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Options for Action: The Big Anxiety Open Studio

3 – 13 October 2023
9.00am – 5.00pm AEDT
The Bank, UNSW Kensington
This event has ended
Snoösphere, by Lull Studios, The Big Anxiety Festival, Sydney, 2017
Discover innovative creative tools, VR for mental health transformation, exhibitions, workshops, talks, immersive experiences over 2 weeks.

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.

Past Events

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3 – 13 Oct Past event
Immerse yourself in Virtual Reality from our Experiential Visualisation program, informed by a distinctive combination of psychosocial research and creative practice.
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3 – 13 Oct Past event
Experience calming soundscapes in a 16-speaker kiosk designed for better sleep and reduced anxiety. Join the conversation on creating sound environments that promote well-being in various settings.
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3 Oct Past event
Be one of the first to test an exciting new VR experience that improves mood and hope.
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3 – 13 Oct Past event
Drop in for a chat with Viv and other AI characters and learn about their lives and insights.
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4 – 13 Oct Past event
Experience an artwork created as a group encounter, and a creative qualitative research method for promoting insight into lived experience.
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4 Oct Past event
Join us for the Australian launch of the Virtual Reality experience 'Perinatal Dreaming', with a panel discussion: What is experiential visualisation and why do we need it?
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5 Oct Past event
Explore early life and intergenerational trauma in our experiential VR workshop. Start with Perinatal Dreaming VR, then engage in yarning circles led by Marianne Wobcke and her team.
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6 Oct Past event
Participate in a visual matrix and learn about this innovative qualitative research method.
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6 – 12 Oct Past event
A part of Massive Action, the Big Anxiety Research Centre (BARC) is leading a project to reconceptualise mental health and the way we support and resource it within communities.
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9 – 13 Oct Past event
Engage with Slice/Silence: an interactive installation that cuts through the silencing of self-injury, trauma and injustice.
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9 Oct Past event
Join us for a discussion of intergenerational trauma in refugee communities and a screening of a short film, 'Heartsick' that looks at creative approaches to facilitating transformation.
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10 Oct Past event
Explore collective listening, care and connection in the wake of pandemic grief and beyond.
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10 Oct Past event
Join us for a film premiere and panel discussion that cuts through the silence around trauma, madness & self-injury.
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11 Oct Past event
Explore micro-phenomenology with Lucia Barrera, delving into personal presence and absence sensations, uncovering subtle aspects of experience and self-inquiry.
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13 Oct Past event
Join a panel of experts and advocates to explore the sociocultural, political, and environmental dimensions of suicide.