The science behind echoprism — the bigger picture

Reflect to Create

The core concept of echoprism is to turn written thoughts, ideas, memories or concerns into randomly generated graphic art. That transformation can simply be used for creativity or for a mindful experience. Several strands of psychological research point to this core concept as a genuinely useful method of mindfulness.

What it does

As you type, your words are converted into a visual artwork in real time. The focus shifts from what you're saying to the act of making something. And doing that without the pressure of needing to be ‘good at it’.

The theory

Although it does not off art therapy, in the way that art therapy is a trauma-based discipline, it does align with the foundational idea that visual, non-verbal expression can process and communicate internal experience in ways plain language sometimes can't reach. Turning a thought into an image, rather than stopping at the words for it, is that idea in its simplest possible form.

In a study of 39 adults given 45 minutes of unstructured art-making with no instruction or evaluation, cortisol (the body's primary stress hormone) dropped in 75% of participants — and, notably, the effect was just as strong for people with no art background as for those with plenty. Benefit didn't depend on being good at it.

Kaimal, Ray & Muniz (2016), Art Therapy — "Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants' Responses Following Art Making."

There's also a well-known link between absorbing, low-pressure creative activity and what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi termed "flow" — a state of full absorption in an activity, where self-monitoring and rumination quietly drop away because attention is fully occupied elsewhere. Flow states are consistently associated with reduced anxiety and improved mood during and after the activity, and simple generative creative tasks are one of the more accessible routes into it, requiring no particular skill or training to begin.

Csikszentmihalyi (1990), Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

Conclusion

echoprism offers a route into a mode of processing, that is non-verbal, low-pressure, and absorbing. And research continues to show that this can be useful for mindfulness, independent of whatever the resulting picture actually looks like.