Creativity and Wellbeing

Gastrointestinal complaints that defy diagnosis are widespread, but current medical practices lack the interdisciplinary focus required to treat this complex system. This project explores the gastrointestinal tract as a necessarily interdisciplinary site of research that can be enhanced by the contribution of artists and arts-led research.

The project brings together clinical and arts researchers and uses an innovative approach to embed lived experience within the curation of experimental art-science/art-wellbeing outcomes. The project will develop:

• 'Stomach Ache' a public event as part of The Big Anxiety Festival in 2022
• A material archive of objects that characterise patient experience, including food or poo diaries, medicine packaging, or receipts for alternative therapies. This will be used as a curatorial stimulus for future work.
• Blog: Stomach Ache: Art and the Gastrointestinal System

Team

Vanessa Bartlett (Arts), Chamara Basnayake (MDHS), Lindsay Kelley (UNSW), Rachel Marsden (University of Arts, London)

Partner: Jill Bennett, Festival Director, The Big Anxiety

Contact: Dr Vanessa Bartlett, Coordinating Investigator at vanessa.bartlett@unimelb.edu.au

One of the major technological changes impacting society today is the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). AI is already informing and influencing human decisions in many settings, from "virtual assistants" who can help answer queries to recommender systems that suggest music or movies on streaming sites. We expect the role of AI in society will continue to increase, which may reduce people's sense of agency and reduce wellbeing. However, these effects may be mitigated if people can more easily understand how AI works and see it as a tool in their control.

We will develop software tools and educational methods to help people understand AI through creative play with AI algorithms. We will do this in the context of an existing undergraduate subject. Students will be presented with an interface that allows them to interact creatively with an AI, devising challenges for the algorithm to solve and visualising the results, to help them discover the strengths and limitations of the AI. We will evaluate how creative interaction with the AI affects students' understanding of the algorithms, sense of agency, and feeling of wellbeing.

Team

Krista A. Ehinger (MSE), Sadia Nawaz (CIS), Marian Mahat (MGSE)

Contact: Dr Krista A. Ehinger, Coordinating Investigator, at kris.ehinger@unimelb.edu.au

Project completed

Final report

Wyatt, D., Pfefferkorn, J., & Papastergiadis, N. (2022). Finding Refuge: art, emergency and "imagining the unimaginable" in the resilient city.

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Australia's Black Summer, the Californian fires of 2020 and the ongoing Covid pandemic are forewarnings of a period of accelerating and intensifying disasters driven by climate change and human encroachment on the natural world. Experts in emergency services recognise that as disasters become recurrent, and as communities becomes more culturally complex, conventional top-down command and control methods of disaster communication will need to shift to more horizontal and inclusive approaches. Diverse communities bring their own knowledge, which must form part of addressing disaster as a shared endeavour.

Paul Holman, Director of Emergency Management Ambulance Victoria says that improving community disaster preparedness involves creativity. Communities must "imagine the unimaginable" (Fraser et al 2019) to share responsibility for acting and responding. This project explores how creativity might better prepare urban communities to respond to the climate crisis. Comprising a multidisciplinary team from the humanities, engineering, and urban studies, the project focuses on Refuge (2016-2021) – a six-year program hosted by City of Melbourne's Arts House. Refuge put art at the centre of preparing for climate-related disaster by partnering artists with experts from Australian Red Cross, State Emergency Services (SES), Emergency Management Victoria (EMV), University of Melbourne, and local community organisations.

This project aggregated and catalogued the many materials Refuge has generated across scores of live events and preparatory and post-event workshops. This archive of images, videos, interviews, surveys, and field notes demonstrated how creativity:

• Shapes ways of knowing, feeling and relating that engage people as active participants in disaster preparedness
• Brings siloed knowledges together to address complex problems
• Contributes to social wellbeing as a facet of urban resilience.

Publications

Pledger, D. and Papastergiadis, N. (2021). In the time of refuge: A collection of writings on art, disaster and communities. Arts House.

Book chapter and journal article in progress.

