Lighting and Sound Installation for Elderly with Dementia

Abstract

In this paper we present an interactive lighting and sound art installation designed for the elderly with dementia living in an confined area in an elderly care center. Inspired by lighting and music therapies for dementia, as well as the social and cultural activities of healthy elderly, the installation creates sensory stimulation and natural atmosphere, aiming at bringing joy and happiness to dementia elderly in a dull public space.

Design for Social Interaction in Public Spaces

“…They are often used at the conceptual phase to generate ideas and concepts that is after certain styles or the overall "feel" that the designers are trying to achieve. But in the project Delightia it is also found to be useful to reflect the user's emotion and attitude towards certain concepts or products, especially when the users find it difficult to express themselves [13]. In the evaluation of Delightia, participants in the evaluation were asked to make choices from a restricted selection of images for certain aspects, which gave a good insight of how they felt about the design.…”

“…In the project Delightia, it would be impossible for the elderly with dementia to image the design without a prototype in place, although it was easily understood by the caregivers. Interviewing the elderly without actually experiencing the prototype would have been an effort in vain [13].…”

“…8). By interacting with the installation, the dementia elderly perceive the stimuli that resemble their memories of natural lighting and the sound of water drops with calm background sound of a brook [13]. Interacting together or observing the others interacting may trigger conversations among the elderly themselves or between the elderly and the caregivers.…”

“…It is important to observe in the context when design for public spaces in order to understand the situations and to get a good grasp of the problems to be solved or the opportunities to be identified. Observations can be done by not only the designers themselves, but also the users [12], the experts [13] and other stakeholders [9,12] by giving them explicit tasks and instructions. Observing in context has demonstrated its effectives not only to get the input for the ideas and concepts, but also in evaluating whether the design has achieved its goal -but in the latter case, a prototype would be necessary.…”

Designing interactive public displays in caring environments: A case study of OutLook

“…The major efforts of these design and studies are paid to dementia patients. The public displays serve as a content-assist tool for animal-assistant-living therapy, reminiscence therapy and eco-therapy [18,46]. Most of the design cases for residents with lucid minds lack systematic research and evaluation processes.…”