An Immersive experience that explores the emotional toll on caretakers of dementia patients though an interactive garden metaphor installation

Project Introduction

This project is an immersive interactive installation inspired by the experiences of dementia caregivers. Instead of directly portraying the disease, we use the metaphor of caring for a garden to represent caring for a person with dementia. As you interact with the space, the garden responds to your attention and care. But over time, it continues to decline, no matter what you do. There is no way to “win” this experience. That inevitability is intentional, and reflects the emotional reality of dementia caregiving: the effort is constant, the responsibility is heavy, and progress is not guaranteed. Through this experience, we aim to build understanding of how demanding caregiving can be, while also raising awareness of dementia, encouraging earlier recognition of warning signs and earlier intervention to help slow its progression.

Team Remnants

Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University

Demo Video

Experience Walkthrough

  • Week 9

    Week 9

    This week, we focused on continuing to build out the experience across programming, narrative, art, and outreach. On the programming side, we made steady progress in expanding the system. We added new flowers with different RFID scripts, allowing for more variation in planting interactions. We also began building an overall game manager system to control…

  • Week 8

    Week 8

    This week marked our return from spring break, with some team members already making great progress during the break on building physical components such as the flower boxes and other hardware elements. It was also GDC week, with half of our team traveling to attend the conference. While part of the team was away, the…

  • Week 7 – Halves

    Week 7 – Halves

    This week, we presented our project at Halves and received a wide range of valuable feedback from faculty. Overall, the response to our concept was positive. Many appreciated the clarity of our idea and the strength of the garden metaphor as a way to represent caregiving. The visual direction and use of impressionist style were…

  • Week 6

    Week 6

    This week focused on continuing physical fabrication and preparing for the upcoming Halves presentation. Our foam flowers arrived, and we began attaching wires to them so they can be easily installed onto the entrance arch. At the same time, we started dyeing the flowers to better match our visual palette and overall art direction. On…

  • Week 5

    Week 5

    This week, we continued building the project based on feedback from Quarters, focusing on strengthening both technical systems and visual direction. On the programming side, the team fixed several bugs identified during Quarters and continued setting up the RFID system for interactions. They also improved the flower growth system—flowers now grow to a partial size…

  • Week 4 – Quarters

    Week 4 – Quarters

    After several weeks of exploration, brainstorming, and prototyping, we began landing on more concrete design decisions. This week included our Quarters walkaround, where faculty rotated through projects to learn about our current direction and provide feedback. Preparing for Quarters pushed us to clarify our thinking. We refined our interaction choices, tightened our emotional arc, and…