Mariana's Song: Materializing Personhood through Non-Linear Multisensory Experiences Designed for People Living with Advanced Dementia

• doi:10.1145/3643834.3660724

Designing Interactive Systems Conference

Mariana’s Song is a multisensory experience for care home residents unable to take part in regular activities. Designed to support Personhood through a blended physical/digital installation, it is a user-led experience, centered around video and closely facilitated in concert with expert arts practitioners. The narrative and duration of the interaction is guided by each resident, unique on each viewing, which includes ‘sensory props’ that guide each resident’s experience and stimulate the senses to create a transformative space. We provide a worked example of digital, physical, and spatial design decisions taken to reinforce Personhood for residents with advanced dementia. We present learnings from 106 sessions, facilitated one to one between Artists and residents. We contribute to the literature around designing to Materialize Personhood, informed by Kitwood’s 12 key characteristics, as well as Parametricism, a novel approach to non-linear experiences, to support the unique needs of people with advanced dementia.