The Neglected Communities of City

Installation/ Iron Wire/ Variable Size

The project focuses on the relationship between the environment and the positive emotions among Chinese elderly population. It made the aging population an easy prey to be defrauded because of their strong desire to be healthy and excessive anxiety facing the looming death. Based on the social emotion theory, the eldly are more inclined to seek to experience the positive emotions. I selected to investigate the eldly who participate in activities in parks or farmer’s markets in the two districts in Tianjin. Because those environments are not well equipped, the eldly can only obtain limited active emotions there. I found three factors that affect the emotions of the eldly in physical environments, including how crowded the place is, how much interaction among individuals, and whether the surroundings will bring them a sense of novelty. With those observations, I created three pieces of installation with iron wire to depict the movements and gestures of the eldly. I hope the eldly can see a reflection of themselves in those arts. In addition, it is able to remind the public sparks a self-examination on how much more we need to do to meet the needs of the eldly.