The Mood Swings installation creates states of emotion and perception by translating the viewer's body into a swarm of moving particles that change "moods" from one extreme to another. As the visitor's image is captured on a live video camera, radical shifts in color and sounds occur in the projection while particles and poetic texts emerge and dissolve in response to the viewer's movement. The seven colors change with audio shifts, moving from irritating and disturbing to peaceful and calming. Each state lasts exactly one minute and it is striking how different this 60 seconds are experienced with the change of sound and color.
This work is informed by the artist's study of Indian chakra system along with her collaboration with a research group led by Dr. Ken Wells, Professor-in-Residence of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA who studies environmental effects on mental health.
Victoria Vesna
Software design: Glen Murphy
Audio mix: Anne Niemetz
(source: vv.arts.ucla.edu)