Jason Bruges Studio
Nature Trail
Great Ormond Street Hospital
Nature Trail
Nature Trail
A unique project for Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children which will improve patients’ journey to theatres. The brief was to design and install a distraction artwork helping to create a calming yet engaging route that culminates in the patient’s arrival at the anaesthetic room.
2. The Brief: Summarize the problem you set out to solve. What was the context for the project, and what was the challenge posed to you?Inspiration came from the idea of viewing the patient journey as a ‘Nature Trail’, where the hospital walls become the natural canvas, with digital look out points that reveal the various ‘forest creatures’, including horses, deer, hedgehogs, birds and frogs, to the passerby.
3. The Intent: What point of view did you bring to the project, and were there additional criteria that you added to the brief?Creating an artwork in an environment like a children’s hospital is extremely challenging. Bringing this environment to life, so that there are true moments of distraction and fascination on what could be a traumatic time in a childs life, allowed us to create a unique and special project which has such an important emphasis on improving patients' experiences within a hospital environment. The benefit of taking this kind of approach to distraction is a really positive experience for children and their families.
4. The Process: Describe the rigor that informed your project. (Research, ethnography, subject matter experts, materials exploration, technology, iteration, testing, etc., as applicable.) What stakeholder interests did you consider? (Audience, business, organization, labor, manufacturing, distribution, etc., as applicable)The work, which covers the corridor walls, has essentially two main elements; integrated LED panels and bespoke graphic wallpaper. The LED panels are embedded into the wall surface at various heights in order to be accessible to the eye levels and positions of patients travelling along the corridors. Across these digital surfaces abstracted ‘animal movements’ are recreated as interactive animated patterns of light which reveal themselves through the trees & foliage of the forest. The artwork consists of 70 LED panels, with a total of 72,000 LED’s.
5. The Value: How does your project earn its keep in the world? What is its value? What is its impact? (Social, educational, economic, paradigm-shifting, sustainable, environmental, cultural, gladdening, etc.)Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust is the country’s leading centre for treating sick children, with the widest range of specialists under one roof. With the UCL Institute of Child Health, they are the largest centre for pediatric research outside North America and play a key role in training children’s health specialists for the future. Creating an artwork in an environment like a children’s hospital is extremely challenging. I think bringing this environment to life, so that there are true moments of distraction and fascination is basically a dream project in the history of the studio.
This installation it is a inventive use of established technology and from what we have seen, it very effectively fulfills its role as a distraction for children heading towards surgery.