Separation Anxiety
An exploration into the deteriorating relationship between humans and nature, and how our trends towards urbanization (and away from natural areas) may be contributing to higher rates of mental and physical health issues.
A look at how nature can impact our mental health.
Film, 2018 // 9 minutes
Project Description
Separation Anxiety is a project that combines many of my favorite domains, including film, music composition, and neuroscience research. Completed in the fall of 2018, this short film investigates the effects of nature on human well-being. For this project, I shot all of the footage (the film includes footage shot specifically for this project as well as footage that I had shot earlier in my life), composed the score using Ableton Live, conducted the interviews, and finally, synthesized research from peer-reviewed articles with all of these components to create a finished product.
I was inspired to create Separation Anxiety while taking a class called Neurohacking, in which I learned how important exposure to nature can be for one’s mental and physical health. Modern trends of increasing urbanization are starting to be linked to negative patterns of anxiety and depression, and reconnecting with nature might be a way to mitigate these effects and return to a place of balance in our lives. The research presented in this video is based on evolutionary history, color theory, behavioral studies and cognitive science. Throughout the video, I explain my research findings, share stories of people who have been positively affected by regular nature exposure, and provide some practical ways for adding nature back into one’s life for optimal attention restoration, stress reduction, and life satisfaction.
The Process
The process for creating this short film started with extensive research in the form of books, podcasts and peer-reviewed scientific articles. After researching, I conducted interviews with several people who wanted to share their experiences with nature. I also planned several outdoor excursions with friends for the purpose of shooting some engaging footage to use in the video. Next came the content development, which was the hardest stage and consisted of sorting through all of my research, interviews and footage to identify themes and patterns I could use to create a cohesive film that was both informative and entertaining. When I had outlined a detailed vision for the project and created storyboards for how I would match the research with the footage and interviews, it was time to throw everything into Adobe Premiere, learn how to use Adobe Premiere (this was my first real film project!), and try to edit and arrange all of my components into a watchable video. The final step was composing some original background music and scoring the video in Ableton Live before producing the final cut.
To this day, this is still one of my favorite projects because to me it represents the cross-disciplinary value of the Technology, Arts and Media (TAM) program at CU. TAM intends to produce full-stack designers with a combination of technical and creative skills, and Separation Anxiety provided me with the opportunity to practice music production, videography and editing, and academic research skills in the pursuit of one final project.