Rory Villars - BA (Hons) Future Media Production
Cognitive Disturbance
Cognitive Disturbance is a multi-sensory installation rooted in the artist’s lived experience of concussion and vestibular migraines. The work explores the disorienting and isolating realities of navigating invisible neurological conditions.
Over the past year, the artist has used immersive media as a tool to process and communicate the cognitive, emotional, and sensory challenges that accompany these conditions. Cognitive Disturbance invites viewers into this altered reality through fragmented imagery and abstract soundscapes that echo the confusion, detachment, and sensory overwhelm of daily life with neurological illness.
The experience unfolds across three distinct stages, reflecting a deeply personal and perceptual journey. It opens with MRI scans - an entry point that sets the tone for an internal, introspective exploration. The middle stage recreates the disorientation of the rotary chair test, also known as Video Nystagmography (VNG), immersing the viewer in a deliberately destabilising visual and sonic environment. The final stage transitions into a space of fragmented light and motion, using particle and point cloud forms to represent the ongoing breakdown and reconstruction of understanding - a visual metaphor for both neurological disruption and healing.
Rather than offering a clinical explanation, the work leans into personal experience—embracing uncertainty, vulnerability, and the nonlinear path of recovery. It challenges audiences to reflect on how we perceive and respond to hidden struggles, and how immersive art can create space for empathy, awareness, and deeper connection.
This piece stands as both a personal milestone and the culmination of a creative journey shaped by resilience, experimentation, and a commitment to storytelling through sensory experience.
