The new and improved Sensory Room in the Student Accessibility Support Center (SASC) is now featuring student artwork from art students in Professor Nobuho Nagasawa’s ARS 205 (Ideas and Form Section L04) and ARS 403 (Socially Engaged Art) classes. 

The Sensory Room is located in the Stony Brook Union, Suite 107, and it is designed to help students who need to receive or exclude sensory input and help them relax and soothe their senses. Inspired by the Sensory Room, Nagasawa’s students created art installations that expressed their individual take on the senses and how their art may best soothe the participants. 

On December 6, SASC hosted a showcase featuring the creative student artwork at the Student Union’s COLA Lounge before the installations found a permanent home in the SASC Sensory Room. 

“SASC contacted the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Art regarding having students create a sensory art experience for students utilizing the Sensory Room, and we had several meetings with professor Nagasawa and the students to discuss the collaboration” described SASC Director Wendi Mathews. With the guidance of Nagasawa and the SASC staff, each student was asked to think of how best to engage the viewers’ senses with their art using different media to create olfactory, tactile, kinetic, auditory and visual forms of expression. 

Sensory art therapy is a type of treatment that uses all kinds of art to explore emotions, resolve psychological conflicts, reduce anxiety, as well as decrease physical pain. “We were very excited about the Sensory Art Showcase. The goal was to create an artwork that would encourage students to use a variety forms of art to assist in their coping as well as highlight these talented artists and be able to use their art for years to come in the Student Accessibility Support Center’s Sensory Room” said Mathews. 

Erica Lynch’22 created a very interactive piece — named Experience Nature, 2021 — that highlighted touch, the auditory senses and smell. Lynch foraged for plants in the Avalon Nature Preserve and took imprints of leaves, and she then used acrylic paint and a jelly press to get the images on paper and placed the found foliage into the work.  She also made two recordings of water mixed with music on QR codes that leaves the participant with a sense of calm as it plays on their ears. When asked about her work Lynch said, “In essence, I hope this encapsulates the senses and experience of nature. I hope it inspires people to use nature as a coping skill in their tool kit.”

Hongrui …….

Source: https://news.stonybrook.edu/university/art-for-the-senses-sensory-art-show-features-student-artwork/