Team

Nikos Papastergiadis (Arts) Danielle Wyatt (Arts), Jasmin Pfefferkorn (Arts), Sarah Bell (ABP), Brendon Gleeson (ABP)

Partner: Emily Sexton (Artistic Director, Arts House, City of Melbourne)

Contact:

Danielle Wyatt or Jasmin Pfefferkorn

Performance artists are exposed to a range of stressors which may negatively affect well-being. These include regular competition and comparison, job instability, financial insecurity, performance pressure, and exposure to injury. The few studies conducted in these populations point to elevated levels of mental ill-health. More work is needed however to a) better understand psychological factors which may contribute to, or protect against, mental ill-health in performers, and b) develop evidence-informed and scalable interventions for performer's well-being.

Self-compassion – the awareness of suffering in self and a commitment to try to alleviate it - has been associated with positive mental health and well-being outcomes. These have been demonstrated in elite sport, a population whose environmental and psychological stressors overlap considerably with performance artists. Athletes higher in self-compassion have shown higher well-being and more constructive responses to adversity. Importantly, self-compassion is not a static trait but a skill that can be improved, and interventions focused on enhancing self-compassion have been successful in athlete populations.

This project comprises two interrelated studies. Study 1 will collect data from an online survey enabling relationships between self-compassion and well-being domains to be explored in a sample of performance artists from several disciplines. In doing so, Study 1 will identify key targets for the intervention program. Study 2 will develop, implement and pilot test a digital self-guided self-compassion program called 'The Compassionate Performer'. We expect that participation in The Compassionate Performer program will be associated with improved mental health and well-being. Following piloting, the program will be made freely available for the independent use of performance artists around the world, and international research collaborations explored.

Team

Courtney Walton (MDHS), Margaret Osborne (FAM), Simon Rice (MDHS), James Kirby (UQ)

Partner: Tracy Margieson (Head of Program, Arts Wellbeing Collective, Arts Centre Melbourne)

Contact: Dr Courtney Walton, Coordinating Investigator at courtney.walton@orygen.org.au

This project includes a collaborative team from education, theatre and performance and feminist and cultural studies. Building on pilot research in criminology, it looks at how theatre and interdisciplinary research can improve the wellbeing of young people in a climate of widespread violence against women.

• The project will use a research-creation approach to examine how the play ‘Othello on Trial’:
• deploys theatre-based techniques that acknowledge diversity in the classroom
• queries assumptions about Shakespeare’s universality and colour-blindness.

The project will include performances informed by the research team’s collective practice and a symposium for invited stakeholders in the Victorian education sector. These events will help assess the project’s potential for inclusion in school-based curricula, and show the valuable contribution theatre can make to young people’s creativity, critical thinking and wellbeing.

Resulting research data and resources will form a digital study to ensure the project’s longevity. This can be used by schools and policymakers in Australia and internationally.

Team

Kathryn Coleman (Melbourne Graduate School of Education), Adrian Howe (Arts), Lauren Rosewarne (Arts), Scott Welsh (Victoria University), Richard Sallis (Melbourne Graduate School of Education), Sarah Truman (Melbourne Graduate School of Education), Sarah Healy (Melbourne Graduate School of Education).

Contact: Dr Kathryn Coleman, Coordinating Investigator at kathryn.coleman@unimelb.edu.au

Project completed

Final report

Woodland, S., Hassal, L., Kennedy-Borissow, A. (2023). Embodying Resistance and Survival: How drama and youth theatre can respond to eco-anxiety and support recovery in disaster affected communities.

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Recent devastating floods, drought, and bushfires in Australia have had a profound impact on children and young people living in disaster affected communities, where they are dealing with the effects of family stress, displacement, trauma, and loss.

Those outside disaster zones witnessing the crisis can also be susceptible to feelings of vicarious trauma. These factors, coupled with the growing global movement towards action on climate change, have led to an increase in 'eco-anxiety' or 'ecological grief' among children and young people. Many are witnessing the devastating effects of climate change and experiencing feelings of helplessness and despair.

This project examines the role of youth theatre and drama in responding to the multifaceted effects of this crisis.

Research shows that arts-based wellbeing interventions can positively impact young people's ability to:

• Process their experiences following a disaster
• Manage post-traumatic stress
• Build social cohesion and self-confidence.

