Client: Smilow Cancer Hospital of Yale New Haven

Overview

SENSING NATURE is a nature-based art experience to enhance well-being at Yale New Haven, Smilow Cancer Hospital. This installation project is comprised of photographs and an accompanying 12 minute A-V presentation narrated by the artist and accessible through an in-hospital channel into patient rooms. 24/7 access to the exhibition and video provides and on-demand relief and a focal point for conversation, connection to the outside or distraction, day or night. The project was custom-designed for Smilow/YNHH, based upon the artist’s response to the natural beauty of Connecticut waterways and her visual exploration, by kayak, of the Farm River - a tidal river in Branford, CT. Still and moving images of the sights and sounds of nature are interwoven to provide a continuous, on-demand experience of nature in the privacy of patient rooms. Ambulatory pateints, staff and caregivers can view the related photographs in corridors that flow through the hospital, like a river. The aim of SENSING NATURE is to stimulate the viewer’s imagination through the senses, to inspire the potential for healing through connection to nature and to facilitate a biophilic relaxation response.

Goals

SENSING NATURE is intended to promote well-being and accelerate healing by reducing the stress of patients, staff and caregivers and improving the patient’s satisfaction with the healthcare environment. The audio visual component aimed to make the experience accessible to non-ambulatory patients who otherwise would not have the opportunity to engage with the art. By focusing attention on beauty and cycles of nature the installation creates a safe space of reflection, fosters a sense of calm, connection, and belonging to the natural world.

Research on biophilia indicates humans have an affinity, or love, of nature. SENSING NATURE links this hypothesis directly to our capacity to imagine, feel, learn and act. Nature-based art relaxes and refocuses the mind when thoughts of illness distract and overwhelm. SENSING NATURE provides a meditative and creative experience that can energize and replenish the imagination with a renewed sense of possibility and pleasure. Connecting to soothing images and rhythmic sounds of nature awakens the senses and can stimulate pleasant memories. Identification with nature’s beauty, strength and resilience fosters hope and can inspire confidence in one’s own ability to heal.

Process

My collaboration with Dana Brewer and the Integrative Care team at the Smilow Hospital was instrumental in my understanding patient needs and in gaining support within the hospital community for this project. Thomas P. Duffy. MD provided inspiration and guidance with regard to the important relationship between the arts and medicine and Roz Cama of Cama Design facilitated the photographic installation in the Healing Arts Gallery. Invaluable technical assistance was provided by Nelson Delgado and the IT department to stream the video throughout the hospital. Several hospital staff, patients and caregivers participated in conversations and shared insights that helped shape the video. Fundraising by the Yale New Haven Hospital Womens Auxilllary allowed for the acquisition of the project.

Additional Information

I collaborate with the client, pairing the project to a river, waterway or body of water near the institution or installation site. A force of nature, I believe rivers provide a meaningful metaphor for human experience and contemplation. My contribution is to engage with interacting forces of light, wind and water, collecting images and sounds that are later processed and carried, like driftwood, into the spaces patients occupy and gently re-connect them to the ever present flow and familiarity of nature.