Remote Art Therapy

In collaboration with Sara Prins Hankinson, Kate Collie, and Anthony Tang


Tablet Drawing


Painted-Silhouette Avatar


Stick-Figure Avatar


Art therapy allows people to express themselves through the process of art-making, and it provides therapeutic benefit to people suffering from chronic pain. Even though art therapy has numerous well-established benefits, many people who would benefit from art therapy cannot meet up with a therapist or join an art therapy group because travel may be a challenge. One possible solution is to deliver art therapy online. Currently, there is clinical work underway that is exploring the use of online chat forums and discussion boards to deliver art therapy to groups that are not collocated. Group members use these tools to post images of their artwork and chat with others in the group. The problem with these tools, however, is that they provide little opportunity for collaboration and shared art making. Because group members are not aware of each other's actions and non-verbal cues in a chat room, they cannot collaborate with each other easily. This project involves the ethnographic study of online art therapy groups and the design and development of several research-through-design prototypes aiming to promote collaboration and enhanced awareness of group presence in collaborative remote art therapy activities.


Shared Drawing Space with Improved Non-Verbal Awareness



Representation of Users as Silhouettes


Using the Environment as a Canvas - Drawing


Using the Environment as a Canvas - Stamps


Customizing One's Appearance - Using the Body as a Canvas


Representation of Users as Stick Figures



Poster Presentation



Publications