Immersive Experience ‘Room to Breathe’ launches in London to bring calm to commuters

Opening in central London today (Monday 25^th July 2022), immersive experience company Pixel Artworks has designed and created the immersive mindfulness experience ‘Room to Breathe’. Located in Outernet London, a brand-new immersive culture, media and music district at Tottenham Court Road, the soothing sensory experience is based on the science of ‘box-breathing’. It aims to help anxious commuters and busy Londoners unwind and catch their breath throughout the day.

This one-of-a-kind immersive experience has been masterminded by Pixel Artworks, harnessing the healing power of digital light and pixel technology, with original music written by Matthew Wilcock and guidance from leading trauma and anxiety consultant Jayne Cox. The result is a free-to-experience,digital real time ‘box breathing’ exercise that invites visitors to connect and share in this unforgettable journey to a calmer state.

The visually stunning and calming, rhythmic cloud and light scape at the heart of Room to Breathe offers an exciting glimpse into the future of how technology will play a key part in supporting health and wellbeing.

Jayne Cox, trauma and anxiety consultant fed into the experience using her knowledge and understanding of how breathing exercises, like ‘box breathing’ reduce anxiety. The visuals and sounds guide commuters to breathe in, hold and breathe out using a four-second breathing technique. The music slowly moves from the acoustic piano through to more organic synthesized tones to help users settle into the calming, breath pattern. A digital plaque situated in the space will provide guidance on how to use the experience.

Jayne comments: “Anxiety and stress often changes the way we breathe, with our breath often becoming rapid and shallow, resulting in heightened anxiety and becoming ‘stuck’ in a state of fight or flight. Learning and regularly implementing a simple breathing technique reduces anxiety by helping us to have more control over our breath. Once learnt, these techniques become a ‘tool’ that support us anywhere, whether we are on the move or at home.”

Matthew Wilcock adds: “The Room to Breathe music was written as a response to the 4×4 breathing technique giving people a rhythm to breathe to and an emotion to help settle and meditate.”

Jackson Tayler, Technical Director, Pixel Artworks comments on the technology: “The entire experience was crafted using Epic’s Unreal Engine, giving us control over real-time volumetric cloud and advanced lighting tools. Our rendering pipeline used an in-engine 360 camera, that takes into consideration the audience positions and perspectives needed for a highly immersive experience. This means that the content on the ceilings and walls work as one, and the audience feels encompassed by the experience surrounding them.”

The unique immersive mindfulness experience will be showing at 11am-12pm, 2-3pm and 7-8pm daily and will be open to the public from Monday 25th July onwards. The experience will take place in Outernet London’s NOW Trending building, opposite exit 4 from Tottenham Court Road station. There’s no need to reserve a space or pay to experience the sessions which are open to all.

Tom Burch, Managing Director at Pixel Artworks comments: “Society has never been as anxious as it is today, and the stress associated with commuting and returning to work in the office is a well-known trigger point. Based on this knowledge, we felt compelled to create an experience that can help calm people’s minds and educate them on the benefits of box-breathing arming them with tools to manage every day stress. Outernet London is at the epicentre of experience innovation, and we are proud to be an official production partner to deliver immersive experiences that audiences are in awe of.”

Outernet London is a brand-new immersive culture, media and music district. It features immense floor to ceiling wrap around screens able to broadcast never before seen digital experiences. The first of a global roll out Outernet London is the most advanced immersive space in the world.

 Philip O’Ferrall, CEO of Outernet Global adds: “Room to Breathe is a perfect example of how we can use the digital immersive capabilities of Outernet London. It will give visitors a tranquil experience to forget their stress and reflect. It’s really something beautiful to achieve with Pixel Artworks right in the heart of busy central London.”

Pixel Artworks, who are experts at bringing experiences to life through innovative, engaging technology, are one of Outernet London’s production partners working across the largest high-resolution wrap-around LED screens in the world.