INTERLUDES

The texts that you see when you play are two voicemails that I received. One from my therapist, and the other from my mother. The responses to those voicemails are what I first wanted to say and then what I did end up saying. 

It’s quite obvious that the texts repeat themselves. Something that I really wanted to emphasize in this piece is that struggles with mental health are powerful and scary, but they can be overcome with time, with help, and with practice. I found that I often didn’t want to really tell people that cared about my progress how I was really doing -- whether that means not responding, or responding in such a way that isn’t completely accurate.

When the user starts their interaction with the text, there are very few possibilities to move forward; often just one word is able to be clicked on. As the cycle repeats itself, they’ll see that more and more things will help them progress through the text until they are able to click on the right answers at the end of each of the two sections. 

Another element that was important was to let the user know that they really were progressing, even when they may have felt that they were not progressing through the text. To clarify that even more, I changed the background colors. They start out in total blackness, then it gets brighter until the color is sky blue at the end. 

Platform Studies

One of the main concepts with platform studies deals with is “connect[ing] technical details to culture,” or in other words, how the platform that was chosen for a particular piece of art can be influenced by the culture (Bogost & Montfort, p. 1). It’s quite clear that this project deals with some kind of struggle with mental health. I would argue that mental health is more of a problem now than it has ever been in the past. I have felt that in my life, and I know that many others around me feel the same. 

A major element of this piece is that your options in responses are limited, until you can be honest with yourself and others about how you are feeling with your life. This is because I know from personal experience that you cannot truly move on from something until you learn to be honest with yourself and confront reality for what it is. So yes, it is intentional that the apparently correct answer isn’t able to be clicked on until you answer incorrectly the first few times.

In today’s culture, there is a need now more than ever to improve our mental health. I chose to deal with that topic using this platform, because to me, an important part of dealing with mental health is interacting with and healing the dark parts that need healing. I wanted to clarify that as you do, and as you honestly seek help, you are progressing.