Interactive tech-art x group meditation

In Spring 2024, Cross-TIC granted me the opportunity to conduct a research.

I investigated what it means to meditate in a group. I was able to talk to many unique experts: from experienced yogis to mediation-soundscape musicians and from experience-artists to neuroscientists. The aim: devising new modes of group meditation using ambience reactive sound and visuals. And more importantly, exploring if and how such concepts contribute to a meditation experience.

I developed one of my ideas into a testable prototype: the Icosahedron. It is not an object to be put in the living room or to meditate to daily, but rather a one-time experience for anybody and everybody in a public cultural space (such as a theatre). The experience introduces its participants to meditation in a memorable way, or broadens the mind of experienced practitioners.

Participants take a seat on a pillow surrounding the Icosahedron, a large symmetric shape with illuminated plains. In its centre hangs a luminous sphere with colours and patterns that slowly move. A guided meditation programme along with a specially designed soundscape are playing from the centre. The colors of the icasohedron change along with the subject of the meditation and the patterns of the colours are being generated from the breathing rhythm of the participants. The breath and meditation practice of the group thus merges together in the icasohedron. The participants can also use the luminous sphere as point of focus for their gaze, staring into the simple and slowly changing patterns of lights.

Developed with Cross-TIC

Under guidance of Theater Sonnevanck