Soul Paint provides extended reality body mapping. Users can paint with XR pallets and brushes to create virtual reality (VR) images of their bodies and emotions.
Here’s the “soul” reason why Hatsumi has developed interactive extended reality technology that allows you to “paint” on yourself. It can help you better understand what emotions you are having and where in your body you are feeling them. Oh, and it can also help other people better understand these things about you and you better understand such these things about other people.
The technology is called Soul Paint. And in this case, you don’t paint on your actual body with actual paint. That could get a bit messy. Instead, you don an XR headset and use an XR version of your body, an XR paint brush and pallet to do the painting. Different colors can portray different emotions or feelings. The result is a very colorful version of yourself that can help you better picture yourself. And picture this, if you want others to better understand you and your experiences, you can choose to share your images. Soul Paint also allows you to record a narrative describing this image. Consider it a distinctly different domain of biofeedback in a 3D type of way.
Soul Paint demonstrations have already won the Special Jury Prize at this years SXSW XR Competition and the Best in Health and Wellness award at the Games for Change festival in June. It will make an appearance in the upcoming London Film Festival in mid-October as part of a special exhibition on XR, health and storytelling and a special showing at the United Nations with Games for Change in late October.
In the trailer, Dawson said, “Everyone has a hidden story, this is a chance to explore yours.”
To better understand what Soul Pain does and where it came from, it helps to hear the story of Sarah Ticho, the founder and director of Hatsumi and the soul behind Soul Paint. “Often we don’t have words to describe how we feel,” said Ticho. “It’s the interaction of immersive story telling and healthcare and research.” She added, “Such body mapping can show the connections between emotions and sensations, serve as interactive story-telling and be a fascinating way of starting conversations.