The arts can also play a valuable role in narrating the community's response to disaster, and in rallying strengths in moving towards recovery. Embodied artforms such as theatre and drama provide a collaborative, agentic experience where people can explore complex issues and emotions, and ideas for the future.

Working with grassroots practitioners and established youth theatre companies, the team will explore how theatre and drama can facilitate a sense of wellbeing and agency for children and young people. Both in direct approaches to post-disaster recovery, and in addressing eco-anxiety and ecological grief experienced on a societal level.

Note: Project outcomes reflect study adjustments to account for COVID-19 restrictions

Publications

Journal article in progress

Team

Sarah Woodland (Fine Arts and Music), Linda Hassall (Griffith University), Anna Kennedy-Borissow (School of Culture and Communication), Natalie Lazaroo (School of Education and Professional Studies), Helen Cahill (Melbourne Graduate School of Education), Simon Rice (Orygen Centre for Youth Mental Health).

Partners/Participants: Fraser Corfield, Australian Theatre for Young People; Tiffany Vatcher & Jennifer South, UpStage Independent Theatre School; Alice Cadwell, Spaghetti Circus; Joshua Maxwell, Jopuka Productions; Kate Sulan, Rawcus; Katherine Quigley; Lisa Apostolides, Byron Youth Theatre; Lucas Stibbard, Nazari Dickerson, ILBEJERRI Theatre Company; Stephen Quin; Sue Giles, Polyglot Theatre.

Contact: Dr Sarah Woodland, Coordinating Investigator at sarah.woodland@unimelb.edu.au

Project completed

Final Report

Brown, C., Garrido, M., Lim, M. (2022) Mental Dance. University of Melbourne

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Dance provides a way to experience interconnectedness and reclaim a sense of wellbeing by teaching us to acknowledge rather than avoid difficult emotions and uncomfortable movements. As our world becomes increasingly digitised, we need new practiced forms of expression that can help us navigate the emerging bodily, social and environmental challenges of being “always online”.

This creative project brings together a cognitive neuroscientist, a choreographer and a composer to explore how gesture, music and costume can respond to neuronal activity in the brain made visible by an electroencephalogram (EEG).

The EEG data will be translated into markers for change in frequency and gestural range by the dancer, and a test audience will be invited to experience the outcome: a dance performance and workshop which will challenge our thinking about technology, music, the body and the brain.

Note : Project outcomes reflect study adjustments to account for COVID-19 restrictions

Publications and Performances:

Brown, C. & Lim, M, Mental Spaces (20^th November 2021). Opening of the Science Gallery Melbourne (20 minutes). Vimeo https://vimeo.com/665165306

Brown, C., Lim, M., Vescio, L. & Cornish, J. (4^th October 2021). Mental Dance. Online Performance and Discussion. (50 mins). Vimeo https://vimeo.com/630635399

Brown, C. (2021) Mental Dance’ NiTRO 11 June 2021: https://nitro.edu.au/articles/2021/6/11/mental-dance

Brown, C., Lim, M., ‘Under the Hood’. Article in progress for submission to Body Space Technology August 2022.

Team

Carol Brown (Fine Arts and Music), Marta Garrido (Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences), Monica Lim (independent artist).

Contact: Professor Carol Brown, Coordinating Investigator at carol.brown@unimelb.edu.au

Project completed

Final report

Sallis, R. & McConville, K. (2022). International students creating comedy to foster wellbeing: 'Are you joking?'.

Download report (PDF)

This arts-based research project will explore how collaborating in a performance-related creative endeavour, to create and produce a comedy performance, may foster wellbeing for international students at the University of Melbourne.

This project sits at the junction of language, identity, creativity, the performing arts and education. International student volunteers will explore, experiment and extend their knowledge of language, place and humour to create and produce a comedy performance on the theme of the life of an international student.

The project will offer students the opportunity to:

• connect with others on a creative level
• meet and form friendships with others from a variety of faculties and discipline areas
• learn from and support each other in developing their knowledge, skills and confidence
• enhance their social circles and counter experiences of loneliness in university life.

