ketamine was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1970 as an anesthetic and safe alternative to phencyclidine. The therapeutic benefits of ketamine as an antidepressant were explored years later because of a stigma on from its widespread recreational use during the late 1960s and 1970s, and this agent was initially only administered intravenously."

This is one of the main components why I find this topic interesting and relevant for a video essay;

Because of having to combat stigma - as soon as a anaesthetic is used recreationally as a 'party drug' it becomes stigmatised, dirty - an no longer
respectable in the academic medical field.

But I'd wager that many people who party, move their bodies and consume Ketamin also get a therapeutic benefit from the experience. Is this not legitimate, not viable only because it is not administered by a nurse ? Because someone else prescribed it to you - because you gave away that decision and relinquished agency to someone educated to 'cure' you?

Duration effect of treatment:

"Researchers found that the antidepressant effects of ketamine began within 4 hours, peaked at 72 hours, and lasted for 1 to 2 weeks thereafter"

"In subsequent years, results from a number of placebo-controlled studies revealed that ketamine is largely effective and long-acting in treatment of bipolar disorder and treatment-resistant major depressive disorder and produces antisuicidal and anti-anhedonic effects in mood disorders.

Many of today’s depression treatments are monoaminergic-based, including monoamine oxidase inhibitors, tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors. These treatments have been proven effective for a large number of patients. However, a significant subset of patients with major depressive disorder do not respond to these agents.1 When compared with ketamine, these agents have a delayed onset of action that can take up to several weeks — increasing the risk for organ failure and suicide in this subset.

A single dose of ketamine is shown to produce rapid and robust effects within hours to days of administration. This agent is also shown to rapidly reduce suicidal ideation, fatigue, and anhedonia, and improve circadian rhythm and sleep patterns in major depressive disorder.1 Researchers point out that these symptoms are synonymous across several psychiatric disorders but remain inadequately treated by monoaminergic-based agents."

Treatment effectiveness:

Bioprocess

Mental health

Mental experience

Drug induced experience

Stigmatisation

Agency

Motivation

Legitimisation

Would it have to be part of the experience to try to represent the 'before' state?
>Answer:
I'd rather not because mental health is such a large, complex topic which is difficult to grasp, nearly impossible to present quickly in its complexity and facets and would feel like appropriation and ventriloquism.

Ketamin turning into a 'cross-over drug' between recreation and therapy.

Stigma

Re-evaluation- re-claiming by medical field

... told me that doctors have long been curious about the euphoric effects of ketamine. A lot of people given ketamine as an anesthetic “would start smiling or laughing,” he says. “That’s the reason that many people before have said, ‘Oh, maybe it can be used for depression.’”

How can you keep the medical connection?

e.g. Image of an IV monitor.

"Researchers like Shah believe that as the brain metabolizes the ketamine, new neural pathways are created that help restore function obliterated by depression. It’s this effect, not the experience of hallucinations or dissociation, that can help treat depression."

About recreational party use : Users retreat into their minds and experience hallucinations, sometimes reporting religious experiences or even a feeling some compare to rebirth.

But for someone experiencing intense depression, that “rebirthing” can be therapeutic.

"I am going to die in this dentist’s chair.

My eyes are closed, but I can still see skulls outlined with white against a black background. I have an epiphany: God is death. I’m in the midst of a real-life version of the hallucinogenic ride in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, all in my own mind.

A monitor emits a steady beep, and for a second, I think I’m flatlining. But no: I’ve just completed my first infusion of ketamine, a veterinary anesthetic (often used on cats and horses) sometimes used illegally as a club drug called Special K.

I am here because I cannot stop thinking about suicide. I’ve been in therapy on and off for more than 30 years, since I was 5, and on depression medication for more than a decade. Nothing seemed to work. I couldn’t stop imagining killing myself in increasingly vivid daydreams.

(...)

I met with Justin Coffey, the medical director of Menninger’s Center for Brain Stimulation Services, to discuss my history and we reached an agreement: I’d try two infusions of the drug, and if it had a positive effect, I’d do four more. At Menninger, this cost $600 for each session, and it’s not covered by insurance. If not, electroshock therapy would be my next step.

I arrived and got a basic work-up in the pre-treatment room. In addition to weighing me and taking my blood pressure, a nurse tested my reading ability, memory, and basic awareness (the date, where I was). Dr. Coffey came in to discuss what to expect over the course of my six treatments. That number is typical for this treatment, but because it’s still experimental, so is the number of doses necessary to work. Coffey was open to the idea of me needing more if six didn’t provide lasting results.

