Xingyu Huang’s immersive exploration of anxiety somatization through sensory art
Anxiety somatization, a phenomenon where psychological concerns manifest physically, serves as a profound exploration of the intricate relationship between emotional and bodily expression. Psychological distress, encompassing worries, panic, and apprehension, often transcends verbal articulation, manifesting instead as physical sensations—dizziness, accelerated heart rate, headaches, or a sense of impending doom. These internal experiences, resistant to verbal description, demand alternative avenues for communication and understanding.
Xingyu Huang, an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago, investigates this complex interplay through her innovative practice. Her work visualizes the elusive process of somatization by translating internalized emotions into external, tangible forms. By engaging with individuals who suffer from somatization, Huang captures the rhythms of their internal experiences—trembling fingers, racing heartbeats, and fluctuating emotions—and encodes them into her participatory installations. These installations utilize sound and scent to materialize the ineffable, creating spaces where personal and collective experiences of anxiety find expression.
Huang’s installation employs a unique combination of materials and mechanics to externalize internal emotions. Drawing from interviews, she translates participants’ sensations into rhythmic patterns that inform the installation’s behavior. A key feature is the use of two types of woad: an unstable blue-dye powder and a medicinal powder. These substances, governed by gravitational forces, fall in patterns dictated by the biorhythms of participants. This visual representation, where the powders accumulate and fade over time, mirrors the ebb and flow of internal states.
Sound plays an equally critical role in the installation, serving as both context and abstraction. Huang integrates vocal data, analyzed through a Teensy microcontroller, to capture subtle rhythms in pitch, breath, and speech. The analyzed frequencies drive motors that release powdered medicine in irregular, unpredictable patterns, offering a visceral embodiment of participants’ mental states. Inspired by Eula Biss’s The Pain Scale, Huang emphasizes the body’s silent language—facial expressions, vocal nuances, and physiological responses—as crucial dimensions of human communication.
Expanding on this foundation, Xingyu Huang employs Max/MSP software to create a multi-channel audio environment. Human voices, filtered and transformed, weave through the space, evoking sensations of murmurs, distant lullabies, or faint echoes. This spatial audio sculpture deepens the immersive quality of her installation, bridging the gap between internal emotions and external perception. By abstracting language and distilling sound into emotional essence, Huang fosters a profound connection between participants and viewers.
Huang’s exploration of anxiety somatization situates her within a broader artistic and scientific discourse. Her practice transcends traditional boundaries, blending ecological insights with technological innovation to probe themes of human connection, isolation, and perception. Her interdisciplinary approach invites audiences to confront the complexities of the human condition, offering a lens through which the silent languages of the body and mind become legible.
Internationally recognized for her contributions to sculpture, installation, and video art, Huang’s work has been exhibited in China, Iceland, the UK, Germany, and the United States. Her upcoming role as an instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago underscores her growing influence in contemporary art. By creating immersive environments that resonate with both personal and collective experiences, Huang continues to challenge and redefine the boundaries of sensory and spatial art.
All images courtesy of Xingyu Huang, shared with permission