Students will apply their knowledge of English to explore informal language use outside of academic settings, with increased scope for playfulness, boundary blurring and ‘trespassing’.

The project seeks to discover how the students’ sense of wellbeing, and their confidence in using their oral and written English language skills, may be impacted by these creative endeavours. It will also interrogate the potential pitfalls and challenges of a project of this kind, which may inform the creation and development of future programs of a similar nature.

Note : Project outcomes reflect study adjustments to account for COVID-19 restrictions

Team

Richard Sallis (Melbourne Graduate School of Education), Diane de Saint Leger (Arts), Jayne Lysk (Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences), Danielle Clayman (Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences), Kelly McConville (Melbourne Graduate School of Education)

Partner: Justine Sless, professional comedian

Contact: Dr Richard Sallis, Coordinating Investigator at sallis@unimelb.edu.au

Community assets such as playgrounds are important sites for community development and wellbeing. They provide opportunities for a range of people and needs, such as:

• intergenerational participation
• cultural diversity
• children with disabilities.

A collaboration between University of Melbourne researchers and the Belgium Avenue Neighbourhood House (BANH), we will examine:

• how intergenerational playgrounds contribute to community wellbeing
• how playground use differs between school-age children, adults and seniors
• how playground design can promote diverse and intergenerational user engagement.

The project team will use a variety of data collection strategies, including:

• design and model-making activities for students at Richmond West Primary School
• an online survey about playground usage
• creative submissions of photographs of drawings and models from the public
• in-person surveys and interviews conducted at BANH.

The outcome of the project will include design solutions to wellbeing questions for people living in high-density social housing communities.

Team

Blair Gardiner (Architecture, Building and Planning), Frederic Kiernan (Fine Arts and Music), Trisnasari Fraser (Fine Arts and Music)

Partners: Lydia Dobbin (Belgium Avenue Neighbourhood House)

Contact: Blair Gardiner, Coordinating Investigator: b.gardiner@unimelb.edu.au

Project complete

Final Report

Hajek, J. & Krause, A. (2023). Communities over the airwaves: how the creativity of community language radio promotes wellbeing among new and emerging migrant communities in Australia

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Certain new and emerging migrant communities are denied access to literacy and writing skills in their home countries. For this reason, community radio in Australia plays a critical role in supporting their wellbeing, as it is a publicly supported outlet for cultural expression.

This project will gather information about the experiences of community language radio presenters and listeners from migrant communities, focusing on their sense of connection and wellbeing.

By doing this, the creative mechanisms underpinning these social benefits will be more clearly understood. This in turn will generate an enriched understanding of the nature of creativity itself in the context of community language radio.

Note: Project outcomes reflect study adjustments to account for COVID-19 restrictions

Publications

Hasnain, A., Krause, A. E., Hajek, J., Lloyd-Smith, A., & Lori, L. (2022). Broadcasting during COVID-19: Community language radio and listener wellbeing. Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, 20(2), 227-247. https://doi.org/10.1386/rjao_00061_1.

Krause, A. E., Lloyd-Smith, A., & Hajek, J. (2020). The role of community language radio for understanding creativity and wellbeing in migrant communities in Australia. International Journal of Well-Being, 10(5), 83-99. https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v10i5.1495

Wadley, G., Krause, A., Lloyd-Smith, A. and Hajek, J. (in prep.) Community language radio and the challenge of technology during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Team

John Hajek (Arts), Amanda E Krause (James Cook University), Anya Lloyd-Smith (Arts), Greg Wadley (Engineering and Information Technology)

Partners:  John Giles and Jon King (3ZZZ radio station)

Contact: Professor John Hajek, Coordinating Investigator at j.hajek@unimelb.edu.au

Project completed

Final Report

Campbell, A. et al. 2022.Feral pedagogies: exploring how queer performance builds queer community, resilience and wellbeing.

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With homophobic and transphobic violence persisting internationally, queer performance work endures at a local level – and in the process, it sustains marginalised LGBTQI+ communities.

The project explores:

• the role that creativity in arts festivals and venues plays within queer sociality
• the way in which arts festivals contribute to the wellbeing of those with gender and sexually diverse lives.

