Artefact 2 - Report

Below is my report for Artefact 2:

Introduction

After obtaining the results from Artefact 1, it was clear that although the visuals, sound, and narrative had a calming effect on the viewer, which element was the most influential factor was unclear. In order to tackle this problem, the aim of Artefact 2 was to reveal whether imagery or sound has the greatest potential to aid the viewer in reaching a more relaxed state.

Method

For this artefact, the sound and visuals from Artefact 1 were separated. The participants were then split into three groups of ten. Through YouTube, the first group only watched the video and the second group only listened to the music. The third group however, watched the original clip. The participants were then asked to rate the degree to which they felt relaxed on a scale of 1 - 10 as well as to provide their age and gender.

Results

The initial assumption was that sound would have a more profound effect than the visuals. This belief was invalidated by the results. The average rating from the visual group was 6.1 while the audio group gave an average rating of 5.1. Although, with an average rating of 6.9, the results from the third group show that when combined, the relaxing effect of each element is increased. These results imply that the visual aspect of a therapeutic piece would be more influential, but sound would also play a significant role in aiding the treatment process. Additionally, there did not seem to be a significant difference between gender ratings, however the ratings seem to drop with age.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the results from this artefact imply that more emphasis should be placed on the content and style of the imagery, however in order to achieve a more reliable experiment, a more controlled environment would need to be used.