From 12,000m below to 12,000m above

This was our line of thinking for our newest project with the Sant Joan de Déu Children’s Hospital in Barcelona. Having worked with this hospital before, we were invited to collaborate with two other design studios in Barcelona, Rai Pinto and Arauna, on a new piece for the hospital, an installation that would prefigure in the CT-scan room. 

Often, when children need CT-scans, they get scared and jittery, extending scan duration, so the goal of this project was to design an immersive installation capturing patients' attention for about two minutes, helping them focus on the story and stay still during the scan, thus eliminating the need to repeat or extend the test.

Drawn to the idea of a connection with the planet and spatiality, a journey through the depths of the Earth

We designed an accessible, immersive narrative that takes patients on an audiovisual journey through Earth - from 12,000m below sea level to 12,000m above - helping them focus on the storyline rather than the CT-scan, which might often seem scary or unfamiliar. As such, we created a visual and sound "datification" of species, objects, and environments encountered along this planetary voyage. Rather than verbally stating each step, we highlighted progression through the "data" of these discoveries, bringing emotional and sensorial depth to the experience, making it intelligible and engaging for all, especially children who might find the test intimidating.

Overall, our intention with the journey through the Earth and above was to give a sense of how much life there is above us and below us. The component of the voyage which contains human life is perhaps only ten seconds of the full two-minute experience. The trip starts at 12,000m up in the sky, going down to 12,000m below sea level. In the sky, one can feel the wind and images of clouds, and as it goes down, birds and planes flying. The earth component brings in land animals, grass and greenery, rain for a few seconds, the beach - and then, as the trip goes below the ocean, encountering fish and marine fauna, light disappearing little by little as it gets deeper into the center of the earth.

The challenge was designing for varying procedure durations—from ten seconds to five minutes—requiring a journey that's fully repeatable, loopable, and modularizable for different children's needs. Rather than treating it as a constraint, we transformed this flexibility requirement into creative inspiration by developing a "datafied" narrative that alters one's field of vision in an accessible, universal way that remains meaningful and evocative for all age groups.

To emulate accurate sounds throughout the journey, we deeply researched different elements—from animals to landscapes to acoustics—both in the sea and among clouds. We went to near "scientific" lengths, using "empirically supported" sound libraries and backing each choice with fact-checked data and reliable sources (such as this one, for example).

The two other Barcelona-based studios we worked with, Arauna and Rai Pinto, contributed significantly to designing the graphics around the walls of the CT-scan room, featuring images and drawings that evoke elements of the journey. Their valuable work complemented ours in three key ways:

1. Through ambience - transforming a sterile hospital environment into an immersive story setting.
2. Through introduction - creating visual elements that help introduce the narrative.
3. Through literality - developing figurative representations that guide patients and allow them to learn more about the characters. 

As we focused on the conceptual and evocative aspects of the installation, they added these figurative, didactic components, filling the space with layers of imagery that anyone explaining the journey could use as visual support.