The project proposes an innovative conceptual approach – 'feral pedagogies' – to harness this knowledge. Defining feral as 'the domesticated gone wild', this project will use 'feral pedagogies' as a methodology to de-domesticate and de-institutionalise queer knowledges and re-wild them at the centre of academic and queer community practice. This will be achieved through creative work itself, in the form of a ‘Feral Queer Camp’. In this environment, queer performance, and its impact on the wellbeing of queer communities, can be considered directly.

Publications

Campbell, A., Cohen, M. Farrier, S. and McCann, H. 2022. “Embracing Feral Pedagogies: Queer Feminist Education Through Queer Performance.” In Gender in an Era of Post-Truth Populism: Pedagogies, Challenges and Strategies, edited by Penny Jane Burke, Julia Coffey, Rosalind Gill and Akane Kanai. London: Bloomsbury. doi: 10.5040/9781350194625.ch-010

Campbell, A. 2020. “Queering Pedagogies. Running interference and going feral: twin strategies that work two ways – in to and out from the academy.” Theatre Topics, Special Issue on Queer Pedagogies, 30 (2): 117-124.

Campbell, A. and Farrier, S. 2022 (in press). “How to Cook up a Feral Queer Camp: A recipe guide.” Contemporary Theatre Review, Special Issue ‘What’s Queer about Queer Performance Now’, edited by A. Campbell, S. Farrier and M. Kumarswamy.

Team

Alyson Campbell (Fine Arts and Music), Hannah McCann (Arts), Jennifer Audsley (Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences), Stephen Farrier (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London), Daniel Santangeli (Program Manager, Midsumma Festival), Brenton Geyer (Senior Communications Officer, Living Positive Victoria), Dianne Toulson (General Manager, Theatre Works).

Contact: Associate Professor Alyson Campbell, Coordinating Investigator at alyson.campbell@unimelb.edu.au

Project completed

Final report

McFerran, K., Bigg J., and Cheong-Clinch, C. 2022. Fostering youth wellbeing using music. University of Melbourne

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This project aims to develop a new measure for understanding the creative strategies for emotion regulation used by young people in relation to music.

This project will explore the ways secondary school students use music to optimise their emotional wellbeing. It will identify and examine the role of creativity in these regulatory strategies. Findings are likely to identify protective factors for wellbeing and risk factors of distress.

Resources will be developed in collaboration with community and departmental research partners. Integrating expertise from music psychology, music therapy and education, this partnership will create an engaging music program that supports young people to use their creative capabilities to optimise learning and lifelong wellbeing.

Note : Project outcomes will reflect study adjustments and investigator and partner changes necessitated by COVID-19 restrictions

Team

Kat McFerran (Faculty of Fine Arts and Music), Jennifer Bibb (Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Services), Dr Carmen Cheong-Clinch (Faculty of Fine Arts and Music), Tan Chuyan Chin (Highway Foundation)

Contact: Professor Kat McFerran, Coordinating investigation at k.mcferran@unimelb.edu.au

Social health and wellbeing affect individual wellbeing. Yet marginalised communities face barriers accessing healthcare services and support. This means they often miss out on services that could benefit their health and wellbeing and prevent chronic disease. Individual health behaviours are also influenced by broader social and cultural factors.

These communities need new ways to access quality healthcare services – that understand and meet their needs.

Health and wellbeing communication, education and behaviour change are effective when they are relevant, meaningful and culturally sensitive. Creative approaches to communication could allow clients and practitioners talk about health in engaging and accessible ways. They could also help people understand and share health beliefs, motivations and capabilities.

This project brings together researchers and community health practitioners from the Centre for Positive Psychology, University of Melbourne and Your Community Health – a not-for-profit community health service in northern Melbourne.

The project examines the role of creativity within five elements of community health practice:

• health-related communication (speaking, listening, reading, writing, creating, viewing) in diverse cultural and linguistic communities
• planning for health-related behaviour change
• health-related education
• client engagement and self-efficacy about health and wellbeing
• practitioner-client relationships.

The project works with people from Your Community Health. All participants are from priority access populations including:

• people experiencing socio-economic disadvantage
• people from multicultural backgrounds.

