WEVE – It feels like home!

The project

WEVE Report – UNSW Small file

Woollahra Municipal Council (WMC) partnered with Researchers from the Ageing Futures Institute (AFI) and fEEL (the ARC Laureate Felt Experience & Empathy Lab) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and older members of the community.

The Woollahra Emotion Visualisation Experience (WEVE), It feels like home! culminated in a synchronized multi-screen digital visualisation artwork by Gail Kenning and Warren Coleman, which was exhibited as part of the Ageing Program at The Big Anxiety https://www.thebiganxiety.org .

The Woollahra Emotion Visualisation Experience (WEVE) It feels like home! project focused on the emotional responses of the community to their home and where they live. The aim was to understand the deeply held views of older members of the community. The project generated qualitative data which was analysed and visualised to reveals how the community feels. The data revealed a wide range of issues relating to mobility, loneliness, relationships, illness, bereavement, finances and the joy of living in a beautiful environment, having friends, sharing experiences and being able to travel. The project drew on the work of national and international artists and researchers to find an approach that would reach a wide range of people and elicit a wide range of responses [2, 19].

The Woollahra Emotion Visualisation Experience (WEVE), It feels like home! artwork was launched at a series of events at Woollahra Library, Double Bay, Paddington Library and Watsons bay Library with the artists Gail Kenning and Warren Coleman, alongside Brainlight by local Woollahra artists in residence Laura Jade. An intergenerational event was also held at Woollahra Library Double Bay featuring VR games to support wellbeing with Gemh Lab, researchers Professor Isabela Granic and Hanneke Scholten from the Netherlands.

Brainlight 

An artwork by Laura Jade, artist in residence in Woollahra. It explores how technology can aesthetically interface with the mind. https://laurajade.com.au/interactive-brain-light-research-project/

    

Gemh Lab

Professor Isabela Granic and Hanneke Scholten explore the impact of digital games on anxiety at the Games for Emotional Health (Gemh) Lab, the Behavioural Science Institute, Raboud University Netherlands. At Woollahra Library at Double Bay they introduced members of the public to games that promote deep breathing.

 

Project partners:

• Woollahra Municipal Council partners on the project included Lynn Garlick, Director Community Services, Jo Jansyn, Cultural Development Coordinator and Hayley Christofi, Romi Fosco, Lauren Shiels, Olga Avramenko. Project members worked closely with Woollahra Library at Double Bay, Paddington Library and Watsons Bay Library.
• The Ageing Futures Institute (AFI), UNSW is a global leader in ageing research and research translation, making a visible and positive impact on the social, health, wellbeing, design, and economic dimensions of ageing through interdisciplinary research. Interdisciplinary fellow Dr Gail Kenning was the project lead.
• ARC Laureate funded fEEL (felt Experience and Empathy Lab) Scientia Professor Jill Bennett from the at UNSW Art and design partnered on the project with WMC and AFI.
• Artists Warren Coleman, Gail Kenning produced the WEVE synchronised multi-screen visualisation and Laura Jade, and Researchers from Gemh Lab (Games for Emotional and Mental Health), Radboud University, the Netherlands, took part in a series of follow up- events