Art Event Reflection: "Can Video Games Treat Mental Health? The Power of Play"

Link to description of the event/session: https://schedule.sxsw.com/2024/events/PP143908

I attended this event on March 11th, at SXSW. SXSW is an international Film, music and interactive conference in Austin, Texas. This blog post details what I learned after attending and reflecting on the content.

This session consisted of 4 panelists: Sam Browd and Ryan Douglas are co-workers in the medical field, looking at treating mental health using VR and immersive experiences. Ryan Hartsell is a creator of many types of immersive experiences--one of which being a hot air balloon in the shape of testicles for Prostate Cancer Awareness. And finally (but not least), Vince Kadlubek, who is the creator/founder of Meow Wolf, a cooperative art installation project. He has two permanent installation spaces in Las Vegas, NV and Denver, CO.

Douglas and Browd talked in depth on how brain scans show productive activity when people play games, and even used well known games such as Animal Crossing and Plants vs. Zombies to demonstrate that test subjects were showing an improvement of some sort after just playing for a few minutes at a time.

Hartsell talked about some very [physically] large projects that he has been involved in, usually in an attempt to bring awareness to important subjects. As stated earlier, he created an air balloon in the shape of testicles to bring awareness to prostate cancer and preventative care. Not only did he embark on the project to create the balloon, he also documented it as part of the project to help further the message.

Kadlubek, in his words, has created a psychedelic experience without need for substances/drugs at Meow Wolf. He also has created one of the currently most well known collaborative art projects in the United States.

Douglas spoke a bit about his and Browd's research, showing that a simple "point and shoot" game in VR is linked to progress in stress tolerance and mental recovery. They made a point to say that the "shooting" aspect of the game is also not linked to more violence, and the way the weapon is represented in their game is through finger guns.

The session was interesting, providing an insight into the world of creating immersive media. I was inspired by Kadlubek and Hartsell's stories, because they offered a lot of insight into the communications that go into creating these huge installations and works of art.

Picture of me with Vince Kadlubek after the session