We will explore the role of creativity in health and wellbeing, using focus groups, interviews and creative approaches.

The project combines several research areas:

• community-based healthcare
• social health
• positive psychology
• anthropology.

Project findings will inform a larger, future project. This will look at the benefits of creative communication in social health practice and promotion. It will focus on Your Community Health, which currently uses some of these creative practices. Ongoing research also supports partnerships between academic and community settings. This in turn supports evidence-based social-health practice and wellbeing.

Team

Lindsay Oades (Melbourne Graduate School of Education), Adrian Hearn (Arts), Jessica Taylor (Melbourne Graduate School of Education), Ju-Lin Lee (Your Community Health).

Contact: Professor Lindsay Oades, Coordinating Investigator at lindsay.oades@unimelb.edu.au

Project completed

Final report

Moosad L & Vaughan C (2021) Through their lenses: Creativity, wellbeing and women's experiences of ageing. University of Melbourne.

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This qualitative research examines creativity as a vital aspect of the wellbeing and ageing experiences of 15 – 20  women over 50. The women are participants in a Victorian photography project called 500 Strong created by Australian photographer Ponch Hawkes. The photographs will be part of Flesh after Fifty, an exhibition and series of events promoting positive images of older women.

We will hold interviews and workshops exploring the embodied experiences of the women both as active participants in the photo shoot and as photographed representations. The key questions being addressed include:

• How do women understand and practice creativity?
• How does creativity contribute to women’s sense of wellbeing?
• How is creativity linked to women’s experiences of ageing?

This project aims to counter stereotyped and reductive portrayals of older women that focus on decline and loss. It also aims to contest discourses that address ageing purely as an economic concern. Instead, it conceptualises the experience of ageing as a process where health, creativity and material welfare are interdependent.

The study will contribute to research on creative engagement and wellbeing in later life and supplement public health literature that focuses on ageing as a medical or policy concern. In addition, it hopes to identify women who are not present in this research project. Who might they be and how might they engage with notions of creativity, ageing and wellbeing?

Publication

Moosad L & Vaughan C (2020) Care, collaboration and critique: The intersection of creativity and wellbeing in older women. International Journal of Wellbeing 10(5). doi: 10.5502/ijw.v10i5.1485

Team

Cathy Vaughan (Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences), Martha Hickey (Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences), Jane Davidson (Fine Arts & Music), Lila Moosad (Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences).

Contact: Associate Professor Cathy Vaughan, Coordinating Investigator at cmvaug@unimelb.edu.au

Project completed

Final report

Lyon D et al (2021) Left/Write//Hook: The efficacy of writing and boxing in assisting survivors of childhood sexual abuse in moving towards post-traumatic growth. University of Melbourne.

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Left, Write, Hook is a creative arts workshop series combining weekly writing and boxing sessions. It is designed to help women who have experienced sexual abuse and trauma to find a connection to their body, mind and spirit through these weekly sessions. The project pairs two contrasting creative acts – writing and boxing – to explore how:

• cognitive and emotional functions can be optimised
• shared identity between women can be strengthened
• personal growth, social bonds and resilience can be nurtured and enhanced.

We hypothesise that the dual approach of written/verbal and embodied creativity serves to enhance the wellbeing of survivors of sexual abuse and trauma. The first hour of each workshop is dedicated to writing, sharing and listening. The second hour is designed to enable women to reclaim their bodies as sites of power and strength, through the physical impact of non-contact boxing for sport.

The project is the idea of Coordinating Investigator Donna Lyon, who wrote about the power of combining writing and boxing on her blog in 2018:

"Boxing has become a metaphor for my recovery and my life as a survivor. The positive effect that boxing has had on me, in terms of my overall health and wellbeing, has been phenomenal. I have met many other women like me and I have a strong desire to share stories of recovery, empowerment and hope, using writing and the sport of boxing to aid this."

The workshops will be filmed, with the intention of material being used as a proof of concept to attract funding for a larger documentary project, pending the outcomes of the research. Interviews will be conducted to assess the results and impact of the workshop.

