Audio + Visual Stim
Audio Visual Stim is a series of virtual and physical stimming experiences based on this 2D animation, which serves as the virtual component. I began by exploring how simple geometric shapes could represent forms from nature, and how those forms related to one another.
While the lo-fi genre is not new, it has seen a spike in popularity in the 2010s and 20s through a sub-genre known as “lo-fi chill beats.” This style often employs repetitive or looping hip-hop beats that are softened by low-fidelity or intentionally outdated recording methods. The reported calming effect this music has on listeners makes it suitable on its own, but the added dimension of repetition and nostalgic references to audio aesthetics of a bygone time make this the best choice for the video. The author used, “Lo-Fi Calm,” by Elonix, licensed through Adobe Stock.
Preliminary storyboards for animation
Flower Flipbook
The first physical toy in the Audio + Visual Stim kit is a flipbook made from the frames of the flower sequence from the animation. As a visual nod to the lo-fi music used in the video, the author printed stills from the flower animation on a Risograph machine. Risographs are a type of duplicator machine originally intended for convenient and cost-effective copy-making in offices in the 1980s. Images are scanned by the machine, and a master is made by creating holes in a screen that is then wrapped around a drum. Ink is then forced through the holes, creating images that look like a combination of digital photocopy and screen print.
To make the Risograph flipbook, I made color separations of the stills from the flower animation, and the blue and magenta channels were printed with their corresponding ink colors on the Risograph.
3D model of the toy (L) and cam system (R)
Raindrop Automata
The splashing and rippling imagery used in the raindrop and frog animations in the Audio + Visual Stim video, while not referencing fidget toys, does provide a visual stimming experience through repetitive action. Watching rainfall and rippling water are very popular visual stimming experiences, and this imagery is often used in mindfulness exercises. In order to provide a similarly satisfying stim toy experience, the author felt that the best method would be to create a toy that visually simulated the motion of rippling water. When the user turns the crank, the cams move the poles the rings are attached to—also called cam followers—which in turn moves the pieces of the rings. The cams are set at different angles along the shaft, which offsets the movement of each piece, giving the illusion of rippling water
Frog Pond Clicker Toy
3D model of frog toy
Tactile switches
While this interaction could be a viable stim toy on its own, the lily pads in the frog animation also provide an opportunity for a physical stim experience. To mimic the way the lily pads float across the composition of the frog animation, I designed a pond with tracks for the lily pads to slide along. Each track provides a different tactile experience; two tracks contain a series of neodymium magnets along the base of the pond that the lily pads can snap into. In order to make each of these tracks unique, the magnets are spaced in different intervals. The other two tracks have a series of teeth along both sides of each track on the lid of the pond, creating resistance against the movement of the lily pad. Like the magnetic tracks, the sensations are differentiated by the spacing of the teeth.
Finally, and arguably the best case for treating the Audio + Visual stim video as a stim kit, is the frog animation. The repetitive up-and-down movement of the frog is similar to fidget toys that utilize pushing as a mode of play. The cute appearance of the frog and the squishy silicone material it is made of serve as cues to touch and poke it, and this interaction is rewarded with the click of a tactile switch located beneath the frog.
3D model of pond
3D model of lilypad slider