Projected Selves is an installation performance piece involving interactive projected visuals that centers on underrepresented trauma and PTSD, drawing from a survivor’s personal experience. Through the use of Unity and the Azure Kinect, the project used pose recognition to change the animations in real time to correspond with the performance. This piece, created for York University’s Digital Media thesis course, was originally meant to be an interactive installation for the audience to explore. Due to the restrictions of the Covid-19 lockdown at the time (2020-2021) the project was adapted to be a choreographed performance.
Created by Kathryn Bower, Alexis Wspanialy, and Keon Rastgoo.
My role in the project: Choreography, performing & recording, movement recognition with the Azure Kinect & Unity, text & tweet animations, project assembly in Unity
The following description was presented along with the piece:
Mainstream media portrayal of the illness is heavily tied to military involvement, and often minimizes the other ways in which PTSD manifests. This contributes to an othering, stigmatizing, and shaming environment for survivors of these other types of traumas (including sexual assault and childhood abuse), even in medical and psychiatric fields. This stigma is further compounded by issues such as racism, misogyny, rape culture, homophobia, transphobia, and others.
Recovering from trauma is a lifelong process, and it can be difficult as survivors to accept the fact that we will never one day be completely free of PTSD. But this does not mean that we will never find peace, or that our lives cannot be meaningful or emotionally rich and rewarding. Projected Selves is a reminder that through self compassion (along with a supportive environment and treatment plan) it is entirely possible and worth it for us to live personally fulfilling and valuable lives. It is also a reminder for all survivors with PTSD that they are seen and understood, and they are not alone in their journey.
Kathryn Bower 