Publication

Lyon D et al (2020) Left / Write // Hook: A mixed method study of a writing and boxing workshop for survivors of childhood sexual abuse and trauma. International Journal of Wellbeing 10(5). doi: 10.5502/ijw.v10i5.1505

Team

Donna Lyon (Fine Arts and Music), Margaret Osborne (Fine Arts and Music; Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences), Steve Thomas (Fine Arts and Music), Shannon Owen (Fine Arts and Music), Khandis Blake (Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences).

Contact: Donna Lyon, Coordinating Investigator at donna.lyon@unimelb.edu.au

Project completed

Final report

Thompson, G., Raine, M. & Hayward, S. (2022). This is me: Exploring how shared music expression with peers can support psychological wellbeing in autistic young adults. University of Melbourne

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Social activities in the community that are accessible to a range of people are challenging to find, and often struggle to be genuinely inclusive. Autistic individuals are particularly vulnerable to social exclusion. This is because their ways of engaging with the world are sometimes not well understood by typically developing (non-autistic) people. Reducing isolation and increasing meaningful social networks appear to be protective factors that support wellbeing for all young people, including those on the autism spectrum.

There is a body of research that shows participating in community music making can foster a sense of belonging and connection between group members. But this potential has not been researched in the Australian autistic community. This project therefore evaluated whether social music making could create the conditions for young autistic people to build their social networks.

We understand human social communication other than speech to be fundamentally musical. We also believe that these musical features of communication are inherently creative. The rhythm of our movements and the melody of our voice are vital to convey our meaning to those around us. When there is shared understanding between individuals, there is often a greater sense of belonging and connection. Working from the belief that musical creativity is a natural part of social communication and therefore present in all people, we seek to challenge existing sociocultural frameworks that tend to privilege certain formal or aesthetic criteria in music performance. This bias can result in a failure to recognise creative expression by individuals whose form of communication differs from the norm.

Through a series of music workshops, we challenged beliefs about what creativity is. We explored how creativity could be expanded to reflect greater diversity in the embodied, emotional connections that arise through human expressiveness.

Publications

Thompson G et al (2020) Gathering community perspectives  to inform the design of autism friendly music-making workshops for wellbeing. International Journal of Wellbeing 10(5). doi: 10.5502/ijw.v10i5.1497

Team

Grace Thompson (Fine Arts and Music), Melissa Raine (Arts), Susan Hayward (School of Social and Political Sciences), Elena Ashley (AMAZE).

Contact: Dr Grace Thompson, Coordinating Investigator at graceat@unimelb.edu.au

Project complete

Final Report

McPherson, M., Treloyn, S., & Coleman, K. (2022). Healthy people, healthy country and healthy art careers: Understanding creativity and cultural identities in new Indigenous artistic practices and industries

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The links between the social and emotional wellbeing of people and the physical and spiritual wellbeing of Country are widely recognised in Indigenous public and research spaces. The role of artistic and creative practice in this nexus is often assumed in the Indigenous context, but there is much more to learn about the nature of this role, and especially how the careers of Indigenous artists are intertwined with the health and wellbeing of people and country in remote Indigenous communities.

In this project, three Indigenous artist-researchers from the Mowanjum Art Centre in the west Kimberley undertook a five-day printmaking residency at the University’s Southbank campus. The artworks will be shown at a public art exhibition. The residency aimed to illuminate the creative priorities, concepts, processes, practices and desired futures of Indigenous artists through the development of a portfolio of artworks. The works will also be documented in a digital workbook.

This project sought to understand what these artistic and creative practices reveal about the relationship between the art industry, in the Indigenous context, and the wellbeing of Indigenous people and country. This project also examined how this information might be used to help Indigenous artists and their communities to flourish.

Non-traditional research outcomes

Edna Dale, Petrina Bedford, Leah Umbagai and Pete O’Connor. (2019). Small portfolio of printed works in lino.

Team

Megan McPherson (Fine Arts and Music), Kathryn Coleman (Melbourne Graduate School of Education), Sally Treloyn (Fine Arts and Music)

Partner: Mowanjum Art and Cultural Centre

Contact: Dr Megan McPherson, Coordinating Investigator at mcpherson.m@unimelb.edu.au