UCSF

Dementia conditions, including Alzheimer's disease, are progressive disorders for which effective treatments remain under development. Accordingly, interventions that improve quality of life are an important focus of patients, caregivers, and providers, including traditional art forms like painting and sculpture. In this Perspective article, we discuss the use light as a unique form of art to create transformative spaces that stimulate the senses and potentially support wellbeing. We outline an art-science collaborative initiative in which the patients themselves contribute, including through the recording and conversion their EEG brainwave activity to 2D time-frequency spectrogram representations. These representations are transferred to the ancient art of stained glass and installed into the patient's own home. This intervention creates a novel dynamic environment of illumination and colour saturation, derived from the patient and in sync with ever-changing solar and climate influences. Details of the approach and options for meaningful patient-centred customization are described, with illustrations of the procedures and resulting installations, along with thoughts for future improvements.