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The Jefferson Center of Immersive Arts for Health

Ravenhill Chapel Project

In Fall 2023, students enrolled in a course called "Light as Public Experience" designed an immersive art installation in the campus chapel to create a calming environment for students, especially neurodiverse individuals, and those experiencing anxiety. Drawing inspiration from studies on healing imagery and music, they organized five live shows featuring various nature themes projected in the chapel, complemented by a specially created soundtrack to enhance the multi-sensory experience.

Students installed six projectors to digitally map the chapel’s interior walls and ceilings. MadMapper, projection mapping software aligned the projected imagery with the chapel’s architecture, transforming the space into a wonderland of dynamic imagery through mapped projections over the walls and ceilings. The show looped on a 20-minute set with videos of jellyfish, sunsets, waves, ink drops, and stars. The themes were curated and purposefully timed to ensure a smooth 360-degree visual experience.

Students using MadMapper software to animate the interior of the chapel

Over 200 participants attended the event on three evenings, with students actively involved in managing the event and ushering attendees. To assess the impact of the immersive experience, attendees completed pre- and post-exposure surveys via a QR code. The results showed a notable increase in nine positive emotions — wonder, inspiration, rejuvenation, and calm — and a significant reduction in twelve negative emotions, including distress, guilt, fear, and nervousness.

This project provided a unique opportunity for design students to use scientific research to form a hypothesis, from which they designed an immersive experience. Then, the impact of their designs was tested through IRB-approved data collection methods. A few of the students are co-authors of a scientific paper currently being written on the project's research results.

Animation during the 2024 Immersive Experience

In the Fall of 2024, we repeated the project, expanding the days the event was open and making it open to the public. We used a broader exploration of imagery, with multiple shows of nature-based and abstract visuals. Students built upon the results from 2023, developing more intricate mapping and expanding content placement.

Students and participants from the community engaging in the 2024 immersive experience
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