intouch - Stay In Touch With The Light Up Board

Mental health awareness gains ground every day - more and more people are sharing their stories and experiences. However, we still have a long way to fight the taboo behind mental health and be more open.

The creator of the 'intouch' project, Stephanie Himawan, shared more details with us about her intuitive project that focuses on mental health and homesickness among overseas students experiencing new environments and cultures.

The story of this project traces back to the creator's country, Indonesia. From her experience, people with mental illness are regarded as 'crazy' and the knowledge of mental illness itself is still a taboo thing to talk about.

The research and project focus on students. Stephanie used her own experience as an international student dealing homesickness. The theme of the project also grew from a dark, taboo vibe into a more vibrant, encouraging one, which is more relatable to students.

Stephanie created a poster and a kit, which will be handed to new students to help them experience a smoother and easier adjustment to their brand new environment.

To make this whole experience intuitive, she created an interactive project using the Bare Conductive Electric Paint and the Light Up Board.

The main campaign is all about being in touch with the new. One of them is being in touch with new friends. The story this poster aims to portray is that when you lose touch with friends, it’s easy to lose yourself in the dark. Sometimes all it takes to brush off the gloomy mood and homesickness is with a touch of another human being.

In the interactive poster, the mechanism is a proximity light. So the closer you are to the sensor, the brighter the lamp shines. It portrays that our mood can easily light up when we are close and connected with the people around us. It encourages students to socialise and be open to people, so they don’t stay dark and overcome by the feelings of homesickness.

The outcome was well embraced by the students, as the use of new and immersive technologies created an interactive and memorable experience.

Stephanie was inspired by the touch lamp we created as part of the Electric Paint Lamp Kit. The lamp itself is from paper and the mechanism is the combination of the Light Up Board & Electric Paint.