CREATE
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2022 Grants Challenge

The Museum of Me Interactive Playspace

The Museum of Me Interactive Playspace is a health and wellness discovery hub designed to unleash the joy of the inner child in us all. The museum will house virtual reality, mixed media art, and NFT gallery experiences that induce a sense of awe, wonder, and belonging in the world-at-large. Attendees can discover innovative approaches to meaning-making and decreasing the impact of daily stressors through interactive play. Our mission is to combat the effects of anxiety, depression, isolation, and grief from the COVID-19 global crisis.

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What is the primary issue area that your application will impact?

BIPOC- and Women-Owned Businesses

In which areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?

South LA

County of Los Angeles

City of Los Angeles

In what stage of innovation is this project, program, or initiative?

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

What is your understanding of the issue that you are seeking to address?

Research suggests 80% of disease related issues can be tied to stress. During the global pandemic health disparities and death tolls amongst BIPOC community members were higher than our fellow white citizens. High stress rates lower the immune system, create insecurities around belonging in community, and disrupt cognition. To feel safe, have a sense of belonging, purpose, and high esteem fortifies resilience, our capacity to make meaning, and activation of high executive functioning skills. These layers of personhood help one function well in society. They are built on less stress, sustained joy, and the power of play. The Being Academy is underwritten by our founder's research "Cognitive Science, Belief, and Interactive Media as a Distribution Platform for Experiences that Enhance Human Development” published by USC's School of Cinematic Arts. Bringing joy to South LA through play-based design is our number-one priority as a Black-owned media interventionist design company.

Describe the project, program, or initiative this grant will support to address the issue.

The Museum of Me Interactive PlaySpace is designed as pop-up interactive media behavioral health interventions. The play-based digital art and interactive media arcade is designed as experiential retail for the reduction of cognitive dissonance. After the onset of the 2020 COVID-19 Global Pandemic, millions of people across our nation are asking themselves, who am I? These last few years of deep suffering financially, physically, socially, emotionally, and mentally will require behavioral health interventions to be addressed. The posture many Americans took on to survive the pandemic will not help them thrive in a post pandemic reality. In order to combat the grief of job loss, loved ones passing away, severe isolation, and the "shadow pandemic" of mental illness people will need "meaning making" assistance. According to a recent study, African American boys between the ages of 5 and 12 are more likely to die by suicide than any other age group. Nationwide, suicides among Black children under 18 are up 71 percent in the past decade. Brain development, stabilized nervous systems, and cognition are built on foundations of pleasure and play whereas toxic stress like a global pandemic decreases executive function. Play is central to how we learn, explore and form community, and make sense of life. Our play stations can induce nervous system stabilization kin to mindfulness meditation and serve as a social support which is a top interventionist response to onset trauma.

Describe how Los Angeles County will be different if your work is successful.

Currently, South LA is not home to interactive media based museums or labs. This especially true for labs and interventionist based media design owned by and focused on the wellbeing of people of color. Interactive Media can be described as the ultimate playground, because digital play has no age -restrictions due to height and weigh capacity or physical performance ability like gyms or real playgrounds. The play-based interventions at The Museum of Me require faculties most people have, eyes and hand mobility. While play based interactive art installations and pop-ups are trending in West Hollywood and globally at expensive exhibitions like Frieze Art Fair, these high mechanical experiences have not deeply penetrated markets focused on communities of color yet. We are the game changers not just based on who we serve, but also who we employ. Our company is 100% BIPOC owned and our team is 90% BIPOC. We the future in merging wellness and play centric design for BIPOC communities.

What evidence do you have that this project, program, or initiative is or will be successful, and how will you define and measure success?

Our virtual reality designs and visual meditation applications began user testing cycles in the Fall of 2017. Since then we have shown at several prominent game conventions in the Los Angeles County region including IndieCade Conference for Independent Game Makers. Our user testing process includes exit interviews for mechanics, i.e. how did the experience make you feel? We also use game-play time and engagement metrics. The longer participants stay in the space and interactive with the system is a great indicator of success. Monitoring the success for our South LA pop-ups for the public will be similar to our user-testing and conference shows. Some of our exhibitions will be accessible via digital streaming platforms via personal headsets at home. Download numbers as well as foot traffic and sales at the pop-up locations in addition to average in-game engagement and customer feedback will all be used as metrics for success.

Approximately how many people will be impacted by this project, program, or initiative?

Direct Impact: 1,000

Indirect Impact: 109,000