His frightening warning: Since ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic, I might feel like I’m leaving my body and experience a “bad trip,” as opposed to a more euphoric hallucinatory state. But if I were to go into this state, I could tell my nurse, who would stop the infusion or add a counteractive drug, the anesthetic midazolam, to lessen that effect.

The nurse inserted an IV and flushed it with saline to make sure it was flowing correctly; then we moved into the treatment room with its dentist-style chair for my infusion to begin. I would receive half a milligram of the drug for every kilogram of my weight, a very low dose compared to what recreational users inhale or inject. About 10 minutes into the treatment, the tree I was watching through the window separated into two. Soon, it was difficult to keep my eyelids open at all.

And then I was gone, down the rabbit hole of hallucination. My mind skipped through grid-style maps of city parks. I occasionally took a deep breath or wiggled my fingers just to remind myself I still could. I later learned that what I was experiencing is known as a “K-hole,” which is rare at the low dose I took.

Hope for the future at last
Each infusion lasted 45 minutes. After my first one, I had a nurse play the cast album of my favorite musical as the drip began. Instead of running wild, my mind became immersed in the music, albeit in a deeply dreamlike state. Each time, it took about 15 to 20 minutes after the effects of the treatment wore off for me to be able to open my eyes and start walking. Afterward, I was exhausted. The half-hour Uber ride home felt like hours as I longed for the warm embrace of a nap.

Immediately after each treatment, I felt down. But by the time I woke up the next day, I was in less psychic pain and had more purpose. I would start the day on my long-neglected spin bike, feeling motivation that I’d lacked for months. Lunches with friends no longer felt like they existed just to show them I was still alive and making an effort to get out of the house. I was beginning to connect with the world outside my head again. I noticed myself smiling more. According to Shah, feeling the effects of ketamine within 24 hours of treatment is typical. “It is the most rapid-acting treatment for depression,” he said.

After the final infusion, I had the initiative to start writing again. The following week quickly filled up with activities, both work and fun. I was living for the first time in months. It’s been three months since my last treatment, and I’ve even started to feel excited about my future. Shah says I am unlikely to need another dose — I was in the roughly 70 percent who achieve remission after one series of ketamine infusions.

In technical terms, as I’ve said, taking ketamine had caused my brain to release glutamate, the neurotransmitter responsible for “excitatory” responses. But despite all his years of research into the drug’s chemistry, Shah admits, “No one knows the exact mechanism of any medicine.”

If I do need additional doses of ketamine, it probably won’t be an infusion. Thanks in part to Shah’s work, an intranasal version of the drug is expected to receive FDA approval as soon as next year. The side effects of the nasal inhaler, known as esketamine, are practically nonexistent next to the K-hole I experienced; patients would even be able to take the treatment at home. I’m a testament that it can work. And soon, ketamine will be accessible to people (who can afford it, since it likely will be expensive and not necessarily covered by insurance) who have all but given up on fixing their depression.

I had come to believe that my depression was a terminal illness. But the so-called party drug may have saved my life."

First person essay on Ketamin therapy

Video of procedure

This whole set-up funnily actually feels quite appropriate for VR - not regarding the infusion - but the monitor that checks what it happening with the patient - like the monitor from which you run and can view the VR ; the headset for music - the eye cover - sitting back in a chair; creating a steady environment for the patient / alias viewer.

Essentially both these procedures seek to make the patient/observer ideally comfortable/ prepared for an immersive experience.

Experimental drug trials

How is, and how can, VR be presented?

Dissociative anaesthetic; means - dissociates the telabuse from the limbic system / cortex .

This means you perceive everything, you have all feelings, all impressions but you don't give a damn. You disassociate.
This makes it different from all other anaesthetics that we use that cause a general depression of the brain.

Antagonist: other system: Effects NMDA receptors - excitatory neurons in the brain; these are 90% in the brain.

Impressions are sensitised

You start to hallucinate because when you break one connection the brain creates new connections.

Perceived experience

It's not a crystal clear hallucination but its something you see in your minds eye. Its more like you ARE somewhere or something you envision and the lines between things become blurry and insignificant.
You might see things that aren't there but more like entire rooms that are just around the corner or just out of reach or distorted or outside on the balkony- almost like the visual imaginative part of your mind materialises and extends outward rather that you look at something and that looks different. ( like e.g. Acid is more like a filter between you and everything you look at; Mushrooms are more like you're in a different dimension in which things might look quite normal but select things are different and Keta is like you definitely stay here but your perceptibility decreases in some respects to be a warping thing that extends in another area.

