Artefact 4 - Report

Artefact 4 is based on exploring the difference between general and personal content. This aim is a result of the findings from Artefacts 2 and 3, which collectively deduced that visual content plays the largest role in relaxing the viewer. Therefore, distinguishing whether a clip has the strongest calming effect when generated for a general audience or personally by the individual viewer is significant.

For this Artefact, one participant was instructed to select images and song they found relaxing to be in the clip they watched. The other participant watched a clip of nature content that was created to be used as a therapeutic tool for a general audience. After viewing the clip, the participants completed a questionnaire, then watched the other respective clip before completing the same questionnaire. Questions included in the questionnaire covered the level of relaxation and entertainment as well as any other emotions that were felt and likes/dislikes.

The initial assumption was that the participant watching the content they chose would reach a higher level of relaxation. This was the case, with the participant rating the level of relaxation as a 9 out of 10. However, the other participant also found the personalised clip more relaxing, giving a rating of 8 out of 10 compared to only 6 out of 10 for the ‘general’ clip. This was described to be because of a stronger sentimental value towards the personlised clip and a greater appreciation for the song. It also appears that when a clip is more entertaining, the participant is more engaged, which increases the calming effect.

In conclusion, personalised content has a greater ability to induce a more relaxed state in the viewer, thus implying that an individual suffering from anxiety could create their own therapeutic piece from images they possess.