
ART for SMART LIVING
HEALING urban SPACES
How Does It Work?
Over the past decades, a broad quantity of scientific researches has been conducted on the positive effects of certain images, colours, motions, and sounds on human health and well-being.
Already in the 1980s, the disorders like chronic stress, depression, anxiety, and “burnout” were associated with the environment caused by urban life, and technological progress. On the initiative of the Japanese government the people suffering from severe stress were introduced to the healing practice shinrin-yoku – ‘forest bathing’. Although the practice was ‘just’ a contemplation and being in nature, it was so successful that the ‘forest bathing’ was accepted as a practice for better health and well-being. Working with video installations Kova in her turn noticed that the videos of nature and real human body, filmed with a certain motion and performed in balance with auditory functions, have almost the same effect on the viewer as the real nature! This statement is supported by the latest discoveries in the brain science, which shows how brain tends to experience an artificially created reality as real, in terms of physical reactions. The easiest way to verify this phenomenon is to observe the effects causing by cinematography, when the brain physically reacts to the fantasy on the screen: increased heartbeat and sweating palms from fear; muscle tension and tears from sadness and laughter; activated feelings of patriotism, inspiration, justice, etc. Using this data, Viktoria further explores which images, colours, motions, and sounds have the most positive impact on the viewer. As the result, she developed a concept of a healthy environment combined with the state-of-the-art technology. Observations have shown that her Healing Art installations help the participants to implement useful habits of contemplation, relaxation and meditation, also in their children.
ART Objects & Installations


Video Cube 2x2m, City Park, Beirut, Lebanon
Video Table 67x36x60cm, model "Diva" (onyx)