"It was more like a borderless perceptual hallucination."

"Just did my first infusion today. Having experience with psycadelics I went in thinking I was going to journey into my mind and see what I’m doing wrong and get some positive insight into my behavior. That’s not what I experienced really. It’s not really like that. I did get some mild insight but the infusion experience itself isn’t really the therapy. The best part about it is what comes after. The apprehension to do simple tasks is lifted. For me also I feel like my reactions to negative thinking is significantly reduced. I feel more balanced and all the problems in my life are still there but they aren’t a big deal anymore. What a relief. I went in to this suicidal and I just don’t feel suicidal anymore which is amazing to me." - Youtuber comment J Smith

I underwent an infusion 1 year ago, and cured my treatment resistant depression. A single infusion. It was an intense experience for sure - but for me, the experience itself was very profound. I'd call it a near death or oneness or ultimate peace type of experience. The ultimate meditation - pure non-thinking, just being. Left my body - and just floated inside my head. Going under was scary and coming out was scary, but the middle was bliss.

Whatever happened, it fixed something. Over the next couple of weeks I became less and less anxious, and ALL suicidal thoughts / urges disappeared. I no longer get panic attacks. The depression is GONE.

One treatment - it was a miracle for me. Procedure itself was not bad at all - no nausea for me, no headache. I did have trouble sleeping the next day.

...and it's funny - I had the same reaction: "The jury is still out" for the first couple of weeks. The jury is no longer out - I'm cured. - Youtuber comment HF Sailing

Visualise 1 or 2 metaphors ....?

?!beauty tips trends and product reviews talking about therapy and Ketamin

This video is perfect because it is a string of events all in a subdued colour mood, all visually similar yet different stringed together to form one cohesive whole. Like the guy said about his infusion 'one borderless perception hallucination' - guided more by a feeling than a concrete visual.

I also really like the use of a narrative voice over - something typical for video essays - with the mixture of audio samples.

In several studies at Yale, more than half of the participants who were given ketamine infusions showed a significant decrease in symptoms associated with depression after only 24 hours. These results are significant for two primary reasons: One, these participants were people who had experienced no “meaningful improvement” on other antidepressants. Two, the alleviation of depression symptoms after just 24 hours is extremely fast compared to other antidepressants, which can take weeks to kick in. To a severely depressed person who might be experiencing suicidal ideation, a fast-acting treatment could make all the difference in the world.

(...)

“People who are severely depressed, suicidal, and might otherwise need hospitalization may get better as quickly as 24 hours after their first dose,” says Krystal.

A third reason is that ongoing ketamine therapy can protect a patient against a return of depression symptoms. “The reason that this is so important is that even after trying many different treatments, as many as 30 percent of patients will remain significantly depressed,” Krystal tells me.

In an article for Harvard, he writes that experts aren’t exactly sure how ketamine works to combat depression, but that one likely target is N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in the brain. “By binding to these receptors, ketamine appears to increase the amount of a neurotransmitter called glutamate in the spaces between neurons,” Meisner writes. Then it activates connections in another receptor, called the AMPA receptor.

“Together, the initial blockade of NMDA receptors and activation of AMPA receptors lead to the release of other molecules that help neurons communicate with each other along new pathways,” writes Meisner. This process likely affects mood, thought patterns, and cognition.

Ketamine may also reduce symptoms of depression in other ways, such as reducing signals involved in inflammation. Meisner and other experts theorize that ketamine likely works in several different ways at the same time.

Scientist aren't sure exactly how it works

Addictive potential? How is it different from 'special K' ?

Moreover, to the best of my knowledge, not a single one of our patients has gone on to develop physiologic or psychologic dependence to ketamine after completing our protocol.” (...) Ketamine as a street drug is quite a different experience from ketamine as a treatment for depression (and street drugs carry the risk of being cut with other substances), but epidemics like this are always cause for concern.

In addition, most experts agree that ketamine works best as part of a larger treatment plan, which usually involves talk therapy and sometimes ongoing use of antidepressant medication. Meisner says it’s important to remember that ketamine is not a magic bullet.

Longterm effectiveness

Many clinics recommend six infusions within a two- or three-week period, so if you do go ahead with treatment, be sure to schedule them when you can spare that time. My infusions lasted 55 minutes each, plus 15 to 20 minutes of recovery time afterward — you need some time before you are steady enough to walk again. You also can’t drive yourself home after an infusion, and you will feel fuzzy and possibly sleepy in the hours afterward, so schedule accordingly. Also worth noting: My clinic instructed me to fast for four hours before each infusion.

