fEEL uses and develops psychosocial methods for facilitating community engagement and evaluation.

In an ongoing collaboration with the Psychosocial Research Unit at the University of Central Lancashire, we are collaborating with Prof Lynn Froggett using the Visual Matrix – an innovative psychosocial method for capturing and processing sensory, affective and emotional responses to lived experiences.

In 2019 we undertook at study of ageing experience. The Visual Matrix process used a public art installation as stimuli to prompt conversations about what older people feel, think about ageing and growing old in the community. In fourteen sessions we engaged with 24 different organisations and 80 older adults with a range of cognitive and physical access needs.

We engaged with older adults in galleries, community centres and aged care facilities on the North Shore of Sydney, using as stimulus, the public artwork,These Walls Could Talk (TWCT), commissioned by TWT property group, produced by Bec Dean and Tulleah Pearce. The large-scale, site specific installation consisted of 20 artworks at 12 sites along Atchison Lane, St Leonards, and the campus at Bradfield Senior College. The artwork was created by Cameron Cripps-Kennedy (artist), Omar Sakr (poet), and Bradfield College Students who created poetic and intimate artistic conversations about mental health. The older adults also engaged with students from Bradfield College in an intergenerational Visual Matrix.

Researchers at fEEL, the Ageing Futures Institute, Neuroscience Australia (NeuRA) and Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) and the faculty of Art, design and Architecture, UNSW partnered with TWT Property Group (TWT), The Bridging Hope Charity Foundation (BHCF), Bradfield Senior College, local councils, galleries and organisations on the Northshore of Sydney. A report on the project has been presented as Age discourse and the transformative potential of arts engagement at The Australian Association of Gerontology Conference 2020 (https://aag.eventsair.com/2020-aag-conference/)