Self by Choice
You and your body
The neuroscience of body image, self-worth and identity
We all want to feel good about ourselves in a world obsessed with appearance, we give it value, our bodies become objectified, and it can affect our well-being.
Even though we are aware that the so-called “beauty standards” are subjective, variable, relative, and unrealistic, we feel and act differently. We know it in our heads, but still struggle to change our biased internal views. Therefore, our body image perception is not based on what we look like, but on how we think we look and how we feel about it.
So why we feel the way we do about ourselves when we know it might not be the “reality”?
A malfunctioning self defence mechanism that affects our mind-body-emotions connection.
What happens in our brains that makes these miss-matched visions possible? Parts of the brain talking or not talking to one another, the so-called ‘happy hormones’ triggered with conflicting messages of pleasure and reward, perseverance, euphoria, belonging, feeling accepted, respected, liked, confident, …; decisions to be made and act upon, ….
Collaborators
| Visual artist, Creative Director & Project Manager | Rosa Pascual |
NEUROSCIENCE | |
| Neuroscientist | Dr. Roland Zahn |
| PhD Neuroscience student | Diede Fennema |
| PhD Neuroscience student | Suqian Duan |
PSYCHIATRY & PSYCHOLOGY | |
| Eating Disorders Scientist | Dr. Hubertus Himmerich |
| Child Psychotherapist | Miranda Pattinson |
| Psychotherapist | Liam Hallett |
RESEARCH & DESIGN | |
| Identity Design | Sixto-Juan Zavala |
| Sound Artist | Alexander Collinson |
| Computational Artist | Jeremy Keenan |
| Multimedia | John Revell |
| Visuals | Weihan Rong |
| Concept Model | Rachel Payne |
| Storyboard & Prototype | Leanne Finn-Davies |
| AutoCAD | Margarita Vogiatsi |
| UX Web Design | Haruka Katsuyama Joana Águas |
| Web Coding | Joao Alves Marrucho |
| Video | Chang Jiang |
| Data Visualisation | Mary Doyle |
| Social Media | Kriti Agawal Akhina Gaches |
| Transcripts | Carole Ohare Akhina Gaches |
| Voice-over | Nicole Gaskell Mike Raggett Liam Hallett Rosa Pascual |
| Action Test 1 | Naoko Kawai Haruyasu Yanagi Chao Zuo |
| Action Test 2 | Anabel Martín Casey Parsons Margarita Vogiatsi |
| Test Set Up | Ayaka Yuasa Francesca Coppola Marina Eisenhauer Pires Sixto-Juan Zavala Haruyasu Yanagi Chao Zuo Haruka Katsuyama Naoko Kawai |
SHOWCASE PHOTOSHOOT | |
| Modelling | Ayaka Yuasa Francesca Coppola |
| Photography | Alessia Yu |
| Video | Jueling Pan |
PROPOSITION TEST | |
| Making | Sixto-Juan Zavala |
| Marina Eisenhauer | |
| Francesca Coppola | |
| Set Up | Sixto-Juan Zavala |
| Haruyasu Yanagi | |
| Chao Zuo | |
| Haruka Katsuyama | |
| Naoko Kawai | |
| Photography Documentation | Alessia Yu |
| Video Documentation | Jueling Pan |
BLOOMSBURY FESTIVAL | |
| Making | Haruka Katsuyama |
| Leanne Finn-Davis | |
| Naoko Kawai | |
| Alessia Yu | |
| Haruyasu Yanagi | |
| Sara Coppa | |
| Yu Yang | |
| Sound Interactivity | Jonathan Munro |
| Set Up | Lucy Hayhoe |
| Sixto-Juan Zavala | |
| Jueling Pan | |
| Naoko Kawai | |
| Sara Coppa | |
| Tara Corovic | |
| Photography Documentation | Alessia Yu |