Duration of procedure

Proper framework

Seek out a specialist who is “not only willing — but enthusiastically supports — close collaboration with your outpatient psychiatrist.” Collaboration of this kind can be time-consuming and is often not reimbursed but is extremely important with “emerging treatments” like ketamine.
Find a specialist who is willing to be transparent about the uncertainties of ketamine treatment. “This is not a sub-field in which arrogance — of any kind — is a marker for competence,” says Meisner. “If you sense someone is overpromising, they probably are.”
Be relentless about ensuring that the clinic has appropriate safety measures in place. “Don't be afraid to ask what specialists are on sight, and why they are qualified for a psychiatric use of a medication typically categorized as an anesthetic,” says Meisner. For example: Are both a psychiatrist and an anesthesiologist present? What sort of training does staff have that qualifies them to administer ketamine? And crucially, what kind of monitoring is in place during treatment?

Why it is IMPORTANT

My unique contribution the thing that will tie everything together and somehow legitimise it as my own : 

NARRATION BY WRITTEN BY ME - SPOKEN BY ME ?

What might a setting look like that supports and enhances the virtual experience?

source: Synthetic Seduction - TANK magazine - Marie Munk and Stine Deja

Here I find the clinical but highly stylized feel interesting - the organic veiny human-esque blob would be going into the wrong direction for my purposes but rather I would need a big, soft, comfortable bean-bag you could sink into.

Giving you the sensation of
1) sinking
2) blurring boundaries of body and space
3) safety
4) comfort
5) like sinking into a bed of clouds

Can I use this actual footage or rather as guideline to create a vast space with these sort of spheres floating around?

You can create transition between a world inside the sphere and outside - morphing dimensions like in acid vision - connectivity.

*Edit: turns out this typ of morphing is not as easy as anticipated - could now imagine a possible transition from a video plane and a sphere moving through it animated with timeline that has the same video playing.

HYDRA using VR as felt experience in the moment - connecting the divide between the virtual space and the real life - creating a more seamless immersive experience. > VR as immersive performance

This set-up would be overly ambitious but really amazing - creating a round space for the viewer to step into..

The collage style could be very interesting to translate to an immersive space.

Could I e.g. stitch together a 360video to play as a skybox?

Aimed for effect: I would like the feeling of an endless horizon - it should feel spacious and free, not boxed in or claustrophobic


* Ultimately I achieved this is a different way: through the skybox, which creates exactly that feeling

*further research is showing that it might be more the chemical effect than the cognitive experience.

Still I do like the idea of some kind of therapeutic conversation..
Would also work with the clinical space inside a curtain direction.

The question is also; what is the point? What is the point of the medical treatment ? What makes it unique?

To me it seems that the treatment is an extremely personal one - it is your experience with the chemical drug, it is your perception , it is tailor-made , it is effective because it is a conversation with yourself- into the inner workings of your mind , your emotions, and not something a trained human guides you through

so I really like the idea of making it unique to the user :

a random generator?
a questionär?
A facial recognition software that categorises you into a unique experience?

Podium presentation - science behind : Youtube video : 'The science behind Ketamine as a possible cure for depression - Albert Dahan'

Medical talk
Youtube video: Ketamine Depression Treatment - Actify Neurotherapies Deep Dive - Steve Levine, MD

Ketamin infusion first person report

Youtuber 'Bret Dallas' -'Ketamine Infusion - Day 1 Report'

"I’m in the midst of a real-life version of the hallucinogenic ride in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, all in my own mind."
- Alice Levitt for Voxx

A guide - a companion - a shape - a form - digital texture

I do feel like a flying flat screen just hanging in the space doesn't really work you either need it worked into the space like on a construction , projected unto a moving object?
or on an object like e.g. a cube could be a quick effective fix.

The point is to use the affordances of the medium - you have to use and build VR differently from flat screen media.

Maybe going into a human .. can make it more clear that you are in a body

Questioner about Anxiety and Depression because this is what can be treated
bipolar disorder
neuropathic chronic pain like migrain

the other drug categories are ssri's snri's , these often don't work for people


"we tend to dim the lights because people senses are heightened sound noises much more intensely the same true is for the visual - so we try to really kind of mute the experience so it's not a sensory overload for you.

procedure includes a playlist to keep calm > my VR experience will also be accompanied by calming music

"beautiful soundscapes that drove how I felt throughout that whole experience. It just felt like I was floating in this beautiful, enchanting , musical world"

How does it feel ?

