"You Should Relax" is an interactive platform for people struggling with mental illness, it is an art project with focus on the lived experience of anxiety. Users can write and submit an entry in which they express their concerns, their fears, their anxiety. The platform is a place to vent and to open up anonymously — no judgment, no diagnosis.

Furthermore it questions the social taboo that constantly accompanies anxiety disorders and mental illnesses by critically and ironically addressing the typical reactions that people suffering from mental illness have to face (“You should relax!”).

The second phase of the project involves the artistic analysis of the anonymous data. From the submitted fears, thoughts and concerns of the users, a visual representation will be created that aims to discover constellations and patterns. The results will be published on the website.

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© All rights reserved, Elodie Grethen, 2020