Posted: 2017-09-29 06:22:43

Posted September 29, 2017 16:22:43

With sirens wailing and lights flashing, ambulances weave in and out of traffic across Sydney, racing to one medical emergency after another each day.

Artist George Khut, has reimagined one of the life-saving vehicles as an interactive exhibit.

The converted ambulance, called The Mobile Mood Lab, is travelling around the city for The Big Anxiety art festival.

Inside, visitors lie down on a bed, look up at the ceiling, and see an image of themselves surrounded by brightly coloured lights.

Wireless sensors pick up changes in their heart rate and breathing and adjust the colours and sounds around them.

"The purpose behind the mobile mood lab is to give people an experience of this connectedness between our emotions and our breath and our body," Mr Khut said.

"We're going to explore ways you can lower your heart rate from wherever you are right now, just to see how much you can slow it down with the power of your imagination and breath."

It builds on another project, the BrightHearts app, which investigates how heartrate controlled images could help young medical patients manage pain and anxiety.

Dr Angie Morrow, a paediatrician from The Children's Hospital at Westmead, said interactive artworks had practical applications in children's healthcare.

"Biofeedback is a process whereby you get a signal or information about a process going on in your body that you usually wouldn't be aware," she said.

"It can help train people to influence and to control their own bodies and control things on their own bodies."

Festival-goers will get a chance to experience the interactive artwork for themselves as it tours around Sydney until October 26.

"I think there's a really important connection and relationship between art and mental health," Mr Khut said.

"Art is really so much about how we make sense of and share what it is to experience being alive."

Topics: visual-art, mental-health, science-and-technology, sydney-2000

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