Work beyond traditional roles
Sarah Ticho has worked as producer, curator, artist, researcher, and now as founder of Hatsumi. What connects it all? She wants to tell stories about health and humanity.
Ticho’s degree in anthropology was the first turning point, teaching her how culture and science intertwine and how perspective shapes our understanding of reality. Then came the deeply personal experience: losing her father to pancreatic cancer, and later navigating her own mental health challenges within the NHS. These experiences sharpened her belief that patients need new ways to express themselves and be understood. And when she was fired from her role at The School of Life, what felt like a failure became the catalyst to create outside of conventional contexts. “I laugh about it now, but at the time I was devastated. Moving abroad and struggling in employment propelled me to work beyond traditional roles,” she recalls.
“We’re not telling you our story – you are telling us.”
In 2018, she founded Hatsumi, originally as a PhD proposal that was rejected – twice. That rejection became liberation. At a Google hackathon she pitched her idea and won awards for Best Mind/Body App and Most Financially Viable. Why not try it as a company? From there began the process of shaping Hatsumi as research tool, med tech innovation, and interactive art all at once. “It was meeting my co-director Niki Smit that the piece really transformed into what Soul Paint is today,” says Ticho.
Soul Paint, Hatsumi’s flagship work, has touched people around the world and won recognition from SXSW, Games for Change, and more. Its strength lies in its openness: “The joy of Soul Paint is that we’re not telling you our story, you are telling us, and the world your story. It’s a move beyond branching narratives towards something truly emergent and playful, something that reveals what we share across the world – and moves beyond words.”
For participants, the experience can be transformative. Some discover emotions they hadn’t realised they were carrying. Others find breakthroughs that lead them to seek support, or to cultivate new compassion for themselves. That capacity to turn the invisible into something visible, even beautiful, is what makes embodied storytelling so powerful.
Creative compassion
At BOLD Experience, Ticho and Niki Smit, her co-director, shared Soul Paint with the community. She hoped people would reflect on their own experiences and also on their shared humanity. “We wanted to explore how new forms of creative compassion can help us understand one another.”
Looking ahead, she is most excited about XR and games shifting healthcare toward integrated, community-based models. “By reimagining media as a catalyst for connection and resilience, we can break silos between health, wellbeing, technology, and everyday life.”
With patience and saliva, the ant devours the elephant
Her lesson for anyone building new paths is simple, but demanding: perseverance. “With patience and saliva, the ant devours the elephant. We just have to keep pushing forward, with enough faith, strategy, and imagination to make it work.”