City Anxiety
Introduction
Anxiety has always been one of the major mental illness among Hong Kong citizens. According to National Library of Medicine [1], approximately 13.3% of Hong Kong residents suffered from Common Mental Disorders, such as mixed anxiety and depressive disorder. And a research directing the aftereffect of the COVID-19 [2] showed that 25.4% of participants had their mental health deteriorated ever since the pandemic.
Anxiety Disorders bring a range of conditions to the patients, including excessive fear, worry and panic attacks. It could be triggered by varies of activities, such as social events, academic pressure, stress from works, etc. The mentioned conditions could significantly impact daily life, affecting both individuals’ mental health and physical health.
Objective
The project was created base on my personal experience of anxiety. Recently, I have been experiencing anxiety from both my school life and social life, and sometimes it becomes overwhelming to my wellbeing. The sources of anxious come from different places, including enclosed space, irritating noises, or even just the voices of own thoughts.
It is important for someone with anxiety to find peace. The white noise of sea wave is calming and relaxing to me, therefore it was chosen to be the ending of the recording.
The story could viewed as two ways, self-destructive or self-healing. If the audience believe it ends with the character committing suicide, then the recording would be the trail before the last breath; if it is believed to be the character finding inner peace, then it would be a journey of escaping the ‘demons’ of their mind, and eventually healing themselves.
City Anxiety is a sound piece that aims to display the story of a person with anxiety, by showing the noises in first person point of view. It is hoped that, it could raise the awareness about anxiety disorders, and encourage those who suffer from it to seek help. Moreover, it is crucial to show empathy to them, telling them having anxiety is not a weakness or a flaw, but instead an illness that could be treated.
Content
In this set of recordings, it showed a journey of someone who was about to crumble under the stressful city. The person walked through the silence enclosed space, then the packed street, and finally finding peace at the quiet sea. The recording ends with a splash, which indicates an open ending where the character could be thought as committing suicide, or throwing stone to the sea to relax their mind.
The sound track was recorded in varies of location, including ambience of the school library and vent, noises of the city (mostly by the traffic and the crowded streets, to exaggerate the irritating noise) and waves of the sea at the end of the recording.
The character of the recording is not stated, so as to create a personal connection to the audience.
What’s the meaning behind:
Reference list
[1] : Teris Cheung. (2015, September 7). Depression, anxiety and symptoms of stress among Hong Kong nurses: A cross-sectional study. PMC Home. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4586662/
[2] : Edmond Choi. (2020, May). Depression and anxiety in Hong Kong during COVID-19. PMC Home. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7277420/