From UNSW Newsroom
An augmented reality project exploring the relationship between wellbeing and place will provide insight into why some people in adverse circumstances don’t always access mental health services.
Hard place/Good place, led by UNSW Scientia Professor Jill Bennett as part of her Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship, will develop an archive of experiential stories with people from regional, rural and remote areas, exploring what it means to be in a ‘hard place’ or a ‘good place’.
The creative research project is coordinated by the Felt Experience & Empathy Lab [fEEL] at UNSW in partnership with Metro South Health (Brisbane) and Darling Downs Health. It is co-designed with people whose lives are affected by adversity, including the effects of climate change, drought, bushfire and flood and combines a 3D-immersive experience of a significant place with a personal narrative.
“In our work, we’ve noticed that people often – while talking about being stuck in a really difficult place – also talk about a good place for them: what it is they value about that place, why it feels safe, why they go there to regroup,” Prof. Bennett says.
“So, part of the project is identifying those [good] places and amplifying them and talking through how one finds and makes a place that is safe and a space of growth and imagination.”