How can multisensory experiences better regulate the impacts of digital liminality among young adults in the creative industries?
As people live increasingly in digital worlds, “digital liminality,” which refers to being trapped between digital and physical worlds, has become more prominent, especially among creative industry professionals.
Thomassen articulates that liminality often isolates people from both digital and physical worlds (2018), leading to stress and other related issues (Gray, 2016). Further, this liminal state can lead to behavioural addiction (Thomassen, 2018), which can contribute to dissociative ‘out of body’ experiences (Van Der Kolk, 2015). Excessive exposure to multiple stimuli in today’s modern media environment has contributed to a digital addiction epidemic in South Korea, precipitating declining socialisation, romantic engagements and birth rates.
Given its pivotal role in behavioural addictions (Lembke, 2021), dopamine must be managed in any effective treatment. As “our eyes are the exposed brain” (Huberman, 2021), visual stimuli have profound emotional and cognitive impacts (Lang, Bradley & Cuthbert, 1997). As such, this study seeks to explore how dopamine levels might be regulated through multisensory experiences.
The influence of immersive art on mood has been widely acknowledged (Hadavi et al., 2022). Indeed, the complex relationships between art, emotions, and viewer experience are given a theoretical framework in Art and Emotion (Matravers,1998), which more broadly speaks to the relationship between emotions and multisensory art experiences (Wahab and Zuhardi, 2013; Vi et al., 2017).
In order to refine the focus of the initial intervention, I have interviewed creative industry experts in Seoul, encompassing filmmakers, art directors and visual specialists. These interviews provided valuable insights into the effects of visual content on the intentions and emotions of these stakeholders.
The first intervention will present participants living in Seoul between the ages of 20-25 with individual experiences and installations to facilitate a deeper understanding of how sensory experiences could elicit emotional change. Participants will be informed that it will involve sensory blocking and emotional video stimuli that could affect more emotionally sensitive people.
Young adults are disproportionately likely to suffer from digital liminality and are more susceptible to depressive thoughts and other mental health issues resulting from digital usage (Hunt et al., 2018; Twenge et al., 2018). Given that my principal language is Korean and I was
born and raised in Seoul, I hope to better related to the target audience through my deep connection and resonance with the local traditions and socio-cultural milieu.
Participants will be interviewed before undergoing a sensory blockage phase and then entering the installation space, where multisensory exhibits will attempt to provoke emotional change over 20-30 minutes. The content of these exhibits will be curated by professionals, to ensure a broad spectrum of perspectives and promoting neutrality. Participants will then be interviewed upon exit to assess impact.
Following the results of the first intervention, the second intervention will test the ability of multisensory experiences – including experiential 3D mapping of everyday spaces in Seoul – to seed fond memories of systems that trigger contemplative and restful emotions. The specific of this stage will be determined through analysis of the first test results.
Ultimately, this research aims to deepen our understanding of digital liminality and its relationship with emotion, visual culture, and liminal spaces. Furthermore, this study seeks to provide actionable recommendations on creating immersive visual experiences that seek to counteract digital liminality.
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