Options for Action: The Big Anxiety Open Studio

Following the success of the Big Anxiety festivals in Naarm/Melbourne and Meanjin/Brisbane in 2022, The Big Anxiety Research Centre [BARC] is hosting a 2-week Open Studio in The Bank, next to the UNSW Library, Kensington, from 3 to 13 October, 2023. The Open Studio presents BARC’s latest new creative tools and Virtual Reality experiences for working with trauma and emotional experience – along with radically new lived experience-led programs for addressing mental health in communities.

BARC’s trauma responsive approach focuses on collaborative design to create options for action – reframing mental health through cultural practice.

We are pioneers of Experience Visualisation, creating immersive media to advance understanding of both internal experience, and the affordances and power relations that facilitate or shut down options for action. Our programs are dedicated to transforming trauma.

The open studio is designed for researchers, students, community partners and anyone interested in working with their lived experience. The BARC team will be in residence, hosting workshops, sharing methods, demonstrating work-in-progress, and launching new media works.

The Studio is open for drop-in everyday 10-4pm – with evening events on 4th and 10th. Note that on October 5th only, entry is restricted to workshop participants.