Unit 3 and 4 Psychology Science Gallery Excursion
On April 28th and 29th, the VCE Units 3 and 4 Psychology classes had the incredible opportunity to visit the Science Gallery at the University Of Melbourne. The exhibition, called ‘Mental’, consisted of over 20 experimental projects by local and international artists along with research collaborators that touched on a plethora of mental health topics. The fascinating projects were combined with art, engineering, and science, making them so unique!
One of my favourite projects was “Thoughtforms”, where an electroencephalograph (EEG) headset was used to detect and record your thoughts. While thinking about a particular memory in your life or just a simple thought, it is created in a three-dimensional form which is tracked on the screen showing its constant movement. Later, the 3D thought can be printed for display along with many other artistic thoughts. We found it really interesting to see how thoughts are collated into the 3D form and how memories from your long-term memory or short-term memory lead to different shapes and sizes when printed out.
Another project we fell in love with was “Hello Human, Hello Machine”. It touched on the idea of disconnection from the real world with humans with the rise of virtual assistants such as Siri and Alexa. When picking up the Hello Machine, you have a chance of someone picking up from any location or time zone; however, if no one picks up, the machine will be directed to an automated message. We enjoyed this exhibition a lot because we found ourselves in a situation where the Hello Machine automated conversation felt so real it felt as though we were speaking to a real person. Filled with laughter and shock, we thought it was mind blowing! While talking to the people at the exhibition, it was very interesting to find out that around 30% of the time, real people actually pick up the Hello Machine and have a conversation with you.
Additionally, other cool exhibits had artistic representations of what it was like to live with a rare neurological condition called “Visual Snow”, what it was like to live as someone with social anxiety and an internet addiction, or coming face to face with fear. Through each exhibit we were perplexed, fascinated and curious as to what message each artist was trying to portray. Take, for example, “Distorted Constellations” by Nwando Ebzie. Her sensory labyrinthine environment was her interpretation of how she perceives the world around her. Her work defied the idea of a ‘normal’ brain, as understanding reality is so unique and subjective to all.
“The Aesthetics of Being Disappeared” by Wednesday Kim, served as a window into the 16 year old’s mind. Many of us stood there as we tried to decipher the unintelligible words, the bright colours flashing on the screen and the animated people. All of which together, symbolised the hectic thoughts Wednesday Kim had as her introverted mind tried to balance what she was taking in from social media, the things she had learnt from therapy, FOMO and ultimately using social media as her virtual reality safe space.
Overall, we learnt so much from this experience as it was such an amazing learning curve for us to learn more about Psychology with some sneak peeks into Unit 4. We can’t thank the Science Gallery Melbourne enough! Thank you also to our Unit 3 and 4 Psychology Teachers for this opportunity.
Saira S (Year 12) and Amanda C (Year 11)