Incredible. It feels like we're all connected. (...) It's just so clear - we're all in this together - our lives our purpose our sole
- everyone can feel what it is like to be this connected.

I feel really, like, grounded.

After; I wanna go back where I was.

Ironically I feel clear headed even though I know I'm not clear headed.

I didn't want that to stop. I didn't want it to end. I wanted to stay in that space.

Numbering doesn't work for this. It's to great /vast to work with a number.

I find it interesting how Kyle explains his experience and sensations so similarly to what I've experience and then the Doctor will try to level it into a 'normal' zone saying 'You feel sleepy?' trying to pull this experience back into the normalising frame, away from any individual insight.



> What I can see from this is that they are REALLY on Ketamin , to the point where language is difficult, on the level where you can't really catch and articulate your thoughts - But it looks EXACTLY the same as the party use


Modulates the glutamate receptors - important neurotransmitter ( Amino-acid) involved in the signal processing in neurochemistry and it opens up different areas of the brain that help make you feel much better in terms of your mood.

It's interesting how they are treating the trip , the bodily and mental thing you experience like a side effect. And because they treat it as a side effect they don't fully prepare you for it , they don't explain the experience you will ave , but maybe it's also something you can't explain but have to experience.


Bridget calls it " the most transformative thing I've ever done." 
You just leave your body - you dissociate for like 40 minutes - it feels like 5 - but for 40 minutes you feel very very at peace and then when you come back - at least for me - you feel much better equipped to handle your emotions.

> this feeling of coming back - I know it well - and it can also be translated to virtual reality.


"The idea of worrying was so idiotic to me - Laughable - " Because you create new connections in your brain that allow you to view things objectively and without fear (personally I do think that is a great position to make decision from - because some cognitive fitness falls away you can see other things much more clearly)


"there was a sense, not even a sense, a KNOWING, A KNOWING that every single thing that is happening to you in your life is on purpose and you couldn't even screw it up if you tried"


So at the end of the day what is it? The cognitive or chemical process of the treatment that has these lasting effects.
It's funny how it's medically formulated as " relief from symptoms that sets in in the first 24hours of treatment " aka. you're High on Ketamin and elated from the drug induced experience and euphoric because it is such an intense new experience that you'r hopeful it might actually work, because it's doing something now.

Usually when I feel worry it sort of encompasses me but I still understood and could see the worry in my life but I didn't feel connected to it. I was like , I understand it's there but it's not consuming me.

"I viewed the 'bad' as necessary learning experiences" ( I think this cognition /perspective can come from this place of feeling a deep trust in you path and from this safety - neurochemically because you are physically unable to feel 'negative emotions' and you're trying to make sense of that sensation )

After the treatment - I still felt like my head was above water - and I didn't respond in a helpless and hopeless way to my emotions ; like I'm feeling that way but I'm better equipped to handle it.

Days after : More in control of emotions ; can pick how I will react to feeling
it feels like what the perfect dosage of an antidepressant should feel like months into it , but immediately, right away.

Another result: Not bodily , profound but " I certainly recall, go back to being in that treatment and remembering how I knew in that moment that everything is ok , that everyone is ok - there is no difference - we are all one collective consciousness. Because I KNEW that we are all one I wish everyone would be nice to each other - because we are all one when I am nice to you I'm really just being nice to myself. "
It's interesting because anxiety comes from relationship with other people and that's the barrier that came down


You CANNOT compare it to anything else

It was like being way more awake



" the photo on the wall morphed, got smaller and bigger and when I closed my eyes I saw different versions of it depending on the music I was listening to.

Opposite of scared - enjoyed the entire process

But would only do it again because a questioner verified that they were qualified for the treatment and she now feels it could be beneficial in the longterm

"beautiful soundscapes that drove how I felt throughout that whole experience. It just felt like I was floating in this beautiful, enchanting , musical world"

There is a lot of Stigma around Ketamin

It's the effect of creating new neural pathway that make it effective !

Instead of running wild, my mind became immersed in the music, albeit in a deeply dreamlike state

The VR experience itself is extremely basic - literally only a green grass plane with blue skybox (not even very realistic looking - however, the artist placed a lot of attention into the set up and connecting virtual with tangible. The text gives the entire political and emotional context to the work, the lawn and the scent emitter on the wall give make the experience sensually experiential.

*Edit: later I found a digitalisation/video in the Chanel digital exhibition video and additionally projected this on a sphere in C4D. This created my own adaptation fo the work.